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Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation

blog.playstation.com

361–370 of 833 posts

Re: Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation

#361
post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, remember the marketing idea of the "Disney Vault"? In the 90s, Disney would take all their movies in and out of print basically, only selling tapes some of the time, and they'd charge top dollar for them, because you couldn't just walk into Walmart and grab a copy of "Cinderella" anytime. They created scarcity easily this way, since before ebay, finding specific things like a certain videotape at a thrift store…

Hopefully emulation and piracy will continue to provide a reasonable check valve on this getting too far out of control. I don't personally engage in either at present outside of an old homebrewed Wii U, but I feel like the existence of those is important to remind the digital storefront/platform owners that at the end of the day they aren't actually the only game in town. Either that or eventually we'll have to get…

I would attribute Disney's use of scarcity as a primary means to drive film and TV box office and streaming dollars in the Star Wars franchise.

This is already under threat due to the Star Wars AI videos being released on Youtube, seemingly without constraint as of yet.

The videos are not Hollywood quality [0], however they circumvent rules Disney can't easily break like using the likeness of any actor at any age in any circumstance.

These fan made videos get lots of views. Even if they were all removed from YouTube, this will be a difficult thing to stop.

I believe a generally accepted "good" or even "great" unofficial, Star Wars film built without sets or actors using AI is inevitable. And that this will be true for any popular franchise.

The natural corollary to this arc is into games, where using AI to code most or all of a AAA-competitive title would be considered inevitable.

I suspect Disney and Sony have at least someone pointing at this outcome.

[0] I suppose idealized Hollywood quality. They are better than some films.

Re: Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation

#363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except it really is. I don't see how businesses don't understand how this sort of anti-customer predatory behavior, MBA stuff, is directly driving reduced sales. The PS5, for instance, has only managed 96 million sales. For contrast the PS2 managed 160 million sales to a smaller market with much fiercer competition. And I'm one of those tens of millions opting out. The PS2 felt like a great consumer-focused value. Mo…

Gamers are notorious for accepting whatever abuse game companies and studios want to inflict, and then keep buying and buying. All the horrible anti-consumer technologies and business practices from DRM to games that are released unfinished, to kernel-level anti-cheats and rootkits, all are routinely done with video games because the industry knows gamers are fanatics and will put up with anything. If gamers want to…

The whole point is that they aren't accepting it. In terms of sales PS2 > PS4 > PS5. That alone is already a big issue but it becomes just comically bad when you consider that the world population is about 33% larger than during the PS2 era, gaming has become completely normalized, and that the competition in modern times is mediocre.

Re: Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation

#364
post #23

With this news, I have to wonder how much longer bluray will live. Will we continue seeing new bluray releases of movies and TV shows for decades, or are their days numbered? The loss of console gaming presumably removes a guaranteed revenue source that was keeping Bluray pressing plants alive. Sales of DVDs and Bluray have been declining for years [1] [3] . Some people have been excited pushing the news that UHD blu…

[flagged]

Re: Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation

#365
post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A UHD Bluray tops out at about 150Mbps, most home internet is capable of that. It would just cost too much for the streaming services to support it.

But also the reality is that most people have their devices connected through a shitty wi-fi connection and may be effectively limited to 50 or even less mbps, specially if you consider the unpredictability that comes with it.

True. Plus the big streaming services' business model now is low quality content produced in house or with cheap royalties, that people put on in the background. They might have a prestige show or two, but that's just a hook to get you to subscribe, they'd much prefer you watch the cheap stuff.

Re: Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation

#366
post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, remember the marketing idea of the "Disney Vault"? In the 90s, Disney would take all their movies in and out of print basically, only selling tapes some of the time, and they'd charge top dollar for them, because you couldn't just walk into Walmart and grab a copy of "Cinderella" anytime. They created scarcity easily this way, since before ebay, finding specific things like a certain videotape at a thrift store…

Hopefully emulation and piracy will continue to provide a reasonable check valve on this getting too far out of control. I don't personally engage in either at present outside of an old homebrewed Wii U, but I feel like the existence of those is important to remind the digital storefront/platform owners that at the end of the day they aren't actually the only game in town. Either that or eventually we'll have to get…

Don't requirements like online server based verification and advancing crypto make it almost impossible to pirate these games?

Re: Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation

#367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> To illustrate why this is stupid, I will furnish two links to purchase Dark Souls 3 (PS4, 2016) > Ebay, to buy: $11 + shipping[0] > PS Store, to rent: $60[1] Yeah, Sony is stupid to be leaving money on the table like that. Lucky for us, we live in a market system that we can trust to optimize for maximum consumer benefit (like Sony is doing here). It's our revealed choice that we want to pay more for old games.

Although it's just anecdata, after spending $600 on the console, I certainly was dismayed to find 10-year old games only being sold at their original prices. Surely they should at least track inflation? Perhaps Sony could add an optional tipping screen before digital checkout for the good customers.

> Although it's just anecdata, after spending $600 on the console, I certainly was dismayed to find 10-year old games only being sold at their original prices. Surely they should at least track inflation?

Honestly, Sony should just retroactively bill consumers for inflation. Since $60 in 2016 is worth almost $89 today, they should charge all the people who bought the game back then a $29 price adjustment. It's the the only fair thing to do for.

If consumers don't like that option, an alternative can be a perpetual $5/year subscription that additional provides in-game stickers.

Re: Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation

#369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although it's just anecdata, after spending $600 on the console, I certainly was dismayed to find 10-year old games only being sold at their original prices. Surely they should at least track inflation? Perhaps Sony could add an optional tipping screen before digital checkout for the good customers.

What else tracks inflation like that? Do movies?

Movie tickets are now easily $25 a seat.

Re: Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation

#370

Between DRM, DLC, mandatory connectivity and the end of physical media, the future will look back on this era as the 'dark age' of digital gaming history. Maintaining activation servers, cloud storage and digital delivery costs money. If it doesn't disappear when the title reaches EOL, it certainly does when the company is gone or shifts business models. And draconian copyright laws create legal jeopardy around orpha…

Yes, those things cost money, but the money that we want to make, we want to make it today. And this is how we make it. What economic incentive is there for preservation?

(/takes off devil's advocate hat and puts on flame suit)

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