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Digital "ownership" isn't really ownership even when the companies aren't being assholes because you can't resell the thing. Hardly anyone noticed this ability being taken away, but back in the day, the secondary market for games on physical media, especially console games, was huge. It was much more affordable to buy a pre-owned game than a new one, with no downsides.

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This has also led to the preservation of many of the games I grew up with. There's still a market for NES and Atari consoles and a market for the cartridges because you can still play and use them.

It's going to be a very different story for modern consoles.

All current-generation consoles do still take physical media, but yeah, there already are some smaller games that only come as digital. For those, I guess, piracy is the only way they could be preserved.

The physical media doesn't matter if shutting down the service makes it unplayable.

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