i wish physical media for PC games would make a comeback. there's something really fun about going to cashies and browsing through a rack of cheap old games, picking one, bringing it home, popping it in the xbox 360/PS2/etc, and having instant access to a game you now own forever. maybe your parents are driving from perth to melbourne and they want to buy you a DS game you can play for the next four days while you're on the road with no internet.

you have a lot more freedom with PC games -- mods, downgrades, save editing -- but unless the game you want is on GOG or itch, you can't just buy and own a game. even with GOG/itch's DRM-free downloads, you still need to download something.

optical media sucks, i know, but couldn't we have read-only USB sticks or something? can't i have a shelf full of my favourite games?