VGCollect Forum
General and Gaming => Modern Video Games => Topic started by: weirdfeline on July 01, 2026, 08:19:01 am
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https://blog.playstation.com/2026/07/01/physical-disc-production-ending-in-january-2028-for-new-games-releasing-on-playstation-consoles/
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In time, a lot of other related things will eventually cease. Video games having a retail presence, the limited print industry (for discs at this time, anyway, though it remains to be seen with Nintendo's future as they currently manufacture cartridges), and—much later—dedicated brick-and-mortar stores. I can easily envision consumer prices for the secondary market becoming even more expensive than they already are.
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Aaannnnnddd.... the nail in the coffin. PS5 is confirmed to be my last Playstation. Congrats Sony.
The question for the last two gens has been... "What will you do when gaming becomes digital only."
My answer.... I walk away.
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Can't say I'm playing allot of modern aside from nintendo anyway but gaming is gonna get pricy in this digital only future :P
piracy and jailbroken consoles like in the good ol days might actually peak again if digital only will keep prices sky high.
truly the end of an era, gen z consumers have spoken
(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/743259728888725564/1521864273498996736/waves.gif?ex=6a46620d&is=6a45108d&hm=dd954b7c122a715204584f60559273dd9fe6e26ec86dd7a21e8b2b0d59b7fcde&=&width=499&height=249)
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I was actually going to comment earlier how I noticed Xbox already had their video game selection wiped out at both Walmart and Target. The titles they carry are the latest entries for: Battlefield, Madden, Call of Duty, Forza, NBA 2K and EA Sports FC. One little row of shelf space. Nintendo has a ton of shelf space at Walmart in particular as well as their own aisle at Target.
DVDs are still being made and sold alongside Blu-rays and 4K but PlayStation and Xbox games won't be.
I think Sony thinks GTA VI will pave the way for this digital future they envision but I think GTA VI could potentially be the stopping point for hundreds of thousands of gamers if not millions of gamers. The next generation is going to price out so many already and now without even a library to be physically invested in that could easily be something that breaks the magic for lots of people.
If you don't care about collecting but live paycheck to paycheck you're looking at $80 games and you can't sell it to make some money back to pay for the next game after you beat it over the weekend. Plenty of other things to get entertainment out of for less.
If I'm Nintendo I'm going back to having two consoles. Keep the Switch line as the handheld and return to GameCube power parity era while being the exclusive home of physical games. They might even be the only console with a physical store presence outside of gift cards.
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tbf xbox was losing the battle anyway and their games physically where almost worthless. and with gamepass being that cheap most of their consumers just stuck with that. they killed it fast although probably by design now with their gamepass not being as good of a deal, since they can inflate prices and consumers can't buy cheap physical xbox games anymore.
If you don't care about collecting but live paycheck to paycheck you're looking at $80 games and you can't sell it to make some money back to pay for the next game after you beat it over the weekend. Plenty of other things to get entertainment out of for less.
there is one way for you to sell your digital games. it's by selling the entire console with it. but far less convenient. or perhaps you could sell your account but even that not really convenient but there might be ways although really at that point piracy is gonna increase tenfold if it's digital only and if prices are kept high. people gonna get money for those services guaranteed
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If you don't care about collecting but live paycheck to paycheck you're looking at $80 games and you can't sell it to make some money back to pay for the next game after you beat it over the weekend. Plenty of other things to get entertainment out of for less.
If I'm Nintendo I'm going back to having two consoles. Keep the Switch line as the handheld and return to GameCube power parity era while being the exclusive home of physical games. They might even be the only console with a physical store presence outside of gift cards.
I'm sure Sony has acknowledged that internally to some effect. They'll just keep pushing subscription models as they bleed out remaining subscribers as more and more unsubscribe.
At the very least, Sony will maintain some sort of in-store retail presence so that hardware and accessories can be sold. But they could also just package all games in empty cases once 2028 comes, like Take-Two is doing now with Grand Theft Auto VI.
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I'm not going to say that I'm done gaming, because that would be silly. But I am absolutely not paying $6-700 for console where I can't own the games.
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I encourage everyone here to comment on that blog post and let them know what you think. I know I will not be supporting Sony once this goes into effect. I will just play older games and stick to PC for newer releases.
The irony of the statement that they are also shutting down the PS3 and Vita stores with the switch to all-digital for new games is just too unbelievable.
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Well, there goes my hope of the PS5 getting a physical port of the next Monster Hunter Stories game. Looks like my decision to stop collecting new games at the end of 2027 was well founded. If anything, I'm glad they had the decency to give us an actual date instead of leaving it up in the air. Now if I see a PS5 game dated past 2027, I'll know to ignore it. Physical releases have been getting really spotty for the past couple of years anyhow, and I've had to pass on more than a few games I wanted because they ended up being "game key discs" (Doom: The Dark Ages, Crimson Desert, Oblivion Remastered, etc). Speaking of that Oblivion remaster, I don't know how they can manage to put the whole game on a 64GB Switch 2 cart but couldn't put it on a 100GB Blu-Ray...
Thankfully there's still the Evercade, Neo Geo AES+, and ModRetro to carry on the torch of physical ownership. I'm really hoping Blaze Entertainment will make a more powerful Evercade console and start doing compilations of 6th and 7th gen games.
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I encourage everyone here to comment on that blog post and let them know what you think. I know I will not be supporting Sony once this goes into effect. I will just play older games and stick to PC for newer releases.
I don't think that sort of action will make any difference, but people are certainly free to do that. Whenever news like this is announced that some people won't support, companies expect some sort of immediate backlash but know that it will quiet down in time. Sony's market statistics support that those complaining are in a minority, anyway. In the end, it all depends on consumer trends. Younger generations have become or are soon becoming adults, and they've long lived with the idea that media isn't tangible or something to own. So unless that perception changes, I don't think this decision will either.
Why wait to cease support until this goes into effect? If there comes a time when a Sony-published game releases that you're interested in, wait a while and then buy it from the secondhand market instead of buying a new copy that directly benefits them.
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I'm not going to say that I'm done gaming, because that would be silly. But I am absolutely not paying $6-700 for console where I can't own the games.
That is a very generous price point you're estimating for next-generation consoles. But I absolutely agree—there are still plenty of games to play, both new and old. Hopefully some people realize that and expand their tastes.
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I just posted about this in the general topic, haha.
I'm surprisingly not as upset as I thought I'd be. Going pure digital isn't my MO. I won't buy a PS6. (I haven't even thought about M$ for years.)
I have a lot of games that I have yet to play, and a lot of games that I want to replay. And, there are times I learn of new series' out there that look interesting that have physical releases. I'll still be gaming no matter how much the industry changes.
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They hate us ... but they love our money 8)
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I encourage everyone here to comment on that blog post and let them know what you think. I know I will not be supporting Sony once this goes into effect. I will just play older games and stick to PC for newer releases.
I don't think that sort of action will make any difference, but people are certainly free to do that. Whenever news like this is announced that some people won't support, companies expect some sort of immediate backlash but know that it will quiet down in time. Sony's market statistics support that those complaining are in a minority, anyway. In the end, it all depends on consumer trends. Younger generations have become or are soon becoming adults, and they've long lived with the idea that media isn't tangible or something to own. So unless that perception changes, I don't think this decision will either.
Why wait to cease support until this goes into effect? If there comes a time when a Sony-published game releases that you're interested in, wait a while and then buy it from the secondhand market instead of buying a new copy that directly benefits them.
Oh I'm aware that it probably won't change things, but like you said as consumers our right to voice concerns should always be exercised. To be fair at least the backlash to the delisting of the PS3/Vita PSN store a few years back did make them delay things (not that it matters much now) ::)
Your second point regarding secondhand market is partially why Sony is doing this, though. They lose too much money by people waiting. For me I have bought many games Day 1 or new over the past few years because I want to support physical releases, and purchasing a game new helps show Sony that it's still worth supporting. If I feel like the price is justified, at least. I plan on still doing that.
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I encourage everyone here to comment on that blog post and let them know what you think. I know I will not be supporting Sony once this goes into effect. I will just play older games and stick to PC for newer releases.
I don't think that sort of action will make any difference, but people are certainly free to do that. Whenever news like this is announced that some people won't support, companies expect some sort of immediate backlash but know that it will quiet down in time. Sony's market statistics support that those complaining are in a minority, anyway. In the end, it all depends on consumer trends. Younger generations have become or are soon becoming adults, and they've long lived with the idea that media isn't tangible or something to own. So unless that perception changes, I don't think this decision will either.
Why wait to cease support until this goes into effect? If there comes a time when a Sony-published game releases that you're interested in, wait a while and then buy it from the secondhand market instead of buying a new copy that directly benefits them.
Oh I'm aware that it probably won't change things, but like you said as consumers our right to voice concerns should always be exercised. To be fair at least the backlash to the delisting of the PS3/Vita PSN store a few years back did make them delay things (not that it matters much now) ::)
Your second point regarding secondhand market is partially why Sony is doing this, though. They lose too much money by people waiting. For me I have bought many games Day 1 or new over the past few years because I want to support physical releases, and purchasing a game new helps show Sony that it's still worth supporting. If I feel like the price is justified, at least. I plan on still doing that.
For what it's worth, I did also reply to the blog post even if it's an upward battle that I think won't end in the favor of those wanting physical media to be preserved. Even if the decision is somehow delayed past January 2028, we all know it's an inevitable outcome Sony absolutely wants.
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I encourage everyone here to comment on that blog post and let them know what you think. I know I will not be supporting Sony once this goes into effect. I will just play older games and stick to PC for newer releases.
I don't think that sort of action will make any difference, but people are certainly free to do that. Whenever news like this is announced that some people won't support, companies expect some sort of immediate backlash but know that it will quiet down in time. Sony's market statistics support that those complaining are in a minority, anyway. In the end, it all depends on consumer trends. Younger generations have become or are soon becoming adults, and they've long lived with the idea that media isn't tangible or something to own. So unless that perception changes, I don't think this decision will either.
Why wait to cease support until this goes into effect? If there comes a time when a Sony-published game releases that you're interested in, wait a while and then buy it from the secondhand market instead of buying a new copy that directly benefits them.
Oh I'm aware that it probably won't change things, but like you said as consumers our right to voice concerns should always be exercised. To be fair at least the backlash to the delisting of the PS3/Vita PSN store a few years back did make them delay things (not that it matters much now) ::)
Your second point regarding secondhand market is partially why Sony is doing this, though. They lose too much money by people waiting. For me I have bought many games Day 1 or new over the past few years because I want to support physical releases, and purchasing a game new helps show Sony that it's still worth supporting. If I feel like the price is justified, at least. I plan on still doing that.
For what it's worth, I did also reply to the blog post even if it's an upward battle that I think won't end in the favor of those wanting physical media to be preserved. Even if the decision is somehow delayed past January 2028, we all know it's an inevitable outcome Sony absolutely wants.
Yes, agreed. At least if they do delay this decision it will mean more physical games, which to me is worth fighting for, unlike the PSN PS3/Vita issue back in 2021, which was guaranteed to close eventually. But yes, at some point what Sony's proposing will happen, it's just a question of how long it be.
But I think when that happens, a different company will step in and produce its own home console and start publishing some physical games. There's still a lot of interest and therefore money to be made from physical media, and if Sony/Xbox/Nintendo abandon the practice, someone else will move in.
And sure that's not ideal, but I actually don't think physical media will ever go away for video games, it will just be pushed into more niche spaces.
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I'm pretty much out at this point.
I haven't been a big fan of the PS5 since it came out, but bought one back in 2021 since I figured the system would gain more and more value in terms of quality exclusives and multiple releases. We've no doubt had some of those, but I still struggle with the value proposition between what I paid for my new PS5 and how much enjoyment I've got out of it. This news guarantees I'm not buying a single brand new first party Sony game ever again, even physically. As for when everything goes digital only, I'm done buying new games on the PS5 period. This push towards a digital only future is some of the most anti-consumer, anti-ownership BS I've ever experienced, and it's clear greed is the primary factor behind it. I'm not paying Sony or anyone for a license that they can revoke when they feel like it. I'm also not buying a PS6 whenever that ends up coming out. Even if by some miracle it did support physical discs or media, the damn thing is probably going to cost $1200+ given the direction flash storage and RAM prices have been going. If I'm still struggling to see the value proposition on my PS5, there's no way in hell I'm ever going to get that with a PS6, again, assuming it actually supported physical media, which the news about the PS5 100% guarantees it won't.
As for Microsoft and Nintendo, MS has been irrelevant in my eyes since the XBONE came out like 13 years ago. I bought a used $50 XBOX just to play the dozen or so semi-exclusives it has, most of which are Halo games. Nintendo has really left a bad taste in my mouth recently with the key card crap they pulled with the Switch 2. I'm not going to lie, Star Fox and OoT remake have really tempted me to want to buy one, however I'm worried I'm going to run into the same issue I have with my PS5 where the value proposition may not be there. I refuse to buy key card games, which leaves me with just exclusive Nintendo games (not even all of them either mind you) and the handful of third party publishers that decided to go the non-key card route. I have some thoughts about where the future of gaming is headed with the XBOX brand all but being dead and this recent new from Sony, but how it relates to Nintendo is I feel they'll possibly be the only viable console manufacturer left standing, mostly do to cost. With have a virtual monopoly, they have no incentive to cater to the minority of gamers who strongly value physical media and ownership, and will likely end up going the same route as Sony during the Switch 2's life, or only offering Key Card games on new releases, including all first party titles.
I think the saddest part about all this is this unfortunate news doesn't sting as much as I thought I would. That's probably because I've been watching the game industry get progressively worse and worse for the past 20 years, but certainly with a sharp acceleration in the past 5 or 6 years. I'd all but accepted this was where gaming was going to end up. I suppose I thought we'd at least get through the current console generation before Sony and I suppose Xbox completely pulled the plug ion physical games. In terms of where this leaves me, it pretty much means I'm mostly done with modern gaming, at least from the AAA and AA space. It also really dampens my desire to even get a Switch 2, which has become the last bastion of physical ownership within gaming. I wish it ended there, but sadly this sort of just sours me on gaming in general. No, I'm not quitting video games, I probably couldn't even if I wanted to. It does however mean my enthusiasm for the medium has become damaged to say the least and I guess we'll see how this all plays out for me as time goes by.
Beyond just video games, I really hate how most of entertainment (and society as a whole) has just got worse and worse in general. It really makes you wonder where this is all headed and what the end stage of it all looks like. It makes looking back on the 90s and early 2000s feel like they occurred a century ago given how radically different things feel now, and in many ways how they objectively are radically different.
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For what it's worth, I did also reply to the blog post even if it's an upward battle that I think won't end in the favor of those wanting physical media to be preserved. Even if the decision is somehow delayed past January 2028, we all know it's an inevitable outcome Sony absolutely wants.
But I think when that happens, a different company will step in and produce its own home console and start publishing some physical games. There's still a lot of interest and therefore money to be made from physical media, and if Sony/Xbox/Nintendo abandon the practice, someone else will move in.
And sure that's not ideal, but I actually don't think physical media will ever go away for video games, it will just be pushed into more niche spaces.
That's an optimistic point-of-view. While I don't doubt it could happen, it isn't easy to enter the video game market. Not only is a lot of capital needed to get it started, but the product itself needs to be good enough to actually attract a market. And yes, whatever the next platform with physical media may be will certainly be niche, but hopefully people like us in these sort of discussions will support them whenever that time comes.
Panic has demonstrated that new companies can enter the market with exclusive software, though their Playdate console only offers a digital library. I don't know how lucrative it's been for them as a platform, but it's be great if they managed to release some sort of follow-up device that plays physical media.
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I encourage everyone here to comment on that blog post and let them know what you think. I know I will not be supporting Sony once this goes into effect. I will just play older games and stick to PC for newer releases.
I don't think that sort of action will make any difference, but people are certainly free to do that. Whenever news like this is announced that some people won't support, companies expect some sort of immediate backlash but know that it will quiet down in time. Sony's market statistics support that those complaining are in a minority, anyway. In the end, it all depends on consumer trends. Younger generations have become or are soon becoming adults, and they've long lived with the idea that media isn't tangible or something to own. So unless that perception changes, I don't think this decision will either.
Why wait to cease support until this goes into effect? If there comes a time when a Sony-published game releases that you're interested in, wait a while and then buy it from the secondhand market instead of buying a new copy that directly benefits them.
Oh I'm aware that it probably won't change things, but like you said as consumers our right to voice concerns should always be exercised. To be fair at least the backlash to the delisting of the PS3/Vita PSN store a few years back did make them delay things (not that it matters much now) ::)
Your second point regarding secondhand market is partially why Sony is doing this, though. They lose too much money by people waiting. For me I have bought many games Day 1 or new over the past few years because I want to support physical releases, and purchasing a game new helps show Sony that it's still worth supporting. If I feel like the price is justified, at least. I plan on still doing that.
