This guest post is written by Anthony Nash.
The future of physical media has always been a perilous one. As we inch further and further into the world of digital-only goods, Sony recently dealt a major blow to any hopes of ever going back. Earlier this month, it announced it would stop producing PlayStation discs beginning in 2028.
Essentially, this makes the PlayStation 5 or PS6 a system that relies solely on digital purchases. The company called the move the “natural direction” for it, and pointed to consumer trends as the reason why. However, it’s not only a major example of a company misunderstanding its audience and going back on its word, but a sign of the bleak future of media we might be staring right in the face.
From a purely business standpoint, the decision to kill physical game production likely makes some sense. For shareholders, it means bigger margins, which means more money. As Sony said in its announcement, consumers seem mostly over physical purchases. Digital sales account for a staggering 85% of PlayStation’s total sales, according to the company’s latest financial results. Even if these numbers might be inflated by things like free-to-play games, that’s still a LOT of digital sales.
It only makes sense to ditch discs and go fully digital, right?
As is often the case with moves like this, the drastic decision seemed not to have been given much thought beyond the prospect of monetary gain. At its core, the move comes off as a surprisingly tone deaf one from a company like Sony. After all, this is a company that, not even 15 years ago, brilliantly mocked the idea of a digital future, making light of Microsoft’s decision to prevent disc-based game sharing on the Xbox One.
In a quick 20-second promo, Sony proved just why owning a game physically was the way to go. Now, it’s the ones hammering in a giant nail into the coffin that is the age of physical media. In a much broader sense, Sony’s decision paints a truly bleak picture for what the future of “ownership” might mean, and shines a light on why trying to preserve the old ways of collecting is so important.
Over the past decade or so, the world of physical media has slowly gone the way of the dinosaur. It’s no secret that it’s obviously easier to just save time from going to a store, buying a game or movie digitally, and having it immediately. The problem with this is that you simply can’t trust digital content to live forever the same way you can physical. Just a few days before it announced that discs were going away in a few years, for example, Sony announced it was planning on deleting more than 550 digital movies from users’ PSN accounts due to licensing issues.
Folks don’t need to look too far to see how this will inevitably go for their games. The act of delisting a video game has become common practice over the years, with several famous titles like “Deadpool,” the “Marvel Ultimate Alliance” series, and even lesser-beloved titles like “Concord” made completely inaccessible to anyone who didn’t own a physical version.
The Video Game History Foundation (VGHF), a non-profit dedicated to the archival and preservation of video games, has been banging this drum for some time. In a 2023 study, the foundation found that 87 percent of “classic” games (released before 2010) were no longer in release and deemed to be critically endangered due to how unavailable they are.
This might seem like a minor issue, but from a preservation and artistic standpoint, it’s devastating. Hundreds of thousands of games that took hundreds of thousands of hours to make are at risk of being simply lost to time, and with the advent of digital stores, that number is only sure to rise. For an industry worth over $200 billion (and growing), that represents a massive failure and a casual disregard for the history of the medium that’s grown into the world’s biggest money maker.
Sony isn’t alone in this, though. Nintendo and Microsoft have also closed digital storefronts for their older consoles. Rockstar, the makers of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, also made the surprising decision to release “Grand Theft Auto VI” as a digital-only title. While Rockstar probably won’t ever stop selling GTA, huge companies like it and Sony doing this shows smaller companies it’s okay.
Preservation aside, there is also a more nefarious theory bubbling as to what the reasons behind this could be.
For years, the physical games market has been sustained thanks to the world of used games. Stores like GameStop and other brick-and-mortar locations have been a place to go pick up an older, used copy of a game for a discounted price. The problem with this is that companies like Sony see none of the money made from a used game sale. By ensuring everything is done digitally, many fans view this as gaming companies essentially creating a closed monopoly loop for themselves.
Instead of having to worry about players buying games elsewhere, any access to the game is controlled by one party. This makes the prospect of a digital-only future even more bleak, as it really isn’t too hard to envision companies letting this type of greed get out of control.
Despite being a physical media proponent, I’m also a buyer of digital media like most people. It is a significantly easier way to buy games and movies, and it does make for much less clutter. The root issue isn’t digital media, but an unchecked digital-only landscape. Put plainly, digital-only products simply have too many things that need to go right (that historically never do) for it to be the only way to buy media so soon.
Companies have shown they’re not willing to honor purchases even a year after the fact. With licenses and companies constantly shifting, there’s also no way to tell what will or won’t be “yours” in a few years time. The bleakest thing of all here is that there might not be much to be done about it.
Thankfully, it seems like this is a rare case of everyone understanding something is bad right away. Immediately after Sony’s announcement, fans began criticizing the move. A Change.org petition demanding Sony reverse course has already garnered over 300,000 signatures, and its social media channels have been absolutely bombarded with people complaining about the move.
Will this really do anything? It’s hard to say. Sony could very well listen to the feedback and decide to reverse its decision, and would be wise to do so. At the very least, it shows that there’s still an appetite to not yet go into the cold, harsh world of a digital landscape.
Physical media might not be the most perfect solution, but it allows us to preserve our experiences, money, and most importantly, memories, all on our own terms.
Companies may be looking to thrust us into a world where our ownership means little, but that doesn’t mean we have to agree so readily.
Image Credit: YouTube
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