TL;DR: Last month, videogame fandom mocked people who were only fans of games thru watching streamers. But now Sony discontinuing physical games means that more of us will have no choice but to only experience games thru watching others play.
I find it so ironic, that just last month, the videogame fandom had so much discourse about mocking fans of videogame IPs who only watch streamers but don't play themselves, vs the validity of being a game fan without playing yourself, while there are so many possible factors against people having access to even buying games⦠And then Sony announces no more physical game discs for PlayStation, starting January 2028.
I understand that the videogame industry already has a problem with catering almost exclusively towards "whales", at the expense of neglecting what other players want.
But ending physical games will just exacerbate the situation. Buying games used and at a discount, being able to borrow games, being able to boot up a game on an old system, is how a lot of people can afford to game. When Persona 5 released, I bought it on the PS4, even though it was available on PS5, because I couldn't afford a brand new console. Most of the last games I bought, were during Black Friday sales, because they were disks. (This isn't even mentioning how terrible all-digital is for preservation, the fundamental access to information, and the implications towards Freedom Of Speech.) Just look over to the movie industry and how many shows and movies were deleted from streaming services, simply because the publishing hosts didn't want to pay for those data servers anymore or the licensing royalties anymore. That's already seeping into gaming, every time a live service ends or a game with online features ends that function. That's what the recent "Protect Our Games Act" and "Stop Killing Games" movement were all about. So many people are already apprehensive about just buying a game, when we know the publishers can just delete them from their host servers, whenever it becomes inconvenient or even slightly unprofitable for them. There are so many reasons why physical games are enabling people to be gamers, and so many reasons why all-digital will discourage people from being or becoming gamers.
Because what do people do when they don't have the access or the money for videogames? They watch streamers instead. You can say, "Just save up for the games and consoles you want" and like that one jerk said, "If you really love the games, you'll find a way to pay for it" or whatever. But once GTA6 releases, the entire industry is going to try to raise every game's price to $80. And even when the gen AI bubble bursts, that's still no guarantee that prices for component parts and consoles will go back down to pre-genAI prices. Industries of every type LOVE using a seemingly temporary price hike as an excuse for a "newly accepted normal", then try to keep that price, even when the situations that necessitated the price hikes, finally disappear. So consoles are now $400-$1000...Games might all start being $80 EACH sometime soon... The only ones who will be able to afford videogames are the "whales". The only ones who will NEED to play videogames, are the streamers, whose livelihoods depend on playing games themselves. All the rest of us will have no choice but to accept just being fans by proxy, by watching streamers play, but collecting merch and drawing fanart---but oh, that's "not a real fan, since you didn't play the games"!
So many people are going to leave the videogame hobby. Frankly, I already left it years ago. I spent my last $40 on a game and realized it was still in my unplayed backlog for years, when I decided I may as well have not played the game. I may as well have ONLY watched other people play, through streams. That's what we're all going to have to do now---except for the few "whales" and streamers who make their living thru gaming. They're the only ones who will be left, actually playing games, if this continues. And if they're the only ones left buying, they're going to have to pay more. And when even they get priced out, only the "whales" will be left. And that's not really a multi-generational hobby or an industry with persistence.
My gawd, even indie game publishers sometimes offer special edition physical copies. Will we all become PC gamers, only playing lower budget, indie games in the future? A race to the bottom of pricing? But it's like that meme said, "I Want Shorter Games With Worse Graphics and I'm Not Kidding". Maybe that wouldn't be so bad.
But man, is it going to hurt to say goodbye to the AAA nostalgia titles. ...Except I guess, through watching streamers....for as long as they can play.
