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

blog.playstation.com

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

#481

Post by carra »

mywittyname wrote: post #337
CM30 wrote: post #165

Well, if Nintendo and Microsoft go the same route (and sadly, I see that being almost inevitable at some point), that's probably the end of my interest in gaming as a whole. I generally refuse to 'rent' or 'license' things on a temporary basis, and have decided in this generation that every game I'll get for Switch 2 will be a physical game on cart version, without exception. And the reasons for that are pretty simpl…

Counter-argument: I have a Steam account associated with a day 1 purchase of Half Life 2 (so, 25 years or so). Every game I've ever purchased is still available for me to download, while I lost probably 50% or more of my physical games collection. If I'm renting those games, it sure seems like a good deal. I do appreciate that console online market places have not historically been as well managed as Steam. But also,…

People have got too used to Steam doing things well, but don't forget that: 1) that's not the norm, and 2) there's no telling when it will change. Gabe Newell will retire not too long from now. Will the next one in charge be so lenient? Don't forget what happened with Unity, for instance.

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

#482

Post by PUSH_AX »

sikim wrote: post #465
mywittyname wrote: post #328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For now, it's still possible to crack consoles and extract the games from disk. However, we are probably approaching an era where encryption / trusted computing is so good that future systems will never be cracked. However, the flip side is that so many games are built using common game engines, and receive multi-platform releases. So there's a broader surface area for potential preservation. Maybe the PS6 version is…

> encryption / trusted computing is so good that future systems will never be cracked. I highly doubt this. The platforms that didn't have any jailbreaking scenes weren't because the devices were so secure; it was because there was not enough demand for it. If given enough time, there will always be hacks and bypasses just like Denuvo or hypervisor bypass like the recent hack.

I disagree. Demand for pirated games is still huge, so I don’t think the lack of hacks is just down to lack of interest. Everything points to these protections getting stronger over time. Denuvo, hypervisor-based security, and the recent Xbox hacks all suggest the same thing: bypasses still happen, but they’re becoming harder, slower, and more specialised. I’m not saying future systems will be impossible to crack, but the trend seems to be that beating them is getting harder, not easier.

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

#483

Post by Strom »

gdulli wrote: post #173
alightsoul wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

and yet, Steam is seen as the superior service that deserves to keep their monopoly.

Yes, and it's a tragedy that people have given up so much for the shallow convenience of having a shiny launcher and not having to figure out clicking on setup.exe.

If Steam were that shallow you would see competing efforts like Origin, Uplay, Epic Games Store etc take off. In reality Steam is anything but shallow, it's the cumulation of two decades of adding customer focused features. Competing efforts not only can't be bothered to invest as much into features, but they always add features with the goal of benefiting the store owning company, not the customer. That's a key difference that makes them fail.

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

#484

Post by mikepurvis »

giwook wrote: post #474
mikepurvis wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, for play-online titles for sure, but I think everything up to Xbox 360 / PS3 era has robust emulation and wide distribution of the whole library. Obviously it's gotten harder over the years, but PS4 and PS5 jailbreaks do exist so that means there's a vector for dumping games that were only ever distributed digitally (at least ones released up to the point where the jailbreaks got patched, as the stores will refu…

Current-gen console jailbreaks may exist but are inaccessible to the vast majority of the public so I really doubt they will factor into any decisions made by Sony, Microsoft, etc.

Yes, fair, and that matters if the discussion is "I want to buy someone's physical copy of a game released a few months ago that they are finished with". Digital distribution with robust hardware security does in fact completely destroy that market, though notably Switch and Switch 2 physical games tend to keep their value, suggesting that maybe it has less to do with physical media itself and more than the second hand market follows the pricing set by the digital marketplace, and consumers know that Nintendo doesn't really do discounts, even years later.

All that said, I think my main argument with respect to emulation and root access was less about individuals having that access, and more that so long as someone gains that access even through extraordinary measures, the games can be dumped and distributed, at which point true ownership becomes possible (even if it takes a while for them to become playable on emulation or hacked hardware).

