Sony is killing discs – and shows us why it’s a terrible idea

The future of video game preservation has taken a huge hit. Sony announced this morning that starting in January 2028, The company will no longer produce physical PlayStation discsWhich means that from that point on, you can only buy new PS5 games digitally. Meanwhile, Sony also announced that it will do so Beginning to finalize the digital stores for PS3 and PS Vitawhich helpfully illustrates one of the most pertinent issues for the digital-only future of gaming: once stores disappear, so do games. It’s a terrible blow to maintain the medium.

In many ways, both announcements seemed inevitable. It is clear that consumers have largely – but not completely – I switched to buying games digitally. According to Sony Latest financial results for MayAbout 80 percent of PS5 games sold are digital. Meanwhile, just last week, Grand Theft Auto VI Developer Rockstar Games has announced that next time JTA Appears in retail stores in November, It will actually just be a code in a boxwithout disc.

Digital games are more convenient for gamers in some ways. You can set up downloads in advance, keep a large library of games on one console, and take advantage of recurring sales. There are also some notable immediate drawbacks, such as the inability to sell used games Or simply share a copy with a friend. From a publisher’s perspective, digital games are more profitable for Sony and its contemporaries, who no longer have to deal with the costs of disc production.

But the hidden cost of digital transformation comes in the form of video game preservation. Due to the complex nature of consoles and ever-changing formats, maintaining them is already a huge challenge. Back in 2023, the Video Game History Foundation claimed that 87 percent of classic games — defined as anything released before 2010 — They were “critically endangered.”“. The reason for the 2010 outage? That’s when digital storefronts became prominent, portending a bigger problem to come. “Our experiences collecting data for this study suggest that these problems will worsen over time due to the decreased diversity of re-release sources and the long-term volatility of digital game storefronts.” Read the report.

Closing digital stores is nothing new, of course; Just two years ago, Nintendo has closed storefronts for both the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. And while you can still (for now) download games you’ve already purchased, these closures mean that titles exclusive to that particular store can’t be accessed by anyone else. If you buy a 3DS now, you won’t have a way to play Classic puzzle BoxBoy.

In the past, this may have seemed like a minor issue, as the number of digital games exclusive to platforms like the Wii U and PS Vita was relatively small. But as the entire medium moves towards digital, incl Industry-shaking giants like GTA VIthis problem becomes more apparent. Starting in 2028, every PlayStation game comes with an expiration date; Once the PS5 digital store closes, it will become difficult to access a wide range of games. This means not only small digital games, but also major films.

Some steps have been taken to mitigate these problems. Most modern gaming consoles now let you carry your digital library across devices — Xbox has made some notable efforts on this front -And on PC, there’s the GOG storefront An entire program dedicated to keeping old games playable on modern hardware. These are major and necessary efforts, but they are not sufficient in themselves. For one thing, many still slip through the cracks; Mobile games, for example, are very popular, however They are rarely subject to preservation efforts outside of fan projects. No less important is the fact that these efforts depend on the good faith of platform owners. Once a store closes, or no longer makes efforts to keep games playable across multiple generations of devices, it becomes impossible to run the games again legally. (By the way, this isn’t just a problem in games; The shift to streaming has a similar effect on film.)

Physical media is not the best solution to these problems. Discs and cartridges will degrade over time and usually require specialized equipment to use. But it at least gives gamers and preservationists a greater degree of control over how they’re able to collect, share, and preserve those experiences, without having to contend with the whims of console makers like Sony. Trying to keep old games alive is already a nightmare – in 2028, the problem will only get worse.