"Digital is just too lucrative"
Despite the overwhelming noise online, one analyst firmly believes that Sony will not reverse its decision to end support for all game discs in 2028. Since last week's announcement, the Japanese giant has been battered by a frankly colossal backlash across social media, YouTube, and enthusiast sites just like this. But well-known game industry consultant Dr. Serkan Toto reckons none of this really matters to Sony. Speaking to IGN, he strongly suggests that this tidal wave of criticism is, ultimately, from a very vocal minority. "I sympathise with physical media fans, but Sony will not reverse this decision," Toto begins."[Sony] of course knew what the online reaction would look like, and they now wait for this storm to pass."
Hideo Kojima describes Sony's decision to end physical games as 'scary', warns that you 'won't own the data'
"Games are a little different because you download them to your hard drive, so the data remains on your hardware," he continued. "However, if games move towards streaming in the future, that will also disappear. It's like streaming subscriptions for movies. Like Netflix or Amazon, there's a server somewhere, and you only have the right to turn on the tap. When you turn it on, the data on the server comes out." He fears that in the future many forms of media will only be accessible via subscription services "from the start" leaving us with no option other than to pay a monthly fee in order to access our favorite titles. "If that happens, what will happen is that I won't own the data," he says. "Some company will own the server and say, 'You can turn on the tap for a certain amount of money each month,' […] and it's certainly conceivable that the data will stop being distributed."
The PS5 And Xbox Series X Generation Has Been A Race To The Bottom
"If you pay attention to the news within the games space, you couldn't possibly miss that we have been in the midst of persistent layoffs and closures for the last half decade. Beloved, successful studios with storied histories have been forced to lay off tens of thousands of workers in aggregate as the corporate pursuit of eternal profit has disenfranchised millennia of collective institutional knowledge. When you factor in how many of those long-tenured games industry workers may simply never return because they can't find steady or secure work, as well as how many younger would-be developers have simply decided to pursue other careers in the name of not having to look over their shoulders in fear of their jobs, the damage to this industry by the shareholder-appeasing corporations has been immense and, likely, irreversible. That, in and of itself, is enough to potentially kill the entire industry, but that's far from the only dramatic downturn gaming has faced this generation."
Study suggests Sony’s digital-only future could lead to higher game prices
Sony’s decision to end production of physical PlayStation game discs beginning in January 2028 has sparked concerns about game pricing, with a new research suggesting that players could end up paying more once physical competition disappears. Dutch technology Tweakers analyzed pricing data for 16 first-party and third-party PS5 games, comparing retail prices with those on the PlayStation Store over the past four years. Using data from its Pricewatch service and PSprices, the report found that physical games are generally cheaper than their digital counterparts. According to the findings, retail prices tend to decline steadily over time as stores compete with one another. By contrast, PlayStation Store prices often remain at their original launch price for years unless a temporary sale is running. Once those promotions end, prices typically return to their previous level. The difference is even more noticeable for Sony’s own exclusives. Tweakers found that first-party PlayStation games are “almost never cheaper than their physical counterparts.”
