Topic: A petition to stop Sony from cancelling physical games

This is a super serious issue for me. To me, this is the greatest threat the console industry has ever faced. I did not start this petition, but I want to do my damn best to help share it. If we collectors lose, then so be it, but I don’t want to go down without trying.

https://www.change.org/p/stop-playstation-from-going-digital-...

@ShadowRJ There are two petitions now. Here's the other one. It's up to five-thousand verified signatures.

https://www.change.org/p/don-t-kill-the-disc-tell-sony-to-kee...

Pretty much doubt it that Sony is going to listen.

Sony is just like every company and business out there.

No care who they hurt as long as they get what they want and that is profit.

So much for loyalty.

If they go Digital only they had better reduce the price of games or this will be the last console I buy.

I see LOTS of misconception and straight out lying about physical media and ownership.

People say "Even in physical media you do not own anything it is still a licence." and that is not true.

When you buy digital you only buy a licence, a permission to play the game on your device. It can be revoked or removed.

When you buy physical releases you do NOT own the game (the software) you OWN the COPY that has printed the games playable build (inn MOST cases). You own that COPY and can install it or in some cases play directly from it the software that you do not OWN (only the devs own it!).

This can be taken away from you in 2 cases:
1. Someone steal it from you!
2. It is broken or lost (fire, you drop it, you put it in your ass an hold it tight)

Otherwise you OWN that damn COPY and you can care for it so it will last longer or in some cases with cartridges longer than your life.

The problem is people simply aren't buying physical. The real petition is written in the only thing Sony care about - profit. Money. If you want physical games you have to buy physical. For Sony to be willing to cut off a source of income, the physical media sales have got to be pretty dire. I am not talking about you or any individual personally, but I'm willing to bet a vast majority of people complaining about this are buying a lot of games digitally. I'm willing to bet most have also reordered GTA.

@ExoZeo I think the issue is less so that physical sales don't justify the investment in isolation. I think the issue is that Sony profits a lot more off of digital sales. For first-party games, they will keep most of the profits barring payment method costs. No manufacturing, no cuts to retail stores for selling a physical copy. For third-party games, they'd usually only receive around 15% of a sale for licensing fees of a physical copy. There's not an exact number there, but that's the general rule of thumb. Digitally, we know the cut is 30%, so they probably make around double on a digital sales from a third-party compared to a physical sale. Keep in mind then too that from now on all DLC codes that were sometimes bundled into a physical copy will have to be bought through the digital store, equally raising their profits.

I believe they said a few years ago that the digital edition of the PS5 made up for about half of the PS5 sales of that year. It could be that that percentage has only gone up in the more recent years, which might have given them the confidence to make this change now as opposed to earlier. Outside of keeping fans happy, there's really no monetary benefit to Sony making physical sales over digital ones. Especially with how they will now have more control over the marketplace and fully isolate players into their ecosystem. I'm sure that despite their making fun of Xbox at the time with the whole used games debacle, the erasure of that market is equally attractive to them in getting another boost to their source of income.

Again, it all just comes down to what's more profitable for them. Physical sales may have waned over the last generations, but there's no way they were not profitable in and of themselves. This is about removing options and boosting their profits and control over game sales in the process. There's not really a less cynical way to look at it that tracks. The digital only PS5 was just the first step to see if they could get away with it eventually. The rising hardware costs probably exacerbated it.

So I just saw the 2028 cut off date announcement.

I have many concerns. I don't think they should stop offering digital games. I have some contention with the idea that consumers prefer digital only. Some consumers do, and that's ok, but there are many who do not.

I agree that it's important to vote with your wallet, because ultimately that's the only thing a corporation will pay attention to.

I live in Australia, in a non-metro area. Even though we have broadband, it's not perfect. The internet is sometimes unreliable. We are also prone to natural disasters such as flooding which can interrupt some infrastructure and services meaning the internet goes down.

If they propose, along with digital only, some kind of a system of always online account verification, I see issues with this as well.

I doubt they're accounting for a relatively small number of users who may be negatively impacted by this decision, not necessarily directly from Sony's actions, but the lack of options that it may present to consumers in certain circumstances.

This is part of the reason I resent many other services being app-only on a smart phone.

To digress, in Australia about 10% of our adult population are: unable to afford a reliable internet connection, likewise a smartphone or computer, live somewhere where internet coverage is poor or unavailable, or are computer illiterate.

Another angle is the possibility of being unable to use your stuff because of licensing or account suspension. Just look at the way Mojang's handling these single player server only account bans - notably there are a group of "protesters" (bad actors) who are using Mojang's reporting system to get user accounts banned as a statement - I think this form of protest is flawed as it punishes the wrong party - but my point is that I can fire up my PS3 and play any of the games I own without being online, without needing to download an update or verify my account. It's simple.

I also ponder the behind-the-scenes regulatory environment and changes corporations have made to the way services are delivered and charged for. Everything is moving towards a subscription model where I question the costs involved. Yes, businesses make money, they can't ask for nothing, but I wonder what's to stop Sony going the way of Adobe or Spotify or Amazon? Nothing, probably. We are entering the Corporate Dystopian Epoch, where the goal is to have you subscribed to as many services as possible which can be revoked or revised at any time without notice and you have no leg to stand on because They know nobody reads the terms and conditions...

And to revisit the above about infrastructure, that's a two way street. If, for some inconceivable reason, Sony goes tits up, what happens to all of the digital licensing and online only services?

You may compare it to owning a car. I am not free to do with it what I will. I need to have a license. I need to obey road rules. I need to pay to run and maintain it. But if Honda goes bust, I still get to keep the car. Yes, eventually it will break down or wear out to the point where I can't use it any more, but all things eventually end.

Another edit: the risk of losing your whole library should something happen to your account. If it gets hacked, removed, or lost, you're screwed.