Wedged
Sony announced they'll stop producing physical discs for Playstation games in January 2028.
It's been a long time coming.
Remember back in 2007, when Microsoft tried an extraordinarily convoluted version of this? It was the original Xbox One announcement, and there were so many levels of cluster**** that I won't review them all. The point being that the big console manufacturers, excluding Nintendo, have wanted to kill the used game market for a long time.
The future happens slowly, then all at once, as the saying goes.
It's terrible for consumers, but when has anything ever been announced that's actually better for consumers?
Will game prices drop because the resale market dies? No. Is there any benefit whatsoever to consumes? Absolutely not.
I honestly wonder if Microsoft and Sony--the gaming divisions, at least--will survive. The BOM for the Playstation 6 is allegedly almost $1,000 now. AI and tariffs have inflated component pricing to such an insane degree that new hardware is almost guaranteed to fail.
So here's the conundrum for Sony/Microsoft. You desperately want to kill the resale market. You release a console to do that, but it's so overpriced that sales are lousy. The only base you have left is last-gen consumers who refuse to upgrade because physical discs aren't available anymore. Do you go ahead and stop producing physical discs in 2028 and risk alienating them further?
Maybe it doesn't matter as much as I think it does. Sony and Microsoft already have digital-only versions of their consoles out, and they sell well. This just feels like an inflection point for the industry, and not a good one.
It's also hard to see another game with the budget of GTA VI ever being made (no, don't mention Star Citizen lol).
Meanwhile, Nintendo must be thrilled. The Switch 2, even with the price increases, is still significantly cheaper. They'll still produce physical media. They occupy a unique niche in gaming, and they'll be around long after Sony and Microsoft have moved on.
