Sales numbers for video games on disc continue to head downwards quicker than Tesla’s stock price of late. In the UK during 2024, for example, physical game sales dropped by 34.5%, in a market that dipped 4.4% in total, according to the Digital Entertainment and Retail Association.
On PC, they are virtually non-existent, and for Xbox console owners, the Game Pass subscription is ever-present.
But – physical copies are important for game preservation. 30 years from now, popular and culturally significant books, movies and TV shows (outside of Netflix, seemingly) will continue to circulate. But, if digital store servers are switched off, swathes of video games could become unplayable.
You can never, ever, guarantee that a gaming ecosystem will last forever or that future devices are backwards compatible. Look to Segam (Dreamcast), Nokia N-gage, Gizmondo and even, more recently, Google Stadia. That digital store has been vanquished.
Forza Horizon 5 is one of the, if not the, most played racing games of the decade so far (based on a combination of Steam Charts, but also Google Trend data). It is a pivotal moment in racing video game history, and I’d argue, Microsoft’s most successful first-party release of the current generation.
So when the Forza Horizon social media accounts confirmed that “there are no current plans for a physical version!”, I was a little concerned.
Discussion
They’ve gone for pure profit if they slightly cared they would of made some discs because people still want to use the disc drive as like you say 30 years from now people like to go back and play what they did as a kid