Theres a difference between offering Game Pass as an alternative option for budget gaming and requiring Game Pass as the only option for budget gaming, though. People like options, and locking out budget options on the budget model isnt a smart move. Tbh I dont see them skipping the drive, theres just too little of an upside for MS compared to the downside
Sure people like options. But when given the option, more and more people are choosing digital. We see it in every medium and this isn't going to slow down for gaming. It's already past 50% and people didn't think it would hit even 20% when this gen started.
Theres a massive upside for going digital only, mainly, that profit margins are much higher because there's no retailer to split the revenue with.
More and more of them are choosing digital but it's still roughly 50%. And a world without a used game market is awful, especially since we wouldn't be able to protest bad business practices like Gearbox under paying staff and not giving promised bonuses by buying used. That's way too much control in the hands of publishers for me personally. Not to mention all digital means you don't really own your games and they can be taken away anytime, delisted or just straight up not available. That's a death knell for games preservation on consoles imo, and something we would all regret 5-10 years from now.
I'm not really speaking on how awful or great gaming will be without used. I'm saying consumers are increasingly choosing to avoid the used game market to the point that used game retailers are at the brink of death.
People keep mentioning that games can be taken away at anytime, but I've got digital games from 2006 that I can still play on my console. In that same time frame, I've had physical discs that got scratched and are now worthless. Even delisted games that I've purchased, I've still been able to redownload.
Digital can be a useful tool for preservation and to continue to paint it in a purely evil light is disingenuous, imo.
