It's useful in one way: used game purchases, re-selling, and trading with friends.
Digital console purchases go on sale too but not (often) for the prices you'll sometimes see on Steam, Gamestop and elsewhere. You can't resell for a few bucks and lend to a friend. There are sometimes features to "play together" but that's it. In a market of $60-90 new games that makes a big difference.
Since consoles are glorified locked-down PCs at this point, and because server-side support eventually ends (which renders units useless for anything that isn't already installed), the market appeal may diminish in the face of an increasingly flexible PC market which has (basically) limitless backwards compatibility. Hardcore gamers this past decade have repurchased some titles multiple times, with PC usually being the last one. I expect Nintendo will take less of a hit from that than Sony/MSFT, though MSFT has its gamepass and leverages overreliance on Windows.
Sony is in a spot. There was speculation that it would style itself as the boutique/high-quality option. I don't think that would be enough, in the end consoles are both more affordable and approachable for average consumers, that is where most of the appeal lies.
Digital console purchases go on sale too but not (often) for the prices you'll sometimes see on Steam, Gamestop and elsewhere. You can't resell for a few bucks and lend to a friend. There are sometimes features to "play together" but that's it. In a market of $60-90 new games that makes a big difference.
Since consoles are glorified locked-down PCs at this point, and because server-side support eventually ends (which renders units useless for anything that isn't already installed), the market appeal may diminish in the face of an increasingly flexible PC market which has (basically) limitless backwards compatibility. Hardcore gamers this past decade have repurchased some titles multiple times, with PC usually being the last one. I expect Nintendo will take less of a hit from that than Sony/MSFT, though MSFT has its gamepass and leverages overreliance on Windows.
Sony is in a spot. There was speculation that it would style itself as the boutique/high-quality option. I don't think that would be enough, in the end consoles are both more affordable and approachable for average consumers, that is where most of the appeal lies.