The death of physical media

Yesterday, Sony announced two major decisions, one concerning the PS3 and PS Vita stores, with the other marking the beginning of the end of physical media on Sony consoles.
Just a few days prior, Sony nonchalantly confirmed that over 500 movies will be removed from your video library, once more highlighting why piracy is a necessity.
Oh, the irony.

First of all, take a proper look at the wording in the article about the PS3 and PS Vita store closure:

What this means is that eventually, you will no longer be able to access your digitally purchased content.
At the same time, they force you to go digital, making it the new norm to lose access to content you purchased with your hard-earned money somewhere down the road.

Honestly, I saw all that crap coming for a long time, given that I moved to PC in 2019, with the PS4 being my last ever PlayStation anyways.
Even before we received that news, the PS6 was already an incredibly bad value proposition.
If the PS5’s lifecycle is anything to go by, then we’re looking at a very limited amount of exclusive titles, despite Sony announcing that it’ll stop porting all first-party single-player narrative games from PlayStation Studios to PC.
Besides Astro Bot, there weren’t any true exclusives worth buying the console for.
The only other games I was interested in were also available on PS4 or PC, including Stellar Blade, Ghost of Tsushima, Gran Turismo 7, and Ratchet & Clank - Rift Apart.
While Ratchet & Clank - Rift Apart is a good game, it was yet another step in the wrong direction, giving Ratchet & Clank the Disney treatment.
Compare PS5 Ratchet to PS2 Ratchet and you can see how the games have lost their edgy early 2000s humor, and that Ratchet clearly lost his snarky tone.

On the game side of things, we’re facing a second issue.
Have you noticed these insane release cadences?
The last mainline Ratchet title was Into the Nexus from 2013, Rift Apart dropped in 2021, so 8 years after—and that’s one of the shorter turnaround times.
Just for comparison’s sake, we saw four of the best Ratchet games of all time released in the span of just 4 years back on the PS2. Now we’re getting one game every 8 years—in a best-case scenario.
The last proper Gran Turismo? Also from 2013, with GT7 seeing the light of day in 2022, 9 years after its predecessor.

What about the other anticipated games?
GTA? GTA V was released in 2013 as well, with GTA 6… set for release in late 2026, so 13 years later.
Witcher? Witcher 3 is from 2015. With CDPR aiming for a Witcher 4 release in late 2027, we’re looking at a minimum of 12 years between releases.
TES 6? No official release date yet, 2028 or 2029 at the earliest. That would make it 17 to 18 years between installments.
What about Fallout? Well, since The Elder Scrolls is Bethesda’s priority, and Fallout 4 was released over a decade ago, chances are that we’re looking at two decades between releases.
And that’s just waiting time between releases. This doesn’t even account for the dramatic drop in quality that we’ve seen over the years, the political activism in gaming, and the complete disdain most devs have for their audience.

Furthermore, there is the estimated price point of $1,000+ at release, with most games climbing to at least $80.
Long gone are the days of teens buying their first console, getting one as a gift for their birthday, or unpacking that shiny new console on Christmas Eve.
On top of that, we’re looking at several price increases over the course of the console’s lifecycle, given that AI is here to stay, with RAM going to data centers, not consumers, and further price hikes guaranteed.
I don’t even want to think about what a potential Pro model could cost.
Consoles sold so well because they made gaming affordable. Console makers subsidized consoles and made profits from selling games and deals they held with publishers.
They made gaming effortless. Buy disc, insert disc, play game.
Now it’s buy pretend-disc, realize it’s just a download code, enter download code, download game, download Day-1 patch, lose interest before ever playing the game.
Welcome to modern gaming!

In essence, the blog post was just a big fuck you to all PlayStation fans, or even console fans in general.
But hey, at least Sid Shuman was kind enough to share his pronouns with us, right?
It’s all good!

How is this going to affect us?

A little bit of background info about my relationship to consoles.
I started gaming on a PS2 in the early 2000s, with some weird PS1 Hot Wheels game being the first game I remember playing when I was 4, maybe 5 years old?
My first ever console was a PS3, which I absolutely loved, thanks to free online gaming, fantastic exclusives (Tools of Destruction, A Crack in Time, Little Big Planet, God of War, etc.), and one of the best console UIs of all time.

The 8th generation of consoles was already a step in the wrong direction.
Microsoft tried to get rid of the used games market, which resulted in a major backlash, sealing the Xbox One’s fate before the generation even started.
The PS4, while the better console, highlighted several other issues the industry was steering towards.
Remasters and remakes everywhere, games locked to 30 FPS, live-service titles, and an overall decline in quality troubled the 8th gen consoles.

