Gaming

Consoles had a few things going for it, making them appealing over PC:

• More affordable up-front than PC
• Easy to use for tech-averse users
• Tangible sense of ownership

As always though, business execs find a way to ignore common sense and strip out the appeal of anything in existence.

The first point needs no explanation. Most consoles today are quickly approaching the price level for a mid-range PC and have already surpassed the more budget or used models.

As for ease of use, consoles are more and more like PCs today. It's more or less mandatory on console to take part in scary things such as setting up accounts with 2FA, installing security updates, and worry about account bans when younger siblings/kids borrow the system.

Having physical media meant you could always go back and play something given there was a system to play it on. Going all-digital on console is a dead end compared to on PC. Most of your digital games on PC will follow you onto every new PC you get for years and years to come (although those may be revoked also). Once you replace a console with the next gen thing, your library is barren again. Sure, you can keep your previous gen console around but it seems for every generation the units fail sooner and sooner. I bet in 10 years there won't be a single functioning PS5 around that hasn't seen major repairs.

Nintendo decided to boil the frog slowly, the frog being physical media, by making game key cards which can conveniently be disabled when they start competing with remakes and whatnot in the future.