For the first time since making the announcement, Sony has addressed its decision to cease producing physical game discs in 2028, a move that has proven controversial, to say the least.
The bad news for physical fans is that they don’t seem to have any plans on reversing the decision.
In the latest financial call, Sony’s chief financial officer Lin Tao was asked about the decision, and via a translator gave this answer.
“And to this decision, we have received various opinions and people have strong views, and we understand that the community has put forth those views to us. Games are loved by many people. It’s a form of entertainment that’s loved by people, and it’s connected to people’s fond memories in many cases. And so we understand those emotions. We want to consider that. And in the future digital ecosystem, how do we engage the gamers is something that we would like to continue to explore.”
The answer doesn’t really say much. And that’s the key, really: there’s no indication that Sony is even considering reversing the decision they’ve made to move to an all-digital future.
It’s true that the industry has moved to digital being the dominant method of playing games, but there’s actually a lot more to it because physical sales are still stronger than most people even realise.
What’s weird, though, is the lines being drawn. There’s a section of people actively attacking people who want physical games to remain available, which is odd. Why attack them? Even if you never touch physical media at all, having that option on the table does no harm. It’s just an option. Another way of accessing games. I play almost entirely digitally these days, but I want physical to remain as an option because it’s nice to have a little more ownership, and to be able to trade and sell games in order to make the hobby more accessible in terms monetary cost.
Hell, I still buy some big triple-A games physically because I know I can complete them in a week or two, write the review and sell the game to help fund the next purchase.
If someone championing digital gets what they want and physical dies, what did they get out of the deal? Nothing. All that happened was an option they didn’t use anyway being removed. They didn’t gain anything, they lost something. Whereas if physical remains, the digital champions still have lost nothing and are still not effected at all.
I guess I don’t get it. It seems like they’ve fallen into one of the biggest modern social media traps, which is that everyone always wants to be seen as being on the “right” side. People are aware that Sony will most likely stay the course and that physical games will die out, and want to be seen as being on that side of the argument so they can later say “I told you so.”
It seems the physical game champions are aware this is a losing fight. But they still want to stand their ground, and if this ends up being the straw that breaks their backs and stops them buying a PS6, that’s a fair reason. I imagine most of them will actually keep playing into the future, but will still mourn the loss of physical. I tip my hat to them, because they’re standing for something they think is wrong.
I don’t see Sony reversing the decision, and a digital future won’t effect me much regardless, and that’s exactly why I have no issue with people fighting for physical. I think it’s good to have that option on the table. Fight the good fight. Go for it. I just want to be honest with my own position: I’m not going to boycott Sony over this. I don’t like it, but I like gaming and reviewing those games more, so I’ll keep playing. But I also still intend on pointing out that physical games do still sell millions upon millions of copies and thus should remain available, at least for the next generation.
The only reason they want physical gone now, is because the companies benefit from it. But the customer doesn’t, even the customers who are already digitial only buyers.
