The rate of decline in US physical video game software spending accelerated in 2024.
Spending on physical video game software in the US has been cut in more than half since 2021 and is now more than 85% below its 2008 peak.
We'll see if Switch 2 can help slow/reverse this trend in 2025.
You could download games from multiple publishers years before Valve did it, too. Doesn’t mean Valve didn’t come up with the first, largest digital distribution platform for games that was then the template for every first party (and most of the digital media distribution in other media industries).
Best I can do for you is let you have that and agree that piracy invented it and Valve monetized it, which is actually worse?
Certainly means that large companies didn’t invent digital distribution as some form to eliminate physical distribution as an anti-consumer move. Consumers (via piracy) invented it for convenience.
Valve didn’t invent the idea, piracy did. You could download full games years before any legal distribution channel allowed you to do so.
You could download games from multiple publishers years before Valve did it, too. Doesn’t mean Valve didn’t come up with the first, largest digital distribution platform for games that was then the template for every first party (and most of the digital media distribution in other media industries).
Best I can do for you is let you have that and agree that piracy invented it and Valve monetized it, which is actually worse?
Certainly means that large companies didn’t invent digital distribution as some form to eliminate physical distribution as an anti-consumer move. Consumers (via piracy) invented it for convenience.