Sony to end physical disc production in January 2028

[Catboots]

I remember when I tried the trial run of PS+ and downloaded a free wallpaper for my PS4. Then when the trial expired and I didn't renew it, they took away my 'free' wallpaper because I no longer had PS+. That's when I realised that nothing listed as 'Free' on PS+ was actually free, it was just rented. Even if I could have afforded a + subscription at that point, I wouldn't have got one because of that.

The only lasting thing I got from that free trial run was help from folks to beat Behemoth in Monster Hunter World, so I didn't have to keep listening to the Final Fantasy music at the hub all the time.

Even if I somehow afford to get a new system in the future, it will not be Playstation. I stuck with them since the original PS1, got a PS2, PS3, PS4, and Vita. But I'm done with Sony now. Screw all of this.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yeap, less choice for consumers only benefit the monopolies, never the consumer, so they have gone from "piracy causes price increase" to "the second hand market causes price increases", to "retail physical costs cause price increases", to now " the consumer has chosen a fully digital ecosystem and constant price increases".

And just as a added cherry on top there is talk of another PSPlus price hike coming shortly. ha

And probably not a coincidence that the price of games is so high right now. I mean, It's pretty sad that we've come to a point where standard editions cost as high as a deluxe edition would have about 5-10 years ago. It will be $110 CAD for the standard edition of GTA6 in Canada, $140 CAD for the Deluxe edition. And what am I getting exactly? Nothing tangible. The game better be pretty damned amazing for that price.

 

[The Salt Umpire]

For that price, it better have titties and beer

 

[Candleicious Ghost]

For that price, it better have titties and beer

Not even that, you have to bring your own

 

[Rincewiend]

To be honest, i've gradually gone fully digital during the PS4 days...

 

[flyerdog]

I think Best Buy gave up on the video game business a long time ago. At my nearest store, the inventory has been cut down 50-75% and it's in the back corner where there are never any employees.

Best Buy sells lawnmowers, chainsaws and exercise equipment now.

yes, i have noticed that too, they seem to be pivoting to home appliances. My local store the two biggest areas are TVs and refrigerators. They still carry iPads and Laptops, but no physical media to be found anywhere...

 

[flyerdog]

Even if I somehow afford to get a new system in the future, it will not be Playstation. I stuck with them since the original PS1, got a PS2, PS3, PS4, and Vita. But I'm done with Sony now. Screw all of this.

funny you mention Sony, the KINGS of proprietary for decades , several years ago i remember them selling a Blu-Ray player for $50 less than their competitors...it had connectivity if you used a USB dongle...BUT.....not any dongle, you had to buy the Sony specific dongle...and the price? $60...

I remember being in a store and warning people about this as they were about to purchase, and the sales rep was getting REALLY mad at me

 

[Candleicious Ghost]

This is why I hope services like GOG grow more. At least with them you buy a game and are offered full offline installers for each and every game you buy. So far 139 games that I have collected and most of them are now on hard drives ready to go.

 

[Owain Taggart]

This is why I hope services like GOG grow more. At least with them you buy a game and are offered full offline installers for each and every game you buy. So far 139 games that I have collected and most of them are now on hard drives ready to go.

Me too. The downside I've seen though is that developers tend to support the versions on GOG less. Sometimes versions of games on GOG end up being abandoned while they are still being updated on Steam or end up getting updates much later. That sucks for those who've come to rely on GOG and it means they might not get the most up-to-date versions. But that might be due to the extra work involved in setting up DRM-free versions.

 

[V'Lias]

This is why I hope services like GOG grow more. At least with them you buy a game and are offered full offline installers for each and every game you buy. So far 139 games that I have collected and most of them are now on hard drives ready to go.

Yes, GOG is a great option. I have quite a number of games from them. I still use Steam a good bit though, mostly because I've been using Linux on all my computers for a number of years and they've been very Linux friendly. GOG for some reason has a big blind spot there, which is confusing considering they're all about no DRM and offline installers. They're still a great option though, and I tend to re-buy some of my favorite games when they show up on GOG.

 

[Aragorn]

If you're a casual gamer and don't need to play the AAA game on 12:01 a.m. of release, those monthly subscription services that Sony and Microsoft offer (and really hurt the bottom line of the game makers, unless you're Rocket League) are a good deal. And Microsoft has lost who knows how many hundreds of millions of dollars putting some their own AAA games on there for day one.

Nintendo also has a service, but it's all retro games. Which for Nintendo is not a bad thing.

 

[bdub76]

If you're a casual gamer and don't need to play the AAA game on 12:01 a.m. of release, those monthly subscription services that Sony and Microsoft offer (and really hurt the bottom line of the game makers, unless you're Rocket League) are a good deal. And Microsoft has lost who knows how many hundreds of millions of dollars putting some their own AAA games on there for day one.

Nintendo also has a service, but it's all retro games. Which for Nintendo is not a bad thing.

I honestly wait for all of the early purchasers to work through all of the bugs, and then I play the less buggy version on discount. No reason to play a game when it first comes out unless its a MMO.

 

[Candleicious Ghost]

I honestly wait for all of the early purchasers to work through all of the bugs, and then I play the less buggy version on discount. No reason to play a game when it first comes out unless its a MMO.

Ah the pre-order people and the ones that absolutely must have a game on day one. Don't people learn?

 

[Aragorn]

You preorder if you think the collector's edition is going to sell out, such as the new Resident Evil game did. But you never know what's going to sell out, what is plentiful, what isn't going to be popular. I paid full price for the Metal Gear Solid collector's edition and it turned out not to be a big seller.

 

[Candleicious Ghost]

You preorder if you think the collector's edition is going to sell out, such as the new Resident Evil game did. But you never know what's going to sell out, what is plentiful, what isn't going to be popular. I paid full price for the Metal Gear Solid collector's edition and it turned out not to be a big seller.

How can a game sell out when you can download it from the store digitally? That's just false scarcity

 

[Aragorn]

How can a game sell out when you can download it from the store digitally? That's just false scarcity

I was talking physical discs.

Also, they've been doing a thing now where the collector's edition is physical but there's no actual game. It's a download code.

 

[Candleicious Ghost]

I was talking physical discs.

Also, they've been doing a thing now where the collector's edition is physical but there's no actual game. It's a download code.

Ah, ok. But I have heard of them limiting numbers of downloads to create fomo

 

[Rincewiend]

I was talking physical discs.

Also, they've been doing a thing now where the collector's edition is physical but there's no actual game. It's a download code.

Well, at-least most of them come with a code...
Not Marathon's though...

 

[DarrenTR1970]

XBox is laying off 3200 employees, about 20% of its workforce - 1600 effective immediately with the other 1600 by the end of the year as well as divesting itself of four gaming companies.

https://www.avclub.com/xbox-layoffs-2027

 

[Owain Taggart]

If you're a casual gamer and don't need to play the AAA game on 12:01 a.m. of release, those monthly subscription services that Sony and Microsoft offer (and really hurt the bottom line of the game makers, unless you're Rocket League) are a good deal. And Microsoft has lost who knows how many hundreds of millions of dollars putting some their own AAA games on there for day one.

Nintendo also has a service, but it's all retro games. Which for Nintendo is not a bad thing.

When I first signed up with PS+ to play with friends, I never actually bothered to touch the PS+ games most of the time. I just personally don't see the value in the monthly games as they only end up adding to my backlog. For the longest time, I just preferred grabbing physical releases of what I was interested in rather than some service telling me what I should be interested in.