One of my favourite childhood memories was playing video games. I still remember when my mum bought me a Nintendo DS Lite and gave me a very suspicious-looking Mario Kart cartridge she’d picked up from eBay. Neither of us realised it was a knock-off until I tried playing multiplayer and nothing happened. That was 15 years ago, but now reports suggest Nintendo will actually lock new Switch 2 consoles if they detect copied games. If that had existed back then, my poor DS Lite probably would’ve been bricked, and I’d have had no idea why as an unsuspecting 12-year-old. 

I also remember the excitement around new game releases. People would queue outside GAME late at night, waiting for the latest Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto. Even if I wasn’t old enough to play them, the buzz around it was infectious. The first big release I ever got myself was Call of Duty: Black Ops 2. It came with a steel case, a cool box and a little art book, making it feel like a real event. 

Today, you can walk down the high street on release day and have no idea anything has come out. There are no queues, no posters and no crowds sharing the excitement. Physical extras have been replaced by cosmetic items like in-game skins and season passes. Games have moved online, and the whole experience has moved with them. 

These two stories highlight an important and major shift that has been happening quietly in the background of the gaming industry over the last few years – the transition from owning a game to owning a licence to play the game. 

When you bought a game in the past, you actually owned a copy of it. You could play it without the internet, sell it, lend it or keep it for years. The company couldn’t suddenly take it away from you. Nowadays, most of us are buying games digitally through online shops such as Steam, the PlayStation Store, Xbox or Nintendo’s eShop. When you purchase a game through these stores, you’re not buying the game itself; instead, you’re buying permission to play it under certain conditions, and these permissions can change. A company can revoke or modify your ability to play (for example, shutting down servers or banning your account), and you can’t resell or trade digital licences. Even physical disc copies are increasingly just licences, meaning the disc simply triggers a download instead of containing the game. And as more consoles remove disc drives altogether, even that option is disappearing. 

Games have also become more expensive, with many launching at £59.99 or more. On top of that, players’ access to the games they buy feels more fragile than ever. The recently released Battlefield 6, for example, has players reporting bans or warnings for mild swearing even though the game itself includes profanity and carries an 18+ rating. Whether these punishments are AI moderation mistakes or strict enforcement, it shows how easily a company can take away something a player has paid a lot of money for.

These shifts have a real impact on young people. Digital games don’t hold any resale value, so once a young person finishes a game, the only option is to uninstall it to free up storage space. In the past, they could take their old games to a shop like CEX, trade them in and walk out with something new. That whole cycle has disappeared for many players. 

On the other hand, companies are now releasing digital game subscriptions. Electronic Arts, for example, has EA Play, which gives users access to a library of games for as long as they stay subscribed. This raises a bigger question: do we actually need to own our games anymore, or do most people just want to play them and move on? 

Personally, I think subscriptions can be good for young people who may not have the money to buy the latest titles. They give access to a wide variety of games rather than a single purchase. Traditionally, there weren’t many new releases, so variety wasn’t really an option, but now with so many developers, the average person is playing 50% more games than they were five years ago, and a subscription makes that variety accessible to many. 

Digital gaming brings other benefits, too. Saves are synced automatically, people don’t have to worry about losing discs, and the risk of buying fake physical copies is much lower. But there are clear downsides too, such as no second-hand market, no lending games to friends, and no control over pricing because everything is tied to the platform’s store. In 2010, as games were slowly becoming more digital, 63% of gamers wanted physical copies of their games, with many citing the second-hand market being the number one reason. But at the same time, digital releases have made it easier for smaller developers to publish their work without the high upfront costs of producing discs, cases and physical stock. 

A lot has changed over the last few years in the gaming industry, much of it behind the scenes. Looking ahead, many people feel that players should have the choice between digital and physical copies and that consoles should keep disc drives for those who want them. Whether physical games could ever make a comeback is hard to say, but vinyl records returned after almost disappearing completely, so maybe there’s still hope for games too.