LogicStrikesAgain

I agree with him, slim chance that Sony backtracks this decision. And they knew there was going to be a backlash, it was just inevitable.

People need to understand that Sony will likely bring back third party key sellers, to increase competition and keep prices in check, if that’s what people are worried about. They will have to, they’re already slammed with so many monopoly lawsuits as it is right now.

To all the fans and collectors, i feel for you, i’m a collector myself, just not necessarily of games. But i have come to terms that the world is increasingly going digital. PC has been digital for ages now.

And personally, i don’t see Sony as having the sole responsibility to keep physical alive, especially if it doesnt really make sense financially anymore. Not that i care that they are making money, i just understand the reality of a company not doing anything out of pure altruism, that’s just not how companies work

Sadly it’s a very saturated market, and very hard to compete, but i wish them luck

@Schonks

Sony are hiding that's worse

Instead of being silent and accepting the negative feedback, you would’ve preferred that Sony had just immediately talked over it by putting out outrageous goals just to satisfy stockholders like Microsoft just did? That would have been better?

Is this what people wanted from Sony when they say they’re cowards and want them to post something? Just gloss over the bad news with some outrageous goals?

Somehow i find Sony’s silence and just taking in the ***** storm a tiny bit more respectable than immediately talking about how you’re planning to be the greatest gaming company ever.

These layoffs really are just another tuesday for Microsoft, it seems

@nessisonett Sorry to hear that man, hope you find something soon 👍🏼

@anoyonmus That’s probably just because of the gradual increase of leaks the past week, which tend to soften the shock impact of such news. If anyone told you a few months ago they will lay off 3200 people and that Double Fine, Compulsion, Ninja Theory, Undead Labs and possibly Arkane Studio wouldnt be under Xbox anymore, people would say that’s crazy

Damn, 3200! Does that include the 4 studios or not? Seeing as some were sold and not layed off per se. I wonder who bought Ninja Theory and Undead Labs though, probably hear more soon.

Also thougt Arkane and Blade were safe, but apparently that’s still up in the air

Xbox has been way worse with physical releases, and it’s highly likely that they were going for a digital only console as well next gen. I hear they’ve been working on digitizing discs, so there might not even be a need for a discplayer in their next console.

But yeah, they just might take this opportunity for some good PR, to at least offer an expandable disc of some sorts. But i highly doubt that would be for anything other than backcompat only, not for next gen game releases. They’ll probably be releasing games digital-only next gen same as PS, seeing as some of their games already dont have physical releases

Having said this, there’s also the chance that Playstation might still offers a disc expansion for PS4&5 games as well, who knows

@Member_the_game Hahaha, that actually made me laugh out loud! Bit of a phantom tag situation there 😆✌🏼

@Member_the_game Oh yeah, there was nothing wrong with your first comment btw. I sometimes type in a very matter of fact way, so i might sometimes come across as more argumentative than i actualy mean to 😅

Also, i removed your tag in my comment, as i realized that my comment was really just more of a broader statement overall rather than a resoponse to your post. I actually agree with your point too, these shareholders seem to be looking at things quite differently lol

Music fans were also upset when Spotify came in and introduced their all digital future. But the majority couldnt care less. In almost every industry, people have chosen digital convenience over physical.

I’m sure people here think i’m defending Sony. I’m not, heck, i even still have a sizeable dvd/bluray/book collections. But even i understand that a digital future is almost inevitable. I’m glad console gaming even held on for as long as it did, especially since PC has been fully digital for ages now

@UltimateOtaku91 Excellent points! 👏🏼

I also don’t understand why the responsibility for keeping physical alive falls solely upon Sony somehow. You’re right that PC, the largest gaming platform, has been digital for ages, through Steam and other platforms. Mobile gaming, the biggest segment in gaming, is indeed also fully digital. There was an article about Xbox going full digital next gen as well, and the reaction was mostly like “oh well, that was to be expected”, people hardly seemed to care. If the shift to digital is indeed the issue, then why aren’t politicians putting pressures on these companies as well.

I get that people are disappointed, i am too. But the concerns for digital ownership also apply to Steam, the App Store, Google Play, and other platforms. And Sony has no more of a moral obligation to keep physical media alive than Netflix or Spotify had when they built their digital only platforms as consumers shifted away from physical

@Stwert PC is also much more expensive than consoles (ex: unsubsidized Steam Machine 👀)so what you pay for in software you get back via lower upfront costs. That’s always been the console business model (although this might also change now)

However, i believe Playstation will reintroduce third party key sellers back in their ecosystem, to bring back more competition in pricing. They will probably have to, if they don’t want to face even more monopoly lawsuits

Netflix, Spotify, Steam and countless others are all digital only companies, without physical releases. They also happen to be the largest companies in their respective media forms. The world has transitioned to digital.

