@Rich33 It’s very ambiguous what they said, from all we know the retail presence they’re talking about might be selling only select games via code in a box like GTA 6, unlike Xbox, Nintendo or Steam that allows you to buy keys/codes for almost every game on several storefronts, I hope this is what ends up happening but they’re being sued for not allowing this and so far they prefer to settle them by paying out a few millions instead of going back to how they did it during the PS4 gen, guess only time will tell but their silence isn’t very convincing.
@Swandivetotheasphalt As someone else already said, you can have a monopoly on video games boxes too, and Apple tried to use the same argument for the App Store, it being a platform and arguing people could choose between App Store or Play Store, and again, they lost.
@get2sammyb Sony is in an even worse position than Apple specially with European regulators as they have more than 50% of the EU’s console gaming market share, plus all the ongoing lawsuits for all anti-consumer practices like not allowing to distribute digital games in other storefronts as they did during the PS4 gen.
I agree that allowing other storefronts would upend the entire console business but they simply need to budge a little in the absolute monopoly they clearly want to have with the PS Store, Apple doubled down on their App Store and end up losing in both the EU and Brazil, if Sony takes the same arrogant position regulators WILL crack them down
@ShadowRJ The thing is I don’t think there ever was a plan to mitigate all this otherwise they’d have disclosed it already, they really have nothing else to communicate other than “we’re ending discs production and monopolizing our platform with PS Store, deal with it”.
Perhaps because of the pushback they’ll announce some future countermeasures or store improvements in a blog post but honestly the way Sony is behaving I don’t expect it at all, they WILL lose customers over this but as the recent CoD ports demonstrate, the “ball and gun” gamers is the majority of Sony’s audience and couldn’t care less about physical discs, ownership or purchasing options, but personally if I need to go full-digital it simply won’t be on PlayStation.
This is the true discussion to be had, the digital-only future seems inevitable, even if Sony were to reverse course (which they won’t) they’d only be delaying the end of physical discs production as not only gaming is phasing them out but all mainstream media.
If we’re to live in all-digital future we NEED serious legislation to prevent any of these companies to remove any digital content from your library, force them to distribute digital codes in several storefront as Steam, Xbox, and even Nintendo currently allows, if refused we could even see them forced to allow installing other storefronts on PS hardware as EU and Brazil forced Apple to do so, if they managed to force Apple to open their ecosystem they could easily force Sony to do as well, even easier as Sony controls a much bigger share of the EU’s gaming market than Apple’s share on the mobile market, ironically all this may cost Sony more than just keep producing physical discs…
Sadly most people will only complain for clout just to later pay whatever price Sony decides to charge, look at how many gaming media outlets or streamers were so “outraged” last week but now they all forgot because some old Call of Duty’s were ported to PS.
If anything it proves Sony right, the vast majority of its customers don’t really care about discs, ownership, or having purchasing options, and they’ll allow Sony to get away with it while still retaining a significant base of users who either don’t care or will stay loyal to the brand, I’m accepting complaining will not change a thing but also that PS6 will not be my main platform next-gen.
Never been into PCs, actively despise Windows 11 and yet I’m heavily thinking about it, frankly if Xbox’ Helix delivers on being a hybrid PC/Console and has multiple storefronts that would make it more attractive than a PS6 for me, if Sony doesn’t improve anything on their digital marketplace I’m out long before they’ll be squizzing users when they operate as a monopoly.
If they’ll not reverse course and physical media is dead can’t they at the very least upgrade their digital ecosystem to not be as archaic as it currently is?
That’s what the corporate bootlickers are missing, they’re very quick to dismiss any argument only to defend Sony’s decision completely missing the fact that they have LOTS of room for improvement or many countermeasures they could have to make the only-digital future less jarring, like having a decent refund policy, regionalize pricing, expand into more territories, sell digital games at other retailers, come up with something, anything, even Nintendo is looking much better with the eShop compared to the PS Store, yet if you keep bootlicking they’ll have no pressure to do anything which is what’s going on.
@Dogbreath Back again with that nonsense arrogant take as if digital games were distributed by air alone and data centers used to host them didn’t have any environmental impacts whatsoever…
Wow. They really just tweeted as if there’s nothing else going on, there’s zero justifications or countermeasures, they really did expect us to swallow it and forget.
@BacklogBrad Yeah I wish Bluepoint was given the option to be independent or sell it to someone else, with their expertise and current industry appetite to remake games surely someone would’ve been interested.
