The decline of the game_setup.iso was not abrupt but inevitable. Broadband penetration increased, making direct downloads practical. Valve’s Steam client evolved from a buggy DRM tool for Counter-Strike into a robust content delivery system with automatic patching, cloud saves, and social features. GOG.com offered DRM-free installers without the bloat of optical disc images. The final blow came from hardware: the removal of optical drives from ultrabooks, and eventually, from most consumer laptops. The need to emulate a DVD drive vanished when there were no physical DVDs left to emulate.