The funeral of PlayStation discs has begun

Cody Spencer, co-owner of small gaming retail chain Pink Gorilla Games, put it well when I asked about the impact of Sony’s recent announcement that it will stop making discs for new games starting in January 2028. “It’s sad to see. This decision is nothing but negative for gamers. We’re losing the ability to sell games, share games, and own games.”

Sony’s announcement was devastating news to many in the gaming industry. Not just gamers, but also groups like independent retailers and conservationists who are trying to make gaming more accessible.

“This is unfortunate news for those who still prefer to purchase games on physical media, and it is certainly a major blow to consumer rights, the resale market, and game creators whose businesses depend on the physical market,” said Frank Cifaldi, executive director of the Video Game History Foundation. he says in a statement.

Boutique publishers also expressed their regret over the PlayStation announcement. “We are extremely disappointed by Sony’s decision to suspend physical game production in 2028.” iam8bit says in a statement. “Physical gaming is vital to the preservation, ownership, and consumer choice of gaming, values ​​that have guided iam8bit since our first physical release in 2016. Our commitment to these values ​​remains unchanged. Long live physical media.” Lost in the cult, in Her own statementsays it aims to “do everything we can to preserve video games the best we can and we will continue to do so for as long as possible.”

But the move is not entirely unexpected. For a long time now, video game sales have been primarily digital – just look at Capcom saying that 93% of its game sales were digital during the last fiscal year. However, it’s disappointing for people who want games more tangible than data on a hard drive.

The truth is that despite the protest, things will not be different for most people right away. “Physical sales of new PlayStation 5 games have been declining for some time,” says Spencer. “So, right after going digital-only, I don’t think we’ll see a lot of change.”

Within five to 10 years, Spencer expects to see “an increase in prices for physical print titles before 2028 and niche but strong demand for our products.” While this is good for business, “I personally would prefer that not be the case.”

In the future, Spencer says, “the idea of ​​physical video games in and of themselves will be alien and seen as a novelty, and not useful to us at all.” “Our type of store might be thought of as a record store. It’s a place for pretty much the most passionate media fan rather than a place where everyone goes.”

Sony has already been moving toward a potential digital-only future for a while. After all, the PS5 launched in 2020 as a cheaper version without a disc drive, and the PS5 Pro requires purchasing a separate disc drive if you want to play physical games at all. This generation isn’t even the first time Sony has released digital-only devices; Andrew Burman, director of digital preservation at the National Strong Museum of Play, reminded me that the 2009 PSP Go portable didn’t have a UMD drive.

“The challenges of digital preservation are not new, nor are they unique to the video game industry,” Burman says, noting things like the required online connection, frequent game patches, and “most game development only happens using digital tools.” But he says: “It is important that we act now to preserve the history of the industry.”

Borman says there will always be a market for used and new physical toys, pointing to the resurgence of vinyl records. But losing the option of actual PlayStation games still hurts. “From a consumer perspective, choice is important, and losing that choice is unfortunate, especially for those who may not have reliable or fast Internet connections — or just want to feel a sense of ownership over their purchases,” Borman says.

This shift won’t have “as big an impact as you might expect” on the work of heritage preservation professionals, Cifaldi says. “The truth is that this is still a trend,” Cifaldi says in a slightly different version of the statement sent to him. Edge. “Sony PlayStation is not the first to do this and will not be the last, as the vast majority of video games produced over the past two decades were not made for dedicated home video game consoles, let alone pressed for physical media. Even when they were released on physical media, a one-day digital patch was guaranteed, meaning that even though the disc held data in an accessible way, it may not represent the game people actually played. Museums and archives like ours have been preparing for this future for a while, with the expectation that discs will be shelved It won’t be a long-term solution to keeping games fresh.

It is worth noting that the platform owners do this some Save to make their old games available to play. Sony has Intellectual property preservation teamMicrosoft has made a bunch of older games playable on modern Xbox consoles Thanks to the backward compatibility programand the old Nintendo Switch Online catalog is full of classics, including titles from As modern as the GameCube era.

GTA VIwhich will be sold in physical stores but only as a download code in a box, likely serving as a preview of what’s to come. since then It will not be sold on discYou can’t sell the game, borrow it from a friend, or get a cheap used copy for a fraction of the money. Price $79.99. People might put up with that for GTA VIone of the biggest games of all time, but you won’t be satisfied when you have to experience every video game box on the shelf in the store.

Cifaldi calls out trade groups like the Entertainment Software Association, which have done just that She has opposed conservation efforts in the past“To provide useful solutions for archives and museums to legally preserve only digital content and make it available for research.” Cifaldi says the industry “needs to come to the table meaningfully on this issue, because expecting museums to download a copy of Grand Theft Auto VI And hoping it will continue in 50 years is not a solution for conservation.