@Oram77 I think any explanation or countermeasure should’ve been included in the announcement, the fact we haven’t heard anything yet leads to be believe there simply wasn’t anything, they just expected us to swallow it and forget about it and now are scrambling to come up with some response.
Yes and no, parasocial relationships can be more toxic than corporate silence, but to just drop the worst news for gaming and disappear for a week is just disgusting cowardice, they should’ve already addressed it in some way.
There’s many questions regarding the studios’ future but at least this was better than outright closing them which would have been easier and cheaper for MS to do so, at least there’s that.
@AdamNovice It’s not really usual, it only happened with Toys for Bob and Tango Gameworks was closed but revived by Krafton, honestly if anything they have more financial incentives to downright close the studio so it’s commendable they at least seeked alternatives rather than just closing all 5 studios, I’m honestly more concerned about the teams that remain at Microsoft with 50% of the announced layoffs still looming for the next few weeks.
@Oram77 Yup that’s my thinking as well I buy games wherever I see them cheaper, for new releases I tend to buy them on disc since it’s always more expensive on the PS Store but after 2028 if they really monopolize everything on the PS Store I might go back to buy some games on Xbox if the platform still manages to exist or jump to a PC if prices aren’t prohibitive by then.
@AdamNovice And yet you keep clicking and commenting on every one of them, while some have been repetitive this one is actually a good read as it’s more about the retail presence PlayStation is abandoning which used to be a huge priority for Sony.
@Oram77 It’s still much better than a digital game since you’re able to sell it or lend it, and personally I found Black Flag for $40 instead of the $60 it costs in the PS Store and I already have preorders for most games I want this year on discs, all cheaper than paying the PS Store price, and I’d say we’re helping to prove that people still buy discs even if it’s just a ‘game key-disc’.
And worse if you have the audacity to make an account in another region as you won’t be able to change it ever, did so back with the PS3 as my region wasn’t supported and still to this day there’s no way to change it, making a new account is not an option since all my purchases and trophies are tied on that account.
PlayStation Network really feels archaic compared to every other storefront nowadays, not to mention security wise being the most vulnerable to social engineering, it’s simply not nearly ready enough for it to be the only way games are distributed going forward.
@DennisReynolds Again you’re being so quick to jump at defending Sony and disregard any argument that you didn’t even read my main point, even assuming the 85/15 split is legit for all games (I insist it isn’t) there will be lost sales specially for first-party games as those are the ones that still sell millions of units on physical, so what will happen to first-party studios when game sales are not up to their expectations? Will they blame and punish the studio when Sony is the one forfeiting some sales?
And yes I and everyone on Earth knows the digital trend, and so what? Because of that we should cross our arms and do nothing? It’s not only the end of physical games but the start of a monopoly with the archaic PS Store being the sole way to buy games into 2028, if this is how’s going to be I’d rather be loud on my way out this ecosystem even if bootlickers find me obnoxious, as I said, no one is forcing any of you to click and comment on every article but Sony will not defend itself (literally as they’re hiding in cowardice).
@DennisReynolds Lol perfect example of the defense force being quick to disregard any argument, so now we will disregard a 3 year old leak as ancient and assume the official 85/15 split applies to all games and is not inflated even when many games nowadays simply don’t have any physical release, sure, sure, got any rewards from Sony yet?
Funny how the defense force are choosing to complain about others complaining instead of Sony’s BS, quick to dismiss any argument yet still clicking and commenting on every single article as if they’d be rewarded by Sony for trying to defend them, both hilarious and sad to read.
Here’s an idea for “yet another” article @get2sammyb, look how many Reddit posts are being deleted pointing out the true split between physical and digital sales for many first-party games from the Insomniac leak, it’s far from the inflated 85/15 split reported by Sony and some even still sell more on physical, it’s clear they don’t want to spread this information but it poses a more important debate, if a 2028 first-party game, let’s say Intergalactic, doesn’t reach the sales target will Sony punish the studio when they themselves are forfeiting 50% of potential sales by not having a physical release? With budgets as high and less sales overall they are putting their own studios at risk.
@Northern_munkey Not in my region but that might have to do with the lack of PS Direct, there’s only a handful of retailers that distribute them so they run out quickly or get scalped and has been like this since they launched it, I remember I couldn’t get any when I got my Pro and took the radical option to buy a slim PS5, removed the drive and sold it at discount as a digital console, I’m even thinking about getting a spare whenever I see it available.