For what it's worth, I did also reply to the blog post even if it's an upward battle that I think won't end in the favor of those wanting physical media to be preserved. Even if the decision is somehow delayed past January 2028, we all know it's an inevitable outcome Sony absolutely wants.
I can potentially see them reacting to the backlash and reversing the decision, however as you said, it's just delaying the inevitable. I think it's a pipe dream to think the PS6 will have any means to play physical games, discs or otherwise. For me, even if they did back pedal on their digital only decision in 2028, it's too little, too late. I'm done with Sony and their games now.
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For what it's worth, I did also reply to the blog post even if it's an upward battle that I think won't end in the favor of those wanting physical media to be preserved. Even if the decision is somehow delayed past January 2028, we all know it's an inevitable outcome Sony absolutely wants.
But I think when that happens, a different company will step in and produce its own home console and start publishing some physical games. There's still a lot of interest and therefore money to be made from physical media, and if Sony/Xbox/Nintendo abandon the practice, someone else will move in.
And sure that's not ideal, but I actually don't think physical media will ever go away for video games, it will just be pushed into more niche spaces.
That's an optimistic point-of-view. While I don't doubt it could happen, it isn't easy to enter the video game market. Not only is a lot of capital needed to get it started, but the product itself needs to be good enough to actually attract a market. And yes, whatever the next platform with physical media may be will certainly be niche, but hopefully people like us in these sort of discussions will support them whenever that time comes.
Panic has demonstrated that new companies can enter the market with exclusive software, though their Playdate console only offers a digital library. I don't know how lucrative it's been for them as a platform, but it's be great if they managed to release some sort of follow-up device that plays physical media.
I doubt we're going to get a new viable console manufacturer at this point, but what I can see if a vibrant independent scene of smaller devs creating physical releases for legacy hardware. Tons of companies have done this over the years for the Dreamcast, and I can potentially see it being done for the PS4, Switch, and other older consoles. As to whether this becomes a viable business model that actually gets any sort of mainstream recognition is yet to be seen, however it will at least give some of us something to look forward to in terms of modern, physical releases.
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I doubt we're going to get a new viable console manufacturer at this point, but what I can see if a vibrant independent scene of smaller devs creating physical releases for legacy hardware. Tons of companies have done this over the years for the Dreamcast, and I can potentially see it being done for the PS4, Switch, and other older consoles. As to whether this becomes a viable business model that actually gets any sort of mainstream recognition is yet to be seen, however it will at least give some of us something to look forward to in terms of modern, physical releases.
Physical media for especially older consoles certainly won't stop being released, but I never thought it would as it seems somewhat of a separate matter. I do wonder if that sort of practice can be done for modern consoles, though, since there are thorough protection measures to ensure bootleg and unofficial media render consoles obsolete. It's a topic I know nothing about, though, so maybe those sorts of markets will emerge as time goes on and more is learned.
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For what it's worth, I did also reply to the blog post even if it's an upward battle that I think won't end in the favor of those wanting physical media to be preserved. Even if the decision is somehow delayed past January 2028, we all know it's an inevitable outcome Sony absolutely wants.
But I think when that happens, a different company will step in and produce its own home console and start publishing some physical games. There's still a lot of interest and therefore money to be made from physical media, and if Sony/Xbox/Nintendo abandon the practice, someone else will move in.
And sure that's not ideal, but I actually don't think physical media will ever go away for video games, it will just be pushed into more niche spaces.
That's an optimistic point-of-view. While I don't doubt it could happen, it isn't easy to enter the video game market. Not only is a lot of capital needed to get it started, but the product itself needs to be good enough to actually attract a market. And yes, whatever the next platform with physical media may be will certainly be niche, but hopefully people like us in these sort of discussions will support them whenever that time comes.
Panic has demonstrated that new companies can enter the market with exclusive software, though their Playdate console only offers a digital library. I don't know how lucrative it's been for them as a platform, but it's be great if they managed to release some sort of follow-up device that plays physical media.
I doubt we're going to get a new viable console manufacturer at this point, but what I can see if a vibrant independent scene of smaller devs creating physical releases for legacy hardware. Tons of companies have done this over the years for the Dreamcast, and I can potentially see it being done for the PS4, Switch, and other older consoles. As to whether this becomes a viable business model that actually gets any sort of mainstream recognition is yet to be seen, however it will at least give some of us something to look forward to in terms of modern, physical releases.
this for sure, and we could get bigger releases on last gen consoles made by smaller companies for physical, who knows.
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When I spend hundreds of dollars on things, I want to OWN THEM!
I hate the idea that all the things are floating out there in digital purgatory and can't hold them in my hands.
This is just the companies being greedy and trying to kill the second hand market. No longer can we lend out our games to friends or rent games like we did back then. One day you'll wake up and turn on your device and all the games you spent hundreds to get will be gone and you can't play them anymore. All because the company can and will erase it for whatever reason!
I hate this new world we are living in...
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This doesn't change things a lot for me, especially since I'm more unlikely to buy a PS6 due to the inevitable high hardware cost than anything else, but it does mean I'm less likely to buy games that I don't feel I'm likely to replay much, like in the past I'd grab Last of Us or Uncharted, games I'm only really likely to play once and then trade it in, so stuff like that I'm abit less likely to pick up now unless it went on some real deep sale.
I guess it doesn't bother me as much is because I've been a PC gamer for years and it's been digital only for a real long time. I still don't like seeing it happen, but this was always the likely outcome, I just didn't think it would happen this soon as I thought we had at least one more gen before we saw it begin.
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Disappointing but expected. I just hope they don't cease Blu-Ray manufacturing before the unaltered Star Wars Trilogy 4Ks come out next year.
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Disappointing but expected. I just hope they don't cease Blu-Ray manufacturing before the unaltered Star Wars Trilogy 4Ks come out next year.
I didn't realize they were doing this. About a decade ago, some super fans made a despecialization version that attempted to restore the films as close to their original theatrical cuts as possible, but in HD. It's nice to see Disney actually taking the demand for something like this seriously, but as you said, they better hurry before Sony kills bluray permanently.
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Disappointing but expected. I just hope they don't cease Blu-Ray manufacturing before the unaltered Star Wars Trilogy 4Ks come out next year.
I didn't realize they were doing this. About a decade ago, some super fans made a despecialization version that attempted to restore the films as close to their original theatrical cuts as possible, but in HD. It's nice to see Disney actually taking the demand for something like this seriously, but as you said, they better hurry before Sony kills bluray permanently.
Yeah it's crazy that it's been decades and they are JUST getting to it now lol
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This doesn't change things a lot for me, especially since I'm more unlikely to buy a PS6 due to the inevitable high hardware cost than anything else, but it does mean I'm less likely to buy games that I don't feel I'm likely to replay much, like in the past I'd grab Last of Us or Uncharted, games I'm only really likely to play once and then trade it in, so stuff like that I'm abit less likely to pick up now unless it went on some real deep sale.
I guess it doesn't bother me as much is because I've been a PC gamer for years and it's been digital only for a real long time. I still don't like seeing it happen, but this was always the likely outcome, I just didn't think it would happen this soon as I thought we had at least one more gen before we saw it begin.
I'd assume the sky high prices being kept at 80$ will be for console only. pc would still be decently affordable with steam sales and such.
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I've decided instead of PS6, that I'll be buying a PS3 slim at some point in the next six months. I'll re-download all my digital games like Bionic Commando Rearmed, Telltale's Jurassic Park, and Ducktales, and then have access to the incredible series left behind like Infamous, Killzone, Resistance, Motorstorm and Ridge Racer...among others. I've been saying that the best of gaming is behind us... and Sony proved that correct today. So I'll go back to the tail end of their golden era.
But I think when that happens, a different company will step in and produce its own home console and start publishing some physical games. There's still a lot of interest and therefore money to be made from physical media, and if Sony/Xbox/Nintendo abandon the practice, someone else will move in.
Sega could do something incredible...
(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQoISCOycJ3EfiLIDmpIlGbLds-ELR-Fu5aYckIzvm2c64tMq-_W3qavA1H&s=10)
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Sega could do something incredible...
(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQoISCOycJ3EfiLIDmpIlGbLds-ELR-Fu5aYckIzvm2c64tMq-_W3qavA1H&s=10)
I'd love to see SEGA get back in the console market, but after all the false rumors over the years, I'll believe it when I see it. I personally think we're more likely to see something from Blaze Entertainment, ModRetro, SNK, or Atari. Blaze has their own unique console line dedicated to physical media already (Evercade), although they're still on the low end in terms of power. Their latest handheld is their first product to feature analog sticks, though, so they may have something bigger planned in the future. ModRetro not only makes reproduction Gameboys and N64s, but also produces new physical games for them. SNK and Atari are resurrecting their previous consoles and producing new carts for them with Plaion's help. And of all companies, Sinclair is back with a new ultra-thin handheld called the Gamercard, so they may be one to watch as well.
I think what needs to happen is for one of them to produce a console that uses Verbatim M-Discs (Blu-rays with a 1,000-year data retention life) as its medium and is somewhere between the XBOX 360 and XBOX One X in terms of processing power. I think that power range is the sweet spot that will get more AA and indie devs interested in making games for it. Most of today's indie devs aren't content with making 8-bit and 16-bit games anymore, they're looking for a platform with a little more processing power.
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Sega could do something incredible...
(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQoISCOycJ3EfiLIDmpIlGbLds-ELR-Fu5aYckIzvm2c64tMq-_W3qavA1H&s=10)
I'd love to see SEGA get back in the console market, but after all the false rumors over the years, I'll believe it when I see it. I personally think we're more likely to see something from Blaze Entertainment, ModRetro, SNK, or Atari. Blaze has their own unique console line dedicated to physical media already (Evercade), although they're still on the low end in terms of power. Their latest handheld is their first product to feature analog sticks, though, so they may have something bigger planned in the future. ModRetro not only makes reproduction Gameboys and N64s, but also produces new physical games for them. SNK and Atari are resurrecting their previous consoles and producing new carts for them with Plaion's help. And of all companies, Sinclair is back with a new ultra-thin handheld called the Gamercard, so they may be one to watch as well.
I think what needs to happen is for one of them to produce a console that uses Verbatim M-Discs (Blu-rays with a 1,000-year data retention life) as its medium and is somewhere between the XBOX 360 and XBOX One X in terms of processing power. I think that power range is the sweet spot that will get more AA and indie devs interested in making games for it. Most of today's indie devs aren't content with making 8-bit and 16-bit games anymore, they're looking for a platform with a little more processing power.
I recently heard rumors about SEGA evaluating to get back in the hardware game with a new handheld system designed for 2D- and Indie-games. IF they do, I'd buy that thing regardless of it probably being a flop ;D
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Unfortunately, with how bad the prices are for tech right now and will be for a long while, I can't imagine we see a whole lot in regards to new consoles or handhelds. Like the Steam Box being over a grand for not a particularly great system is super rough. Maybe stuff built around simple, cheap, tech, something that is like emulator box level perhaps, but that's kinda it.
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If you don't care about collecting but live paycheck to paycheck you're looking at $80 games and you can't sell it to make some money back to pay for the next game after you beat it over the weekend. Plenty of other things to get entertainment out of for less.
If I'm Nintendo I'm going back to having two consoles. Keep the Switch line as the handheld and return to GameCube power parity era while being the exclusive home of physical games. They might even be the only console with a physical store presence outside of gift cards.
I'm sure Sony has acknowledged that internally to some effect. They'll just keep pushing subscription models as they bleed out remaining subscribers as more and more unsubscribe.
At the very least, Sony will maintain some sort of in-store retail presence so that hardware and accessories can be sold. But they could also just package all games in empty cases once 2028 comes, like Take-Two is doing now with Grand Theft Auto VI.
With the latest estimate being just under $1000 to even piece together a PS6 I feel like they will try to minimize spending on retail presence and rely on PlayStation Direct as much as they can. They probably won't be able to manufacture much of them either so would being paying for shelf space with nothing to sell. That's already how it is now and it's just gonna get worse.
I don't think they'll do cases, years ago they already cut out buying games directly via cards it's all just a PlayStation Store card. My local Target still has some cards from 2017 for the gold edition of South Park: The Fractured but Whole and Assassin's Creed Origins. Not sure what happens if you buy those, I guess PS Store credit or just nothing.
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I've decided instead of PS6, that I'll be buying a PS3 slim at some point in the next six months. I'll re-download all my digital games like Bionic Commando Rearmed, Telltale's Jurassic Park, and Ducktales, and then have access to the incredible series left behind like Infamous, Killzone, Resistance, Motorstorm and Ridge Racer...among others. I've been saying that the best of gaming is behind us... and Sony proved that correct today. So I'll go back to the tail end of their golden era.
But I think when that happens, a different company will step in and produce its own home console and start publishing some physical games. There's still a lot of interest and therefore money to be made from physical media, and if Sony/Xbox/Nintendo abandon the practice, someone else will move in.
Sega could do something incredible...
(https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQoISCOycJ3EfiLIDmpIlGbLds-ELR-Fu5aYckIzvm2c64tMq-_W3qavA1H&s=10)
While this would be absolutely incredible, this just isn't going to happen. Sega was able to crawl back up from the pits of failure in the early 2000s thanks to becoming a third party publishers. After 20 years of making some very good business decisions (and a few highly questionable ones), they are once again one of the more successful large publishers in the industry. Developing a brand new console costs hundreds of millions, even into the billions to develop and release and I can't see Sega taking that kind of risk, not with what they currently got going. I'd love to see them do this, but they are just as much in bed with the big three console makers as a company like Capcom or EA is now. Their part of the modern ecosystem and at least at the moment have no incentive to try and rock the boat like this.
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Sega could do something incredible...
Even if Sega somehow did have the financial means to do this and were incentivized to enter the hardware market again, they've given plenty of indication that the situation would no different than what Sony has already announced. Nearly every single one of their published games (if not all of them) released for Switch 2 are Game-Key Cards.
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Sega could do something incredible...
Even if Sega somehow did have the financial means to do this and were incentivized to enter the hardware market again, they've given plenty of indication that the situation would no different than what Sony has already announced. Nearly every single one of their published games (if not all of them) released for Switch 2 are Game-Key Cards.
(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/743259728888725564/1522267215863480552/hell.gif?ex=6a47d952&is=6a4687d2&hm=a5091991c9a355344e99bad28c7d1b9d812940620db779155d28b53e2c187283&=&width=448&height=252)
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Something I just thought of today: If a PS5 game you want is releasing in the later half of 2027, you may want to buy it close to release instead of waiting for a price drop, because those games are going to wind up having very limited print runs and will likely be rare in the future. Here's hoping Resident Evil: Veronica gets a physical release at all.
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I wish Epic would jump in on the console space. I don't care if they do physical media or not, I'd rather support them over Sony. They already have the most popular engine so seems like they would make hardware that supports their engine the best. I think free online and continued free to keep weekly games would be enough for them to find their footing. Make it the best place to play Fortnite and that would certainly help sell a few million at least. Cancel the deal where PS Plus gets free Fortnite cosmetics, take over their 5% stake and just go all in as a competitor. I feel like their work funding and publishing Alan Wake II, Gen Atlas and Playdead's next game has gone somewhat unappreciated.
Steam Machine seems like a miserable failure (again) though. Perhaps a bit bias but Shuhei Yoshida's experience made it sound like he played Ouya 2. https://x.com/yosp/status/2072582164898787363
Other than those two I don't see anyone capable of competing. Google failed, Amazon can't even operate successfully as a game publisher, Apple maybe but they already have a long reputation of not being able to handle demanding games. Nvidia could perhaps try harder with their device.
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Something I just thought of today: If a PS5 game you want is releasing in the later half of 2027, you may want to buy it close to release instead of waiting for a price drop, because those games are going to wind up having very limited print runs and will likely be rare in the future. Here's hoping Resident Evil: Veronica gets a physical release at all.
I thought about this as well. I pray that game comes out in 2027 before physical discs go away. Speaking of, how does Sony manage to enforce no one releases physical discs when they've said all existing game discs will continue to work? That can't tell a third party like Capcom or EA, "you're not allowed to release your games physically!" Those companies can still make physical discs if they wanted to I'm assuming. This gives me some hope that maybe a few publishers will resist this crap and still make their games available as physical copies, although I'm sure most of them, especially the AAA's will gladly follow suit and use Sony as an excuse for why they didn't print discs. I hate this industry so much...
