Consoles need to ditch discs and embrace digital downloads

Sorry, cartridge and disc collectors — in the foreseeable future, console gaming is going to become either download only or download first. This might bother some console gamers, but I’m excited to see this happen.

Twenty years ago, I owned one of the country’s largest personal collections of console games. After heading up the Ziff-Davis magazine Intelligent Gamer, I’d filled two separate rooms with obscure consoles, cartridges, and arcade boards from around the world. My apartment looked a little like the Sonic Mania photo above, with forgotten electronics spread across floors and shelves. Once I realized that I’ve never play most of these items again — and that I’d be moving for grad school — I sold everything off, freeing myself in a way that even current eBay prices can’t make me regret.