I’ve always thought these things have artificial scarcity as there’s random weeks where it isn’t available anywhere, with these week’s news they all but confirmed it.
@AdamNovice For once I hope they keep milking this, keep reposting these news to oblivion, don’t let people forget what they’re taking from us and keep being as loud as possible, it probably won’t change anything but at least we’ll not go down quietly.
@wildcat_kickz And how is providing alternatives “ruining businesses”? Is PlayStation now suddenly running at a loss because they still sell physical games? Come on, don’t make up some BS to help your argument.
In your ‘defense on reality’ what should we do then? Cross our arms, keep quite and collectively allow Sony to do whatever they want? Is it now “performative” to complain? Are we not allowed to ask for alternatives or call for to at least improve their digital policies?
It’s maddening when some get more upset at people complaining at Sony for some BS, than for the BS Sony is pulling in the first place…
@wildcat_kickz “If it doesn’t affect me then complaints are surely overblown”.
It’s disappointing to still read some comments like this, trying to be apologetic to Sony and doing backflips to justify them, we all knew digital games were taking over but to have a sudden cutoff like this doesn’t make you even slightly uneasy? Don’t you think that if PlayStation will become a digital-only platform they must do A LOT of improvements to their tech stack and customer policies? Don’t you think they should have elaborated on these improvements and the impact for the millions of people who still have physical games? 15% of 90 million is still quite a lot of customers they’re kicking in the balls and you expect us to go quietly? I’ll certainly not.
I’ll be very clear, I don’t like an all-digital future, I understand it’s inevitable and always expected Xbox to be the first digital-only platform and Sony beat them to it.
However the Xbox/Microsoft Store is just much better positioned to be an all-digital platform as they allow to sell digital games in several other storefronts often with cheaper prices, they have regionalized pricing and support every country’s currency instead of imposing USD as the PS Store does, their refund policy isn’t nowhere near as restrictive as Sony’s, many games even give you a double entitlement for console and PC, you’re allowed to change regions if for whatever reason you made an account elsewhere or changed country residency, hell even the eShop allows most of these and they’re simply not as restrictive as Sony who seems stuck in the 2010’s, specially with cybersecurity which is the account most vulnerable to be stolen via social engineering and for years they’ve done absolutely nothing to improve it.
@ShadowRJ They are cowardly hiding under a rock not even daring to post anything on social media, they’re waiting for this to blow over and go back to business as usual, it’s up to us to keep being loud even if it won’t change anything.
This goes to show it’s a decision entirely on Sony’s end, there’s alternatives as the manufacturing line will remain open but Sony is just choosing not to, they could reduce production and pass down distribution costs to customers so that few physical copies remain for the people who are willing to pay for them, but again they’re choosing not to, they’d rather go nuclear and cease to produce discs entirely, it’s beyond disappointing how Sony is behaving.
Never before I’ve seen such a fierce pushback against Sony and I’m so glad people are not taking any more BS, I don’t think they’ll change course but all that remains is to keep being as loud as possible and vote with your wallets.
Yeah it was pretty telling from the blog, by the time they introduce new hardware they want to have gotten rid of physical media already so they can avoid the awkward situation of still releasing some PS5 discs while marketing a digital-only PS6.
However I’m still a bit flabbergasted, there’s no one forcing Sony’s hand on this, there’s no crisis situation with the Blu-ray Discs themselves as they’re still very cheap to produce, they didn’t even provide an option to keep physical media as a more expensive alternative, they actively chose the nuclear option of ceasing production entirely and also chose not to elaborate on the impact for the millions of customers who have dozens of physical games, adding to it Sony is the only major platform holder to have a monopoly on digital games for PS5 as all other platforms allow to sell digital games elsewhere, this was their opportunity to change their stance on that and chose not to.
I probably have never been more disgusted and disappointed with Sony than today.
Lmao such a disingenuous and pathetic statement, how exactly they have numbers for how much it has sold on PS5? If they’re so sure why can’t they provide actual numbers? In fact, why don’t they provide sales numbers for every game, console, and subscription sold? Oh right they don’t disclose numbers they can’t brag about.
Can’t believe that with all the turmoil surrounding Xbox (or XBOX) an exec decides comes out with this pathetic fanboy butthurt comment, can’t they focus on more important things like I don’t know, don’t closing the studios they spent billions to acquire?
Honestly it isn’t, been waiting for this game for over a decade and I’m positive it’ll deliver on my expectations, I already knew some disgusting practices were coming and I ready myself buying discounted PSN gift cards to pay for the Ultimate Edition for around $70.
