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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

#311

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/

It's not just games. For several years the cheapest way to buy a legit U.S. Office 365 sub is to order a physical box from Amazon on Black Friday. Inside the box is nothing but a scratch-off card with the online license key. It's literally cheaper to get printed color packaging overnight delivered to my door than to sign up on the webpage.

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

#312
post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would physical copies matter for this? All physical games have to be signed by Sony anyways so it's not like a third-party can produce them.

They'll be forced to embed alternative stores in the PlayStation. I won't wait for it though. After 28 years of always having a Sony at home, it ends here for me at the age of 35.

> They'll be forced to embed alternative stores in the PlayStation.

Steam Summer sales on a PlayStation? I want that today.

If this decision somehow ends up with Steam and Proton for PlayStation, it will be well worth it. Gaben, please get some lawyers to write to the EU posthaste, and start porting Proton to iOS & PlayStation

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

#313
I feel the physical disc died a long time ago, most games require heavy patching to fix bugs or download new content, or even in some cases download whole portions of the game, so they rely on PS servers to even function anyway. The only advantage they have is you can sell them or buy used.

I know there's a strong desire for physical media, but games are not the same as movies or music and haven't been for a long time.

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

#314
I don't own a PS5, I do own a PS4 however and still buy physical copies of games - some of which of late have been secondhand from CeX - because 1. I don't like renting content, 2. I hate DRM, 3. physical copies are harder to censor.

Sony recently expunged copies of movies people had bought, so I honestly don't trust them not to do the same with games.

Also, they announced the closure of the PS3 store, so that's even less reason to trust that I won't be able to reobtain the games I've bought digitally in the future...

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

#315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's kind of an annoying side effect of this is that you have all this fancy new display tech, like quantum dot LED (marketing term, but w/e), or OLED, but it's all pointless because you're just watching it with crappy compression, negating the quality gains.

The football World Cup 2026 is being broadcast in 1080p with washed out colors. Yet every shop was advertising 4K OLED for the best experience of watching the matches.

Supposedly the master stream from FIFA is in HDR, so if the colors are washed out its probably a bad conversion with your TV provider or TV.

I do agree its insane to me we're still not at 4K coverage for world major level sporting events.

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

#316
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…

> With this news, I have to wonder how much longer bluray will live. I hope that physical media sticks around. DVDs and Blu-rays often include something that digital releases don't: director's commentaries, "making of" featurettes, and other extras. For me, it adds a whole new layer of fun to movies I already like.

The heyday of commentary tracks and extras was long ago, over a decade ago. Except for a few boutique labels like Criterion, distributors found that adding such extra features often wasn’t worth their while in the face of declining physical media sales. So, increasingly one just got the film and little else.

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

#317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But those are still digital-only platforms, with a chance of them disappearing. Epic is the biggest risk there, I think. GoG is an interesting case though, it has loads of games that by and large were available on physical media, but because said physical media is either gone, broken, or in the hands of collectors, getting a physical copy of those games is difficult now. Them being a digital platform re-enables peopl…

GoG is also DRM free, so if GoG dies it's not like you'll lose access to your games. Even if you lose the files, archives will exist. Plus, if you're really that morally opposed to file sharing, you can always put it on a NAS or flash drive. Heck, put it on a bluray if you want to

Plus GOG allow people to download games and store them on a hard drive.

UT99 can't be bought anymore (though I think Epic now allow people to share it freely), but I can still download it (for now), and access my archived copy.

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

#318
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Closing the online store for older systems simultaneously with announcing the dropping of physical media leaves an interesting question for the future. Even if you’ve never bought an online PS3 or Vita game, you’ll still be able to use the systems for physical games. Presumably once the PS6 store is gone, any console is just an ornament if you don’t have access to an account with games already purchased (and how long…

I was having this discussion with my 9 year old yesterday. He mentioned that a friend had Rocket League on their Switch 2 and "it didn't even need a game card". I told him that anything without a physical card can be taken away, the company that made it can decide to take it back or to stop letting it work. Compared that to my old DS which he found along with game cards for Lego Star Wars and Scribblenauts that still…

I mean Rocket League is game focused on matchmaking through an online platform. Its main game types will stop working when that platform goes away. That's just the kind of game it is, its not like playing Lego Star Wars at all.

I see playing a game like Rocket League more in lines of having a membership to club to play a certain game rather than owning a copy of the game to play alone, forever. The club will eventually go away, that's just the nature of such things.

I do agree its a good lesson to teach your kids about the limits and issues of digital "ownership" though.

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

#319

Guess I’m throwing my PS5 out the window and going to PC. This war on physical media is ridiculous. Pretty soon they’re going to require us to buy the console but rent the controllers for the very low price of $79.99 a month.

steam games don't have discs either the real problem here isn't lack of plastic circles

Yeah, but games get bigger and more frequent discounts on pc, besides the base game price for a lot of games sometimes decreased after some years.

I have a PC and PS5, and bought game for PS5 just because they were on disk, despite that they would've ran and look much better on my pc.

Sony is releasing like 2 single-player games a year, I might get a PS6, but I'll be in not rush with so little offering, anything else I'll get on PC.

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

#320
post #293
post #288

How times change https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWSIFh8ICaA

Microsoft just tried a generation too early. They could have gotten away with it this gen, and assuming 2028 will be start of next gen it looks like next gen it will go over without a fight.

> assuming 2028 will be start of next gen

Estimates for next gen used to be 27 or 28. With the RAM shortage, end of 28 is considered the earliest.

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