My local game store is closing down. News of its closure was, ruefully, the thing that motivated me to pay one last overdue visit. I picked over its second-hand PS4 games like a vulture, while the last remaining, slightly-mishapen Bowser plushie stared at me with accusatory eyes that seemed to ask: why are you only visiting this place now that it is dying?
Despite growing up spending all my pocket money on second hand video game cartridges and discs, doing this now – after years spent buying digitally – feels forced, like a consolatory pat on physical media's coffin. A defeated admission that we had it better then.