However that doesn’t mean I agree with or like any of these practices and I’d even say this release encapsulates everything that’s wrong with the current industry but it’s not the first time we’ve seen all this, basically every gaming company has had these practices for years now, look at all those premium editions/upgrades that are cut content from the base game, people expecting Rockstar to be a good guy and launch the game at $70 (as many were commenting here just last week) was completely unrealistic, I don’t like it but it’s the way the industry behaves, I bet Take-Two executives were thinking ‘if everyone has gotten away with it, why wouldn’t Rockstar?’
The least they could do is be transparent about this and call it as it is, a digital-only release, both Crimson Desert and 007 proved that you can lock a disc until a day one update is released, not the perfect scenario but even an empty disc holds much more value than a code in a box, this is really just about killing that resell value and second-hand market so they can profit off every single copy sold throughout the years.
It’s so paradoxical they still want to invest in live-service games after losing billions on projects that appealed to no one, but they cancelled the one live-service IP that many players do find appealing, the one they essentially paid 3.7 billion for, it seems they haven’t learned a lot…
Definitely going with the standard edition, really don’t care about some skins you could get variations from while playing, but it sucks that there’s no disc at all, only an empty box with a code and also no edition whatsoever with a map or collectibles.
I completely agree, also in this context they just can’t make any PS6 exclusive games to push the new platform as it’s been traditionally done, doing so would doom those studios as the install base of a $1000+ console would never be enough to cover the costs of a ‘next-gen’ game, and with no exclusives for next-gen there’s no reason to have a next-gen at all.
Comments 974
Re: Here Come the Lawsuits! Sony's Physical Disc Debacle Likely to Keep Its Lawyers Busy
@Rich33 It’s very ambiguous what they said, from all we know the retail presence they’re talking about might be selling only select games via code in a box like GTA 6, unlike Xbox, Nintendo or Steam that allows you to buy keys/codes for almost every game on several storefronts, I hope this is what ends up happening but they’re being sued for not allowing this and so far they prefer to settle them by paying out a few millions instead of going back to how they did it during the PS4 gen, guess only time will tell but their silence isn’t very convincing.
Re: Here Come the Lawsuits! Sony's Physical Disc Debacle Likely to Keep Its Lawyers Busy
@Swandivetotheasphalt As someone else already said, you can have a monopoly on video games boxes too, and Apple tried to use the same argument for the App Store, it being a platform and arguing people could choose between App Store or Play Store, and again, they lost.
Re: Here Come the Lawsuits! Sony's Physical Disc Debacle Likely to Keep Its Lawyers Busy
@get2sammyb Sony is in an even worse position than Apple specially with European regulators as they have more than 50% of the EU’s console gaming market share, plus all the ongoing lawsuits for all anti-consumer practices like not allowing to distribute digital games in other storefronts as they did during the PS4 gen.
I agree that allowing other storefronts would upend the entire console business but they simply need to budge a little in the absolute monopoly they clearly want to have with the PS Store, Apple doubled down on their App Store and end up losing in both the EU and Brazil, if Sony takes the same arrogant position regulators WILL crack them down
Re: PS5's Physical Disc Debacle Will Attract More Anger if This Xbox Rumour Is True
@ShadowRJ The thing is I don’t think there ever was a plan to mitigate all this otherwise they’d have disclosed it already, they really have nothing else to communicate other than “we’re ending discs production and monopolizing our platform with PS Store, deal with it”.
Perhaps because of the pushback they’ll announce some future countermeasures or store improvements in a blog post but honestly the way Sony is behaving I don’t expect it at all, they WILL lose customers over this but as the recent CoD ports demonstrate, the “ball and gun” gamers is the majority of Sony’s audience and couldn’t care less about physical discs, ownership or purchasing options, but personally if I need to go full-digital it simply won’t be on PlayStation.
Re: Brazil Is Taking On Digital Games Ownership and Preservation After Sony Says No More Discs
This is the true discussion to be had, the digital-only future seems inevitable, even if Sony were to reverse course (which they won’t) they’d only be delaying the end of physical discs production as not only gaming is phasing them out but all mainstream media.