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

#485

Post by guax »

post_break wrote: post #473

The deal with consoles is if you buy physical discs, you can trade them share them or sell them. The deal with PC is if you buy with steam or GOG, you keep the games, upgrade your pc, keep playing them. You can download them to your hard drive and keep them. Taking away physical discs from consoles means the worst of both worlds. You can no longer sell or trade your games, and they are essentially locked to that hard…

And because the hardware gets deprecated the store for that generation also goes away. So even if you keep the hardware working, the games are gone.

A PS3 is still useable today even with the store gone and will be useable for a very long time. The PS6 might become a brick if its secured enough.

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

#486

Post by chocochunks »

IanCal wrote: post #391
somenameforme wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Have profits gone down?

No, but they're also monetizing a bunch of extra ways that they weren't in the past. In the PS2 era, Sony made money from the cut of physical games and accessories and maybe the console itself if it was purchased far enough into the console lifespan. These days they have online subs, cuts of DLC and microtransactions plus all the other stuff they had previously. And they get bigger cuts for DLC, microtransactions and digital games since they are the (only) retailer.

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

#487

Post by osmukka »

Now is the perfect time to jump ship and stop supporting these greedy blood-sucking soulless conglomerates. Game companies and brands like PlayStation, Nintendo, Activision-Blizzard and XBOX have demonstrated time and time again that they don't give a flying fuck about customer satisfaction, quality of service or such meaningless things. The only thing they care about is growing their revenue like cancer and sucking every last fraction of a penny out of customers like a dehydrated vampire. The only reason they are able to do this is because we are allowing them by voting with our wallets against our own benefit.

Luckily people have finally started to notice this and I really hope 20 years from now the previously mentioned companies, among others, have strangled themselves to death with their own greed. I just wish more people realized that they are not actually dependent on the services these companies provide and, in fact, it's quite the opposite. More people realizing this and acting accordingly would make the death of those greedy giants happen faster.

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

#488

Post by [deleted] »

bsammon wrote: post #348
lelandfe wrote: post #38

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] [0] https://www.ebay.com/itm/298370753624 [1] https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/dark-souls-iii/

I own a Nintendo Switch, and I've noticed that in the Nintendo store, old games regularly go on sale for in the ballpark of 80% off. Does that happen in the PS store?

[deleted]

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

#489

Post by lenerdenator »

osmukka wrote: post #487

Now is the perfect time to jump ship and stop supporting these greedy blood-sucking soulless conglomerates. Game companies and brands like PlayStation, Nintendo, Activision-Blizzard and XBOX have demonstrated time and time again that they don't give a flying fuck about customer satisfaction, quality of service or such meaningless things. The only thing they care about is growing their revenue like cancer and sucking…

There's only one thing that gamers love as much as gaming: complaining about how greedy gaming companies are.

But that's an equal love at best. They'll still fork money over hand over fist for games and the associated revenue streams. They're addictive and are literally designed by companies to be that way.

And it goes beyond that these days, really. There's identity and community wrapped up in these online games. Some dude who's been playing WoW since the late part of the Bush administration and who has tattoos and talks daily with his clan or whatever it is literally doesn't have anything else. He's in middle age.

The marketers won.

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

#490

Post by HelloMcFly »

swiftcoder wrote: post #296
mikestew wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ever compare a Blu-ray to the same content over streaming? It's not even close. Unlike vinyl records, Blu-ray is vastly superior in quality to alternatives. In case you're asking "why", it's because your "4K" stream is compressed to hell and back. Your home internet connection doesn't even have the bandwidth to stream the quality of a BR.

> Your home internet connection doesn't even have the bandwidth to stream the quality of a BR. This has not been true for most people for a while now. Even the high end of 4K blue rays tops out around 100 Mbps, which is achievable on pretty much any broadband connection.

> which is achievable on pretty much any broadband connection

It's only achievable in a real sense if there are video providers out there offering the content at that bitrate. The absolute best you can hope for in optimal conditions is from Apple TV+ at between 30-40 Mbps which is equivalent to what you get with a non-4k blu-ray.

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