Digital archivists rush to save PS3 game data before Sony shuts down the store forever in 2027
Therefore, as a result of the discontinuation of a disc, we don’t see that there will be any negative impact on our business. However, as I already said, the users, the players, have attachments, and we have to think about how to respond to that feedback."
Phasing out game discs will undoubtedly have a significant financial impact on gamers. Physical game discs not only provide ownership, but they also come with the benefit of resale. Gamers can recoup some of what they paid for it once they are finished playing. The extinction of game discs represents the loss of the ability to share physical games with friends and family. The PlayStation platform does not support sharing digital games, unlike services like Valve ’s Steam Families or Nintendo’s Virtual Game Cards.
Game discs enable gamers on a tight budget to purchase second-hand copies of games at great prices at their local game stores or online marketplaces. For instance, used copies of The Last of Us Part I , which came out four years ago, go for as little as $25, while the digital version remains priced at around $69.99 on the PlayStation Store. Even during major promotional events like Days of Play or Black Friday, digital discounts have rarely brought prices below $29.99. Second-hand physical copies are simply a more affordable choice for many players.
Without game discs, PlayStation console owners will have to rely more on internal storage, and when that depletes, they will have to expand the storage with the best PS5 SSDs. The issue is that SSDs are ludicrously expensive right now due to the storage shortage , which could last way beyond January 2028.
The discontinuation of physical discs does not just affect consumers but also retailers. However, Sony expects limited business impact in that aspect since the digital transition has somewhat started a long time ago. Tao elaborated, "For the last 30 years, we have been selling PlayStation, and the retail partners have always been important to us. With the completion of the disc production, we communicated this at an early stage so that we have enough time to be able to listen to various partners’ voices.”
Tao continued, “In North America, this has already happened, but without discs. In the package, there’s a code. That’s how they sell in North America. About the retailers, there are regional characteristics. For each regional partner, we try to have thorough dialogues so that we can end up in a win-win situation. Now, the differentiation from PC. We don’t feel that the disc is the factor to differentiate from the PC."
Gamers are actively voicing their opposition to Sony’s move away from physical media. DoesItPlay, a community dedicated to game preservation, has organized a large-scale boycott dubbed #PSBlackout , urging PlayStation users worldwide to turn off their consoles for an entire week, from August 23 to August 30. The X post has amassed over 1.8 million views and 7,500 shares, but it is uncertain how many users will participate. In addition to this digital protest, a Change . org petition with more than 350,000 signatures is asking for Sony to reconsider its decision to end physical game production.
Sony has been winding down its physical media production over the years (for example, physical boxes with a download code), so it was just really a matter of time before the PlayStation ecosystem adapted to the changes. Unfortunately, the die is cast, and there are rumors that Sony has already started repurposing its factories for other endeavors. There is little to no hope that Sony will reverse its decision to discontinue physical game discs.
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Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom\u2019s Hardware. Although he loves everything that\u2019s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM. ","collapsible":{"enabled":true,"maxHeight":250,"readMoreText":"Read more","readLessText":"Read less"}}), "https://slice.vanilla.futurecdn.net/13-4-25/js/authorBio.js"); } else { console.error('%c FTE ','background: #9306F9; color: #ffffff','no lazy slice hydration function available'); } Zhiye Liu News Editor, RAM Reviewer & SSD Technician Zhiye Liu is a news editor, memory reviewer, and SSD tester at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.
usertests Ball's in your court, ponies. Boycott and prove that you're not cattle. Reply
TerryLaze usertests said: Ball's in your court, ponies. Boycott and prove that you're not cattle. Who are people supposed to boycott????? Even if sony takes it back and makes discs again doesn't mean that devs will suddenly pay to make more physical games again…sony is stopping disc production because devs, sony included, just don't make enough money from this feature anymore. You would have to boycott every single dev there is that has any digital games at all…meaning you would have to stop playing new games completely. Reply
hotaru251 TerryLaze said: sony is stopping disc production because devs, sony included, just don't make enough money from this feature anymore. game devs dont care about that. They just make games they dont think about the disc copies. even if they did…enoguh discs are sold to cover cost of doing it (disc media is cheap as heck) Going all digital has a risk of impacting sales as well as storage is costly (especially for now and foreseeable future) Reply
TerryLaze hotaru251 said: game devs dont care about that. They just make games they dont think about the disc copies. even if they did…enoguh discs are sold to cover cost of doing it (disc media is cheap as heck) I would need to see numbers on this, operating a disc pressing factory can't be that cheap, and I also don't know how much the protections add to the cost. Game devs will care a lot about it if sony has to force them to commit to a certain number of discs they would have to buy from sony, no matter if they want to or not, if they want to sell any games on their platform at all, because they sure as heck are not going to pay for running the fab without winnings out of their own pocket. Minimum order quantity is already a thing that happens with physical media at nintendo. Reply
atomicWAR No disc no buy. It is that simple. Haven't touched my PS since the annoucement. Only log in to psn to protest online. I am done with Sony if they don't back track. Reply
Phaaze88 Sony only speaks in money(what company doesn't). If you go back, they still win. Abandon them completely, or bend over for Daddy Sony. Reply
Azzers TerryLaze said: Who are people supposed to boycott????? Even if sony takes it back and makes discs again doesn't mean that devs will suddenly pay to make more physical games again…sony is stopping disc production because devs, sony included, just don't make enough money from this feature anymore. You would have to boycott every single dev there is that has any digital games at all…meaning you would have to stop playing new games completely. Isn't it quite obvious they're supposed to boycott Sony? This is the issue with boycotts, or many of these movements in general: they're inhabited by people with no self control or no ability to say no to themselves. This is why the blowback to $99 games failed; everyone just thought "well I can just boycott Doom: The Dark Ages" and as a result id software got smoked with layoffs and the prices became 99 dollars as every other game got protected by Doom getting torched. It was borderline sad listening to people say how good that game turned out to be and realizing it failed due to weak people making it the sacrificial game and giving Microsoft a pretext. So yes, maybe you skip the consoles for a generation or two. Hell I did it decades ago, so it's certainly not impossible and there's plenty of PC games you can play during that time which you can offload onto other media if you prefer. It's the same hubris movies had taking place in Xbox/Sony HQ: that people can't waste their time doing something else instead. Dev's don't care; distribution is another business and they really only care what part of the per unit price they get to keep and what the distributor is going to pay them. If someone invents a "Thimble Distribution" and it makes the Developer's bottom line go up, they'll do that. Reply
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/playstation/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/video-games/playstation/sony-doubles-down-on-axing-physical-game-discs-cfo-reiterates-were-going-to-cautiously-move-this-forward#main
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