If we’re to live in all-digital future we NEED serious legislation to prevent any of these companies to remove any digital content from your library, force them to distribute digital codes in several storefront as Steam, Xbox, and even Nintendo currently allows, if refused we could even see them forced to allow installing other storefronts on PS hardware as EU and Brazil forced Apple to do so, if they managed to force Apple to open their ecosystem they could easily force Sony to do as well, even easier as Sony controls a much bigger share of the EU’s gaming market than Apple’s share on the mobile market, ironically all this may cost Sony more than just keep producing physical discs…
Re: 'Sony Knows a $1,000 PS6 Won't Sell as Much': Analyst on Manufacturer's Plan to Maximise Revenue
Sadly most people will only complain for clout just to later pay whatever price Sony decides to charge, look at how many gaming media outlets or streamers were so “outraged” last week but now they all forgot because some old Call of Duty’s were ported to PS.
If anything it proves Sony right, the vast majority of its customers don’t really care about discs, ownership, or having purchasing options, and they’ll allow Sony to get away with it while still retaining a significant base of users who either don’t care or will stay loyal to the brand, I’m accepting complaining will not change a thing but also that PS6 will not be my main platform next-gen.
Re: Poll: Are You Considering Leaving PlayStation for PC?
Never been into PCs, actively despise Windows 11 and yet I’m heavily thinking about it, frankly if Xbox’ Helix delivers on being a hybrid PC/Console and has multiple storefronts that would make it more attractive than a PS6 for me, if Sony doesn’t improve anything on their digital marketplace I’m out long before they’ll be squizzing users when they operate as a monopoly.
Re: 'They Wait for This Storm to Pass': No Chance of Sony Walking Back Its Decision to Kill Discs, Warns Analyst
If they’ll not reverse course and physical media is dead can’t they at the very least upgrade their digital ecosystem to not be as archaic as it currently is?
That’s what the corporate bootlickers are missing, they’re very quick to dismiss any argument only to defend Sony’s decision completely missing the fact that they have LOTS of room for improvement or many countermeasures they could have to make the only-digital future less jarring, like having a decent refund policy, regionalize pricing, expand into more territories, sell digital games at other retailers, come up with something, anything, even Nintendo is looking much better with the eShop compared to the PS Store, yet if you keep bootlicking they’ll have no pressure to do anything which is what’s going on.
Re: Control Resonant's Fancy PS5 Steelbook Edition Flaunted in the Wake of Sony Ditching Discs
@Dogbreath Back again with that nonsense arrogant take as if digital games were distributed by air alone and data centers used to host them didn’t have any environmental impacts whatsoever…
Re: Sony Ignores the Backlash and Returns to Social Media Almost a Week After Killing Physical Games
Wow. They really just tweeted as if there’s nothing else going on, there’s zero justifications or countermeasures, they really did expect us to swallow it and forget.
Re: Newly Independent Devs Thank Xbox and Keep IP Rights to Their Games
@BacklogBrad Yeah I wish Bluepoint was given the option to be independent or sell it to someone else, with their expertise and current industry appetite to remake games surely someone would’ve been interested.
Re: Reaction: Sony Needs to Start Speaking to Us Again
@Oram77 I think any explanation or countermeasure should’ve been included in the announcement, the fact we haven’t heard anything yet leads to be believe there simply wasn’t anything, they just expected us to swallow it and forget about it and now are scrambling to come up with some response.
Re: Reaction: Sony Needs to Start Speaking to Us Again
Yes and no, parasocial relationships can be more toxic than corporate silence, but to just drop the worst news for gaming and disappear for a week is just disgusting cowardice, they should’ve already addressed it in some way.
Re: 5 Xbox Studios Impacted in Microsoft Layoffs, But No Games Cancelled
There’s many questions regarding the studios’ future but at least this was better than outright closing them which would have been easier and cheaper for MS to do so, at least there’s that.
Re: 'I Know This Is Painful': Xbox Confirms 3,200 Job Losses in Industry Bloodbath
@AdamNovice It’s not really usual, it only happened with Toys for Bob and Tango Gameworks was closed but revived by Krafton, honestly if anything they have more financial incentives to downright close the studio so it’s commendable they at least seeked alternatives rather than just closing all 5 studios, I’m honestly more concerned about the teams that remain at Microsoft with 50% of the announced layoffs still looming for the next few weeks.
Re: Reaction: Travelling the World Made Me Realise What PlayStation Is About to Lose
Removed
Re: Reaction: Travelling the World Made Me Realise What PlayStation Is About to Lose
@Oram77 Yup that’s my thinking as well I buy games wherever I see them cheaper, for new releases I tend to buy them on disc since it’s always more expensive on the PS Store but after 2028 if they really monopolize everything on the PS Store I might go back to buy some games on Xbox if the platform still manages to exist or jump to a PC if prices aren’t prohibitive by then.
