As Sony announces it is abandoning physical games, Nintendo fans recall comments from former President and CEO Satoru Iwata about this very thing.
In 2009, during an investor meeting (via Kotaku, now resurfaced on Reddit), Iwata – who was president of Nintendo from 2002 until his passing in 2015 – said, "Most radical people even dare to say that retailers will be replaced by digital distribution in no time," adding, "But personally, I think it will still require a significant amount of time."
He explained, "In other words, it will require many years and months for the majority of video game purchase to become digital," predicting that "In short, in 20 years or so, I might say it will have probably changed. But in 5 years or so, I do not totally agree with opinions that no one will purchase titles at retailers by then."
And here we are in 2026, with Rockstar abandoning a proper physical release, leaving only digital or code-in-box options for GTA 6. And then we got the news that, come 2028, Sony will no longer produce physical discs for PS5 games. So Iwata was almost right, just about a year off.
Granted, physical copies will likely still exist in 2029. Xbox hasn't announced plans to abandon physical disks, although the writing is on the wall given recent Xbox physical releases have lacked data on the disk, while rumors say Project Helix may not have a disk drive. Meanwhile, Nintendo introduced the Game-Key Card, which is another fake physical copy as far as preserving the games on them goes, but at the very least, you are able to resell those.
