My Digital Games Aren't Really Mine

I don’t buy game discs anymore. I don’t want to get up and swap discs every time I switch games. I don’t want stacks of plastic cases, and I definitely don’t want an IKEA Billy bookcase dedicated to storing them. Digital is simply more convenient, and I’m clearly not alone: around three quarters of PC and console games sold in Europe are now digital.

But the more I think about what I actually get when I press “Buy”, the less I like it. Digital games are a good replacement for discs in almost every way except the one that matters most: whether the game is really mine.

What did I actually buy?

Every store has a big “Buy” button. But the terms behind it tell a different story. What I get is a licence to play the game, on the store’s conditions, and those conditions can change.

This is confusing enough that California now requires stores to tell customers when a “purchase” is really a revocable licence.¹ That law doesn’t give anyone ownership. It just makes stores admit what they’re selling. When a government has to step in to explain what the word “buy” means, something is wrong.

My library isn’t really mine

A disc on my shelf stays there until I decide otherwise. A game in my digital library stays there until the store decides otherwise.

In 2023 Sony announced that over 1,300 TV shows people had paid for would be removed from their PlayStation libraries, because a licence deal had ended. After a backlash, Sony reached a new deal that keeps the shows available for at least 30 months.² Those were TV shows, not games, but the system is the same. What I paid for depends on agreements between companies I’m not part of.

And if my account gets banned or closed, I don’t just lose one game. I can lose everything I’ve bought.

Physical isn’t the escape anymore

Buying a box doesn’t guarantee much either. Many discs need online downloads before the game works. Nintendo’s Switch 2 goes a step further with game-key cards: a cartridge that holds no game, only a key. You download the game the first time you play.

Many people hate game-key cards. I actually like them. The card is the licence. Once the game is downloaded, it plays offline as long as the card is inserted. And Nintendo has confirmed the cards aren’t tied to an account, so I can lend one to a friend, give it away, or even sell it.³

Nintendo already does something similar for digital games. With Virtual Game Cards, I can move a digital game between my own consoles, or lend it to someone in my family group for up to 14 days.⁴ That’s close to what I want from digital ownership: a game-key card, without the card.

I gave up resale, so where’s my discount?

With discs, I could sell a game when I was done with it. With digital, I can’t. In the EU, courts have ruled that downloaded games can’t be resold the way discs can.⁵

I’m honestly not sure the used market was good for gamers. Every used copy sold is a sale the publisher never sees, and publishers make up for that lost revenue by charging more for new games. But that argument only works if losing resale makes games cheaper. Research on the Japanese games market found that publishers could earn more without a used market, but only by lowering prices.⁶

That hasn’t happened. In early 2025, the average price people paid for digital games in Europe rose by about 15%.⁷ There’s no disc to make, ship or stock, and no resale value for me. I’m getting less, and paying more.

What would make digital good enough

A game I buy should stay in my library, and if it’s ever taken away, I should get my money back. It should work like Nintendo’s game-key cards and Virtual Game Cards: something I hold, can back up, move between my own consoles and lend to people I know. Whether I should also be able to sell it, I’m honestly not sure. But if I can’t, it should cost less, not more.

I’m not going back

I’m not going to start buying discs again. Digital is better in almost every way, and it’s where everything is heading. Games, films, music and books are moving from shelves to libraries in someone else’s account, and more of them are only sold digitally. That makes digital ownership rights more important than ever. A digital game should be as safe as the games I used to keep on a shelf. Until a digital purchase is something I truly hold, the “Buy” button is promising more than it delivers.

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