Re: Reaction: Travelling the World Made Me Realise What PlayStation Is About to Lose
@AdamNovice And yet you keep clicking and commenting on every one of them, while some have been repetitive this one is actually a good read as it’s more about the retail presence PlayStation is abandoning which used to be a huge priority for Sony.
Re: Reaction: Travelling the World Made Me Realise What PlayStation Is About to Lose
@Oram77 It’s still much better than a digital game since you’re able to sell it or lend it, and personally I found Black Flag for $40 instead of the $60 it costs in the PS Store and I already have preorders for most games I want this year on discs, all cheaper than paying the PS Store price, and I’d say we’re helping to prove that people still buy discs even if it’s just a ‘game key-disc’.
Re: PS5 Bug Removes Playtime Tracker from Physical Games Only
Wouldn’t surprise me if there’s another “glitch” preventing physical games from earning trophies or some other BS.
Re: Sony Underfire Yet Again for Blocking Marvel Tokon in 132 Countries on PC
And worse if you have the audacity to make an account in another region as you won’t be able to change it ever, did so back with the PS3 as my region wasn’t supported and still to this day there’s no way to change it, making a new account is not an option since all my purchases and trophies are tied on that account.
PlayStation Network really feels archaic compared to every other storefront nowadays, not to mention security wise being the most vulnerable to social engineering, it’s simply not nearly ready enough for it to be the only way games are distributed going forward.
Re: Sony Will Have Capacity to Continue Manufacturing Some Game Discs Beyond 2028 Cut-Off Date
@DennisReynolds Again you’re being so quick to jump at defending Sony and disregard any argument that you didn’t even read my main point, even assuming the 85/15 split is legit for all games (I insist it isn’t) there will be lost sales specially for first-party games as those are the ones that still sell millions of units on physical, so what will happen to first-party studios when game sales are not up to their expectations? Will they blame and punish the studio when Sony is the one forfeiting some sales?
And yes I and everyone on Earth knows the digital trend, and so what? Because of that we should cross our arms and do nothing? It’s not only the end of physical games but the start of a monopoly with the archaic PS Store being the sole way to buy games into 2028, if this is how’s going to be I’d rather be loud on my way out this ecosystem even if bootlickers find me obnoxious, as I said, no one is forcing any of you to click and comment on every article but Sony will not defend itself (literally as they’re hiding in cowardice).
Re: Sony Will Have Capacity to Continue Manufacturing Some Game Discs Beyond 2028 Cut-Off Date
@DennisReynolds Lol perfect example of the defense force being quick to disregard any argument, so now we will disregard a 3 year old leak as ancient and assume the official 85/15 split applies to all games and is not inflated even when many games nowadays simply don’t have any physical release, sure, sure, got any rewards from Sony yet?
Re: Sony Will Have Capacity to Continue Manufacturing Some Game Discs Beyond 2028 Cut-Off Date
Funny how the defense force are choosing to complain about others complaining instead of Sony’s BS, quick to dismiss any argument yet still clicking and commenting on every single article as if they’d be rewarded by Sony for trying to defend them, both hilarious and sad to read.
Here’s an idea for “yet another” article @get2sammyb, look how many Reddit posts are being deleted pointing out the true split between physical and digital sales for many first-party games from the Insomniac leak, it’s far from the inflated 85/15 split reported by Sony and some even still sell more on physical, it’s clear they don’t want to spread this information but it poses a more important debate, if a 2028 first-party game, let’s say Intergalactic, doesn’t reach the sales target will Sony punish the studio when they themselves are forfeiting 50% of potential sales by not having a physical release? With budgets as high and less sales overall they are putting their own studios at risk.
Re: PS5 Disc Drives Limited to One Per Order, Sony Acknowledges High Demand
@Northern_munkey Not in my region but that might have to do with the lack of PS Direct, there’s only a handful of retailers that distribute them so they run out quickly or get scalped and has been like this since they launched it, I remember I couldn’t get any when I got my Pro and took the radical option to buy a slim PS5, removed the drive and sold it at discount as a digital console, I’m even thinking about getting a spare whenever I see it available.
Re: PS5 Disc Drives Limited to One Per Order, Sony Acknowledges High Demand
I’ve always thought these things have artificial scarcity as there’s random weeks where it isn’t available anywhere, with these week’s news they all but confirmed it.