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Haven't replied here in ages.. but it was good while it lasted. Definitely will still collect games and keep using VGCollect to archive them, just sad this day has finally come.
Looks like game key cards is the best option now, as sad as that sounds, lol.
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Something I just thought of today: If a PS5 game you want is releasing in the later half of 2027, you may want to buy it close to release instead of waiting for a price drop, because those games are going to wind up having very limited print runs and will likely be rare in the future. Here's hoping Resident Evil: Veronica gets a physical release at all.
I thought about this as well. I pray that game comes out in 2027 before physical discs go away. Speaking of, how does Sony manage to enforce no one releases physical discs when they've said all existing game discs will continue to work? That can't tell a third party like Capcom or EA, "you're not allowed to release your games physically!" Those companies can still make physical discs if they wanted to I'm assuming. This gives me some hope that maybe a few publishers will resist this crap and still make their games available as physical copies, although I'm sure most of them, especially the AAA's will gladly follow suit and use Sony as an excuse for why they didn't print discs. I hate this industry so much...
Unfortunately, third party publishers can't produce their own discs. I have experience with publishing physical PlayStation games, all PS4 and PS5 discs are produced and manufactured by Sony. So as a third party publisher you have to order the discs directly from them. Disc Label artwork must be submitted to them and they will produce and ship the discs to you. Game Inlay, Manual and Inserts can be produced outside of Sony but still require their approval before final production.
So ultimately if Sony decides to stop manufacturing the discs third party publishers can't sell packaged goods with a disc inside.
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I have mixed feelings. Like 90% negative, but there is a little bit of a weird excitement in the idea that I'll be finished collecting video games.
The "positive" (if you can call it that) feeling I have is that I will actually be able to "complete" my physical video game collection. As it stands, I have a highly curated collection where I only want to buy my top 50 games for a console. So most of the games I play I actual already don't own physically. If the PS6 is 100% digital, I can actually have a "complete video game collection" so to speak where there are no new games to add to it. Something about that just sounds nice lol
But at the same time, I don't love that my collection will be ending either. I kinda like curating these console libraries to my specific taste, and yeah sure I have plenty of consoles to still collect for (I don't own any of the Sega consoles for example), the idea that some day I just won't have any more games to hunt for is kinda depressing.
Also, I don't mind buying digitally (I already use Steam extensively) but by going digital only console gaming is basically dead to me. Why would I buy a game on PlayStation where I am locked to a single device when Steam allows me to play on any windows device. Having the option to play on desktop or a handheld is such a better deal. And I don't have to worry that the "Steam 2" will come around and they will shut down Steam along with my access to my library. But someday they will probably shut down the PS5/PS6 PSN Store, and with it I will not be able to play those digital libraries anymore.
So with this news, I don't plan on stopping playing modern games any time soon. But I'll probably be playing a lot more of them on Steam, and I may not even bother getting the next generation of Xbox and PlayStation consoles.
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I wish Epic would jump in on the console space. I don't care if they do physical media or not, I'd rather support them over Sony.
How would Epic entering the hardware market in this scenario be any different than what PlayStation has announced? Consumers would still be locked to one digital ecosystem with the possibility of game licenses being revoked.
The market will eventually correct itself, and I think there will be many people who begin seriously considering shifting from console to PC at that time. Beyond the hurdle that some may face in the transition process, the benefits and possibilities offered vastly outweigh whatever fixed digital-only console platform exists.
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I find it humorous that Sony continues to hide from social media. They're hoping this will blow over....but it won't.
As far as I'm concerned, Sony has dropped an absolute nuke on their goodwill from a consumer perspective. At this point, I won't be touching PS6 at all. Before, I wasn't all that hyped because I don't think the current position of modern gaming is in a good spot and was planning to wait a couple years to buy PS6... but now? Unless there are serious changes made (doubtful), I won't be touching PS6 at all.
It doesn't matter how Sony responds (I expect on Monday). If they walk back the end of physical... great. I'm going to still wait a couple years for PS6 at minimum. If they walk back only for the PS5 gen on physical and have PS6 be all digital... fine... I'll finish up the PS5 gen and then go back to retro games. If they double down... fine... I'll finish up the PS5 gen but buy fewer games.
I'm planning to buy a PS3 slim again before the end of the year. That'll be my "next gen".
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I find it humorous that Sony continues to hide from social media. They're hoping this will blow over....but it won't.
As far as I'm concerned, Sony has dropped an absolute nuke on their goodwill from a consumer perspective. At this point, I won't be touching PS6 at all. Before, I wasn't all that hyped because I don't think the current position of modern gaming is in a good spot and was planning to wait a couple years to buy PS6... but now? Unless there are serious changes made (doubtful), I won't be touching PS6 at all.
It doesn't matter how Sony responds (I expect on Monday). If they walk back the end of physical... great. I'm going to still wait a couple years for PS6 at minimum. If they walk back only for the PS5 gen on physical and have PS6 be all digital... fine... I'll finish up the PS5 gen and then go back to retro games. If they double down... fine... I'll finish up the PS5 gen but buy fewer games.
I'm planning to buy a PS3 slim again before the end of the year. That'll be my "next gen".
Even if Sony does a complete 180 and says they aren't actually going to discontinue physical media support on the PS5 (I'm halfway expecting them too considering how much fallout has followed their announcement), I'm done with Playstation as a brand. I'm never going to buy any first party titles from any Sony studios ever again and I'm sure as hell never dropping any money on a new Sony console again. As for the PS6, it's already DOA in my mind. Sony can go fuck themselves after this. I'm through supporting them.
If they do stay the course and actually go through with this, a friend of mine has decided he's going to jailbreak his PS5 and pirate every game he has interest in. He has this firmly held belief that is buying isn't owning, then pirating isn't stealing. If they want to play dirty, two can play at that game...according to him of course.
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piracy is gonna make people money in this all digital future.
it's gonna be like ds era or 3rd world countries for ps3 and ps4 with their jailbroken consoles which they already have done for decades.
Normal people be paying a couple $ to add games on em if where talking it going to on a more mass scale aside from just the ones that do it themselves.
this move gonna backfire really hard when your biggest money makers are gonna join that piracy train.
I'll say this considering how ez it is to pirate pc games this ain't gonna end well for consoles when it's all digital. and communities will make it easier when more people are doing it
I will definitely not be spending any money in this all digital future, that's for sure.
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I find it humorous that Sony continues to hide from social media. They're hoping this will blow over....but it won't.
As far as I'm concerned, Sony has dropped an absolute nuke on their goodwill from a consumer perspective. At this point, I won't be touching PS6 at all. Before, I wasn't all that hyped because I don't think the current position of modern gaming is in a good spot and was planning to wait a couple years to buy PS6... but now? Unless there are serious changes made (doubtful), I won't be touching PS6 at all.
It doesn't matter how Sony responds (I expect on Monday). If they walk back the end of physical... great. I'm going to still wait a couple years for PS6 at minimum. If they walk back only for the PS5 gen on physical and have PS6 be all digital... fine... I'll finish up the PS5 gen and then go back to retro games. If they double down... fine... I'll finish up the PS5 gen but buy fewer games.
I'm planning to buy a PS3 slim again before the end of the year. That'll be my "next gen".
Even if Sony does a complete 180 and says they aren't actually going to discontinue physical media support on the PS5 (I'm halfway expecting them too considering how much fallout has followed their announcement), I'm done with Playstation as a brand. I'm never going to buy any first party titles from any Sony studios ever again and I'm sure as hell never dropping any money on a new Sony console again. As for the PS6, it's already DOA in my mind. Sony can go fuck themselves after this. I'm through supporting them.
If they do stay the course and actually go through with this, a friend of mine has decided he's going to jailbreak his PS5 and pirate every game he has interest in. He has this firmly held belief that is buying isn't owning, then pirating isn't stealing. If they want to play dirty, two can play at that game...according to him of course.
Yup. It was the beginning of the end for Xbox after the XB1 fiasco, and this might be the same for PlayStation. They just won't realize it is what killed them until 5-10 years down the line.
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Yup. It was the beginning of the end for Xbox after the XB1 fiasco, and this might be the same for PlayStation. They just won't realize it is what killed them until 5-10 years down the line.
It's wild to think that back then, Sony was the big winner and all they had to do was make that short video about how they'll deal with used games compared to what Xbox was planning. Looked up that video again, it was 13 years ago now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWSIFh8ICaA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWSIFh8ICaA)
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I wish Epic would jump in on the console space. I don't care if they do physical media or not, I'd rather support them over Sony.
How would Epic entering the hardware market in this scenario be any different than what PlayStation has announced? Consumers would still be locked to one digital ecosystem with the possibility of game licenses being revoked.
The market will eventually correct itself, and I think there will be many people who begin seriously considering shifting from console to PC at that time. Beyond the hurdle that some may face in the transition process, the benefits and possibilities offered vastly outweigh whatever fixed digital-only console platform exists.
I would rather support them over Sony.
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It goes without saying, but it can't be overstated how vocal the backlash is. Dedicated PlayStation players are livid, including ones who've been supporters since the very beginning for over thirty years. This outrage not only extends across console players but all players across the gaming community, and rightfully so.
I've mentioned this elsewhere before, but companies don't take actions with the best interest of their consumer audience anymore. It's been like that for some time now and obviously has worsened these past few years, but I think this is the catalyst toward getting the average gaming consumer to finally realize that.
Even if Sony does a complete 180 and says they aren't actually going to discontinue physical media support on the PS5 (I'm halfway expecting them too considering how much fallout has followed their announcement), I'm done with Playstation as a brand.
There's absolutely no reason to believe Sony even if they were to announce that they're backtracking. Corporations lie all the time. We all know what Sony wants, and they'll just push for an all-digital ecosystem again in time whether it be 2028 or beyond. If this announcement does somehow end up being delayed or even reversed, this sort of widespread resistance will eventually be needed once more. And unfortunately, it will continue to be that way until Sony finally is able to get what they want, but then it will be too late because it's almost certain they'll never return to physical production once it's finally been halted. All it takes is one failure on the consumers' end, and the physical market will dissipate.
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It goes without saying, but it can't be overstated how vocal the backlash is. Dedicated PlayStation players are livid, including ones who've been supporters since the very beginning for over thirty years. This outrage not only extends across console players but all players across the gaming community, and rightfully so.
I've mentioned this elsewhere before, but companies don't take actions with the best interest of their consumer audience anymore. It's been like that for some time now and obviously has worsened these past few years, but I think this is the catalyst toward getting the average gaming consumer to finally realize that.
Even if Sony does a complete 180 and says they aren't actually going to discontinue physical media support on the PS5 (I'm halfway expecting them too considering how much fallout has followed their announcement), I'm done with Playstation as a brand.
There's absolutely no reason to believe Sony even if they were to announce that they're backtracking. Corporations lie all the time. We all know what Sony wants, and they'll just push for an all-digital ecosystem again in time whether it be 2028 or beyond. If this announcement does somehow end up being delayed or even reversed, this sort of widespread resistance will eventually be needed once more. And unfortunately, it will continue to be that way until Sony finally is able to get what they want, but then it will be too late because it's almost certain they'll never return to physical production once it's finally been halted. All it takes is one failure on the consumers' end, and the physical market will dissipate.
even if they actually did, they gonna try again in a year or two. It's like with those ps3 vita stores you just bought a few years.
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The thing about 85% of sales being digital is blatantly misleading. AAA games sold on physical day one are about 50/50 physical and digital.
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The thing about 85% of sales being digital is blatantly misleading. AAA games sold on physical day one are about 50/50 physical and digital.
It's insanely skewed in favor of digital. They add in everything, not just game sales but DLC purchases and I've even heard they count PS+ downloads. It's not anywhere near 85% in reality.
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The thing about 85% of sales being digital is blatantly misleading.
What's most obvious is that multitudes of more games are only ever released digitally than physically, so it's unsurprising that sales trends skew toward the former.
It's insanely skewed in favor of digital. They add in everything, not just game sales but DLC purchases and I've even heard they count PS+ downloads.
Even if it's a popular rumor being spread, what you're repeating is incorrect. I haven't been able to find a breakdown analysis that compares physical units sold to digital units sold (which may not even exist publicly) (edit: it does, see below), but I did find something else that supports Sony's claims. Based on Sony's financial report for Q4 2025 (https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/IR/library/presen/er/pdf/25q4_supplement.pdf) that ended on March 31, 2026, sales earnings data does indeed report those kinds of findings. In fact, Q4 sales indicate that 125.10 billion yen was earned from physical sales. Meanwhile during that same time, 1.05 trillion yen was earned from digital sales. When you compare those two figures, physical sales earnings only equate to 10.5% total sales earnings. At the same time, I'll also mention that add-on content sales alone earned 1.34 trillion yen during that same time. And to clarify, below is how each of those three categories are defined in the document, which can be read at the bottom of page 12.
Physical Software is revenue from first party game software for PlayStation® consoles sold on discs to retailers, royalties from third party software sold on discs and revenue from first and third party game software sold bundled with PlayStation® consoles and PlayStation®VR.
Digital Software is revenue from full game downloads of both first and third party titles sold via the PlayStation™Store.
Add-on Content is revenue from digital content other than full games sold via the PlayStation™ Store, such as in-game currency, in-game items and expansion packages.
So in this report, DLC purchases are not included in the estimates for digital sales as they're instead comprised in a separate third category. Redeemed PlayStation Plus offerings seem to be absent from this report, though that's to be expected since earnings from PlayStation Plus partnerships vary from title to title and yield no direct sales earnings.
Edit: I'm not sure why I didn't bother to read the following chart also on page 12 that actually does provide a comparison between physical and digital sales. First, it's important to note that footnote 11 reads "[f]ull game software digital download ratio is calculated by dividing PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®5 full game software units sold via digital transactions by total full game software units," and it's supplemental information to the report that 85% of all full game sales during Q4 2025 were digital. With that understanding, the report informs readers that 74.6 million units of total games were sold across both physical and digital sales, which means that of that total figure, approximately 63.4 million units sold were digital whereas approximately 11.1 million units sold only were physical.
But as I first mentioned above, far more game titles are available digitally than they are physically. So it's somewhat of a dishonest report, but to what degree I don't know. Obviously, what would be best is to directly compare all sales data for individual games that are available both digitally and physically.
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I've also heard simular things about the big games have very sizable physical sales. like ofcourse for smaller indi games and lower price tags people will get a game digitally for the small shit which adds up
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I've also heard simular things about the big games have very sizable physical sales. like ofcourse for smaller indi games and lower price tags people will get a game digitally for the small shit which adds up
That assumption can't be made based on the data I provided in my previous post. In short:
Physical game sales during Q4 2025 comprised of 15% total sales yet only earned 10.5% total sales earnings.
Digital game sales during that same time comprised of 85% total sales yet earned 89.5% total sales earnings.
So by those figures, consumers are actually buying digital games at a higher price point than they are for physical games since the total sales earnings for digital games is actually higher than total sales. I'm sure that game edition bundles from major AAA studios like Ubisoft set at prices above the standard retail dollar amount help inflate these numbers, similarly to the to-be-released Ultimate Edition of Grand Theft Auto VI.
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Even if it's a popular rumor being spread, what you're repeating is incorrect.
I appreciate you digging in and looking for that information, but I don't trust the vast majority of reports coming from companies or governments. We've been lied too so many times for so long, that I just assume what they post is a lie. I have no trust in any of our institutions. Even if the data is accurate, I assume it's a lie. People in positions of power...any kind of power... are not to be trusted.
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I've also heard simular things about the big games have very sizable physical sales. like ofcourse for smaller indi games and lower price tags people will get a game digitally for the small shit which adds up
That assumption can't be made based on the data I provided in my previous post. In short:
Physical game sales during Q4 2025 comprised of 15% total sales yet only earned 10.5% total sales earnings.
Digital game sales during that same time comprised of 85% total sales yet earned 89.5% total sales earnings.
So by those figures, consumers are actually buying digital games at a higher price point than they are for physical games since the total sales earnings for digital games is actually higher than total sales. I'm sure that game edition bundles from major AAA studios like Ubisoft set at prices above the standard retail dollar amount help inflate these numbers, similarly to the to-be-released Ultimate Edition of Grand Theft Auto VI.
according to some insomniac sales leaks physical sales beat digital ones
(https://i.imgur.com/ol4090u.png)
(https://i.imgur.com/yH5InyM.png)
total sales includes everything including small shit but how much profit is left when you split it with all those games. also for most of those games it's probably too low value to go physical aside from some hardcore folks. and it's split among many ip's and ownerships it's not a big money maker for sony at the end of the day. obviously digital sales can be inflated if you include everything. also digital sales can inflate when stuff is out of stock aswell since you got nowhere to go.
with big value titles allot of people buy physical cause it's too expensive, no massive discounts and you can sell trade it later on. most digital purchases are probably lower values I'd argue while physical is more big money per game
also they did wrong math to skew it hard in digital's favor aside from counting all the 1 2$ digital games which no shit those not getting a physical release if we are tlaking the very misleading 85% number.
the big money is in the big games, and the big games have more physical sales than digital
i'd imagine while nintendo's physical numbers still being high with general reports those high 40 - 50% digital sales also being very skewed with trash.