Valve already normalized digital gaming decades ago. We we’re lucky that console gaming has held on to physical for as long as it did. As Shawn Layden said the numbers probably just don’t make sense anymore when 80-85% of the userbase provide 95% of the revenue.

Xbox is also expected to be full digital next gen, as they have been working on digitizing physical media. At this point all we can do is demand stronger digital rights and ownership laws

It seems like a pretty level-headed assessment of what's happened

Yes! 👍🏼

I think Sony phasing out physical media sucks and is disappointing. But lets not act as if Sony created this trend. Spotify, Netflix, Steam and plenty of other companies have focused on digital only acces over the last decades with huge global succes, often becoming the defacto way people consume those media forms. Whether we like it or now, the world has been moving away from physical for a long while now.

I’m all for the pushback if it means companies provide better digital rights, though

What is the alternative? Even more expensive hardware? Seeing as the competition will likely be much more expensive, i’m definitely still interested in the PS6. I’m done speculating what the price will be, i’ll hear it when they announce it and make my decision when the time comes

@Oppyz666 I never said there weren’t. I just said those media forms all went digital. I didn’t say there weren’t any physical left, there are still a few publishers that release physical blu rays etc.

Gaming is also going digital. That doesnt mean there won’t be physical left, there’s still Nintendo and Xbox

I think Sony is at an all time low to a certain part of their userbase. However, i think the majority that doesnt follow daily industry news isnt even aware of whats going on tbh. Some will hear about it months later and just shrug

@StrickenBiged Good point! And i think Sony will have to reintroduce third party key sellers back again, or else they might risk more monopoly lawsuits

@ShadowRJ I dont think Sony expected this to not have a huge backlash. It’s just not something people want to hear but it’s where the industry is headed, unfortunately

Probably send some of that energy over to Steam then to be consistent. PC been digital for ages, and no one seems bothered there 😉

Also, music, films, have all gone digital at some point. Did people think this wasnt going to happen in the console space? There was obviously never a good time to announce this. And while i was pretty surprised and think it sucks. The large majority of the market has spoken. People voted with their wallet, and they voted digital, so 🤷🏻‍♂️

Also, what’s Domino’s beef with Sony? 😂

@FreasurePlanten Oh dont get me wrong, i agree with you, they are definitely waiting it out. It guess it makes sense from a PR perspective. If they dont have any new (positive) details to announce regarding this, then its probably better to not say that much, because reacting to such a volatile crowd isn’t likely to be a good idea. But its also probably not wise to gloss over it by posting other unrelated things, cause that might come across like you really dont give a damn, so they’ll probably wait till it blows over a bit.

I’m merely reacting to people saying they’re cowards or hiding. I dont see it as hiding. I mean it just got announced today. They basically said what they wanted to say, and there’s just not much more to announce at this point. They’re just making sure to not immediately post any dumb unrelated crap so it doesnt come across as totally insensitive. I mean why aggrevate things even further by posting things like the essential games as if nothing happened, im sure that will make the crowd go berserk as well if Sony acts as if it’s just another wednesday

Maybe its just semantics, but its the word “hiding” that i dont really agree with. I dont understand what people expect otherwise from them now? What would they want them to post about? Whatever they post, its probably not going to go down very well, i think.

If they have any meaningful info to share we will probably hear soon enough though.

Edit: Fair enough though, maybe my comment was a bit unclear so i’ve gone back and rephrased it

Why are people even assuming they’re hiding? There’s probably just nothing more they can add to the announcement at this point. They’ve basically announced it, they said what they wanted to say. It’s not like they’re going to argue with these folks about it. I’m pretty sure they expected a reaction like this, and are just waiting for it to blow over.

Honestly, i don’t think they’re going to backtrack on this (although i can’t say anything for certain anymore, crazier things keep hapenning in this industry)
People will just have to deal with it. That might mean moving to a more expensive PC, another competing console, or even find other hobbies if it’s a dealbreaker.

@PuppetMaster

Sadly, even with the backlash, i doubt Hermen, Nishino, or whoever put the stamp on this decision will backtrack their moves. But that's okay cause it's about time Sony learn another lesson not to fvck up their customers and burn the bridge

Their costumers are actually showing that they’re mostly digital now, so i guess they are listening though

@Bionic-Spencer Well, what exactly are they supposed to do if there’s no further details about this to be announced at the moment?

