NerdyPaul

@Gryffin And I do strongly suspect Sony will face scrutiny under the EU digital market act just like Apple and Google are, as well they should. They are absolutely a gatekeeper by definition

@Sweetz PC is more than Steam and Steam key resellers. There is also GoG, Itch.io, Epic Games, Xbox Store and a plethora of publisher stores to buy on. PC has pretty healthy competition for buying games and that is why Steam tries so hard to stay a good deal for gamers. They sure are not doing it to be charitable. I actually think Playstation should have their own store on PC to tap into that market better than just selling on Steam.

Literally the only place to buy digital games on Playstation is the PS Store and that is why Sony doesn't feel the need to make it better for players.

Also, "just switch platform" is a cop out answer because people have built up digital libraries over the past 2 generations and switching platforms will mean rebuying games.

@LemanRusk I'm all for a Humble, Fanatical or Green Man Gaming like store but for PS, Xbox and Switch 2 games.

@Ainu20 That was the European Commission, not the EU. Stop killing games actually has quite a lot of support among EU legislators.

Good. I kept saying this needs to happen. Maybe now we will get some real movement on the DRM, store monopoly, and refund policy issues. Designate Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo and Steam as gatekeepers under the Digital Markets Act just like you have done with Apple and Google.

@Nexozi I was in a Game store over a decade ago. It was honestly tragic then.

@blah01 That's what I keep saying and I get attacked for it

@Chibbie Nintendo just increased the price of physical games, it was met with a not dissimilar reaction with people throwing around terms like "physical tax" and accusations of "killing physical games".

@Northern_munkey Doesn't seem like a bet that would go well for me right now

I can't help wondering what the reaction would have been like if instead of announcing no more physical games, Sony announced a $20 price increase on physical games to cover the increased cost of producing them while digital prices stay as they are. You would "still have options" after all.

@Shepherd_Tallon I don't think backwards compatibility will be an issue. Playstation has spend the last 2 generations really building up their digital storefront and players have spent that time building up their digital libraries, so Playstation would be insane (ore supremely stupid) to walk away from that. Of course that is just speculation on my part

I can even see them including an optional disk drive specifically for backwards compatibility of game disks already owned

@Titntin I'm keeping an eye on ongoing App Store monopoly action in several key markets, as well as the actions of the EU around the digital markets act. These things are going to be vital in the years ahead.

@Northern_munkey Its the temporary boost in outrage tourist traffic. Once that group loses interest some semblance of normality will return

@Oram77 and attracted the, to quote Steph Sterling, "outrage tourist" group. Fairly convinced that is why we are seeing so many articles about this on here. Gotta capitalise on the outrage tourist traffic

We. Don't. Even. Know. Anything. About. The. PS6. Yet.

It has been pretty much impossible to find a genuine impression of this game due to the frankly frightening use of influencer based marketing and sponsored reviews for this game, and also a pretty toxic fanbase likely built around those influencers. Several people who have critiqued this game have come under pretty serious attack.

It also heavily uses GenAI which I know a lot of people here will care about, and worse they haven't exactly been honest about how it is used, how much it was used and the fact they got caught using copyrighted IP in their use of it.

"In the know Xbox writer Jez Corden"

lol. Thanks for the chuckle

I hope we see some action from regulators going forward.

Let's hope the legal action in the UK over the PS Store monopoly succeeds.

Let's hope Playstation will now qualify as a gatekeeper under the EU digital markets act to result in some decent changes.

I know certain fanboys around here don't like those things but they are necessary to prevent companies abusing their dominant market position.

@Titntin 100% this

@AdamNovice That's an audience problem. And let's not forget one of Playstation's most acclaimed games of the past few years wasn't exactly big budget compared to the average AAA game. There should be room for smaller games and bigger budget AAA games in a diverse portfolio of games. This is a balance Nintendo can get right, no reason Playstation can't do it too.

@get2sammyb AA/lower budget games are not the same as "poorly marketed, unremarkable" games you know. Some of the best games of the past decade are firmly in the AA and indie categories.

@awp69 Yeah that is how all these stories feel to me too. There is nothing concrete about any of them right now

@RagnarLothbrok If anything Pillars of Eternity is actually extremely underrated. They are superb RPGs

@Jacko11 If only Domino's made halfway decent pizzas.

At least Playstation will still make halfway decent games.

@Sakai I guess Domino's needs something to distract from their crap pizzas

I mean if the rumours about the next Xbox just being a living room PC potentially able to play Steam games, there is no need for a disk drive anyway as that is where people will buy their games.

