Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation

Well, I guess that answers the question of whether the PS6 will have an awkward snap on disc drive.

I wonder why Sony or Microsoft don't try to 'game' the used market by becoming the used marketplace for virtual copies. They can charge a commission for every game that changes hands.

I think this is good. We don't need more e-waste for disks that get used for a year and thrown away. The games can live on a tiny hard disk that takes a fraction of the resources to produce.

From a business perspective, I understand this. The physical games sections of most retailers are pitiful these days - take a walk down the PS5 aisle in Target or Best Buy for example. They also have a need to shore up margins if they want to keep subsidizing the hardware during the component crisis. And their biggest competitor, XBox, is in the process of pivoting out of their current pivot and apparently is about to layoff a massive chunk of its workforce.

But at the end of the day, part of what makes a console a console to me is the ability to swap games with friends. If I can't do that easily, why wouldn't I just use Steam?

This comes a week after Sony deleted 500+ movies from people that legally bought them

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/sony-removing-over-50...

Who's to say that the games you buy for the PS6 will be playable in a couple of years?

Rip main stream physical game market.

Long live independent physical game market. We already see people with 3d printed carts, designing labels and making their own homebrew games for retro consoles. Some people are also producing their own big box PC games for the hell of it.

As I continue to largely ignore AAA & mainstream gaming companies I look forward to how the indie gaming market takes advantage of everyone's growing nostalgia for physical ownership of games.

I remember having a goal of eventually publishing on a Nintendo and/or PlayStation console, when I first got in to game dev. Now they've both gotten so far away from gaming as I knew it that I would be embarrassed to publish on either company's consoles.

Now my focus is to be able to publish high quality games that run well on those anbernic/miyoo/ayn-style handheld devices. Those things are actually priced for consumers and the ones that have card slots provide a method for physical media. And of course, using those as a floor, the games could always upscale for more powerful machines.

I'm just so tired of this continual march toward investor appeasement at the expense of the consumers. They're games. They're entertainment. For people to play. Not how I want them to play them; how people want to play them. People shouldn't have to have an account to play them. They shouldn't have to invest a month of rent to play them. They shouldn't have to worry about me revoking their ability to play them. It's just so frustrating to see how far we've gotten from "drop in a quarter and enjoy". The industry is in sad shape and getting sadder by the day.

I'm done with companies whose only goal is maximization of profit via manipulative, engineered outcomes.

I feel the physical disc died a long time ago, most games require heavy patching to fix bugs or download new content, or even in some cases download whole portions of the game, so they rely on PS servers to even function anyway. The only advantage they have is you can sell them or buy used.

I know there's a strong desire for physical media, but games are not the same as movies or music and haven't been for a long time.

My household has been tied to the gaming industry in some form for decades. We’ve owned at least one of every console and handheld during that time, and a myriad of games for each. Collectors Editions, physical copies, digital if there was no other way or it was on sale.

We all agreed that we’re done with this. Nintendo gets a pass for making physical carts, but we’re done with paying full price to rent content in general. That also means no PS6, no Xbox-Whateverthefuck, and avoiding Game Key Cards where possible on Switch 2 (or buying them used).

If it’s not on GOG or Itch.io free of DRM, or there’s no physical copy available for sale, then we’ll wait for a deep discount on Steam or use our family library instead.

Fuck this noise, we’re out.

Imho this is no issue, as long as the game is playable after download without some kind of server or account.

The moment you need an account or server to play you don't own the game. I think governments should step in here. They must force stores to use words like rent or lease instead of buy. That way it is way more clear where you are going to spend money on.

I wonder if the leadership at Playstation and Xbox understands they are killing themselves.

Haven’t bought a physical game in at least 15 years (because of Steam). I do wonder how many people still buy physical copies these days.

Not sure what the sales are like on PS but at least on Steam you can find great deals for the digital copies as well. (You lose the reselling though)

https://www.doesitplay.org

I guess this resource is relevant to the topic at hand. It lists games and whether you can play and complete them fully from disc without an internet connection

I thought CDs were (mostly) no longer being produced. I'm surprised this decision was not made years ago.

Sony just literally stole 500+ movies from PlayStations last week.

Some libraries let you borrow Playstation video games. I wonder if those libraries will have access to a system that allows people to borrow digital video games.

Bye bye then. I love physical collection. If I buy it, it is my copy, not my provider's copy for rent.

Bummer! Based on the current trajectory, PS6 will be the first non-handheld PS I will not own.

Anyone with shitty internet, have fun!

