I get if they reduced disc output but fully ending is nasty work and stripping away consumer choice. There tons of factors of why people have been going digital lately and I still do a mix of both. I don’t trust the big 3 with a digital only landscape even Switch’s 2 gamekey cards still have issues. I guess the good times are slowly ending.
It says in the article that Sony (and other platforms too) have seen a significant drop in purchases of physical media. So I really think they just don’t care about those customers that rely on it and Even with some backlash this is likely to go ahead (same as with Blu-ray disks which are also being sunsetted). I can’t say I’m surprised that they’re doing this given that they want to stop manufacturing Blu-rays altogether.
I read PS physical sales are currently about 15% of the market. That was about 70 million sales in 2025. Seems dumb to cut that out, but maybe it will work out for them.
It seems dumb to us. But I’m sure they’re (selfishly) considering the cost of manufacturing and distributing physical discs vs the number of people who can and will switch to digital if that’s all that’s available.
Seems risky, since the video game market is in an unprecedented place economically now. It may just be that the old AAA model just doesn’t make sense any more. I’d welcome a collapse of it, but am interested to see what the market can bear.
This 100%. Discs are actually just ewaste these days but we absolutely need competing storefronts on consoles and a way of selling digital licences second hand.
The issue, normies dont understand DRM free digital media. Once its digital its like its invisible. A disc or a tape, is so easy to understand, you just HAVE it and it works.
My tapes from the 80s/90s just work when I put them in. Does a disc game or digital game from even 2018 do that? Likely not.
Ah, with PC it varies. There can definitely be issues when you go back to games made for Windows 7 and earlier, for example. If a game is popular enough, it’s almost guaranteed to have fan-made patches to work on modern hardware, at least.
There is even a patch to enable 16 bit emulation support on x64 Windows (sometimes needed for installers or some weird Windows 3.1 game ports to Windows 95).
I get if they reduced disc output but fully ending is nasty work and stripping away consumer choice. There tons of factors of why people have been going digital lately and I still do a mix of both. I don’t trust the big 3 with a digital only landscape even Switch’s 2 gamekey cards still have issues. I guess the good times are slowly ending.
I would argue that DRM-free has always been what we really need rather than the physical media, particularly in the era of patching.
I’m with you on that which is why I love GOG’s efforts.
True. But also, some places that don’t have reliable Internet access rely on physical media. They’re cutting out part of the market entirely.
I forgot about that part. I hope people get them to rethink this.
It says in the article that Sony (and other platforms too) have seen a significant drop in purchases of physical media. So I really think they just don’t care about those customers that rely on it and Even with some backlash this is likely to go ahead (same as with Blu-ray disks which are also being sunsetted). I can’t say I’m surprised that they’re doing this given that they want to stop manufacturing Blu-rays altogether.
I read PS physical sales are currently about 15% of the market. That was about 70 million sales in 2025. Seems dumb to cut that out, but maybe it will work out for them.
It seems dumb to us. But I’m sure they’re (selfishly) considering the cost of manufacturing and distributing physical discs vs the number of people who can and will switch to digital if that’s all that’s available.
Seems risky, since the video game market is in an unprecedented place economically now. It may just be that the old AAA model just doesn’t make sense any more. I’d welcome a collapse of it, but am interested to see what the market can bear.
This 100%. Discs are actually just ewaste these days but we absolutely need competing storefronts on consoles and a way of selling digital licences second hand.
The issue, normies dont understand DRM free digital media. Once its digital its like its invisible. A disc or a tape, is so easy to understand, you just HAVE it and it works.
My tapes from the 80s/90s just work when I put them in. Does a disc game or digital game from even 2018 do that? Likely not.
Yes. When it comes to Sony, any PS4 game (so from 2013 and on) will work on a PS4 or PS5 with a disc drive.
I meant for PC, sorry
Ah, with PC it varies. There can definitely be issues when you go back to games made for Windows 7 and earlier, for example. If a game is popular enough, it’s almost guaranteed to have fan-made patches to work on modern hardware, at least.
Even without a game being popular, if you sort of know what you are doing, you can “patch” it yourself via relatively easy to use tools:
https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper
There is even a patch to enable 16 bit emulation support on x64 Windows (sometimes needed for installers or some weird Windows 3.1 game ports to Windows 95).
Normies figure it out on a lag, but they get there, with enough exposure to nerds like us.
It’s going to make companies like Limited Run and Video Games Plus more important. You’ll end up waiting a LONG time for a physical release, though.
Since it’s guaranteed the next gen of consoles won’t have disc drives, they’re going to be gone as well.