Gamers warned about losing their video games forever by making a simple mistake

Video game purists are making a stand against this digital age, but with 95.4% of the global video game market revenue being made up of digital sales in 2024, it looks like they're fighting a losing battle.

You only have to look at how many $200 collector's edition games come with giant resin statues and fancy packaging just to give you a download code to see the industry is shifting away from the model that we've known and loved for decades.

As the gaming world continues to evolve away from physical releases, there's a knock-on effect that older copies of games can go for a not-so-small fortune.

While the honor of being the most expensive game ever sold goes to a rare copy of Super Mario 64 selling for $1.56 million, you can still fetch $7,700 for the OG Resident Evil, or what about $900 for a copy of Tomb Raider?

This is music to the ears of collectors or avid gamers alike who haven't climbed into the attic to dust off their boxes of retro games.

However, before you go thinking you can be the next Elon Musk while sitting on a retirement fund of nostalgic video games, you're warned that you might've already made a deadly mistake that could render your collection worthless. Even though digital gaming collections come with their problems, even physical media has its drawbacks.

Over on X, the 'Does it Play?' account reminded gamers that they should regularly boot up their titles to ensure they still work.

This doesn't apply to those that are still tucked away in their boxes and remain untouched, but if you've ever played a game and want to preserve it, it's important to load up the cartridge every once in a while. Highlighting everything from the PS Vita to the Nintendo 3DS, this also applies to the Switch and the new release of the Switch 2.

Given that Nintendo's latest console boasts some impressive backward compatibility, you might want to check that old Breath of the Wild copy from 2017 is still in working order.

In the PSA, an explanation of cartridge technology writes: "It's basic physics - electrons leak from their respective charge traps over time and the contents become fuzzy for the controller to make sense of them."

To keep cartridges healthy, we're told to periodically plug them in so data can refresh.

Some complained that it'll take an eternity to go through their collection and plug their cartridges in every couple of years, but others in the thread warned about the 'death' of their games.

Feeling their pain, one distraught gamer wrote: "Guess this explains why my copy of Pokemon Omega Ruby mysteriously died in storage."

Another joked: "Or keep them new/sealed, in which case they will forever be Schrödinger’s cards - working and dead at the same time."

A third concluded: "Another reason I went digital. Physical preservation is nice sounding until the realities weigh on you. I understand reselling and physically owning has an appeal but at this stage in my life I just wanna play a game. If Steam ever tries to take it I'll pirate it back."

With the digital world continuing to take over, this is another nail in the coffin of physical media.