@NerdyPaul Well said (#38)

@get2sammyb I get it, but if there aren’t any more details to announce right now then there’s not really much to post about. They also might not want to post anything else yet, cause it might look like they’re just trying to gloss over it

Honestly, i dont really know what people actually expect right now? They just announced this today. And it doesnt get implemented until 2028. We’ll probably hear about the details soon enough

I mean, is there ever going to be a good time to announce this? I do expect Helix to be fully digital as well though, so i have to wonder why Sony decided to eat this bullet

I must say, i’m very surprised with them going full digital, with not even an optional disc version. But alas it is what it is, this is where the console industry was headed to anyway. I bet Helix will be full digital as well. PC already was a long time of course.

It wont really affect my game buying habits, though, since i’m already fully digital for a while now. But yeah, Sony will have to open up to third party key sellers again

Well, some of my recent comments certainly aged poorly! While i’m not exactly shocked or affected (already digital for a while now), i am actually very surprised that next gen wont have the option for physical

@nomither6 are you blaming the console? It’s not the consoles fault 😜

Someone inform Layden that Microsoft is rumoured to put Steam on their next console

From the looks of it, this has all the makings to be an all time classic and long time staple in the fighting game genre. Looking awesome!

Looking at subtitle 👀 Yo what kind of data has Sony been gathering?

For all the people saying they dont want a PS6, you do realize you dont have to buy one right? Just like you dont have to buy the new Iphone each time one releases.

It sucks that it might cost $1000 though. Personally i’m not priced out, but i’m sure a lot will be. But it is what it is, unfortunately. The whole industry seems to be forced to raise prices due to these big tech companies and their AI gold rush.

I’m sure Sony will do their financial calculations and try to subsidize as much as they can, but if it doesnt make financial sense, then there’s not much they can do. The whole console business model might need to change. Perhaps install payment schemes will be offered or something idk.

Sure, we can all boycott the PS6. But with Playstation out of the game, or even consoles as a whole, there would be even less options left for affordable gaming, as PC prices have also exploded.

In the end, its a pretty sad situation. I hope console gaming survives

Don’t try to a make a live service from the ground up, that hardly ever works. Just make good games, and when they are succesfull just keep developing new content for it, and in that way you will have your live service in an organic way

@PSXB Sony using AI in game development is just a drop in the bucket in the demand for AI. There are thousands of other industries that use AI. Secondly, they’re probably not even the biggest in the gaming industry.

Also, when Tencent, EA, Ubisoft, Square, Sony and even minor publishers use AI, you really think Microsoft, who owns some of the biggest AI platforms like Co Pilot and partially ows ChatGPT, isnt using AI themselves? Come on dude.

Also, i’m pretty sure MS has publicly stated that they use AI in their development

@PSXB

But Sony are also one of the biggest publishers to openly and actively embrace AI in game development. They are feeding the AI gold rush.

Lol, if we’re talking about the use of AI in game development, i’d argue that Microsoft themselves are far bigger users of it than Sony.

Even then, gaming companies using AI isnt even that significant of a demand compared to the thousands of companies across every industry using AI. It’s a drop in a bucket.

Nah, Microsoft is one of the biggest companies driving this AI gold rush with its huge investments, Sony’s part is miniscule compared to it

“It’s worth noting that practically everyone’s been struck by the memory pricing crisis”

What do you mean? This is obviously just Sony being greedy 😈

Nothing at all to do with big trillion dollar companies investing heavily in memory for their AI industries

So there’s currently more than 1K games on the service? Thats awesome! Thanks for this helpful update btw 👍🏼👏🏼

At this point, i dont really care that much anymore. It is what it is, i’ll see when they announce the price and whether it’s worth it to me. All this speculating is a bit of a waste of time

@Fiendish-Beaver

So who is the bad guy really...? 😉

Depends, who is partially responsible for this memory shortage due to large investment in AI, Sony or Microsoft?

Ridiculous timeline. I bet when Sony raises their price though, it’ll be purely due to Sony being greedy 😈

To everyone that bought a PS5 Pro at launch, well done 🙌🏼👏🏼

Can’t come early enough, i’m ready!

I still think that Sony will try to target the mass market. The PS6 was obviously made with a specific price in mind, and that was never intended to be $1000. Now i get that the component pricing will have soured their plans, but i still think they will try to keep things reasonably well priced.

If not, well thats just how its going to be. If Playstation wont be able to subsidize under $1000, then i’m sure Helix will never able to do, so it’ll just be a new dawn in gaming where it’s not for the masses anymore unfortunately

@PuppetMaster Fair enough 👍🏼

@ElectricWizard Yeah, totally bizarre indeed!