Steam beats physical releases—and it’s not even close.'n'nI know that’s a controversial take.

[atomicpoet@atomicpoet.org]

Steam beats physical releases—and it’s not even close.

I know that’s a controversial take. But before you call me a Steam apologist, hear me out.

I own plenty of physical games. Shelves full of cartridges, discs, and boxes. I love looking at them—but I also recognize the tradeoffs.

The most obvious one: space. Physical games eat it. If you live in an apartment, your collection caps out fast. Even in a house, you start asking yourself whether you want your living room to look like an archive or a place you actually live in. Organizing and maintaining all that plastic takes time.

Then there’s degradation. Cartridges collect dust. Discs succumb to bit rot. Hardware breaks down. And once that happens, those physical copies become decorative. Consoles die. CRTs fail. Good luck finding parts.

Physical PC games are even worse. They depend on specific specs, old operating systems, and install methods that often don’t work anymore. It’s nostalgia with extra steps.

Now compare that to Steam.

No storage needed. No dust. No dead drives. You can install your library on Windows, macOS, or Linux. A single purchase can live across every platform you own. That’s real longevity.

And then there’s price.

Used Switch cartridges for $100? I’ve bought the same titles for under a dollar on Steam sales. When you’re looking at the numbers, it’s hard to justify clinging to physical copies.

I can already hear the objections:

“You don’t own your Steam games! You just license them!”

True. But you also license your physical games. A publisher could revoke that license tomorrow—it’s just that they never do.

Likewise, I’ve never had a Steam game revoked, even when it was delisted.

“What about delistings?”

Delistings only affect new buyers. If you already own it, it stays in your library. The physical equivalent? Going out of print. You can’t buy those new either.

“You can’t resell digital games!”

Correct—and thank god. I don’t want to see speculators flipping cartridges like crypto tokens. I’d rather developers get paid than collectors get rich.

That’s not to say Steam is perfect. GOG and itch.io are better in some ways—no DRM, more preservation-friendly. But even with its flaws, Steam offers the best balance of accessibility, price, and convenience that physical media simply can’t match anymore.