This sucks, especially given the recent content rug pulls by Sony, but as someone who has never owned a current-generation console outside of the PS2/Wii, I'm out of the loop:

What percentage of game discs sold today are even playable without first connecting to the internet and downloading additional content? Not in defense of Sony, I just think this battle may have already been lost and not enough people noticed.

Well, if people would prefer physical discs over digital distribution and would insist of having a proof of ownership, I guess Sony wouldn't have a choice but to prefer physical distribution.

But since customers don't care, who else should care?

I always prefered physical disks. That was my #1 pro-console argument. Without those disks, I simply won't buy anything console related. I vote with my wallet, simple as that.

Of course I know that people will still buy digital disks and then cry when Sony will do something unthinkable like revoking access, but I guess that won't be my problem.

And this is coming right after the news about how Sony will be deleting movies from people's accounts.

I will no longer buy playstations starting now

Starting 2029:

  we don't have your game! and what are going to do now?

AAA game industry is in such a state, that not justifying piracy becomes harder and harder with each day.

Modernity, ladies and gentlemen.

If they are going digital only then they are competing with Steam. They will lose.

what will happen when in 10 years they will want to discontinue those games? will they be hosting them forever? how are we going to preserve all the videogames production from 2028 on?

So this pretty much confirms that GTA 6 won't be sold as disc later on

So physical disc production is ending for new games on Playstation.

At the same time, as @outervale has said: they are shutting down PS3 and PS Vita online stores as well.

AND at the same time as @zache has said & previous discussions about PlayStation Deleting 551 Movies from Customers' Accounts.

WHILE at the same time, Dynamic pricing[0] is occuring where people who buy games are charged more because PS expects them to be able to cough up more money from my understanding

Combining all of this: No physical disc + shutting down online stores + deleting movies from customers accounts + dynamic pricing.

These might basically just be planned obsolence devices while trying to extract as much profits as humanly possible from your wallets.

I remember the dynamic pricing debate and that some people were somewhat tolerable of that, but I think that being tolerable of that is what is causing more and more precedents and an overall situation has occur where things are just increasingly more actively consumer-hostile.

[0]: https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-reportedly-testing-dynamic...

just in time for Sony to sell you a digital game and delete it at their whim

This is another opportunity for the EU to reign in and create a proper definition of ownership so that this does not pass.

Of course, it would be interesting to hear the freemarketeering on this site and how people should "vote with their wallet" and sites/movements such as $freeplaystation.whatever sprouting pseudopolemic nonsense.

It backfired with the PSP Go. It will backfire again. No-go I would buy a console without disks. Sorry. No.

If buying isnt owning a physical disc

then burning dics isnt stealing

Last step is for them to say that due to rising components' cost, they are transitioning to rent-only model for consoles.

This way you will finally own nothing except for maybe console rent arrears.

This sucks but I guess PC has been like this for a long time and no one seems to care/talk about it

One huge downside for this is allowing kids to understand how things work.

A digital delivery world does not teach the same way as children learning to put a DVD into a player, hitting play, and understanding how things get somewhere.

Physical game disks, were also about community, gathering.

This is surprising because Sony obsessed over the isolation it was creating when it released the walkman.

I can't wait to see the impact this will have on game prices due to the monopoly Sony is creating on selling PlayStation games.

Thanks for the fish but enshittification is only getting started.

This is ridiculous, and not long after they've been updating their ToS to require you to sign in and phone home in order to continue to be allowed access to your digital library.

> In response to shifting trends in consumer preference.

I hate this corporate speak. If buying isn't ownership, then pirating isn't stealing.

Didn't Sony get in trouble for deleting movies from devices ? I guess they want to do the same for their console too.

So people should just stop buying games that are not on phyical media. THat will get Sony to change fast.

Aaaand I'm not going to buy a PS6.

On pc there is some competition at least between Steam, epic, gog (the odd one out but I like it) and such. I have no interest in buying a vendor specific computer with only one storefront and no competition.

I don't buy every game on a physical disc—I don't see the point for live service games, for example—but I do have a fairly large collection of physical PS5 games because I like that assurance that I can continue to play that game forever. I guess what we see here is that after 2028 I have no reason to own a PlayStation ever again.

total capture of gaming by cloud streaming by 3030. You thought you owned that thing you paid for? pshaw.

Lol "shifting customer prefs" my ass. Will never buy another Sony product until this is reversed.

> As consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital

_Goddamn citation needed!_

> Sid Shuman (he/him)

Ironic to be excluding the same percent of the population as the population he is being inclusive for

I find this comment substantive in that it may spark introspection by the decision makers in his or similar positions