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It's looking increasingly likely that the future of console gaming is going to be digital-only, as Sony has just announced that it is ending disc production and won't be shipping an optical drive in the PS6. Xbox is very likely to follow suit, leaving Nintendo as the only hardware maker still invested in physical media.
Despite this move, it's not unreasonable to expect that boutique publishers, like Limited Run and Retro-Bit, will continue to produce physical games – after all, the Sega Genesis, SNES and Game Boy are no longer in active production, yet we're still getting new physical releases on these systems.
Speaking of Limited Run, co-founder Josh Fairhurst – who recently left the company – has revealed that he had plans to create a console during his time there:
"Any time I would be asked 'what do you plan to do when physical media is no longer supported on major platforms?' my answer was always, 'we'll make our own physically-focused platform'; however, I never made much progress on this idea while I was at LRG."
While that time appears to be close, Fairhurst admits that it's unlikely that Limited Run will seek to produce hardware to fill the void. "With LRG's parent company owning Plaion, who has their own physical console business line, I don't really see this being something that is ever realistically pursued," he says.
Fairhurst says that, while he's no longer at Limited Run, he remains "committed to continuing to fight for physical media. It's a vital component of preserving our medium's history, and I don't take it lightly that it's fading away."
He adds that he is "working on several projects that will fully embrace physicality. It will be a while before anything is announced, but take whatever little solace you can in knowing there's plenty of people in this industry that will not let physical ownership die. In the words of my former company: forever physical."