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Even if it's a popular rumor being spread, what you're repeating is incorrect.
I appreciate you digging in and looking for that information, but I don't trust the vast majority of reports coming from companies
These sorts of financial reports are to inform investors and industry leaders what is and what isn't yielding a profit, so doctored data only hurts those efforts. It's highly doubtful that these individuals care what specifically is earning money, so long as money as is being earned. So in that regard, they do want the reports to be detailed and organized both correctly and efficiently. If these reports were falsified, it would indicate that the actions they're publicly taking now go directly against what you believe to be the truth and what actually would yield greater profits. Why would they do that? If physical disc production ultimately earned them favorable profits, there is no reason why Sony would have made the announcement that they're ending it.
Unless you can provide evidence that these reports are falsified, there is no merit to your position. Repeating myself a second time, it's an objective fact that more full game products are available digitally than they are physically, so sales data will reflect that alone. Even if we were to base our findings on simple observations without objective data, it's easy to identify the general sales trend that people are more likely to complete a sale using a digital marketplace than a physical one. With the allure of being able to install game data before a game releases, the convenience of being able to purchase something in that moment without having to wait for the item to arrive or to take the efforts to visit a store location, and the simple fact that many people in this modern era do not prioritize or even prefer a physical media collection, there is plenty of evidence to observe without conducting research. It goes without saying, but anyone who's visited a big box retail store years before and again today will have noticed the diminished focus of the presence of physical games.
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Even if it's a popular rumor being spread, what you're repeating is incorrect.
I appreciate you digging in and looking for that information, but I don't trust the vast majority of reports coming from companies
These sorts of financial reports are to inform investors and industry leaders what is and what isn't yielding a profit, so doctored data only hurts those efforts. It's highly doubtful that these individuals care what specifically is earning money, so long as money as is being earned. So in that regard, they do want the reports to be detailed and organized both correctly and efficiently. If these reports were falsified, it would indicate that the actions they're publicly taking now go directly against what you believe to be the truth and what actually would yield greater profits. Why would they do that? If physical disc production ultimately earned them favorable profits, there is no reason why Sony would have made the announcement that they're ending it.
Unless you can provide evidence that these reports are falsified, there is no merit to your position. Repeating myself a second time, it's an objective fact that more full game products are available digitally than they are physically, so sales data will reflect that alone. Even if we were to base our findings on simple observations without objective data, it's easy to identify the general sales trend that people are more likely to complete a sale using a digital marketplace than a physical one. With the allure of being able to install game data before a game releases, the convenience of being able to purchase something in that moment without having to wait for the item to arrive or to take the efforts to visit a store location, and the simple fact that many people in this modern era do not prioritize or even prefer a physical media collection, there is plenty of evidence to observe without conducting research. It goes without saying, but anyone who's visited a big box retail store years before and again today will have noticed the diminished focus of the presence of physical games.
and yet people buying stuff online and shipping companies having record sales never being higher. physical retail spaces have slimmed down for sure but people buy physical online for it to be delivered at your door step.
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I've also heard simular things about the big games have very sizable physical sales. like ofcourse for smaller indi games and lower price tags people will get a game digitally for the small shit which adds up
That assumption can't be made based on the data I provided in my previous post. In short:
Physical game sales during Q4 2025 comprised of 15% total sales yet only earned 10.5% total sales earnings.
Digital game sales during that same time comprised of 85% total sales yet earned 89.5% total sales earnings.
the big money is in the big games, and the big games have more physical sales than digital
I'm not arguing against the possibility or even likelihood that major game releases may perform better through physical sales than digital ones. Those are specific instances, though. PlayStation's digital marketplace consists of thousands of titles of all size, quality, length, and price.
also they did wrong math to skew it hard in digital's favor aside from counting all the 1 2$ digital games which no shit those not getting a physical release if we are tlaking the very misleading 85% number.
Looking at the sales numbers for both digital and physical games alone without also looking at the sales earnings provides no valuable insight. As I mentioned directly to you before, the financial report indicates that the percentage of total sales earnings from digital games is higher than the percentage of total sales numbers of digital games. Like you're saying, cheap games certainly constitute a percentage of those total figures, but reported data indicates that even more expensive digital games counterbalance the figure total.
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I've also heard simular things about the big games have very sizable physical sales. like ofcourse for smaller indi games and lower price tags people will get a game digitally for the small shit which adds up
That assumption can't be made based on the data I provided in my previous post. In short:
Physical game sales during Q4 2025 comprised of 15% total sales yet only earned 10.5% total sales earnings.
Digital game sales during that same time comprised of 85% total sales yet earned 89.5% total sales earnings.
the big money is in the big games, and the big games have more physical sales than digital
I'm not arguing against the possibility or even likelihood that major game releases may perform better through physical sales than digital ones. Those are specific instances, though. PlayStation's digital marketplace consists of thousands of titles of all size, quality, length, and price.
also they did wrong math to skew it hard in digital's favor aside from counting all the 1 2$ digital games which no shit those not getting a physical release if we are tlaking the very misleading 85% number.
Looking at the sales numbers for both digital and physical games alone without also looking at the sales earnings provides no valuable insight. As I mentioned directly to you before, the financial report indicates that the percentage of total sales earnings from digital games is higher than the percentage of total sales numbers of digital games. Like you're saying, cheap games certainly constitute a percentage of those total figures, but reported data indicates that even more expensive digital games counterbalance the figure total.
you are ignoring total sales of big titles in which physical wins. you can't just simply ignore big budget titles with high dev costs having high physical sales numbers often beating digital out. Who gives a shit if lower budget games have allot of digital sales. of their big investments a large chunk of people moreso than digital buy their products physical.
so physical sales ain't that small of a chunk after all. most people have some of the big budget games in their arsenal.
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the big money is in the big games, and the big games have more physical sales than digital
I'm not arguing against the possibility or even likelihood that major game releases may perform better through physical sales than digital ones. Those are specific instances, though. PlayStation's digital marketplace consists of thousands of titles of all size, quality, length, and price.
you are ignoring total sales of big titles in which physical wins
I'm not ignoring those instances. I directly acknowledged them in my previous post.
To Sony, those sales figures seem to not matter that much considering the announcement they've made. Their first-party games may sell more successfully in the physical market than the digital market, but sales earnings are presumably still not reaching desired outcomes. The cost of first-party games from Sony is high, and it's higher than ever before and will continue to increase until something changes. So, naturally, sales earnings will need grow in parallel in order for their desired profit to be reached. However, there's only so much money to earn from a consumer audience, so something has to change. Maybe one day Sony and other major studios will realize that the extreme push for high-fidelity graphics is actively destroying the industry, because high development costs and overly lengthy development times aren't sustainable.
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the big money is in the big games, and the big games have more physical sales than digital
I'm not arguing against the possibility or even likelihood that major game releases may perform better through physical sales than digital ones. Those are specific instances, though. PlayStation's digital marketplace consists of thousands of titles of all size, quality, length, and price.
you are ignoring total sales of big titles in which physical wins
I'm not ignoring those instances. I directly acknowledged them in my previous post.
To Sony, those sales figures seem to not matter that much considering the announcement they've made. Their first-party games may sell more successfully in the physical market than the digital market, but sales earnings are presumably still not reaching desired outcomes. The cost of first-party games from Sony is high, and it's higher than ever before and will continue to increase until something changes. So, naturally, sales earnings will need grow in parallel in order for their desired profit to be reached. However, there's only so much money to earn from a consumer audience, so something has to change. Maybe one day Sony and other major studios will realize that the extreme push for high-fidelity graphics is actively destroying the industry, because high development costs and overly lengthy development times aren't sustainable.
it does matter to sony but profits would be higher if everyone buys digital not to mention that they could keep prices sky high if they are the only market place digitally.
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I used to dread this moment. It would be the end of new games and I would have had something I hold dear, which has been my main hobby from being a small boy, ripped from my hands. But in recent years a lot has happened with my gaming habits and the way I view the hobby.
A lack of funds forced me to sell most of my collection a few years ago, the same lack of funds ended up pushing me onto Steam for some new games just because I could do so cheaply, discovering Kinguin made that all the easier, then I concentrated on the Switch which has been a dream console to pick up physical games for, like even compared to the PS2. I once owned a PS5 but never took it out of the box (got sold like so much of my gaming stuff). Xbox hasn't been relevant to me since the 360, the PS4 took a back seat to the Switch and never even got back in the race for me. Now Sony want out? Go for it! The Switch keeps getting releases announced and I'm struggling to keep up, discovering VGP is not helping in this matter either!
The thing is, 'the big players' have been wrong in my eyes since the 90s, like the PS1/N64 era being about 3D, because "nobody is interested in 2D any more". Exsqueeze me? That's not just a perspective, it's a laundry list of video game genres you're flushing down the toilet, one that I'm very much not done with. Physical media and video games with game in them, as opposed to kind-of interactive movies or e-books with nice graphics, are other things 'the game industry' has decided it's finished with. But the consoles aren't 'the game industry', they're just the ones with the most visibility and the budgets, but gaming was never theirs exclusively and what Sony or MicroSoft do does not dictate where this enormous juggernaut of a hobby goes.
Let them go. Let them close or fold-in their first-party studios they paid millions for a year or two ago, let them step away from physical. They aren't the hobby. It's bigger than them. Thousands and thousands of games are getting released every year, most of the exciting ones (to me) resemble games from the 16-bit era and are produced by a handful of people or a solo developer, or they're Nintendo games which I'll get on cart (but not those gamecard monstrosities, thank you). We've got Evercade, we're getting the new/old Neo Geo, Sega just might come back and do their own thing.
I've always thought someone could just produce some kind of game-box with a set standard, with a cartridge slot and low specs to run all these fab indie games we're getting these days and the Evercade shows that it could work. Just needs someone to throw down and go for it, physical doesn't have to die at all.
Sorry, a bit rambly, but I'm content to look at alternatives and the more old-skool style of gaming when it comes to future purchases.
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I used to dread this moment. It would be the end of new games and I would have had something I hold dear, which has been my main hobby from being a small boy, ripped from my hands. But in recent years a lot has happened with my gaming habits and the way I view the hobby.
A lack of funds forced me to sell most of my collection a few years ago, the same lack of funds ended up pushing me onto Steam for some new games just because I could do so cheaply, discovering Kinguin made that all the easier, then I concentrated on the Switch which has been a dream console to pick up physical games for, like even compared to the PS2. I once owned a PS5 but never took it out of the box (got sold like so much of my gaming stuff). Xbox hasn't been relevant to me since the 360, the PS4 took a back seat to the Switch and never even got back in the race for me. Now Sony want out? Go for it! The Switch keeps getting releases announced and I'm struggling to keep up, discovering VGP is not helping in this matter either!
The thing is, 'the big players' have been wrong in my eyes since the 90s, like the PS1/N64 era being about 3D, because "nobody is interested in 2D any more". Exsqueeze me? That's not just a perspective, it's a laundry list of video game genres you're flushing down the toilet, one that I'm very much not done with. Physical media and video games with game in them, as opposed to kind-of interactive movies or e-books with nice graphics, are other things 'the game industry' has decided it's finished with. But the consoles aren't 'the game industry', they're just the ones with the most visibility and the budgets, but gaming was never theirs exclusively and what Sony or MicroSoft do does not dictate where this enormous juggernaut of a hobby goes.
Let them go. Let them close or fold-in their first-party studios they paid millions for a year or two ago, let them step away from physical. They aren't the hobby. It's bigger than them. Thousands and thousands of games are getting released every year, most of the exciting ones (to me) resemble games from the 16-bit era and are produced by a handful of people or a solo developer, or they're Nintendo games which I'll get on cart (but not those gamecard monstrosities, thank you). We've got Evercade, we're getting the new/old Neo Geo, Sega just might come back and do their own thing.
I've always thought someone could just produce some kind of game-box with a set standard, with a cartridge slot and low specs to run all these fab indie games we're getting these days and the Evercade shows that it could work. Just needs someone to throw down and go for it, physical doesn't have to die at all.
Sorry, a bit rambly, but I'm content to look at alternatives and the more old-skool style of gaming when it comes to future purchases.
I definitely think the landscape of gaming is going to change pretty dramatically as a result of all this. I can see a parallel industry forming from this; one that caters to your more hardcore, enthusiast gamer and one that caters more towards the mainstream. The mainstream one will be entirely digital with everything being subscriptions and online purchases. This will be where AAA game studios release their games and the majority of AA studios as well. Meanwhile, a much more vibrant, diverse indie scene will continue to flourish on two fronts. One being the same mass market digital platforms as the big studios and then also in a more niche physical space. If small startups like PixelFX and Evercade can release consoles to play older games, there's nothing stopping indie devs from developing games for these platforms in addition to their online versions on PSN or Steam.
I pray something like this happens so I can at least look forward to games coming out physically still. I'm also hoping homebrew development for retro consoles get more popular and new Genesis, SNES, and N64 games become more and more common. I don't think this will be the end of gaming for me, but it very well may be the end of me supporting new AAA and AA releases.
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aside from counting all the 1 2$ digital games which no shit those not getting a physical release if we are tlaking the very misleading 85% number.
the big money is in the big games, and the big games have more physical sales than digital
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fC2oke5MFg
Sales debate aside, I was thoroughly unsurprised by this news. I have had three buddies who were all incredibly avid playstation gamers for over a decade and I don't think I have seen any PS5 game cases in their homes despite them buying and playing lots of games. Live service freemium games and services such as PS+ seem to be a pretty big factor on top of the simple ease of online stores for why they do this (although they've all had to purchase storage drives just to keep a few digital games on, ironically.)
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aside from counting all the 1 2$ digital games which no shit those not getting a physical release if we are tlaking the very misleading 85% number.
the big money is in the big games, and the big games have more physical sales than digital
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fC2oke5MFg
first of all 1st party titles is more revenue for them per transaction than just getting royalties from 3rd party titles. if that's just straight up revenue withouth any cuts taken out of yet that's pretty inaccurate
2nd of all, those numbers look like a huge scam if this is accurate and one can do that as per laws in which the above is even worse.
(https://i.imgur.com/ZbuHgON.png)
also just cause you have people that are all digital doesn't mean that's the case for everyone that's a very small pool to go off. and if it's around 50% pretty ez to have people like that.
in terms of the big games 50% or more physical is quite a big deal and those are the kinda games people buy anyway. it doesn't make much sense for mosy indi's to have big physical sales.
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I definitely think the landscape of gaming is going to change pretty dramatically as a result of all this. I can see a parallel industry forming from this; one that caters to your more hardcore, enthusiast gamer and one that caters more towards the mainstream. The mainstream one will be entirely digital with everything being subscriptions and online purchases. This will be where AAA game studios release their games and the majority of AA studios as well. Meanwhile, a much more vibrant, diverse indie scene will continue to flourish on two fronts. One being the same mass market digital platforms as the big studios and then also in a more niche physical space. If small startups like PixelFX and Evercade can release consoles to play older games, there's nothing stopping indie devs from developing games for these platforms in addition to their online versions on PSN or Steam.
You've summed up what I was trying to say in a couple of sentences. TBH I struggle to articulate as well as you guys and it's something that puts me off posting to some extent, not sure if it's my age or what. I totally agree, it's going to be the FIFA/COD/games as a service crowd and some/many of the triple/double A players with the internet-box consoles who just want easy access and straight into the action, and fair play to them! Then there's going to be sort of middle-of-the-road Nintendo players who want the choice, as well as die-hard Ninty fans, a massive amount of players who just PC Master-Race it through Steam alongside the casual/cosy crowd. Then there's going to be those of us who just want to play old-skool, tried and tested genres and mash-ups which do something different, in a completely nerdy way, complete with physical media. I'm happy with 'nerdy game-box' running Mina the Hollower and those new eldritch pixel-art games like Neverway and Welcome to Elderfield off a cart, that'll do very nicely! Oh, and that new survival-horror built ground-up to be fully Dreamcast compatible that's going to be on Kickstarter soon. That's lovely, can't wait to have it on the shelf...
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Alright... with Sony doubling down in their silence, it's clear they aren't going to backtrack. It seems one of the other CEOs within Sony is seeing the writing on the wall with their poor decisions and sold half his stock in the company at the bump, giving him more than $4 million in revenue. He knows what's coming and it won't be pretty for them.