Re: Sony Rewarded with Soaring Stocks After Revealing All-Digital Future
The true console war now is consumers vs shareholders…
Re: 'It's a Fairly Dramatic Decision': Shawn Layden Reacts to PlayStation's All-Digital Plan
@AdamNovice For once I hope they keep milking this, keep reposting these news to oblivion, don’t let people forget what they’re taking from us and keep being as loud as possible, it probably won’t change anything but at least we’ll not go down quietly.
Re: PS6 May Not Be the Only Fully Digital Console Next-Gen
@wildcat_kickz And how is providing alternatives “ruining businesses”? Is PlayStation now suddenly running at a loss because they still sell physical games? Come on, don’t make up some BS to help your argument.
In your ‘defense on reality’ what should we do then? Cross our arms, keep quite and collectively allow Sony to do whatever they want? Is it now “performative” to complain? Are we not allowed to ask for alternatives or call for to at least improve their digital policies?
It’s maddening when some get more upset at people complaining at Sony for some BS, than for the BS Sony is pulling in the first place…
Re: PS6 May Not Be the Only Fully Digital Console Next-Gen
@wildcat_kickz “If it doesn’t affect me then complaints are surely overblown”.
It’s disappointing to still read some comments like this, trying to be apologetic to Sony and doing backflips to justify them, we all knew digital games were taking over but to have a sudden cutoff like this doesn’t make you even slightly uneasy? Don’t you think that if PlayStation will become a digital-only platform they must do A LOT of improvements to their tech stack and customer policies? Don’t you think they should have elaborated on these improvements and the impact for the millions of people who still have physical games?
15% of 90 million is still quite a lot of customers they’re kicking in the balls and you expect us to go quietly? I’ll certainly not.
Re: PS6 May Not Be the Only Fully Digital Console Next-Gen
I’ll be very clear, I don’t like an all-digital future, I understand it’s inevitable and always expected Xbox to be the first digital-only platform and Sony beat them to it.
However the Xbox/Microsoft Store is just much better positioned to be an all-digital platform as they allow to sell digital games in several other storefronts often with cheaper prices, they have regionalized pricing and support every country’s currency instead of imposing USD as the PS Store does, their refund policy isn’t nowhere near as restrictive as Sony’s, many games even give you a double entitlement for console and PC, you’re allowed to change regions if for whatever reason you made an account elsewhere or changed country residency, hell even the eShop allows most of these and they’re simply not as restrictive as Sony who seems stuck in the 2010’s, specially with cybersecurity which is the account most vulnerable to be stolen via social engineering and for years they’ve done absolutely nothing to improve it.
Re: Sony's Been Planning All-Digital Future for 'Some Time', Unlikely to Reverse Decision on Game Discs
@ShadowRJ They are cowardly hiding under a rock not even daring to post anything on social media, they’re waiting for this to blow over and go back to business as usual, it’s up to us to keep being loud even if it won’t change anything.
Re: Sony's Been Planning All-Digital Future for 'Some Time', Unlikely to Reverse Decision on Game Discs
This goes to show it’s a decision entirely on Sony’s end, there’s alternatives as the manufacturing line will remain open but Sony is just choosing not to, they could reduce production and pass down distribution costs to customers so that few physical copies remain for the people who are willing to pay for them, but again they’re choosing not to, they’d rather go nuclear and cease to produce discs entirely, it’s beyond disappointing how Sony is behaving.
Re: Everyone's Clowning on Sony's Decision to Go All-Digital, and Rightly So
Never before I’ve seen such a fierce pushback against Sony and I’m so glad people are not taking any more BS, I don’t think they’ll change course but all that remains is to keep being as loud as possible and vote with your wallets.
Re: PS6 Release Now Expected End of 2028, According to Analyst
Yeah it was pretty telling from the blog, by the time they introduce new hardware they want to have gotten rid of physical media already so they can avoid the awkward situation of still releasing some PS5 discs while marketing a digital-only PS6.
However I’m still a bit flabbergasted, there’s no one forcing Sony’s hand on this, there’s no crisis situation with the Blu-ray Discs themselves as they’re still very cheap to produce, they didn’t even provide an option to keep physical media as a more expensive alternative, they actively chose the nuclear option of ceasing production entirely and also chose not to elaborate on the impact for the millions of customers who have dozens of physical games, adding to it Sony is the only major platform holder to have a monopoly on digital games for PS5 as all other platforms allow to sell digital games elsewhere, this was their opportunity to change their stance on that and chose not to.
