Sony Announce the End of Physical Discs for PlayStation Games

[Kals_Els]

@Widey85

… a weird medium for games - they’re sequential so while you can skip, for games data has to be read all over the disc unlike movies or music which are usually continuous from start to finish. That means slow reading and noisy poor performance to the point most games have to be installed to the hard drive, which takes feckin ages, particularly in this day and age of fast internet speeds where even with SSDs it’s often quicker to download the game than install via the slow disc speeds. Cartridges were an expensive medium but good for performance, and in recent times I am surprised USB keys or SD cards didn’t become more popular as a way to balance cost and speed, while being more resilient than discs - but we know the answer is likely because Sony own the Blu Ray licence and make money from it

It’s not about the tech, it’s about how games can be delisted at any time and a disk would be the only way for anyone to buy it. Which makes it harder to preserve the game.

I agree about better storage like SSDs being a good next step, but we don’t know if any company would be willing to increase their cost to make it happen.

Specially now as storage prices are going up thanks to the AI bubble and everyone is trying to lower their cost.

[SheepDip]

@Kals_Els

Xbox firing people, yeah I acknowledge that it sucks, but they shouldn’t use Xbox being baf. To excuse Sony both firing people and ending physical media on their platform.

Yep. Next week, when the layoffs actually happen, like let’s all be mad at Xbox. I’m right there with you content creators.

But it hasn’t happened yet, and for that matter Xbox hasn’t ended physical disc production yet either. To start with the “both sides are bad” in the video that’s about something Sony has actually done but Xbox will only hypothetically do in the future is deflection pure and simple.

[Widey85]

@Kals_Els

It’s not about the tech, it’s about how games can be delisted at any time and a disk would be the only way for anyone to buy it. Which makes it harder to preserve the game.

I agree about better storage like SSDs being a good next step, but we don’t know if any every company would be willing to increase their cost to make it happen.

Specially now as storage prices are going up thanks to the AI bubble and everyone is trying to lower their cost.

Yeah but the article wasn’t actually about that - everyone is angry (rightfully) about physical games stopping but that article is just saying they hated the medium.

It is odd that instead of coming up with something better, we ended up stuck on a sequential technology just like we did when PCs could use actual cassette tapes.

They’re a poor design for gaming where data can need to be read from anywhere on the disc.

Instead, because they were cheap to produce and the market leader had patents and licensing so made money on them, we got stuck on a loud, poor performing technology - only Nintendo did their own thing for the most part.

People aren’t reading the article and instead assuming what it says from the clickbait headline, whereas it’s actually pointing out the limits of the medium - and for me, that points to how poor Sony’s reign as market leader has been where they’ve not innovated but held us back on technology that doesn’t fit the purpose purely for their profits…

We should have a much better physical medium by now

[gpldavie]

@Fiendflag

… You are 14 years old and want videogames to be your main hobby going forward? cool! You want to play insert any de-listed game? well shit you are out of luck young buddy! but you can always give us money for the 15th installment of that series that will come out next year, just do it quick because we will de-list this one as well in 5 years! This is essentially the all digital future and it’s weird to me that some people handwaving this. I guess they don’t care enough about the medium and they only want to consume here and now and don’t give a f about the history and the future of the medium. It’s sad that a lot of people in the “core” community see the medium as only products that are there to consume so they can pass their time.

We get real here, when you’re 14 you don’t give a utter toss about being able to play a video game some 30 years down the line, if we’re honest about it.

I’ve been gaming since 1982 & there were many games, that could be hard to source after a small or limited print run, even if they were physical, like for example, the Pal Adv Of Batman & Robin on the Mega CD or when you had SEGA withdraw all sales of Fantasia on the Mega Drive due to rights with the family after just 6 months on sale

In the age of people living their lives on the mobile & internet, I really don’t get the issual over going digital. That’s to overlook if it’s digital, then it’s got a footprint online & is much easier to back up with that, of hoping someone will upload an obscure Laser Active disc online from the 90s

I worry more about the games which needed a launcher to even start up or the ones that need you to log into a server, even if they are single-player games. Even if you have a physical version, they’ll be no good, when the server is switched off

[GamepadX]

This might be a hard truth, but people that bought PS5 discs assuming that the PS6 would play them were taking an obvious risk.

[Sparda3g]

PS Twitter, you can come out now.

[Sparda3g]

Domino's Pizza UK (@Dominos_UK) on X

[gpldavie]

@Sparda3g

And what a game that was. The players played for their shirt & our country. They made the nation proud

[Sparda3g]

@gpldavie

And what a game that was. The players played for their shirt & our country. They made the nation proud

It’s an old post. That was with Mexico vs England.

[gpldavie]

@Sparda3g

It’s an old post. That was with Mexico vs England.

I know, I responding to the ‘Pizza’ post

I’m still hungover, but haven’t lost all my senses

[Sparda3g]

Domino's Pizza UK (@Dominos_UK) on X

[Sparda3g]

PS finally tweeted and got bombarded and ratio’d.

[Titan]

'A real betrayal': Local business owners and customers react to Sony's digital-only shift

This popped into my YouTube feed. Local news stations across the country are now reporting on it. You know I didn’t even think how much this would hurt brick and mortar in the long run. They’ve already taken constant hits as people and businesses move to online. Not even having the option of physical would seriously hurt them. If nothing changes we could seriously start to see some shops disappear in the 2030s. Game stop is barely holding on now, but what happens when they have no new PS games to sell? Or more importantly local stores.

[Titan]

My YouTube algorithm is on a war path now

*OFFICIAL* Protest song: Dear PlayStation, Shove It Up Your A$$ (No AI)

[Widey85]

@Titan

…

This popped into my YouTube feed. Local news stations across the country are now reporting on it. You know I didn’t even think how much this would hurt brick and mortar in the long run. They’ve already taken constant hits as people and businesses move to online. Not even having the option of physical would seriously hurt them. If nothing changes we could seriously start to see some shops disappear in the 2030s. Game stop is barely holding on now, but what happens when they have no new PS games to sell? Or more importantly local stores.

Honestly in the UK only independent game stores which often sell more vintage stuff than new exist - GAME bought all their rivals then collapsed and were bought by the Sports Direct owner, so their stores are now just a few shelves in Sports Direct with only a few left standalone.

On the flip side, tabletop and card gaming and comic book stores seem to be doing OK at least