The rise of digital-only PC gaming, spearheaded by Valve's Steam platform since 2003, is being pointed to as evidence that consoles could survive a similar shift away from physical discs. The comparison is timely: Rockstar recently confirmed its next major release will skip a physical version, and Sony has announced plans to stop manufacturing discs for PlayStation by January 2028, prompting significant backlash from players who fear losing ownership, resale rights and offline access to their games.

Steam was initially resisted by gamers as unnecessary DRM, hampered by slow internet connections and a clunky early interface, but it gained a foothold through exclusive access to acclaimed Valve titles such as Half-Life 2, Portal and Team Fortress 2. As broadband speeds and storage improved, and as publishers grew wary of piracy and the second-hand disc market, digital distribution became the convenient, discount-driven norm, effectively eliminating PC game discs by the 2010s. The article uses this history to weigh whether the same transition can work smoothly for consoles, while noting there remain distinct concerns about ownership and access in a fully digital future.