If you've been living under a rock or are reading this years later, Sony recently announced that they'll be discontinuing physical disc production by 2028. I would put a pretty penny on Xbox following suit, as Microsoft will likely soon be encouraging you to digitize your existing collection to prepared for the impending death of the optical drive. You don't need me to tell you why physical media is important for both a healthy games industry and for games preservation.
Anyone who's been paying attention could tell you that given the chance, Sony and Microsoft would've killed the disc a decade ago. Most releases requiring day-one updates means that the disc has already been softly and quietly sunsetted years ago. The only reason it's now happening officially is because they've managed to hook consumers on the convenience of digital storefronts. This recent news comes as a surprise to no one (not to mimic the squawking of an ultra-pessimist). The point of this post isn't to snippily remind you that physical games make up only 15% of total sales, rather I'm more interested in finding ways to cope with the ongoing destruction of ownership.
I think it started for me with a general ennui. My relationship with gaming over the past few years has been rocky. There are some occasional winners like Cairn, but most of my game time has been spent surfing the waves of the burgeoning friendslop trend. I've spent hours trolling through Steam's storefront or my various libraries looking for something to inspire me, but I always leave those sessions feeling a real lack of desire to play anything at all. I thought maybe it was just depression (which plays a small part) until I started building up my library of ROMs in response to this Sony news.
I've found a lot of comfort in older games lately. This month I've been playing through Chrono Trigger again, as well as Ship of Harkinian, the Ocarina of Time decompilation for Windows. I think there is a real danger that comes from an overindulgence of nostalgic media, but when you (as I have) begin to wonder if old games are even worth your time, It's so refreshing to be reminded that yes. They are.
I think we can all agree that the switch from physical to digital is a result of frictionless design. It's worth examining whether the collective sanding off of rough edges has lead to a disenchantment with gaming as a whole (check out Jeremy Jayne's Buying a Physical Game to Remember How it Felt). My largest hurdle with emulation has been a general frustration with upkeep of save files, but it's never been easier to manage your own cloud save system using programs like Syncthing.
Emulation comes with its own frictionless danger of course. You always have the option to alt-tab at any point and the presence of save states and fast-forwarding can neuter the developer's intended experience (Matthew Matosis has some good points on this in his recent commentary on Ghouls 'n Ghosts), but they can also be great accessibility tools for the modern sensibility. For now I'm just happy to be playing a retro game without worrying about whether my save file will still be around in a year.
My advice for you if you're struggling with engaging with games is to examine your relationship to the experience of gaming rather than trying to find a "perfect" game to play. Do you judge yourself when you replay something old rather than experiencing something new? Does your mind wander to what productive thing you might be doing instead of playing? Do you concern yourself a little too much with metrics like playtime or achievements? Don't think too hard, find something that looks interesting to emulate and go for it!