@Nexozi My Switch 2, MSI Claw 8 and PS5 Pro will have to do me for a good long while.

Unless of course the PS6 really is some kind of hybrid in which case I do actually consider selling the PS5 Pro and buying that. I have a strong preference toward handheld/portable play these days.

@Nexozi I don’t know if I will buy it to be honest, although it has nothing to do with ending physical disks.

It’s the potential $1000 price point that gives me pause. Consoles are supposed to be the budget friendly alternative to PC

@Bizzy yeah and that would be a more productive conversation to have around console gaming than just pissing and moaning like petulant children.

There is a conversation to be had around alternative stores on console, DRM on all platforms, modding etc but it is drowned out by the whining

I honestly think physical vs digital is the wrong conversation to be having in 2026. That fight was pretty much lost years ago and they did well to hang on as long as they did.

A far more worthwhile conversation to have is about DRM in games, alternative stores for buying PS games, subscription requirements for playing online and the need for a better refund policy. If we could put the same energy into that conversation that we are seeing complaining about this it could lead to a better experience for all

@dodgykebaab yep once again we have to remind ourselves that online echo chambers are not representative of all gamers.

The loss of physical media won’t move the needle for most people in the real world but the potential price of the PS6 very well could.

@Nexozi over reaction is good for clicks which is good for ad revenue Push Square is gonna milk it for all it’s worth over the next week.

PC has been digital only for the better part of 15 years and barely anyone paid attention. Consoles start to follow suit and it’s basically the end of gaming forever going by the reaction online (stress on online). Truth is this has been coming for a very long time and I wonder how many physical games the loudest complainers have even bought this generation….

Some touching of grass needed methinks because this is a reaction that should be reserved for government agencies that murder civilians in the street not this first world problem.

Well yeah given the state of social media they probably had a bunch of mouth breathing basement dwellers attacking the people staffing the accounts event though those people had no more to do with the decision than you or I

Also, physical != "ownership"
https://petercoffin.substack.com/p/ownership-and-grand-theft-auto-6

I just had a realisation that I haven't bought a non-Nintendo physical game since the PS3 generation. Yeah I am not surprised Sony don't see producing physical games as worth the sales anymore

Numbers don't lie, this is why they are stopping physical distribution. It is simply no longer worth the overheads that physical media carries.

@Porco I bet anyone who jumps ship will be nothing more than statistical anomaly. The sales data trends over the last decade doesn't lie, physical sales are dwindling away and there was always going to come a time when the overheads would not be worth the sales. Playstation will do just fine despite what the noisy terminally online say

Makes sense. The cold hard truth is that the people who care about physical media are a minority, as the sales data clearly shows. We have clearly reached the point where the overheads of physical media just are not worth it anymore.

How can Xbox and Playstation be closing studios and laying people off so much while Nintendo can give everyone a pay rise and invest in a new R&D campus when their console and games are "flopping hard" (according to the internet)?

I'd buy this over GTAVI in November to be honest

The western AAA industry is eating itself and there isn't a publisher not affected, let's be honest. All the acquisitions and the hiring glut that came during covid were always going to have consequences.

Upper management in these corporations is rotten to the core and there needs to be a fundamental change in culture, not just personnel.

@UltimateOtaku91 Layoffs are layoffs and the consequences for those involved are the same regardless of who does the laying off or on what scale.

We need to stop the whataboutism.

@somnambulance "You can’t even blame Phil for this now. This is just how Microsoft does business."

And always has done, all the way back to the 80s.

Hot take: I would rather have a game run at a stable 30fps with consistent frame pacing than have it run at "up to" 60 bouncing all over the place.

@Oram77 For me personally the hard ceiling for price is £700. Any more and I nope out. I suspect the ceiling will be lower for many more people too.

@Oram77 Given the price the PS6 is likely to be, the games will need to leverage the install base of the PS5 or they simply won't do well.

@Bot_Bot_69 Maybe stop paying attention to the scare headlines put out by the tabloid equivalent of the tech media. LLMs are doing really cool things in medicine, in helping to develop effective vaccines etc but those positive uses don't make for good rage bait headlines that get everyone reacting emotionally.

I honestly think AI could make for a truly immersive RPG if it were smartly used. Imagine an RPG world where the characters you meet can truly react to the things you do as a player instead of just saying pre programmed lines of dialogue, or where the world itself adapts to you your actions.

Sadly with discourse being as polarised as it is it won't happen because the pitchfork brigade would come for any studio who tried.