As for me, I'm not going to continue with the brand after this generation. PS5 is officially my last Playstation. Oddly, PS3 will be my next Playstation. I'm currently in the market for a 320GB Slim and will be picking one up before the end of the month, and definitely well before they begin to skyrocket in price before next year when the PS3/PSV store is permanently shut down.
I'll continue here on VG Collect as I work to buy back and add too my old PS3 collection. I may also go for Gamecube as well, but some of those games are just over the top expensive anymore.
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As for me, I'm not going to continue with the brand after this generation. PS5 is officially my last Playstation. Oddly, PS3 will be my next Playstation. I'm currently in the market for a 320GB Slim and will be picking one up before the end of the month, and definitely well before they begin to skyrocket in price before next year when the PS3/PSV store is permanently shut down.
I'll continue here on VG Collect as I work to buy back and add too my old PS3 collection. I may also go for Gamecube as well, but some of those games are just over the top expensive anymore.
Sony lost me when they bricked my 2nd PS4 last year. Want to lose me as a customer? Sending out an update that bricks my console and requires a complete OS re-install is a great way to do it. Luckily I had just replaced the internal hard drive and was able to salvage most of my save data from the old one, unlike when my first PS4 died and I lost 8 years worth of save data. I'm so paranoid about losing my save data again that I keep a flash drive inserted into my PS4 Pro and back up the data whenever I make significant progress in a game. And then there's the weird quirk my PS4 Pro has where it absolutely refuses to run certain games (Red Dead Redemption, Yakuza 3 Remastered, and Lego Harry Potter Collection). Sony's build and programming quality have taken a nosedive since the beginning of 8th gen. The only reasons I got a PS5 Pro are because Sony got Stellar Blade as an exclusive, and Microsoft gave up on physical copies first. Otherwise, I would have picked up an XBOX Series X back when Wal-Mart had them on sale for $350 in 2023. The Series X is a much better-looking console, and even the game cases look cooler.
Speaking of XBOX, The Verge is reporting that the XBOX Helix was originally designed without a disc drive, but now that XBOX is going through a reset, they're re-evaluating whether or not to add one to the design. Physical media just might have an unlikely hero next-gen. If it does end up with a disc drive and can play games from the previous 4 XBOXes (without requiring a download), in addition to having access to PC storefronts and a desktop mode for adding emulators and roms like the ROG Ally X, that becomes a very attractive proposition to me. But I'll believe it when I see it. My 10th gen is going to be GOG, Steam, Evercade VS-R, and Neo Geo AES+, as well as whatever SEGA and Plaion are cooking up if the rumors are true. The XBOX Helix just might become my GOG Machine and emulation hub.
Good luck getting the PS3 you're looking for, I have that exact model from 2012 and it's still alive and kicking. I have a lot of classic Final Fantasy games on the hard drive.
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Alright... with Sony doubling down in their silence, it's clear they aren't going to backtrack. It seems one of the other CEOs within Sony is seeing the writing on the wall with their poor decisions and sold half his stock in the company at the bump, giving him more than $4 million in revenue. He knows what's coming and it won't be pretty for them.
As for me, I'm not going to continue with the brand after this generation. PS5 is officially my last Playstation. Oddly, PS3 will be my next Playstation. I'm currently in the market for a 320GB Slim and will be picking one up before the end of the month, and definitely well before they begin to skyrocket in price before next year when the PS3/PSV store is permanently shut down.
I'll continue here on VG Collect as I work to buy back and add too my old PS3 collection. I may also go for Gamecube as well, but some of those games are just over the top expensive anymore.
Same boat with the PS5 being the last Sony console I ever buy. I'm actually thinking about getting.a Switch 2 at some point soon. I'm in the middle of buying a new house so it'll have to wait until then. I'm just hoping Nintendo doesn't copy Sony and pull something similar where all their first party games go key card or digital only.
I want to see Sony burn to the ground for this. They made amazing consoles and games for 30 years, but if this is their idea of being a top platform for gaming, they deserve to fail. I just hope a bunch of people don't bend the knee just like they did with DLC, and incomplete games at launch....and micro transactions. In a lot of ways their customers are just as much to blame for this as Sony themselves.
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He knows what's coming and it won't be pretty for them.
I just hope a bunch of people don't bend the knee just like they did with DLC, and incomplete games at launch....and micro transactions. In a lot of ways their customers are just as much to blame for this as Sony themselves.
Just as we saw a week before Sony's announcement with people being upset with Rockstar for the lack of a physical disc being manufactured yet then admitted that they'll still be spending money on the software because that specific game is some exception apparently, a similar pattern will occur now. For a large number of this vocal minority, they'll continue to support Sony (whether begrudgingly or otherwise) and become desensitized to a new normal in time. And for the actual general public that are casual players and don't keep up-to-date with video game news, they'll likely accept whatever changes that are introduced without questioning them much.
Until people in huge numbers decide to take greater action against Sony such as cancelling their PlayStation Plus subscriptions instead of posting YouTube comments under their published videos and signing online petitions that will be ignored, all of the backlash occurring now is to be expected and won't change anything at the current level of protest. At the moment of this posting, the most popular petition against Sony's plans (https://www.change.org/p/don-t-kill-the-disc-tell-sony-to-keep-physical-playstation-games) has around 250,000 signatures. Meanwhile, it's been reported as of three weeks ago that Sony has 47 million active subscribers to PlayStation Plus (https://tech-insider.org/ps5-93-million-sony-record-profit-2026/). So even if all of those individuals who've signed that petition were to actually cancel this service (if they're active subscribers at all let alone PlayStation users, for anyone can sign the petition), that would only equate to about a 0.5% loss, a number that's so insignificant to Sony in their long-term efforts and almost certainly pre-calculated.
I'm not here to argue that online protests won't accomplish anything at all, but we won't really know how impactful those efforts were at all until the next financial quarterly report.
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so supposedly for digital sales they include free downloads. which is pretty wild if true.
I'm all for digital having nice sales, but if you include freemium shit which have plenty of games in which people download em in the millions cause free that's just cheating.
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First off, best of luck with the buying and move to your new house. Hoping you have a smooth experience and a low APR on the mortgage.
I'm also considering getting a Switch 2 for the family this Christmas. We have the first and have enjoyed it, but I'm waiting for Nintendo to give more details on what they're doing for the 40th anniversary of the Zelda franchise. Yeah, the OoT remake is going to be great, but now would be the time to get Twilight Princess HD and the other classic Zelda's as a 40th anniversary collection. Heck, it's the 20th anniversary for Twilight Princess this year so it's a two-fer for that specific game in the series.
*Edit. Not sure what's going on with the "Quote" formatting, but whatever.
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Thanks! Buying the new house is a consequence of me finding out I was getting laid off in late March, getting a new job in another state, having to move, and finally being at the point where I can seriously look at buying my next house. It's been a freakin ride, but I'm hoping things can start to feel normal again after we end up finding something.
My only hesitation about the Switch 2 is whether Nintendo will pull something similar to Sony before the end of the Switch 2's life. The console has only been out a little over a year, so there is still plenty of opportunity for Nintendo to announce no new non-keycard games, which is my primary concern. I'd also be buying one under the assumption the vast majority of first party games would remain non-key card throughout the console's life. I guess given my situation, I have time to think about it, but I'd be lying if I said the threat of the Switch 2's price rising again isn't a motivating factor for me wanting to get one sooner rather than later. AI has really screwed the consumer electronics market and I don't see prices coming down on hardware for a long, long time, if ever.
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This whole debacle has annoyed me beyond words more than initially. As if it werent already sad enough. Mostly because as expected gamers cannablized their own hobby because of hysteria or at least outsiders have surged the amount of intake of old physical media under the impression its some fleeting mirage. "It isnt being made anymore" dude FYI. PS2 and PS3 physical media hasn't been made in a damn decade so that is already the case. The logic is flawed to to buy retro media you normally wouldn't have in droves because PS6 will be digital only. Wtf does folklore for ps3 have to do with that? Its existence was already finite. It is out of production and not on any digital stores. Why now? Now a 45 dollar game is 145 dollars because July every gamer got the same news and decided to go hysterical. Modern physical media is in jeopardy. Not old physical media. I dont get the correlation between the news sony shared and people panic buying anything. Yet goodbye retro as a hobby. Might as well chalk that up. Backlog it is lol. And yes it is becsuse of this news. Not only have I seen people saying their intent to mass buy physical media in preparation for 2028. But also you can see the sale history of folklore on vgpc. Pre and post news.
Hoarding physical media doesnt save physical media anyway. Trying to find ways to lobby. Petition. Emulate. Boycott. That is maybe futile but at least makes sense.
Secondly. On a side rant. Alot of people randomly decided this past week on my instagram in a great physical media awakening to use their collections to slander not only digital players, steam goers but streaming platforms as a whole. As if streaming is why physical media has died. From the ashes has risen random dudes with 10,000 dvds like "if you wanna cancel your Netflix. Take all your dvds and put them on a family server account with this link Yada yada. Take all the movies and get them on disc. Viola. Now you arent a slave to a company" but sorta leaves out the part where in order to do that. You have to buy 120k dollars worth of physical dvds accross 5 decades. Like seriously? They say this shit with a straight face. Id never be ignorant enough to tell some guy with a ps plus games catelog "hey man. Wanna not pay 16.99 for that? Buy 300 PS5 games like me on disc! Then you own them forever" Netflix is 20 dollars a month. For most families and even most gamers. Our lifestyle is not the way. Digital games arent the reason physical has died and most importantly. You cant use physical media to replace streaming. It will never happen. Better to make those mediums coexist. Owning physical dvds is not an alternative to having streaming platforms. Its a different universe. Not to be looked at the same.
Netflix is no different than the blockbuster days everyone worships. Paying service fees for a item you don't actually own. Except with more inventory up front and more convenience. Blockbuster died because they couldn't adapt. Simple and plain.
The reason physical media died is because collectors and players is a 10 to 90 ratio. Nobody cares anymore. And it's sad. But it was never really preventable. We knew this. My only wish is we dont either Ruin the hobby and physcial resources we do have with panic pricing. Or drive a further wedge by giving asinine advice to digital gamers. People are gonna go where its convenient and cheap. And we as physical collectors spend too much time hating the player and not the game. It's greed and we refuse to speak with our wallets myself included. I would bet my bottom dollar then when gta 6 drops every physcial only guy will be playing it. It s digital only until 2027 or more. Will anyone wait for the disc as a beacon for physical? No. It'll do 50 million digital sales in a day. We dont have the numbers.
My only goal now is to try to scrape what cheap deals I can before 2028 comes.
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To answer your post direct, I think there's a correlation with PS3 and PSV specifically because of the store shutdown announcement that came the same day. I ended up buying another PS3 so I could claim my old purchases and ensure I had everything off that store before the plug is pulled. The physical games for PS3 starting to skyrocket is due to people trying to rebuild their collections. Unfortunately, I expect I play a small part in that.
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To answer your post direct, I think there's a correlation with PS3 and PSV specifically because of the store shutdown announcement that came the same day. I ended up buying another PS3 so I could claim my old purchases and ensure I had everything off that store before the plug is pulled. The physical games for PS3 starting to skyrocket is due to people trying to rebuild their collections. Unfortunately, I expect I play a small part in that.
Ah I get it now. So basically PS3 store goes Kapoot next year. Everyone loses their digital key cards and thus now flock to buy them physical before its too late. Perhaps combined with awareness of the impendibg. Its wild how fast its surging. But tbh its just sad its come to this. And I thought the covid bubble was bad lol. The prices were already insane.
But just as I was typing this. The deal heavens shined down. I had a string of dumb luck and im so happy. I was able to get Asura's wrath for a 3rd of what it goes for now locally from a Portuguese man. And also got Wet on what not from a Canadian seller that came out to 45 bucks with the exchange rate. 57 with import fees. So grateful for that as it was one of the ones I was dwelling on missing out on. Wet has always been a big one I needed and wasnt gonna pay 130 for it. Kinda like you with Riddick. At least we got a deal! And that is part of the fun. Maybe with luck with insane hikes in price will come hidden gem hunting that may still give this some fun.
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To answer your post direct, I think there's a correlation with PS3 and PSV specifically because of the store shutdown announcement that came the same day. I ended up buying another PS3 so I could claim my old purchases and ensure I had everything off that store before the plug is pulled. The physical games for PS3 starting to skyrocket is due to people trying to rebuild their collections. Unfortunately, I expect I play a small part in that.
Ah I get it now. So basically PS3 store goes Kapoot next year. Everyone loses their digital key cards and thus now flock to buy them physical before its too late. Perhaps combined with awareness of the impendibg. Its wild how fast its surging. But tbh its just sad its come to this. And I thought the covid bubble was bad lol. The prices were already insane.
But just as I was typing this. The deal heavens shined down. I had a string of dumb luck and im so happy. I was able to get Asura's wrath for a 3rd of what it goes for now locally from a Portuguese man. And also got Wet on what not from a Canadian seller that came out to 45 bucks with the exchange rate. 57 with import fees. So grateful for that as it was one of the ones I was dwelling on missing out on. Wet has always been a big one I needed and wasnt gonna pay 130 for it. Kinda like you with Riddick. At least we got a deal! And that is part of the fun. Maybe with luck with insane hikes in price will come hidden gem hunting that may still give this some fun.
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Alot of people randomly decided this past week on my instagram in a great physical media awakening to use their collections to slander not only digital players, steam goers but streaming platforms as a whole. As if streaming is why physical media has died. From the ashes has risen random dudes with 10,000 dvds like "if you wanna cancel your Netflix. Take all your dvds and put them on a family server account with this link Yada yada. Take all the movies and get them on disc. Viola. Now you arent a slave to a company" but sorta leaves out the part where in order to do that. You have to buy 120k dollars worth of physical dvds accross 5 decades. Like seriously? They say this shit with a straight face. Id never be ignorant enough to tell some guy with a ps plus games catelog "hey man. Wanna not pay 16.99 for that? Buy 300 PS5 games like me on disc! Then you own them forever" Netflix is 20 dollars a month. For most families and even most gamers. Our lifestyle is not the way. Digital games arent the reason physical has died and most importantly. You cant use physical media to replace streaming. It will never happen. Better to make those mediums coexist. Owning physical dvds is not an alternative to having streaming platforms. Its a different universe. Not to be looked at the same.
You don't have to own physical media in order to amass a personal digital collection. Just like with most things, physical items including video games and videos can be traded, borrowed, rented, and gifted. So if building a digital collection is something someone's particularly interested in (via the items they're in possession of by digitizing their content) and they have a limited budget, there certainly are means more widely accepted to do that. Despite your claim that physical media can't replace streaming, it absolutely can for certain individuals, and it doesn't have to be a costly endeavor. If there were more groups of people willing to trade or share their collections with each other, we'd all benefit. I really don't think I've ever done that in my life until last year when I shared some of my Silent Hill collection with someone else. It gave that person the opportunity to experience those games in a very accessible and affordable way, and especially when two of those titles in particular were and still are high market value items that most people now wouldn't ever consider buying. For a lot of people, they just want to experience something and not necessarily own it.
By no means are those who pay to use streaming services consume every piece of media being offered. Just because a service like Netflix or PlayStation Plus has x amount of pieces of content available doesn't mean the average subscriber feels the tremendous loss of whatever that total x figure is either. In fact, there are many who may only engage with one or two pieces of streamed media across a billing period, while there are many others who completely ignore the service altogether for long periods while continuing to pay the monthly fee. What this means is that everyone's interests vary. Every single person wanting to build a library will achieve that goal differently.
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Alot of people randomly decided this past week on my instagram in a great physical media awakening to use their collections to slander not only digital players, steam goers but streaming platforms as a whole. As if streaming is why physical media has died. From the ashes has risen random dudes with 10,000 dvds like "if you wanna cancel your Netflix. Take all your dvds and put them on a family server account with this link Yada yada. Take all the movies and get them on disc. Viola. Now you arent a slave to a company" but sorta leaves out the part where in order to do that. You have to buy 120k dollars worth of physical dvds accross 5 decades. Like seriously? They say this shit with a straight face. Id never be ignorant enough to tell some guy with a ps plus games catelog "hey man. Wanna not pay 16.99 for that? Buy 300 PS5 games like me on disc! Then you own them forever" Netflix is 20 dollars a month. For most families and even most gamers. Our lifestyle is not the way. Digital games arent the reason physical has died and most importantly. You cant use physical media to replace streaming. It will never happen. Better to make those mediums coexist. Owning physical dvds is not an alternative to having streaming platforms. Its a different universe. Not to be looked at the same.
