GTA 6 will arrive on the market without physical support. You can purchase the package but inside there will only be a code to download. This is just the latest chapter in a long history of change in the video game industry.
The world of video games is changing. Whether for better or worse, you have to understand it. Several factors are involved: the crisis after the pandemic boom, the intrusion of artificial intelligence in development processes, the economic unsustainability of the projects. All aspects that we have had the opportunity to explore in depth on Fanpage.it. Added to this are the recent choices made by the main players in the sector – Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and Steam – which anticipate a profound change. Let’s try to recap everything. Let’s start with PlayStation’s choice to no longer support physical versions. The records, so to speak. From 2028, those who want to play on Sony-branded platforms will only be able to play digitally via a code to purchase from the PlayStation Store. Those who want the collector’s package will still be able to purchase it, but inside it it will not find any diskjust a sheet with the aforementioned code to redeem. Which is the same path taken by GTA 6, which will arrive on November 19th. There is no ecological ambition, given the continuation of plastic packaging. It’s simply a question of profit. According to what was reported by Dr. Serkan Toto on KantanGamescompanies earn $14 less per copy with physical editions than with digital editions.
This is already the practice for the PC market. Steam, the platform of Gabe Newell which holds over 75% of computer gaming, is based exclusively on digital. This path becomes more concrete for Microsoft too. For his next Xbox, currently named Project Helixthere is a fear of the possibility of having a platform capable of converting old discs from previous Xboxes into code. The console itself, based on the clues that have emerged, seems a bit like a hybrid between PC and the classic console, comparable to the recent Steam Machine: in fact a computer already configured to be exploited on the gaming side. The fact that the giants of the sector are taking this path suggests that the future of gaming will be increasingly less tangible.
The long chain of dismissals
Not only changes in the format of games, but also structural changes in companies. Let’s take Microsoft. In 2017 he had bet on Xbox Game Passa subscription service that promised to become the Netflix of video games: with a monthly fee, users would have access to an ever-expanding catalogue, fueled by a growing number of exclusive productions. To support this project the company has invested tens of billions of dollars by acquiring some of the largest publishers in the sector. In 2021 came the acquisition of ZeniMax Media, owner of Bethesda (The Elder Scrolls, Fallout, DOOM), while in 2023 Microsoft completed the almost $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard King, bringing franchises such as Call of Duty, Diablo, World of Warcraft and Candy Crush under its control. The greatest acquisition in gaming history.
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The goal was simple: increase Game Pass subscribers by offering a constant flow of exclusive video games and make the subscription the heart of the Xbox ecosystem. However, the plan did not achieve the desired results. The growth of the service has progressively slowed down, while the costs necessary to maintain dozens of studios and finance increasingly long and expensive productions have become difficult to sustain. In the last two years or so, Microsoft has begun a profound restructuring of its gaming division, with thousands of layoffs still underway and studies at risk of closure. Some of those acquired during the expansion years are returning to greater creative autonomy, as Double Finethe studio founded by Tim Schafer, historical author of Monkey Island and Grim Fandango.
A sign of a progressive downsizing of the strategy inaugurated with Game Pass. Today Microsoft seems to want to concentrate investments and resources on the most profitable franchises – Halo, Forza, Call of Duty, The Elder Scrolls and Fallout – leaving less space for new intellectual properties and experimental productions. It’s yet another sign of an industry that favors safer business models but less creative with the aim of having constant growth. The numerous remakes and myriads of remasters of this gaming generation are proof of this, as well as the sequels of established intellectual properties.
The rising cost of video games
If Sony focuses on digital and Microsoft reduces investments in riskier projects, Nintendo has taken another path: increasing the entry price. Switch 2 arrived on the market with a higher cost compared to the previous generation and, above all, it has officially cleared the 80-90 euro range for first party games, such as Mario Kart World. A new psychological threshold, in short. The price increase doesn’t just affect Nintendo. In recent years Microsoft and Sony have increased the price of triple-A games from 70 to 80 euros. Added to this are increasingly expensive consoles, such as PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S increased by 100 euros compared to the original release priceonline subscriptions that have become almost indispensable and also more expensive, and additional content sold separately. Part of the increases are due to memory and chip crisis triggered by artificial intelligence.