I probably have never been more disgusted and disappointed with Sony than today.
Re: Reaction: PlayStation's Burned Through the Last Remaining Goodwill of Its Fans
For the first time ever in my life I doubt I’ll get the next PlayStation, that says everything.
Re: PS6 Will Be a Digital Console, And Sony Has Huge Questions to Answer About Backwards Compatibility
Not gonna lie, this ruined my day…
Re: Layoffs at IO Interactive as Project Fantasy Ends 'Relationship with External Partner'
@wildcat_kickz They’re too spent on live service nonsense and it’s not like they’ve been good stewards for most studios this generation either.
Re: Rumour: PS6 Costs Sony Almost $1,000 to Make Right Now
Somehow the Third Console Curse continues…
Re: Microsoft Responds to Reports of GTA 6 PS5 Pre-Orders Trouncing Xbox
Lmao such a disingenuous and pathetic statement, how exactly they have numbers for how much it has sold on PS5? If they’re so sure why can’t they provide actual numbers? In fact, why don’t they provide sales numbers for every game, console, and subscription sold? Oh right they don’t disclose numbers they can’t brag about.
Can’t believe that with all the turmoil surrounding Xbox (or XBOX) an exec decides comes out with this pathetic fanboy butthurt comment, can’t they focus on more important things like I don’t know, don’t closing the studios they spent billions to acquire?
Re: Talking Point: Is GTA 6's Dodgy Ultimate Edition a Deal-Breaker?
Honestly it isn’t, been waiting for this game for over a decade and I’m positive it’ll deliver on my expectations, I already knew some disgusting practices were coming and I ready myself buying discounted PSN gift cards to pay for the Ultimate Edition for around $70.
However that doesn’t mean I agree with or like any of these practices and I’d even say this release encapsulates everything that’s wrong with the current industry but it’s not the first time we’ve seen all this, basically every gaming company has had these practices for years now, look at all those premium editions/upgrades that are cut content from the base game, people expecting Rockstar to be a good guy and launch the game at $70 (as many were commenting here just last week) was completely unrealistic, I don’t like it but it’s the way the industry behaves, I bet Take-Two executives were thinking ‘if everyone has gotten away with it, why wouldn’t Rockstar?’
Re: GTA 6 PS5 Disc Hopes Seemingly Dashed by Rockstar Source
The least they could do is be transparent about this and call it as it is, a digital-only release, both Crimson Desert and 007 proved that you can lock a disc until a day one update is released, not the perfect scenario but even an empty disc holds much more value than a code in a box, this is really just about killing that resell value and second-hand market so they can profit off every single copy sold throughout the years.
Re: Sony Will Continue to Chase Live Service Dream, Despite Mostly Disastrous Execution to Date
It’s so paradoxical they still want to invest in live-service games after losing billions on projects that appealed to no one, but they cancelled the one live-service IP that many players do find appealing, the one they essentially paid 3.7 billion for, it seems they haven’t learned a lot…
Re: PS5 Costs Too Much, But These New Xbox Price Increases Are Just Absurd
Better don't gloat on it, Sony might do the same before the year is over.
Re: PS5 Adds Custom GTA 6 Start-Up Screen, Sony Rebrands PS App as Pre-Orders Go Live
It really feels this entire generation for Sony is riding on this one game.
Re: GTA 6 Ultimate Edition and More Detailed Ahead of Pre-Orders Going Live
@For-Kier It’s the sad truth, as much as we complain the Ultimate Edition will be the most sold game on the PS Store within hours.
Re: Where to Pre-Order GTA 6 on PS5
Definitely going with the standard edition, really don’t care about some skins you could get variations from while playing, but it sucks that there’s no disc at all, only an empty box with a code and also no edition whatsoever with a map or collectibles.
Re: GTA 6 Confirmed to Be an $80 Game
As expected, at least I’m very glad they didn’t go with the early-access scam.
Re: Opinion: The PS6 Cannot Come Out in This Era of $1,000+ Consoles
I completely agree, also in this context they just can’t make any PS6 exclusive games to push the new platform as it’s been traditionally done, doing so would doom those studios as the install base of a $1000+ console would never be enough to cover the costs of a ‘next-gen’ game, and with no exclusives for next-gen there’s no reason to have a next-gen at all.
Re: Rumour: GTA 6 Price Potentially Leaked by European Retailer
Exactly what I predicted the other day.
$79.99 Standard / $99.99 Deluxe and $129.99 Ultimate.