Sony ending physical disc production in 2028, going digital only

[nathman]

Good, less waste.

 

[Juiceala]

Your statement made me recall something. Gaming is about to do what music did 20-years ago and movies have tried to do for maybe 15-years - go all digital. However, in the last few years consumers as a whole have been reducing their expenses on said streaming services and have gone back to physical media. Not, perhaps, in droves. But enough for even the newsies to report on it back in '24 or '25. Why? Some of it is cost. Some of it is consumers getting sick of their favorite movies and shows that they want to (re)watch getting de-listed. Some of it is quality (especially music on vinyl).

I'm willing to wager that the same will happen with video games. Perhaps it'll be in the "next gen" or even the gen after that (whatever we'll call it by then if gaming does go streaming as I fear). But so long as there is a market for it, someone will make it. My bet would go to Nintendo, as their mindset has always been that of a toy company rather than a tech company. Or, hell, maybe the world ends and in the surviving world it's SEGA who releases the Neptune.
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It is funny Compile Heart still like to pretend like SEGA is still one if the big guys, I like to think of the post apocalyptic future with Uzomi from Neptunia Victory II.

It is sad to think Vert and now Noire may join Neptune in the retirement house... who would've thought Blanc would be the last one standing in the arena?

 

[ShinnAsukaYESTaylorSwiftNO]

Wha... What kind of logic is that, being one good and other don't?

my mother and her fiance are sadly not the sharpest tools in the shed

 

[HyperTurboFox]

It is funny Compile Heart still like to pretend like SEGA is still one if the big guys, but it is sad to think Vert and now Noire may join Neptune in the retirement house... who would've thought Blanc would be the last one standing in the arena?

Neptunia Re;Birth 2 aged like milk
It's just anti-emulation & homebrew propaganda.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

Good, less waste.

I'd argue that it's only truly wasteful if:

A) The game is designed to stop working via it being online-only, rendering useless once the service ends (which is what made Overwatch such a slap in the face).

B) All packaging goes the Nintendo way and they give you a useless bit of plastic on a cheap cover for your trouble.

 

[Juiceala]

Neptunia Re;Birth 2 aged like milk
It's just anti-emulation & homebrew propaganda.

I know, right? Arfoire was truly the good guy all along.

 

[thanonyx thanonyx]

Welp, guess I'm pirating NEW games as of 2028 and not just old ones. If I have to pirate to actually own my games then so be it. If buying isn't owning then pirating isn't stealing.

 

[PhaseJump]

The loss of physical media is no big deal. It's inevitable. Discs are slow and don't hold enough space.

The answer to deal with the bullshit around it is to embolden and re-enforce the public domain laws to be less preferential toward corporations that refuse to let things go and compete.

Everything that gets "published" and sold to consumers should be on a reasonable timer to enter public domain, everything purchased that isn't reliant on a host server should carry some risk of an owed refund liability if it gets delisted.

The laws need to shift and come down hard, and the whole thing might be doable in the next decade or more since a lot of classic IP is going public anyway. Disney, DC comics, etc.


The hardware platforms themselves should be forced into public domain. You should be legally allowed to emulate PS3 and Xbox 360, or older bespoke consoles on any hardware powerful enough to handle it, just to keep your games accessible.

 

[Juiceala]

Good, less waste.

For me the issue isn't so much with future releases, unfortunate as that is, but my main concern is with my physical library, and keep in mind I'm one of those who went digital early on so my physical library isn't that big to begin with, but now those games will soon stop working and Sony will no longer make systems that support them, so now you have to rebuy every game again from the digital store at full price, assuming it's not delisted already, and if you wish to keep your save data (or dlc) you gotta be sure to buy the same region because with physical you could buy the cheaper version and haggle in the store regardless of the region.

 

[bratish]

 

[nathman]

I'd argue that it's only truly wasteful if:

A) The game is designed to stop working via it being online-only, rendering useless once the service ends (which is what made Overwatch such a slap in the face).

B) All packaging goes the Nintendo way and they give you a useless bit of plastic on a cheap cover for your trouble.

Or if the disc is simply a link to the download on the PlayStation store...

