Consoles now cost nearly as much as a PCs, digital purchases are being revoked, and now discs are going away and you’re being locked into one storefront where Sony can charge whatever they want. I’ve enjoyed owning consoles for my entire life but they don’t make sense anymore. Somehow, Sony just made the the Steam Machine look like a smart purchase.
Maybe not the Steam Machine itself, but a dedicated PC plugged into the TV using SteamOS, certainly. That’s going to be my “console” going forward after this gen.
The last reason to own a console just died.
Fuck you Sony. Fuck valve too, completely destroyed ownership of games.
But physical media is the entire point of a console !?
I wonder how much longer we’ll be able to buy 4K Blu-rays then…
There is no GOG or Steam for movies. “Digital copies” are just extended rentals for TV and movies, so anyone revolting against streaming price increases are either pirating or moving to physical, because it’s all that’s left. It pushed me back to physical, for sure, so there’s still money to be made there.
Someone at Sony is feeling very smart and modern right now, totally unaware that PlayStation is now a dead brand walking.
They are a strong brand, but that’s not going to be enough to justify a definitely-$1k+ PS6 compared to increasing handheld and console-like gaming options that are not locked down ecosystems. Their exclusives likely can’t save them, they have been dying out already.
Physical media was one of the few remaining differentiators for hardcore collectors and loyalists. Even if I’m sure it’s a greatly diminished part of their bottom line, it’s a psychological anchor that justifies the existence of a console. Now their console will be just another extremely handicapped and uncompetitive digital box, even if (as recently reported) they copy the Switch dockable format.
For me, the locked ecosystem of consoles was justified by a lower price for the hardware and the option to sell or trade the software. Now that neither is going to be a thing any more, my 40+ years of console gaming will be ending after this gen. It’s gonna be dedicated PCs plugged into the TV from here on out.
Imagine if you will, they released a new ps2 with ps1 backward compatibility and optional discs.
I’d pay $500 right now.
Just use an emulator, even PS3 emulation has gotten pretty good.
It just works on pc btw
Remember when XB1 was going to be digital-only and Sony roasted it so badly Microsoft had to walk it back?
Sad thing is, I always figured this was going to be inevitable. I just didn’t think it would happen this soon.
I just didn’t think it would happen this soon.
I hate to be the one to tell you this but…
That was 13 years ago. That announcement is almost high school aged.
That is why you need a strong competition. Unfortunately Sony doesn’t have one, so they can do whatever they want.
I’m out. I would never buy a console without physical media.
Realistically, with half-finished games on launch and mandatory day one patches, this won’t be a meaningful shift in how much you actually “own” your games, but dropping this 2 days after they deleted 550 movies that folks had bought and paid for and ostensibly “owned” from the ecosystem is a real bad look.
The problem with discs vs. digital never was how much of the game you own or the fact that you can play the same disc 20 years down the road. It boils down to the fact that you can no longer sell the game you own after finishing it.
Or even just lend it to a friend. When I was a kid everyone in my group would get a different game and share them. We barely would have been able to play anything if we didn’t share
See, this is the real problem. Anybody with an MBA is going to look at your statement and think about all the money they didn’t get because they’re too fucking stupid to realize that you would not have bought more games if you had to buy multiple copies. It’s the same thing with like pirating music they used to talk about how much money they’ve lost, and I used to think no I just wouldn’t have bought that album. So they’ve spent all this time trying to figure out how to chase down dollars they never would’ve gotten to begin with.
Yeah the reality is I would have just read (more) books from the library and played fewer video games
I don’t think reselling is the big issue to me; just ownership. Some high-guarantee method of both retaining and controlling the product in question, which is often failed by our technical measures and server checks.
I’m fine with digital, even when it prevents reselling. I’m just less fine with it when license holders have the right to say “No, I’m done!” and pull their side of the contract.
yeah but the way they “release” games the disc is just a series of wget requests for patch files and if they take that endpoint down the disc is worthless.
Yes, it’s less than ideal, but still preferable to having NO way to sell or trade a license while the servers are still up. Games are becoming too big to fit on a single Bluray anyway.
We used to finish games. No update bullshit. A game was done when it was done. Humans can do this shit. Capitalism erodes our skills and our brains.
Just look at crash on ps1. Amazing.
Yes, but also no… For instance there were definitely bugs in Mario 64 that were corrected in later editions of Mario 64 like Mario 64DD and the one that came out on the DS. One very famous bug that’s been corrected is the ability to backwards long jump up the stairs in the upper section of the castle before having enough stars to climb the stairs.
Obviously these weren’t game breaking bugs in the same way that day one patches are fixing things, but it’s also not exactly correct to say it didn’t happen in the before time.
I’m with you, this is an insanely ballsy move. One of the biggest pros of a console is that you could still buy physical games and trade it with friends or sell it used to someone else. If everything is going digital, what’s the point?
Here we even have a local chain that rents you physical games for a week at a time…
For me it’s called a library.
On a side note, while I very much understand people’s general hate of DRM, I am curious if there’d be interest in a digital library service that lets people borrow video games to download with lite-DRM systems attached (something small, to make certain people don’t borrow the whole catalog, and then crack them on the spot)
I’m sure it’s easy for people to come up with gripes about such a system, or any use of DRM, and would express their preference for physical, but: Physical games prioritize/benefit consoles over PCs, and prioritize AAA games for which the costs of large disc printing runs make more sense. You’re not likely to find many copies of Mina the Hollower at libraries.
If people still want for consoles to be physical media, why hasn’t the industry just moved to flash modules?
I’ve been a Steam boy my whole adult life so I don’t understand the desire, but then again Valve hasn’t spent 30 years fucking me over either…
Valve has fucked some over though. I get it. I don’t want some corporate overlord in 19, 15, 20 years just going “nope!” And deleting my purchased games.
Imagine ford coming to your house and taking your dads 1960’s mustang. “This isn’t supported anymore” and loading it up on a flat deck trailer.
Also a steam boy though. Valve has so far proven not to be evil to me and a majority. My deck and steam controller are easily repaired compared to the competition and very open in what you can do with them.
Okay, I think I’m starting to get it. Thanks for the help. In my experience I don’t recall losing access to anything I “owned” from Valve.
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.
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.
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.
In the same week they’re in the spotlight again for removing purchased content from people’s libraries?
Born too late to explore the world, too early to explore space - but just in time to watch the rise and enshitification of the internet and gaming.
Never been a better time to reject modernity and turn to sailing the seven seas!
As companies greedily try to control what I have already purchased more and more, that’s exactly where I’m going.
I might just start actual sailing again instead of gaming.
Guess I’ve purchased my last Sony Console
So their prices drop like Steam games too, right? Riiiight?
Yeah, they’ve got competition just like Steam does. If you don’t buy from Sony’s store, you can buy from…er…okay, I see the problem.
On top of all that Sony is known to actually mass delete content from customer accounts, never to be installed again. No refunds. Something Steam hasn‘t done as far as I know. It just looks like a really bad deal.
Then again I expect Sony to go full cloud gaming so that alone is already bad enough to keep me away.
Careful you’ll summon the people that screech about steam being a monopoly somehow
Even as someone who’s only bought digital on PC/PS4/PS5, this is terrible for everyone in the gaming community from more than a game preservation perspective. This is Sony feeling like they have a locked in user base they can exploit with >$1000 console prices, >$100 game prices and no second hand market whatsoever. This move basically confirms console gaming is a luxury and not something for the masses.
On the PC side, we’re already seeing fewer historical lows in every sale and this move will place even more inflationary pressure on gaming prices as a whole.
Microsoft may not even have a next gen console, let alone one with a disc drive.
