Recently it seems as though gaming hardware companies are speedrunning their own extinction. Whether it’s Valve with their over-priced for what it is Steam Machine (that was overhyped to oblivion), Xbox indulging in yet more cuts – sacking a massive chunk of their workforce and offloading studios big Phil brought in, or PlayStation deciding that making physical games is just not worth it anymore (estimated over 70 million disc sales last year – which conservatively I make to about three billion five hundred million in revenue). It’s tough to be a gamer right now.
For the players?
So last year was a bit of a gaming drought for me, yes there is the backlog, and Metal Gear Solid Delta was good (Black Ops 7 was not), and Arc Raiders is fantastic, albeit getting a little stale when waiting for big updates, and I enjoyed my time with Resident Evil 9 – going as far as to say it’s in my top three RE games (seriously there’s something for everyone in that game), but this year looked promising. We’re just off the back of what many are calling the unofficial E3, with a plethora of game announcements (that hopefully won’t get cancelled, looking at you Senua), and it got me hyped, excited again, like I was 18 waiting for the PS4 to hit the shelves.
Note that out of the 4 games mentioned 3 were purchased at my local independant game shop (yes I still have one and cherish it dearly), with Arc being the only digital purchase as it does not have a physical version. This is important as games bought physically are typically the same price, if not way cheaper, than their digital counterparts, and can be traded in if they are super stinky, so you can try a new one or simply lend to a friend. Point being you have more options as a customer, and games can still be enjoyed years later.
Remember the feeling of getting a game as a kid. Going to a friend’s house for a sleepover and playing well into the night. The PS1, PS2, PS3 and even PS4 era (for us PlayStation fans). Seeing them all on the shelf or behind glass displays, the midnight launches, the steelbooks, the feeling of getting that console on day one, or whenever you could afford it, or when your parents surprised you with one. Instruction manuals. Artwork. Things you could touch, own. It was special, and on July 1st 2026 Sony announced that what I’ve just described is pretty much dead now and they will bury it in January 2028 when they cease production of video game discs (read some of those comments). Guess we’re all just living in the past, welcome to our dystopian future – own nothing and like it. Oh and it looks as though Sony didn’t tell its partners or publishers before making the announcement, so literally everyone was blindsided.
Stop. Killing. Games.
Honestly at this point why even have a console at all? What differentiates them from a PC anymore? Just do everything off the cloud or some other completely robotic, unemotional, unfriendly, anti-consumer bullshit. Not to mention the rising costs making a fun hobby now an expensive luxury, which will start turning the casual audience away soon, as it already has with quite a few of my friends. The ones that have stuck around, are mostly digital-only players now (I’m probably one of the very few that do still buy physical copies), and I get it, it’s convenient. But you know what it also is? Expensive – as I mentioned you can’t trade in digital games and they’re rarely on sale (imagine all games essentially being price locked like Nintendo’s are). Dangerous – Sony at any time can revoke your ‘license’ removing your access to play the game you purchased, just like they have done with over 500 movies on their store (which will now also be a monopoly… seriously how is this okay?). Lame – bye bye physical media, I mean who would actually want a game library to preserve their video games, you know like a CD/vinyl collection or a book shelf? Oh yeah everyone commenting on every single unrelated post from PlayStation since the news dropped on the 1st… and Solid Snake himself.
Trying to compete with everyone while simultaneously losing your identity is why Xbox failed after the disastrous launch of the Xbox One. Is the PS6 going to be getting a handheld version to compete with the Switch? Is it just going to be a glorified PC with a logo slapped on? Imagine making a large portion of your exclusive games multiplatform (then pulling back on it), then getting rid of the physical versions of those games (which makes you stand out) and then raising the price (which you know is coming next). Madness. Greed. Seriously who is steering the ship because it feels like we’re in freefall. Sony have to come out now and start making some extremely clear statements on what is happening and what we can expect to see, because low-key announcing that the PS6 won’t have full backwards compatibility (I really wanted to play my old copies of my games), and now will also not support newer games physically, isn’t the way to get people excited to drop a record-breaking amount of money on a new console. It just sucks. Seriously did they think that GTA 6 on its own was enough to hype people up when even that won’t be getting a proper physical release? Game’s gone.
Just look at this ad from 2013 (yes I seriously thought that this was only a couple of years old…) LOOK AT IT!
Honestly what are we doing? What’s going to be left? We already lost Blockbuster, now literally everything has to be digital.
I’ve been a fan of this company for 25 years now, and I know you’ve been a bit quiet lately but it’s not too late to walk this back Sony. However, if you are adamant that this is just the way things are from now on then there’s only one thing left to say…