 

[thanonyx thanonyx]

And another thing, digital games need to come down in price as they age. I'm not paying $70 USD for a 10 year old game, you can forget it. Also, there needs to be a way to transfer digital games from one person's account to another person's account so we can get a second hand market going.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

Or if the disc is simply a link to the download on the PlayStation store...

Also true.

Post automatically merged: Today at 8:04 PM

And another thing, digital games need to come down in price as they age. I'm not paying $70 USD for a 10 year old game, you can forget it. Also, there needs to be a way to transfer digital games from one person's account to another person's account so we can get a second hand market going.

Didn't Valve lose that exact same case in Australia a while back?

 

[thanonyx thanonyx]

Also true.

Post automatically merged: Today at 8:04 PM

Didn't Valve lose that exact same case in Australia a while back?

That was because of their No Refunds policy.

 

[LadyCorvinus]

As a person who has collected physical copies of most of the titles i've played on PlayStation since I started playing in 97' (6 y/o) this is heartbreaking especially since I prioritize certain series over others like: Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame...etc to collect them. I like owning what I've bought permanently; Sony has already shown off this past week that Digital isn't Forever and I don't like the thought of having to rebuy something to play it because the license was pulled. I suppose after 28' I won't be playing on PSN anymore; I'll probably fully shift over to Steam since I also own a PC. :( Tbh I was hoping maybe they'd just do limited runs or waves of physical instead of just isolating physical collectors in general.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

That was because of their No Refunds policy.

I see.

Got my facts mixed up (NOT for the first time... today xD).

I agree that having a secondhand market would be a wonderful idea, but I doubt they'd allow it to happen — why get a part of the money when you can rake in ALL of it by re-releasing the same shit a thousand times?

 

[BrawlMan]

Anyone who tries to act blase or act as if it's not a big deal never cared in the first place or think things will be magically better within all digital age. As some people mentioned before, digital games rarely ever permanently go down.In price and not every single person is gonna keep up with every single sale, and I have a feeling those sales are going to be less frequent now. Once we get to 2028.

 

[LadyCorvinus]

Fuck you, Sony.
As for me, I'll keep collecting my precious UMDs.

hell yeah ;)
Same! im always on the hunt for PSP and PS2 titles <3

 

[KenaiPhoenix]

Well... this is really sad, I feel like we lost our hobbies forever. This will only get worse.

On the plus side: at least I dont have to worry about getting a PS6, but the sad part is that idk what to do... PC is also a digital only licenses hell, and thanks to the Valve chills there is no end to this.

They finally cut everything until they got all the profit for them, and none of the benefits for us...

I guess I will just stuck to what will become 'retro gaming' and not move from this gen. I wont support this shit, I wont get new games since I dont like this, and I dont have to.

My only regret is that we should have gate keeped gaming better, cut the normies and the corpos out. Specially the cattle that think that swaping a disc is just too much of an effort.

Im really pissed of right now.

 

[PhaseJump]

The whole argument for keeping physical media options pretty much died when the products themselves became useless plastic cases without manuals, materials, or even the full content of the games on board. Not even just codes in a box or key cards.

It's been declining and arguably dead for years already. Consoles barely have a reason to exist. Welcome to the party.

 

[BrawlMan]

This also completely screws over the second hand market, and hurts people because a lot of people still get games through used or secondhand stores.

So once again, nobody's winning and not even Aony, because they're too arrogant, too greedy, and too stupid to realize it.
They're literally killing their own ecosystem and expecting everybody to be mindless drones or fanatics that will die for them. Congrats Sony, you just killed yourselves. Wanna invest in another live service no one cares about and will die on release and learn nothing again?

 

[thanonyx thanonyx]

Perhaps the PS6 will be...the last PlayStation.

 

[zombie100379]

any true gaming fan wants to see the disc on their shelf , physical is so important. i will 100% NOT be supporting digital ever. modern games are dead to me - all the .good ones came out a long time ago. i hope sony dies on its ass

 

[Kovlak]

Perhaps the PS6 will be...the last PlayStation.

The Last of PS

 

[Ikagura]

Perhaps the PS6 will be...the last PlayStation.

But we had four to go!