A comparison with the early 2000s could be useful to understand how much the market has changed. At the time, a video game for PlayStation 2 or Xbox generally cost between 49 and 59 euros. If we take inflation into account, those prices would today be equivalent to around 75-90 euros, a sign that the current increases are not only due to the increase in the cost of living. What has changed above all is the economic model of the industry: video game budgets have grown to the point of exceeding, in some cases, those of large film productions, costing hundreds of millions of dollars. This situation pushes publishers to seek new sources of revenue through higher prices, subscriptions, microtransactions and digital services.
The problems of digital
Between layoffs, the end of the physical format and restructuring of companies and services, video games find themselves in a watershed moment. Meanwhile, the community is not reacting well. Social media is full of memes, videos and controversial postsin particular against the increase in prices and the end of discs by a gaming giant like Sony. In fact, this choice raises several doubts. First of all, for the user, who can no longer choose but finds himself forced to purchase and use it in only one format. Secondly, this path increases the power of companies, which will be able to decide to “close” a game when it is no longer economically sustainable. Following the choice to give up the physical version, Sony has announced that it will close the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita stores between 2026 and 2027. In short, it will no longer be possible to purchase games for these platforms. It means effectively losing hundreds of titles made unavailable by the same company that distributed them. The second-hand market remains, but it is clear that a digital future will progressively reduce its impact. There won’t even be a future generation of retrogaming.
The Stop Killing Games movement opposes all these dynamics. In Europe it received an initial rejection, however the support of several EU politicians remains concrete. In the United States, however, a victory was achieved. Specifically, in the California State Assembly. However, without adequate institutional support, companies can choose the good or bad weather of a game at any moment, despite it having been regularly purchased. This is because, the companies in question specify, when you buy a game you pay for the use of its license, not for its possession. Furthermore, the only digital existence will make the preservation of video games even more complex. To illustrate, today only 13% of classic video games are accessible to the public in the United States. What has been reported shows how, despite the global turnover of 201 billion dollars – four times that of music and cinema combined – video games remain a niche product designed for consumption. Other than a multimedia medium through which society expresses itself. Donald Trump of all people.
The relationship with the public: who is playing video games today
Finally, what audience do these changes speak to? The average age of the gaming community is around 40 years old. A group used to enjoying video games in a traditional way. As for the new generations, it is growing the tendency to look to the past. According to a 2024 article by Harriet Shepherd for The Guardianthe hashtag #retgaming has exceeded 6 billion views on TikTok, while playlists dedicated to classic video game soundtracks have grown by 50% on Spotify in just one year. It’s not just about nostalgia. More and more young people, even those who have never lived through the era of Game Boy, PlayStation or Super Nintendo, are rediscovering video games of the past for their simplicity, the physicality of the media and an experience perceived as less frenetic than modern titles, increasingly linked to subscriptions, continuous updates and online services. A trend also embraced by small productions or by indie titles, which are increasingly inspired by the pixel art graphics of arcade video games or the low-poly graphics of the first consoles of the nineties. Just look at recent hits like Vampire Survivors or Mouthwashing.
This is especially true for the more traditional community of gamer. If we broaden the perspective from a more generalist perspective, the real protagonist of the market remains gaming on mobile devices. According to the 2025 report by Newzoosmartphones and tablets will generate 103 billion dollarsover half of 188 billion of the entire global gaming industry. Alone they are worth more than the PC and console markets combined. Growth, however, is slowing down (+2.9% in 2025) and is concentrated above all in emerging regions such as Latin America and Asiawhere the smartphone is still the main device for playing games. It is a fact that describes two increasingly different industries: on the one hand console and PCwhere prices, development costs and investments in large franchises increase, on the other the mobilewhich continues to expand thanks to a much larger audience and business models based on free-to-play and microtransactions.
Making the future even more uncertain then there is artificial intelligence. Microsoft, Ubisoft, Electronic Arts and other companies are investing more and more in tools capable of automating parts of development, from writing dialogues to creating graphic assets. For publishers it represents a possible response to the increase in production costs, for many developers, however, the risk is that it becomes yet another tool for reducing costs to the detriment of creativity and employment. As for the public, the reactions against Larian Studio (Baldur’s Gate 3) and other studios that have announced that they use AI in their development processes, at the moment testify a certain hostility towards artificial intelligence.