You don't have to own physical media in order to amass a personal digital collection. Just like with most things, physical items including video games and videos can be traded, borrowed, rented, and gifted. So if building a digital collection is something someone's particularly interested in (via the items they're in possession of by digitizing their content) and they have a limited budget, there certainly are means more widely accepted to do that. Despite your claim that physical media can't replace streaming, it absolutely can for certain individuals, and it doesn't have to be a costly endeavor. If there were more groups of people willing to trade or share their collections with each other, we'd all benefit. I really don't think I've ever done that in my life until last year when I shared some of my Silent Hill collection with someone else. It gave that person the opportunity to experience those games in a very accessible and affordable way, and especially when two of those titles in particular were and still are high market value items that most people now wouldn't ever consider buying. For a lot of people, they just want to experience something and not necessarily own it.
By no means are those who pay to use streaming services consume every piece of media being offered. Just because a service like Netflix or PlayStation Plus has x amount of pieces of content available doesn't mean the average subscriber feels the tremendous loss of whatever that total x figure is either. In fact, there are many who may only engage with one or two pieces of streamed media across a billing period, while there are many others who completely ignore the service altogether for long periods while continuing to pay the monthly fee. What this means is that everyone's interests vary. Every single person wanting to build a library will achieve that goal differently.
I dont find this to be true at all. For example, there is content on streaming services that isnt even available on physical media. Some streaming exclusive shows for example. Some indie games also don't see physical release but that's a seperate argument. For netflix only shows some get ported to physical most don't. So for that sole reason alone you cant fully replace all streaming with a physical collection. Can you amass so much physical media that you decide "I dont need to watch streaming because my backlog is large enough to entertain me" sure of course. But that is not what is being argued. I myself have a collection of 100 vinyl records. And 230 CDs. So I ask you this. What do I do if I want to listen to an obscure grunge song of a Japanese grunge band I dont own? Delete my apple music and start spending thousands buying every album ever made? Or in your suggestion try to find someone to borrow an item Noone has in my country? Or just never play it. Those are the 3 options in fairness. I do the norm and launch up apple music and listen to it and every other song of my desire in one place for $10 a month? I use both physical and streaming. Both have their time and place.
In the quest to big up the pros of physical media which are abundant (ownership, trading, selling, hedge against defunct servers) people are constantly ignoring or pretending the pros of streaming don't exist (ease of access, convenience, affordability) and that is not helping anyone. For the average consumer it doesnt work that way. And I believe proof of that is the fact more people do it that way. It's not because they are wrong. Yes physical media is better for us. Ideal I should say. Is it always possible? No. Is it a pain in the ass sometimes? And costly? Yeah. We as collectors know that. To us its worth it. Especially on the media we want. But even a lot of diehard gamers emulate games we cant afford. So many users here use nintendo online to play earthbound because it costs so much. Are you denying that importance? Some people really don't care about owning everything and want convenience. And not everyone has friends or expendable income. Are they wrong for that? I'm not inclined to say that.
The IF in your paragraph is a big if. Not many people even like letting others borrow things at all just because how little respect people have for others belongings. And that system would be nice of trading amongst eachother. That'd be a brilliant idea actually. But do you trust other users here to send your rarest game? I dont even have friends that have big collections tbh. And people are so afraid that your 800 dillar rule of rose will end up on ebay if you let someone borrow it. So I think because of that. The community swapping in that way will likely never be widespread. And isolated friends wont have all the games you may want to play.
For example I love my ps plus games catalog. I get to play a lot of cool games. I know I dont own them. I know they arent mine. But to me its like blockbuster. I used to pay 5 bucks to rent some game. It isnt meant to replace physical
But on the other side of the coin. Physical isnt meant to replace it either.
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Alot of people randomly decided this past week on my instagram in a great physical media awakening to use their collections to slander not only digital players, steam goers but streaming platforms as a whole. As if streaming is why physical media has died. From the ashes has risen random dudes with 10,000 dvds like "if you wanna cancel your Netflix. Take all your dvds and put them on a family server account with this link Yada yada. Take all the movies and get them on disc. Viola. Now you arent a slave to a company" but sorta leaves out the part where in order to do that. You have to buy 120k dollars worth of physical dvds accross 5 decades. Like seriously? They say this shit with a straight face. Id never be ignorant enough to tell some guy with a ps plus games catelog "hey man. Wanna not pay 16.99 for that? Buy 300 PS5 games like me on disc! Then you own them forever" Netflix is 20 dollars a month. For most families and even most gamers. Our lifestyle is not the way. Digital games arent the reason physical has died and most importantly. You cant use physical media to replace streaming. It will never happen. Better to make those mediums coexist. Owning physical dvds is not an alternative to having streaming platforms. Its a different universe. Not to be looked at the same.
You don't have to own physical media in order to amass a personal digital collection. Just like with most things, physical items including video games and videos can be traded, borrowed, rented, and gifted. So if building a digital collection is something someone's particularly interested in (via the items they're in possession of by digitizing their content) and they have a limited budget, there certainly are means more widely accepted to do that. Despite your claim that physical media can't replace streaming, it absolutely can for certain individuals, and it doesn't have to be a costly endeavor. If there were more groups of people willing to trade or share their collections with each other, we'd all benefit. I really don't think I've ever done that in my life until last year when I shared some of my Silent Hill collection with someone else. It gave that person the opportunity to experience those games in a very accessible and affordable way, and especially when two of those titles in particular were and still are high market value items that most people now wouldn't ever consider buying. For a lot of people, they just want to experience something and not necessarily own it.
By no means are those who pay to use streaming services consume every piece of media being offered. Just because a service like Netflix or PlayStation Plus has x amount of pieces of content available doesn't mean the average subscriber feels the tremendous loss of whatever that total x figure is either. In fact, there are many who may only engage with one or two pieces of streamed media across a billing period, while there are many others who completely ignore the service altogether for long periods while continuing to pay the monthly fee. What this means is that everyone's interests vary. Every single person wanting to build a library will achieve that goal differently.
I dont find this to be true at all. For example, there is content on streaming services that isnt even available on physical media. Some streaming exclusive shows for example. Some indie games also don't see physical release but that's a seperate argument. For netflix only shows some get ported to physical most don't. So for that sole reason alone you cant fully replace all streaming with a physical collection. Can you amass so much physical media that you decide "I dont need to watch streaming because my backlog is large enough to entertain me" sure of course. But that is not what is being argued. I myself have a collection of 100 vinyl records. And 230 CDs. So I ask you this. What do I do if I want to listen to an obscure grunge song of a Japanese grunge band I dont own? Delete my apple music and start spending thousands buying every album ever made? Or in your suggestion try to find someone to borrow an item Noone has in my country? Or just never play it. Those are the 3 options in fairness. I do the norm and launch up apple music and listen to it and every other song of my desire in one place for $10 a month? I use both physical and streaming. Both have their time and place.
In the quest to big up the pros of physical media which are abundant (ownership, trading, selling, hedge against defunct servers) people are constantly ignoring or pretending the pros of streaming don't exist (ease of access, convenience, affordability) and that is not helping anyone. For the average consumer it doesnt work that way. And I believe proof of that is the fact more people do it that way. It's not because they are wrong. Yes physical media is better for us. Ideal I should say. Is it always possible? No. Is it a pain in the ass sometimes? And costly? Yeah. We as collectors know that. To us its worth it. Especially on the media we want. But even a lot of diehard gamers emulate games we cant afford. So many users here use nintendo online to play earthbound because it costs so much. Are you denying that importance? Some people really don't care about owning everything and want convenience. And not everyone has friends or expendable income. Are they wrong for that? I'm not inclined to say that.
The IF in your paragraph is a big if. Not many people even like letting others borrow things at all just because how little respect people have for others belongings. And that system would be nice of trading amongst eachother. That'd be a brilliant idea actually. But do you trust other users here to send your rarest game? I dont even have friends that have big collections tbh. And people are so afraid that your 800 dillar rule of rose will end up on ebay if you let someone borrow it. So I think because of that. The community swapping in that way will likely never be widespread. And isolated friends wont have all the games you may want to play.
For most media that's available to be streamed, it's widely available to be purchased digitally as well. Not once was I arguing that an all-digital ecosystem could be replaced (not without internal industry change, that is.) Though if you're someone who doesn't engage with streaming platforms and are wanting to engage with a streaming-only item, then there certainly are less than publicly accepted means of being able to do so. Of course, the fact of the matter is that there was a time not that long ago when digital media was not streamed and only available to be purchased. With your example of EarthBound, it was available for years as a digital release on Nintendo's Wii U storefront. It could still be available for purchase on their more modern platforms, but Nintendo knows it's more profitable to charge for a streaming subscription while removing the means to purchase the software altogether.
And with your example of wanting to listen to some obscure song while not be a subscriber of streaming services, then the song is definitely also available on free, public spaces like YouTube, whereas modern songs from indie artists will be available on free platforms like Bandcamp. Both platforms offer a free means to engage with these items, alongside Bandcamp also being a platform that grants its users the option to buy both digital and physical products.
And yes, I would trust select members from our community to trade games with. The person I was referencing is actually a member of our site—someone, which I will add, whom I've never met. It's interesting you specifically mention a $800 price amount, because I believe that's the amount of insurance that a significantly lower total of money was spent to ensure the items I lent were mailed in confidence. Though it's true what you're saying about trading or lending being an imperfect system, though largely in regards to the fact that not all out-of-print items someone may be interested in may be available to them even through others' ownership. But then again, most of these kinds of items are only available physically, so it's not as if streaming or even digital formats have the advantage in that scenario. In that case, really all there is for someone on a budget to do is to expand their network.
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Alot of people randomly decided this past week on my instagram in a great physical media awakening to use their collections to slander not only digital players, steam goers but streaming platforms as a whole. As if streaming is why physical media has died. From the ashes has risen random dudes with 10,000 dvds like "if you wanna cancel your Netflix. Take all your dvds and put them on a family server account with this link Yada yada. Take all the movies and get them on disc. Viola. Now you arent a slave to a company" but sorta leaves out the part where in order to do that. You have to buy 120k dollars worth of physical dvds accross 5 decades. Like seriously? They say this shit with a straight face. Id never be ignorant enough to tell some guy with a ps plus games catelog "hey man. Wanna not pay 16.99 for that? Buy 300 PS5 games like me on disc! Then you own them forever" Netflix is 20 dollars a month. For most families and even most gamers. Our lifestyle is not the way. Digital games arent the reason physical has died and most importantly. You cant use physical media to replace streaming. It will never happen. Better to make those mediums coexist. Owning physical dvds is not an alternative to having streaming platforms. Its a different universe. Not to be looked at the same.
You don't have to own physical media in order to amass a personal digital collection. Just like with most things, physical items including video games and videos can be traded, borrowed, rented, and gifted. So if building a digital collection is something someone's particularly interested in (via the items they're in possession of by digitizing their content) and they have a limited budget, there certainly are means more widely accepted to do that. Despite your claim that physical media can't replace streaming, it absolutely can for certain individuals, and it doesn't have to be a costly endeavor. If there were more groups of people willing to trade or share their collections with each other, we'd all benefit. I really don't think I've ever done that in my life until last year when I shared some of my Silent Hill collection with someone else. It gave that person the opportunity to experience those games in a very accessible and affordable way, and especially when two of those titles in particular were and still are high market value items that most people now wouldn't ever consider buying. For a lot of people, they just want to experience something and not necessarily own it.
By no means are those who pay to use streaming services consume every piece of media being offered. Just because a service like Netflix or PlayStation Plus has x amount of pieces of content available doesn't mean the average subscriber feels the tremendous loss of whatever that total x figure is either. In fact, there are many who may only engage with one or two pieces of streamed media across a billing period, while there are many others who completely ignore the service altogether for long periods while continuing to pay the monthly fee. What this means is that everyone's interests vary. Every single person wanting to build a library will achieve that goal differently.
I dont find this to be true at all. For example, there is content on streaming services that isnt even available on physical media. Some streaming exclusive shows for example. Some indie games also don't see physical release but that's a seperate argument. For netflix only shows some get ported to physical most don't. So for that sole reason alone you cant fully replace all streaming with a physical collection. Can you amass so much physical media that you decide "I dont need to watch streaming because my backlog is large enough to entertain me" sure of course. But that is not what is being argued. I myself have a collection of 100 vinyl records. And 230 CDs. So I ask you this. What do I do if I want to listen to an obscure grunge song of a Japanese grunge band I dont own? Delete my apple music and start spending thousands buying every album ever made? Or in your suggestion try to find someone to borrow an item Noone has in my country? Or just never play it. Those are the 3 options in fairness. I do the norm and launch up apple music and listen to it and every other song of my desire in one place for $10 a month? I use both physical and streaming. Both have their time and place.
In the quest to big up the pros of physical media which are abundant (ownership, trading, selling, hedge against defunct servers) people are constantly ignoring or pretending the pros of streaming don't exist (ease of access, convenience, affordability) and that is not helping anyone. For the average consumer it doesnt work that way. And I believe proof of that is the fact more people do it that way. It's not because they are wrong. Yes physical media is better for us. Ideal I should say. Is it always possible? No. Is it a pain in the ass sometimes? And costly? Yeah. We as collectors know that. To us its worth it. Especially on the media we want. But even a lot of diehard gamers emulate games we cant afford. So many users here use nintendo online to play earthbound because it costs so much. Are you denying that importance? Some people really don't care about owning everything and want convenience. And not everyone has friends or expendable income. Are they wrong for that? I'm not inclined to say that.
The IF in your paragraph is a big if. Not many people even like letting others borrow things at all just because how little respect people have for others belongings. And that system would be nice of trading amongst eachother. That'd be a brilliant idea actually. But do you trust other users here to send your rarest game? I dont even have friends that have big collections tbh. And people are so afraid that your 800 dillar rule of rose will end up on ebay if you let someone borrow it. So I think because of that. The community swapping in that way will likely never be widespread. And isolated friends wont have all the games you may want to play.
For most media that's available to be streamed, it's widely available to be purchased digitally as well. Not once was I arguing that an all-digital ecosystem could be replaced (not without internal industry change, that is.) Though if you're someone who doesn't engage with streaming platforms and are wanting to engage with a streaming-only item, then there certainly are less than publicly accepted means of being able to do so. Of course, the fact of the matter is that there was a time not that long ago when digital media was not streamed and only available to be purchased. With your example of EarthBound, it was available for years as a digital release on Nintendo's Wii U storefront. It could still be available for purchase on their more modern platforms, but Nintendo knows it's more profitable to charge for a streaming subscription while removing the means to purchase the software altogether.
And with your example of wanting to listen to some obscure song while not be a subscriber of streaming services, then the song is definitely also available on free, public spaces like YouTube, whereas modern songs from indie artists will be available on free platforms like Bandcamp. Both platforms offer a free means to engage with these items, alongside Bandcamp also being a platform that grants its users the option to buy both digital and physical products.
And yes, I would trust select members from our community to trade games with. The person I was referencing is actually a member of our site—someone, which I will add, whom I've never met. It's interesting you specifically mention a $800 price amount, because I believe that's the amount of insurance that a significantly lower total of money was spent to ensure the items I lent were mailed in confidence. Though it's true what you're saying about trading or lending being an imperfect system, though largely in regards to the fact that not all out-of-print items someone may be interested in may be available to them even through others' ownership. But then again, most of these kinds of items are only available physically, so it's not as if streaming or even digital formats have the advantage in that scenario. In that case, really all there is for someone on a budget to do is to expand their network.
YouTube is a streaming platform though and so is band camp and I certainly wouldn't own any song I stream on it. So you kinda made my point. Of course there are ways to access music online without paying but solely because streaming exists. You just proved why its so important. And the people im arguing against dont want those either. Physical only. Youtube is good. It's a very useful public tool like Wikipedia. Wikipedia doesnt destroy physical encyclopedias and the need for them. Its a completely different resource. They coexist. Without all streaming. Free or otherwise. Id have to literally source all my music physically. Pirate it illegally. Or hope the radio plays it so I can record it. Just like the 90s. Pre internet music was almost purely physical and public radio.
I think some of the convo here is missing the context of the people im referencing so i'll add that to see your stance on it They basically are saying everyone should live a physical only existence because all digital consumption is theft and killing physical. That includes all streaming both paid and free. They have called to boycott tubi, disney, and even steam. And digital gaming as well. Some are calling to intentionally hack switch 2 because since they made soke games digital only it is justified to pirate them games" Calling to take physical media and basically form.your own platforms where you can access these medias as a family with no contact with things you dont actually own. That to me is something I intend to do as well. With my physical stuff. I dont even mind people mentioning doing it though. It's cool advice. My issue is where they insinuate most people have the means or wish to do something like that. Or that it fully can replace my need for all digital media. I cant afford that. It requires a lot of money, patience and time. The average consumer is not like us even let alone an extreme curator.
