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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

#521

Post by vel0city »

MBCook wrote: post #183
x13 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Convenience? Maybe a belief the media would be accessible for a long time, versus the ever-changing catalog available from streaming services? Consumers are lured into walled-gardens all the time - consoles, app stores, hardware. Where would you suggest someone purchase a digital license for a movie?

Apple has been selling movies for far longer haven’t they? Amazon is clearly invested in the space. Even Google. From a video game store is the part I find odd. I get walled gardens. Not this one for this purpose.

Being a media player was an integral part of Playstation since the PS2 era. The PS3 was essentially the thing that really pushed Blu-Ray over the line to really cement Blu-Ray as a movie format over HD-DVD.

Movie playback has been a thing for home consoles for decades. It became kind of a joke that the most played Xbox 360 game was Netflix. As more people have moved to streaming media/digital marketplaces, its only natural for those to grow. I've known lots of people who use their Xbox as their main media center that consume movies on Microsoft's storefront. It makes sense Sony would be in the game as well, as after all they even directly produce a lot of content themselves.

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

#522

Post by artisinal »

vel0city wrote: post #515
artisinal wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The TV channel broadcast was 50Hz, 1080p and used image compression. They did not broadcast the master stream directly. That would have cost too much money. It feels misleading to advertise a 4K OLED as the best viewing experience with such a poor source signal.

So your local TV provider's limitations should limit the advertising for all TVs sold? This actually made me look up some of the specs related to the feeds. Quite an interesting read. They apparently are delivering the main feeds in 2160p. https://www.iseurope.org/news/fifa-world-cup-2026-broadcast-... https://www.1001tvs.com/2026-fifa-world-cup-4k-hdr-broadcast...

It’s the national government channel broadcasting the matches in that quality, the local TV providers are just passing it on. Everyone in the country is watching at a low quality feed.

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

#523

Post by Loughla »

lenerdenator wrote: post #493
dogwalker5000 wrote: post #452

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they know consumers are trapped. Gaming is a luxury good. We can all just walk away.

The writing has been on the wall for a decade now for gaming being a purely rental-driven, consumer-antagonistic segment of the software market. People have been talking about "walking away" for at least that long. The soles of those walking shoes are as thick and un-worn as they've ever been.

I'm old enough to remember when people bemoaned the death of physical media, and saw Steam as the death of PC gaming.

Like all things, this too shall pass.

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

#524

Post by chrisjj »

tokai wrote: post #409
chrisjj wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> can i buy a game on steam No you can't. When you pay for a Steam game, you rent not buy it.

Not true. The wast majority of games can be backed up locally and reinstalled indefinitely without online access.

> Not true.

True.

https://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/ "The Content and Services are licensed, not sold. Your license confers no title or ownership in the Content and Services."

> The wast majority of games can be backed up locally and reinstalled indefinitely without online access

That doesn't mean you bought/own them.

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

#525

Post by neilv »

Marcan wrote: post #447
fcsp wrote: post #435

Great buildup on Sony's side to gain trust in this move in the gaming community ahead of this announcement when just this week they again pulled hundreds of "purchased" movies from customer's libraries without refund, reminding everyone that digital content is rented, not owned. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/06/sony-erases-digital-...

And don't forget closing the PS3 and Vita Playstation stores, which they announced at the same time: https://blog.playstation.com/2026/07/01/an-update-on-playsta... This is a weird marketing strategy. They must feel free to do as they please since they know consumers are trapped.

> This is a weird marketing strategy. They must feel free to do as they please since they know consumers are trapped.

I've been on PlayStation family since PS2, and used to think I was married to it, with my game library and my player character stuff/gear/creations in various games.

But the platform no longer lets me play many of those games, anyway, whether due to console gen or server shutdowns. And nobody cares about my PlayStation gamer score or trophies. So there's little tying me to the platform for the next game I buy.

Sony, please don't make me move to "Linux" gaming, via Valve/GOG/Epic (since I don't want to endorse Microsoft hegemony over the low-level gaming "standard"). PlayStation should be a beloved brand and platform that can be trusted to keep games working -- not one that throws away history, nostalgia, and community. You already impose rules on publishers, so this is within your power.

Related: Project Aces, I was fairly highly ranked in a couple of the Ace Combat installments, but when you shut down the servers, you took away what I'd invested in. I reluctantly bought AC7, but found I didn't have the heart to invest in it, just to have it taken away again, and I won't be buying AC8 nor anything else in the franchise.

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

#526

Post by catlikesshrimp »

axus wrote: post #374
Jigsy wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can see this happening with games more after the death of physical media. I saw a screenshot of something like this recently with the pre-orders of GTA VI. They apparently "ran out of digital copies..." of something that doesn't exist yet.

It'd be responsible of them to say that they can only provide 1 million downloads on the first day, or whatever the limits of their contract with the CDN says. Evidence that it's fake!

Why can't an encrypted copy be distributed a week before launch? You would call LAUNCH DAY when you release the 2MB decryption key.

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

#527

Post by vel0city »

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…

> Taking away physical discs from consoles means the worst of both worlds....they are essentially locked to that hardware.

This isn't necessarily true, it really depends on how they go about implementing the sales. The question being, is the sale tied to the hardware or to the account?

I've bought a number of games on the Xbox store over the years. If I were to go buy a new console and log in with my Xbox Live account, I could re-download and play those games. The games aren't permanently associated with any particular piece of hardware, they're associated with the account.

Nintendo's processes have seemed like its tied to the hardware, but since at least the Wii U its technically tied to the account. This may not have been true for the Wii though, but I never really owned the Wii or Wii U. They have sometimes made it difficult to release your account from the old hardware to associate it with new hardware though, sometimes necessitating calling support if you weren't able to disconnect your account from the old hardware.

When transferring accounts to a new Switch 2, my wife's account somehow got locked and it required reaching out to their support for them to unlock it so it could be properly paired to the new hardware. Definitely a frustrating pain on the first day of getting the new console.

The "no longer sell or trade" part is almost always true though. I'm just talking about the game being locked to the hardware.

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

#528

Post by catlikesshrimp »

asveikau wrote: post #278
nottorp wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am in Europe but I just don't do launch prices on any platform or delivery form so I didn't notice that. Obligatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/606/

Off topic, XKCD should put the original publication date on the page. This one references specific years, and I could tell it's from 2009 after thinking about it, but doesn't hit the same way.

I tend to read this shortly after the strip, because I am that stupid. Also because there is no easy mouseover on android. https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/606:_Cutting_Edge

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

#529

Post by vel0city »

t1234s wrote: post #383

My last unit was a PS2 many years ago. Back then you could bring your disc over to a friends house and play on their PS2. Is that still a thing people do?

Back then it seemed like a lot of the big games actually bothered having local multiplayer support.

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

#530

Post by Pxtl »

brendoelfrendo wrote: post #492
Pxtl wrote: post #470

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because valve is a benevolent dictator doesn't mean they don't already have the same dictatorship powers that Sony is currently chiseling out for themselves. I wish NFTs had taken off as a system for managing decentralized transferrable digital purchases instead of being another investment scam.

An NFT is superfluous here. If you buy a digital copy, and someone gives you DRM-free files that you can copy and run anywhere you'd like, you have about as much ownership as you can get over a digital good. In this case, an NFT would just serve as an entry in a crypto ledger that you bought the game... which is an alternative to running a digital storefront and tying game purchases to an account, but it doesn't real…

I mean the NFT as a means of implementing standardized DRM instead of letting companies roll their own copyright laws.
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