Besides a jailbroken PS3, I haven’t owned a console since my Xbox One days, back in 2019.
I went full digital-only over seven years ago—with a twist.
While I may occasionally buy the odd game or two per year, I usually just play older games, mostly by emulating titles from the golden era of gaming, including PS2, PS3, GBA, GC, and so on.
For the PS3, I emulate those titles that were outright locked to 30 FPS on actual hardware, or those that had a hard time reaching a steady 60 FPS.
Besides that, I play most PS3 games on actual hardware, which has cost me a total of $80 so far, including the console and a 1TB 2.5” SSD, which is where I store all my games on.

For PC games, I pirate absolutely everything I’m mildly interested in.
Given the state of the industry, there is no other way around; too many games are broken at release, include political propaganda, or get praised by paid shills on social media, despite being subpar experiences.

Me personally, I’m not directly affected by the changes that Sony announced.
But one always has to think about collateral damage and what certain actions may lead to in the near future. And then again, tuning out the second something doesn’t affect us personally is exactly how we got there in the first place.

Gaming will become a luxury

With physical media being phased out, prices for existing physical copies will skyrocket, very likely way before the actual transition takes place in 2028.
Retro gaming has been pricey for quite a while, with sought-after titles raking in hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.
Sony’s decision could not just impact retro titles, but rather modern titles—think PS4 and even PS5—as well.
Physical media allowed players to play some of those “play once, sell” games, such as Hogwarts Legacy and Red Dead Redemption 2, which are great on the first playthrough, but offer nothing on subsequent playthroughs.
Sure, you can technically sell digital games, but it entails severe risks, since you’re breaking Sony’s TOS.
You could create a new account per game, play the game, then sell the account either on eBay or dedicated platforms. Get caught, and your account will be banned. On the buyer’s side, you risk being scammed, so prices for accounts are usually much lower than their physical equivalent.
On top of that, lending games to your friends is going to be a thing of the past.
I distinctly remember every single game I borrowed from a friend, whether it be Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Tony Hawk’s Proving Ground, or Animal Crossing: Wild World.
Why?
Because otherwise, I wouldn’t have given some of these games a chance—looking at you, Animal Crossing.
You and your friends had something to talk about; you could share your experiences and discuss strategies. With digital-only, you’d have to share accounts.
Back in the day, this wasn’t as bad, but still rather risky. With digital becoming the norm, your account becomes increasingly more important, with potentially thousands of dollars worth of content and active payment methods linked to it.
You may be inclined to grant your best friend access to your account, but what about not-so-close friends that you hardly ever speak to? Probably not.

It’s just the beginning

Another important aspect that we can’t forget about is that Sony paved the way for other companies to follow suit.
I have no doubt that both Microsoft and Nintendo will abolish physical media in due time.
This is going to amplify all the downsides I already mentioned above, from price increases to the inability to sell and lend games.
The official stores will become the only source for games, handing them complete control over pricing and distribution.
Remember when we were told that digital games would be cheaper, given that companies would no longer have to pay for boxes, manuals, and shipping?
Pepperidge Farm remembers.

Community

Finally, it’ll take a toll on free speech.
While it sounds completely bonkers at first, it’s exactly what’s going to happen.
The importance of your account grows with the amount of money you spend on digital content. No physical media means more digitally purchased goods.
If you only had the odd item or two bought on your account, you may not care all that much about losing access to it, but what about an account worth thousands of dollars?
You may be inclined to shut up as to not get your account banned for arbitrary reasons.
Anybody who played multiplayer games during the 2010s remembers how unhinged some in-game conversations were. We insulted each other, fucked around, and bonded over stupid shit.
That has long since been a thing of the past thanks to draconian moderation, which can often get you banned for anything from simple trash-talking to having a laugh with your friends.
This will get exponentially worse, and in-game chat will be even more of a ghost town than it already is.

What can we do?

As always, scanning social media after such news would make you think that people are finally fed up, and that the industry is on the verge of changing.
Mark my words: it isn’t.
People are going to buy the PS6, just like people preordered GTA 6.
They sure love talking about boycotting Sony, but they never actually follow through.
In short, as long as companies keep getting away with their bullshit, things will remain the same.

For anybody who is actually fed up, there is always retro gaming, emulation, piracy, and—most importantly—patience.
Always buying the latest game as soon as it comes out will cost you a shitload of money, and oftentimes, you’ll be serving as a beta tester, given that modern games are often unfinished, badly optimized, or bug-ridden.
I, for one, am currently enjoying Ratchet & Clank: Going Command with RetroAchievements, one of more than 200 PlayStation 2 games that are currently in my backlog.