The people that I am referencing are not counting digital as a alternative either. They say if you dont own it they wont support it and nobody else should either or "you are part of the problem" its physical or nil to them. And that hysteria has gotten loud. I just think it's pretty preachy lately.
As for your lending games. Maybe I misread. You just said it cost 800 dollars to send them insured safely? You just said that this was meant to be a cost effective option for people to consume media. That's big money talk lol. That alone already makes what you did impossible for like 80 percent of middle America. And even if you dont insure the games. It's costly to ship stuff. But to me what is more likely to make that hard is the trust aspect. That's a beautiful thing you trust a person enough to lend them games that cost so much but i'm sure you do admit that both you and your friend are in a very specialized circumstance there. Id be lucky if my own brother would do what you did. Most people arent part of a community like this dealing with specialized friends. If I want to borrow silent hill or say rule of rose. Maybe I could message you. If you wanted to borrow one of my games. I'm sure that could be arranged. But that requires having a friend that not only collects games but has that level of commraderie with you. Which is pretty hard. Harder even more so in the digital age post pandemic. You can't just meet someone at a game convention and be like "hey can I borrow your 200 dollar survival horror game. Trust me bro" lol. You have trust I assume because you know this person. Also its a collector forum so you assume we all are good at taking care of games. What about some new comer you meet on reddit? Would you do the same? I just think that idea takes a level of socializing and networking most introvert gamers arent willing or cant do. But I do agree what you are saying should be part of our community. We last the community aspect of this hobby. It should be organized and more help eachother. Soon im gonna give all my doubles away to collectors. I want to benefit the communities as well.
Also to address the elephant in the room and call it blunt. Most people are very greedy to even consider what you did as well. And I very much admire what you did. Because I miss gaming being like that. It was for the sake of it. Now its for gain. For profit. This is a dog eat dog world sadly and most people even people on here would laugh if I asked to borrow their games.
You are correct though. And I am kinda confused and meant to ask telekill this. But why do you think folklore, puppeteer and wet are rising in value due to the store closure when those games were never on the digital store to begin with? Just panic over physical in general? You are correct that many games are just not on streaming. Those are essentially physical. Which is why I say neither can replace the other. Physical is more important for sure. But I think they can coexist. Idk if you agree that they can.
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YouTube is a streaming platform though and so is band camp and I certainly wouldn't own any song I stream on it. So you kinda made my point. Of course there are ways to access music online without paying but solely because streaming exists. You just proved why its so important. And the people im arguing against dont want those either. Physical only. Youtube is good. It's a very useful public tool like Wikipedia. Wikipedia doesnt destroy physical encyclopedias and the need for them. Its a completely different resource. They coexist. Without all streaming. Free or otherwise. Id have to literally source all my music physically. Pirate it illegally. Or hope the radio plays it so I can record it. Just like the 90s. Pre internet music was almost purely physical and public radio.
I think some of the convo here is missing the context of the people im referencing so i'll add that to see your stance on it They basically are saying everyone should live a physical only existence because all digital consumption is theft and killing physical. That includes all streaming both paid and free. They have called to boycott tubi, disney, and even steam. And digital gaming as well. Some are calling to intentionally hack switch 2 because since they made soke games digital only it is justified to pirate them games" Calling to take physical media and basically form.your own platforms where you can access these medias as a family with no contact with things you dont actually own. That to me is something I intend to do as well. With my physical stuff. I dont even mind people mentioning doing it though. It's cool advice. My issue is where they insinuate most people have the means or wish to do something like that. Or that it fully can replace my need for all digital media. I cant afford that. It requires a lot of money, patience and time. The average consumer is not like us even let alone an extreme curator.
The people that I am referencing are not counting digital as a alternative either. They say if you dont own it they wont support it and nobody else should either or "you are part of the problem" its physical or nil to them. And that hysteria has gotten loud. I just think it's pretty preachy lately.
As for your lending games. Maybe I misread. You just said it cost 800 dollars to send them insured safely? You just said that this was meant to be a cost effective option for people to consume media. That's big money talk lol. That alone already makes what you did impossible for like 80 percent of middle America. And even if you dont insure the games. It's costly to ship stuff. But to me what is more likely to make that hard is the trust aspect. That's a beautiful thing you trust a person enough to lend them games that cost so much but i'm sure you do admit that both you and your friend are in a very specialized circumstance there. Id be lucky if my own brother would do what you did. Most people arent part of a community like this dealing with specialized friends. If I want to borrow silent hill or say rule of rose. Maybe I could message you. If you wanted to borrow one of my games. I'm sure that could be arranged. But that requires having a friend that not only collects games but has that level of commraderie with you. Which is pretty hard. Harder even more so in the digital age post pandemic. You can't just meet someone at a game convention and be like "hey can I borrow your 200 dollar survival horror game. Trust me bro" lol. You have trust I assume because you know this person. Also its a collector forum so you assume we all are good at taking care of games. What about some new comer you meet on reddit? Would you do the same? I just think that idea takes a level of socializing and networking most introvert gamers arent willing or cant do. But I do agree what you are saying should be part of our community. We last the community aspect of this hobby. It should be organized and more help eachother. Soon im gonna give all my doubles away to collectors. I want to benefit the communities as well.
Not once throughout any of my posts have I argued that streaming is unimportant. My argument is against premium, pay-to-access subscription services—so not examples like YouTube or Bandcamp—being viable alternatives to physical and digital mediums that I think I've already made clear. Concerning Bandcamp specifically, you are wrong. When purchasing music from Bandcamp, users are given a permanent link to download their digital library in various file formats to save locally; so yes, users have access to whatever is uploaded and sold for an indefinite amount of time. By all accounts, physical items, digital files, and premium streaming services can coexist. The third, though, is most unnecessary and could be entirely removed without anything significant lost regarding content itself. Like I said before, there was a time before any streaming existed at all, and things were fine.
I've not encountered anyone arguing against digital media altogether, let alone streaming. I'm sure those arguments exist, and maybe they're gaining some sort of social media traction, but it's not as if those people themselves have any sort of control over how entire industries function. Only if some sort of wide consumer change would those sorts of internal decisions be introduced, so it'd be (slightly) warranted if that were the case. Like the opposite now with some physical media, the entire removal of any means of access is problematic—consumers should be able to choose how they engage.
You did misread, although perhaps I could have worded that statement better. The games I lent were approximately valued around $800 at that time, so extra money was spent on shipping for that much insurance. That extra money was something like $20. But yes, I agree that my personal experience I've recounted with lending games most recently is more of an extreme. And again, I acknowledge that most people would not be willing to part with items with that sort of market value attributed to them without some sort of collateral. However, the principle of lending, borrowing, and trading remains. Just because the items in my scenario were valued high doesn't mean that every item wanting to be borrowed will be. Long ago—and especially in people's youths when a larger social circle was more available to them—it was far more common to encounter instances like these, when some common game was exchanged for another over the weekend or a holiday break. That sort of community could still exist. It's something I think should and likely will grow in these changing times regarding physical and digital ownership, but it's largely dependent on where one lives and the social connections they've cultivated. I wouldn't expect someone to lend items with a total stranger they've just met, and that includes me too. So, naturally, forming those good-faith communities online is difficult to do. Nevertheless, local institutions like libraries offer opportunities to rent items.
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Well... we have our answer. Sony CFO Lin Tao confirmed in their earnings call overnight that they won't be backing down from their digital only path. A little more than 95 million PS5's sold with 18% of game sales being physical. That means Sony is willing to alienate ~17 million of their consumers. That's going by their numbers, of course. That's extreme arrogance. I expect had they completed the PS5 gen with discs and then moved to digital only with PS6, the blowback would have been far less, but... here we are.
PS5 will be my last Playstation. I'll more than likely move to Switch 2 or if God shines down on gamers, Sega jumps back in with physical media, that's how I'll continue with gaming. Once everyone is digital only, I'll probably switch to PC where you don't pay for online and can occasionally get DRM free games that you can burn to disc. Seems mostly through GoG with that, but more research is needed.
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The big thing that I think is getting lost in the conversation is that a lot of physical purchases are second-hand. Every single one of those is a game that Sony could have sold for profit twice (or more), which is why they want to eliminate it so bad. I think where Sony is going to see a big down turn isn't in initial sales. Digital is going to see an uptick from all the people who previously bought physical but still want to play. If you made conservative estimates, about 25% of new physical sales will convert to digital. So their sales loss would only be about 75% of what current physical sales revenue is.
There is probably going to be a drop in long term engagement from people who buy used games. I'd wager that the people who do buy second hand are not going to be converting to digital en masse, but there is no real way to measure or estimate that right now because there's no way to effective gauge the strength of the secondary market.
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Sony CFO Lin Tao confirmed in their earnings call overnight that they won't be backing down from their digital only path. A little more than 95 million PS5's sold with 18% of game sales being physical. That means Sony is willing to alienate ~17 million of their consumers. That's going by their numbers, of course.
That's quite the inflated estimate, by your measures. Such an estimate assumes that PlayStation 5 owners are wholly categorized as either someone who purchases physical games or someone else who purchases digital games, when instead the average owner will have purchased games by both means. We don't have to look far to confirm that realization either, as you yourself have purchased a small collection of digital games, based on your site Collection (https://vgcollect.com/telekill/psnps5na).
Another aspect you're also ignoring is that PlayStation 5 systems can be grouped in two ways: those with disc drives and those without. I'm assuming that 95 million figure doesn't differentiate between the two, meaning the number of consumers Sony is willing to "alienate" is fewer. At the same time, not all owners of PlayStation 5 systems which include disc drives will be resolute in ways like others are proclaiming they will be. Some will resign to a physical-absent ecosystem and continue purchasing games, albeit in a digital format only.
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That's quite the inflated estimate, by your measures. Such an estimate assumes that PlayStation 5 owners are wholly categorized as either someone who purchases physical games or someone else who purchases digital games, when instead the average owner will have purchased games by both means. We don't have to look far to confirm that realization either, as you yourself have purchased a small collection of digital games, based on your site Collection (https://vgcollect.com/telekill/psnps5na).
Another aspect you're also ignoring is that PlayStation 5 systems can be grouped in two ways: those with disc drives and those without. I'm assuming that 95 million figure doesn't differentiate between the two, meaning the number of consumers Sony is willing to "alienate" is fewer. At the same time, not all owners of PlayStation 5 systems which include disc drives will be resolute in ways like others are proclaiming they will be. Some will resign to a physical-absent ecosystem and continue purchasing games, albeit in a digital format only.
Actually it's not inflated as the pendulum swings both ways. Out of the 95 million consoles sold, we're looking at ~70 million of them having a disc drive per Sony's numbers. I'm not even including those digital only consoles that the consumer bought the attachable disc drive later.
I'm not saying wholly categorized for anyone. There are games that are offered as digital only which skews the numbers in favor of digital sales by quite a lot, but if you want to play them, you have no choice and no ownership... and that's where the alienating comes from....ownership first, and choice second.
Sure, I've bought digital only games, most recently Code Violet (PS5), and I plan to buy a couple on the PS3 before the store closes like Bionic Commando Rearmed 2, but had I been given the choice for a physical copy, I would have bought the disc. Case in point, I recently found out that Ducktales Remastered on PS3 somehow got removed from my purchased licenses on the PS3 store and Sony is requesting I rebuy it at $15. Luckily, I found that particular game later got a physical edition and I'll happily pay the $10 difference for the disc.
Ownership is key here. The younger generations (for whatever reason, but we'll go with corporate grooming) are apathetic to the idea of ownership. They've grown up in a world of streaming services where the company decides what content you have access too and when. It's very much the "You will own nothing and be happy" idea that's been around for more than a decade now, but I would add a qualifier for most of the younger consumers... "You will own nothing and be happy because of your ignorance." That's not the entire younger generations, of course, but it's par for the course. They don't understand what ownership is because many have been priced out of owning much of anything, including the stuff that matters, such as a home... but that's another conversation.
As for choice, it isn't just something that I want. I expect choice is something that most people want. Out of the ~70 million PS5's sold, even those with owners that mostly buy digital... they have a choice to buy games on disc, and I would expect that most of that 70 million have bought at least one game physically new since purchasing their system. When you remove a choice that someone once had, most will get over it, but there are quite a few that won't. Removing more affordable second hand purchases as an option will alienate the consumer base.
So that ~17 million alienated over no physical games... yeah, that's a way lower number than it more than likely is... not inflated in the least.
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That's quite the inflated estimate, by your measures. Such an estimate assumes that PlayStation 5 owners are wholly categorized as either someone who purchases physical games or someone else who purchases digital games, when instead the average owner will have purchased games by both means. We don't have to look far to confirm that realization either, as you yourself have purchased a small collection of digital games, based on your site Collection (https://vgcollect.com/telekill/psnps5na).
Another aspect you're also ignoring is that PlayStation 5 systems can be grouped in two ways: those with disc drives and those without. I'm assuming that 95 million figure doesn't differentiate between the two, meaning the number of consumers Sony is willing to "alienate" is fewer. At the same time, not all owners of PlayStation 5 systems which include disc drives will be resolute in ways like others are proclaiming they will be. Some will resign to a physical-absent ecosystem and continue purchasing games, albeit in a digital format only.
I'm not saying wholly categorized for anyone. There are games that are offered as digital only which skews the numbers in favor of digital sales by quite a lot, but if you want to play them, you have no choice and no ownership... and that's where the alienating comes from....ownership first, and choice second.
Oh, I was understanding "alienating" differently. I presumed you were using it in a way meaning whatever total number of users who prefer a physical format over a digital one and aren't willing to compromise with the proposed removal of physical discs, thereby rendering them lost customers since their consumer needs won't be met anymore. I really don't disagree with your point at all then.
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YouTube is a streaming platform though and so is band camp and I certainly wouldn't own any song I stream on it. So you kinda made my point. Of course there are ways to access music online without paying but solely because streaming exists. You just proved why its so important. And the people im arguing against dont want those either. Physical only. Youtube is good. It's a very useful public tool like Wikipedia. Wikipedia doesnt destroy physical encyclopedias and the need for them. Its a completely different resource. They coexist. Without all streaming. Free or otherwise. Id have to literally source all my music physically. Pirate it illegally. Or hope the radio plays it so I can record it. Just like the 90s. Pre internet music was almost purely physical and public radio.
I think some of the convo here is missing the context of the people im referencing so i'll add that to see your stance on it They basically are saying everyone should live a physical only existence because all digital consumption is theft and killing physical. That includes all streaming both paid and free. They have called to boycott tubi, disney, and even steam. And digital gaming as well. Some are calling to intentionally hack switch 2 because since they made soke games digital only it is justified to pirate them games" Calling to take physical media and basically form.your own platforms where you can access these medias as a family with no contact with things you dont actually own. That to me is something I intend to do as well. With my physical stuff. I dont even mind people mentioning doing it though. It's cool advice. My issue is where they insinuate most people have the means or wish to do something like that. Or that it fully can replace my need for all digital media. I cant afford that. It requires a lot of money, patience and time. The average consumer is not like us even let alone an extreme curator.
The people that I am referencing are not counting digital as a alternative either. They say if you dont own it they wont support it and nobody else should either or "you are part of the problem" its physical or nil to them. And that hysteria has gotten loud. I just think it's pretty preachy lately.
As for your lending games. Maybe I misread. You just said it cost 800 dollars to send them insured safely? You just said that this was meant to be a cost effective option for people to consume media. That's big money talk lol. That alone already makes what you did impossible for like 80 percent of middle America. And even if you dont insure the games. It's costly to ship stuff. But to me what is more likely to make that hard is the trust aspect. That's a beautiful thing you trust a person enough to lend them games that cost so much but i'm sure you do admit that both you and your friend are in a very specialized circumstance there. Id be lucky if my own brother would do what you did. Most people arent part of a community like this dealing with specialized friends. If I want to borrow silent hill or say rule of rose. Maybe I could message you. If you wanted to borrow one of my games. I'm sure that could be arranged. But that requires having a friend that not only collects games but has that level of commraderie with you. Which is pretty hard. Harder even more so in the digital age post pandemic. You can't just meet someone at a game convention and be like "hey can I borrow your 200 dollar survival horror game. Trust me bro" lol. You have trust I assume because you know this person. Also its a collector forum so you assume we all are good at taking care of games. What about some new comer you meet on reddit? Would you do the same? I just think that idea takes a level of socializing and networking most introvert gamers arent willing or cant do. But I do agree what you are saying should be part of our community. We last the community aspect of this hobby. It should be organized and more help eachother. Soon im gonna give all my doubles away to collectors. I want to benefit the communities as well.
