People want retail games and if the big 3 can’t cover that market a new and more sustainable subject will fill that space. Maybe it’s time to bring back physical media to PC, a more open system where publishers could make profit selling their retail games similarly to vinyls for music.
As much as I prefer physical release. Optical media is dogshit overall. it’s restrictive on size, subject to bit rot, and prone to being damaged if not kept properly.
I would much prefer the ability to have it software/digital side, but have actual ownership of it.
Hell it could even still have DRM as long as I had the authority to sell it or trade it again when I was done and didn’t involve crashing my performance like denuvo does.
Digital media could 1000% work well its just companies don’t want it to work well, as a digital release with the benefits of physical media actively means less sales for them.