Not once throughout any of my posts have I argued that streaming is unimportant. My argument is against premium, pay-to-access subscription services—so not examples like YouTube or Bandcamp—being viable alternatives to physical and digital mediums that I think I've already made clear. Concerning Bandcamp specifically, you are wrong. When purchasing music from Bandcamp, users are given a permanent link to download their digital library in various file formats to save locally; so yes, users have access to whatever is uploaded and sold for an indefinite amount of time. By all accounts, physical items, digital files, and premium streaming services can coexist. The third, though, is most unnecessary and could be entirely removed without anything significant lost regarding content itself. Like I said before, there was a time before any streaming existed at all, and things were fine.
I've not encountered anyone arguing against digital media altogether, let alone streaming. I'm sure those arguments exist, and maybe they're gaining some sort of social media traction, but it's not as if those people themselves have any sort of control over how entire industries function. Only if some sort of wide consumer change would those sorts of internal decisions be introduced, so it'd be (slightly) warranted if that were the case. Like the opposite now with some physical media, the entire removal of any means of access is problematic—consumers should be able to choose how they engage.
You did misread, although perhaps I could have worded that statement better. The games I lent were approximately valued around $800 at that time, so extra money was spent on shipping for that much insurance. That extra money was something like $20. But yes, I agree that my personal experience I've recounted with lending games most recently is more of an extreme. And again, I acknowledge that most people would not be willing to part with items with that sort of market value attributed to them without some sort of collateral. However, the principle of lending, borrowing, and trading remains. Just because the items in my scenario were valued high doesn't mean that every item wanting to be borrowed will be. Long ago—and especially in people's youths when a larger social circle was more available to them—it was far more common to encounter instances like these, when some common game was exchanged for another over the weekend or a holiday break. That sort of community could still exist. It's something I think should and likely will grow in these changing times regarding physical and digital ownership, but it's largely dependent on where one lives and the social connections they've cultivated. I wouldn't expect someone to lend items with a total stranger they've just met, and that includes me too. So, naturally, forming those good-faith communities online is difficult to do. Nevertheless, local institutions like libraries offer opportunities to rent items.
I agree with most of this. Esp the terms of borrowed media and the need for it.
But to sit here and say strreaming is a medium that can be fully eliminated without "any significant loss" is looking at things solely from the perspective of a physical media curator and it directly seeks to effect the quality of my life and is why I get so defensive of it. It's just not true. I hate how physical only as a movement is not seeking to lift their media but kill all the other ways people consume theirs. The permanence of the content itself is not the only thing that matters and to some? It doesnt matter at all. It seems you keep putting so much subjective.emphasis on a medium existing in permenence of ownership which is physicals advantage but so much so downplay the advantages of streaming. "there was a time before streaming and we were fine" I mean there was a time before electricity too, doesn't mean those times were superior. If the electric grid goes down a candle is forever. Do you not use the light bulb? There was a time before the cellular phone. I never once said you can't live without streaming but let me emphasize how it'd personally harm my life.
On my morning commute to work, I have a Playlist of 2000 of my favorite childhood songs on apple music, black screen on trains, on my car. This scientifically and personally alters the quality of my mood and performance on my work which brings me a living. Without streaming (apple music) id have to what? What is your alternative? Either buy 2000 CDs for like 5 grand and move them in a wheelbarrow? Pirate the files illegally and rip them into folders on my phone requiring massive amounts of space. Or do what I do normally. Pay 10 dollars a month to have all my music in one spot permanently. Without streaming I and millions if not BILLIONS of people would lose ease of access to music and art. Educational resources. College textbooks. No way around that. In the 90s you had to hold a microphone to a radios speakers to record a song because without paying 20 dollars for a CD disc you were locked out of music entirely. Streaming yes even paid streaming makes an ocean of content available at the price of one CD a month weather you own it or not. And you cannot tell me it's a thing that can be extinguished and we just move on. Music as a medium from artist to consumer is far more dependent on streaming than physical in today's age. And I think its a good thing.
No other physical collector would have paid my 5 thousand dollars in educational resource text books. Maybe I would have failed. Maybe I would have even dropped out on top of brutal tuition debt. All of these books I got on Amazon kindle unlimited for 5 dollars a month?
Perhaps you mean it more from a place of "its important but not as important" and I can accept that but the way you worded it seems you said its basically disposable. No I dont want streaming to die just because I want physical to live. And if streaming went away. Would we survive? Of course. But to say no loss? I can't agree. And the more people push to take things I like the more i'll rebel even if its against the other thing I like.
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I mean I see a lot of people blaming Sony as if they are a boogeyman but where is the self blame? Societal blame? It's always boycott. Why not in April? Gamers waited till the fire become a 5 alarm now they run for the hose?
The numbers aren't skewed. Its not sonys digital store having more digital only content. Capcom released pragmata and resident evil Requiem physical. And released their sales analytics. They literally sold 93 percent digital anyway. 6.3 percent physical? Are we serious right now? Does it make me mad? Sure. But why blame the farmer because the government made groceries go up.
Even with backwards compatibility pushing many people to buy a disc drive model of ps5. It still does only like 27 percent physical sales and thats heavily liberal estimate.
Like 65 percent of xboxs user base is on gamepass.
If every dollar spent on micro transactions in gaming would have been spent on another physical game. The physical industry would be saved.
The top selling games for last gen were almost entirely Royale games with micro transactions with 4 percent physical play shares. Free to play. Pay to win games. Sports games with VC currency.
Gamers didnt do shit when games required internet on disc only.
Gamers didnt do shit when games required patches day 1
Gamers didnt flip the lid like in 2014 with kinetic always on when switch dropped with 80 dollar key cards and dodgy user agreements.
How many people bought a switch 2 or are considering doing so by show of hands? The console literally makes you sign a contract that states you don't physically own the hardware let alone software. If you move the wrong way, they can brick your entire console. Not from online. From GAMING AT ALL. What stops them from doing that when the next console drops? The company literally went after children for doing lets play content and violated creative commons laws. And some of the games are key card only. If anything did they not start code in case? Did they not start the 70 dollar price increase for physical with totk?. How was that company punished? With your 400 dollars? And were supposed to boycott Sony? Nope they got "inflation is normal. Games should actually be 120" any excuse in the book. When their ROI soared, market cap tripled and IP values raised. Sales did well. Dont forget gaming systems were the price of a used car in 1990s. Should a Switch 2 be 3,400 dollars today because a console was 400 in the early 80s? Hey. TVs were 1000 dollars. A major luxury. Why are those 150 now? See thats how people get suckered. They look at inflation rate but not weather that actually led to less ROI for the company. A disc is like a penny to make and 10 cents to print.
By show of numbers how many of the physical only community are you gonna check in on November 24th and not find their profile has a damn GTA 6 trophy on it? I'm gonna out every single one on instagram. A digital only game poises to sell 50 million copies in a damn day. So where were gamers?
How many people bought the leaf green and fire red bundle? I seen every collector doing it. Digital only media of 2 decade old software for premium rates. A rip off both in price and medium. Why didnt we emulate to protest them not putting it on cart? Where was the petitions?
He without sin cast the first stone. Im the reason physical died. Not as much as a digital only guy. But Ive contributed. And more so the gaming community spoke with their wallets collectively and killed physical media. Dont blame a company for doing what is financially responsible for their brand. Tbh its sad to say. But we are on rotary phones getting mad at Apple. That's really what this is. And sure in this site. We are a solution. But gamers? They destroyed the hobby for us. They spoon eat shit and call it chocolate mousse. Always did.
So the real question becomes how do you make that 85 percent into 60 or 50? And save physical? Either
1. You dont...
2. You cant...
3. You shant...
We are playing violin on the titanic my dear friends. Love be with all.
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You're overlooking key details from my previous post.
But to sit here and say strreaming is a medium that can be fully eliminated without "any significant loss" is looking at things solely from the perspective of a physical media curator and it directly seeks to effect the quality of my life and is why I get so defensive of it.
By all accounts, physical items, digital files, and premium streaming services can coexist. The third, though, is most unnecessary and could be entirely removed without anything significant lost regarding content itself.
Like the opposite now with some physical media, the entire removal of any means of access is problematic—consumers should be able to choose how they engage.
When I mention that there would be no significant loss should paid streaming services cease to exist, it's in regard to content and the means to access that content—not the secondary nature of what some consider to be more readily accessible. Of course, there are now certain pieces of media exclusively available on streaming platforms, and there are even times when it's removed and becomes difficult to access elsewhere through other means or may even become lost entirely. However, none of those outcomes must exist and could easily be avoided.
Such content could be made accessible through physical items or digital files to purchase, as those forms of ownership will never go away in practice. So yes, if streaming were to end, content can always be made available to consumers through other methods. Physical media and digital distribution will always remain as options for creators to publish their works, as they still are today. So that some media is bound to paid streaming services exclusively and can be deleted on a moment's notice without consumer input is especially problematic and entirely avoidable, and it would ultimately be in consumers' best interest.
I mean I see a lot of people blaming Sony as if they are a boogeyman but where is the self blame? Societal blame? It's always boycott. Why not in April? Gamers waited till the fire become a 5 alarm now they run for the hose?
You're not wrong. The average consumer will accept any form of whatever they want, so long as it's offered and usable all the same as what's been replaced. Though I suppose I'll respond to some other parts of your post.
How many people bought a switch 2 or are considering doing so by show of hands? The console literally makes you sign a contract that states you don't physically own the hardware let alone software. If you move the wrong way, they can brick your entire console. Not from online. From GAMING AT ALL. What stops them from doing that when the next console drops?
You may or may not have read my previous response (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,13196.msg212308.html#msg212308) to when you said this before.
And some of the games are key card only. If anything did they not start code in case?
Product keys have long been associated with physical games, though its early history exists with physical PC games throughout the 90s. For console games though, Sony began selling a subset of items in 2015 called Digitales (https://vgcollect.com/search/%22digitales%22) that were game cases containing voucher codes without a disc. That's the earliest example I've been able to identify for console games providing a code only with physical products. And that example is for first-party items published by Sony, whereas "Download Code Only" copies of Switch games were for third-party titles only, and that remains true for Game-Key Cards for Switch 2 as of the timing of this post. Of course, Sony is also guilty of removing discs from boxed collector's editions starting with Horizon Forbidden West (https://blog.playstation.com/2021/09/04/pre-order-horizon-forbidden-west-now-collectors-and-digital-deluxe-editions-detailed/#comment-1845292) announced in September 2021.
Did they not start the 70 dollar price increase for physical with totk?
Nintendo did not. It was actually NBA 2K21 (https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/07/will-nba-2k21s-70-price-set-a-new-next-gen-console-standard/) published by Take-Two Interactive Software (the same publisher as upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI), which released in November 2020. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom released in May 2023.
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You're overlooking key details from my previous post.
But to sit here and say strreaming is a medium that can be fully eliminated without "any significant loss" is looking at things solely from the perspective of a physical media curator and it directly seeks to effect the quality of my life and is why I get so defensive of it.
By all accounts, physical items, digital files, and premium streaming services can coexist. The third, though, is most unnecessary and could be entirely removed without anything significant lost regarding content itself.
Like the opposite now with some physical media, the entire removal of any means of access is problematic—consumers should be able to choose how they engage.
When I mention that there would be no significant loss should paid streaming services cease to exist, it's in regard to content and the means to access that content—not the secondary nature of what some consider to be more readily accessible. Of course, there are now certain pieces of media exclusively available on streaming platforms, and there are even times when it's removed and becomes difficult to access elsewhere through other means or may even become lost entirely. However, none of those outcomes must exist and could easily be avoided.
Such content could be made accessible through physical items or digital files to purchase, as those forms of ownership will never go away in practice. So yes, if streaming were to end, content can always be made available to consumers through other methods. Physical media and digital distribution will always remain as options for creators to publish their works, as they still are today. So that some media is bound to paid streaming services exclusively and can be deleted on a moment's notice without consumer input is especially problematic and entirely avoidable, and it would ultimately be in consumers' best interest.
I mean I see a lot of people blaming Sony as if they are a boogeyman but where is the self blame? Societal blame? It's always boycott. Why not in April? Gamers waited till the fire become a 5 alarm now they run for the hose?
You're not wrong. The average consumer will accept any form of whatever they want, so long as it's offered and usable all the same as what's been replaced. Though I suppose I'll respond to some other parts of your post.
How many people bought a switch 2 or are considering doing so by show of hands? The console literally makes you sign a contract that states you don't physically own the hardware let alone software. If you move the wrong way, they can brick your entire console. Not from online. From GAMING AT ALL. What stops them from doing that when the next console drops?
You may or may not have read my previous response (https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,13196.msg212308.html#msg212308) to when you said this before.
And some of the games are key card only. If anything did they not start code in case?
Product keys have long been associated with physical games, though its early history exists with physical PC games throughout the 90s. For console games though, Sony began selling a subset of items in 2015 called Digitales (https://vgcollect.com/search/%22digitales%22) that were game cases containing voucher codes without a disc. That's the earliest example I've been able to identify for console games providing a code only with physical products. And that example is for first-party items published by Sony, whereas "Download Code Only" copies of Switch games were for third-party titles only, and that remains true for Game-Key Cards for Switch 2 as of the timing of this post. Of course, Sony is also guilty of removing discs from boxed collector's editions starting with Horizon Forbidden West (https://blog.playstation.com/2021/09/04/pre-order-horizon-forbidden-west-now-collectors-and-digital-deluxe-editions-detailed/#comment-1845292) announced in September 2021.
Did they not start the 70 dollar price increase for physical with totk?
Nintendo did not. It was actually NBA 2K21 (https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/07/will-nba-2k21s-70-price-set-a-new-next-gen-console-standard/) published by Take-Two Interactive Software (the same publisher as upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI), which released in November 2020. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom released in May 2023.
I agree with all of this and appreciate some of the corrections. It figures itd be NBA 2K. Maybe I need to start looking into just how influential take two is with rockstar games and any monopolies they run. Because NBA 2K is as close to a digital fraud as you can go while being legal. They released the same exact game for like a decade. Only changed textures and rosters and added high VC prices. Pay to play brainwashing. Even slightly more predatory than cosmetic sales. I will say this though as.a small add to my points
I believe if we were to pick a area to finger point its digital only purchasers. Because ultimately physical media cant fulfill the niche streaming does and vice versa. It's not even the same business model. But aside from a small wait and maybe a drive to a store. A 70 dollar physical game gives thousands of benefits over a 70 dollar digital only game. And like I said. Aside from a 24 hour prime wait (sometimes not even) digital does nothing greater. Not having to swap discs? Is this what we've become? Lol. I mean I guess I cant tell people how to game. but strictly subjectively I seriously can't even after all these years grasp someone paying the same exact amount for a game they dont own. I mean you can even sell the disc right after you beat it and make 40 or so of your dollars back. Digital media in that sense is also kinda fiscally bizarre to me. At least streaming is it's own world.
Does anyone here have a personal plan to maybe rescue physical or do you just think its dead? I mean can enough of us emulate, go dry wallet and boycott that itll actually matter? It feels like the cool kids planned the pep rally and us nerds dont get a part in the marching band lol.
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Apparently Sony acknowledged things abit more, at least in the case of retailers, and their answer is just to take the old PC game path of putting codes in empty boxes lol I always hated this when PC went digital only, like I have a few games that had this, but to me, if you want to pretend to care about retail, and you are gonna ship boxes to retail anyways, just put a disc in there.
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Apparently Sony acknowledged things abit more, at least in the case of retailers, and their answer is just to take the old PC game path of putting codes in empty boxes lol I always hated this when PC went digital only, like I have a few games that had this, but to me, if you want to pretend to care about retail, and you are gonna ship boxes to retail anyways, just put a disc in there.
That offends me more tbh. Id rather them tell me they give 0 shit and that we are all clung to an antiquated way of life. I think if they tweeted "cope harder" it would have been better than to say they'll throw us a fortune cookie slip in a empty case. Id rather just blunt rejection than to be told this. If you're gonna go digital only at least stand 10 toes down about it. I never got the code in case stuff. It's almost wasteful morally.
At least digital only isn't environmentally classless. A code in a case is for whom? Cult members who live off grid? People who have a rare disease that makes them allergic to the coating of a PSN gift card that they could buy within the same store? People who like the smell of cellophane? Just buy it at home.
Plus they'll still bleed production costs. Like you said. Just add a disc.
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Don't have much to add except this sucks. Ownership is important, consumer rights are important, fair pricing is important, and game preservation is important.