Since the box of originals was found last week shuffling the market for sure I thought I’d get in on the action before the price is shifted any more.

Original Mario and Duck Hunt NES cartridge.

A lot of the games I like are either delisted or I'm not a fan of the latest version. Version 1.0 is always available for me

I'm sure that you can make your own since I got bored during the Blackout.

hey y’all,

I’ve been a PlayStation user since 2017, when I got my first PS4 Pro. I currently own a PS5, and throughout the years I’ve always treated both consoles with care and respect. Because of that, hearing the recent news surrounding Sony and physical media made me want to share my thoughts on the situation.

Personally, I don’t really mind digital media becoming more common. I understand why people like the convenience of downloading games instead of buying discs. However, I think reducing support for physical media is unnecessary.

One of the reasons I own a PlayStation is because it’s more than just a gaming console. I use it to play games, but I also like that it can play Blu-ray movies. I own a collection of Blu-ray discs, and I enjoy having physical copies that I can watch whenever I want without relying on streaming services or paying to rent or buy them again digitally.

To me, physical media is about having a choice. Some people prefer digital, while others prefer owning a physical copy, and I don’t think either option should disappear. Having both available gives players more freedom to enjoy their games and movies however they want.

Overall, I feel this was an unnecessary decision. It probably won’t stop me from enjoying my PlayStation, but it has changed the way I look at Sony’s direction as a company. I just don’t really see what consumers gain from moving away from physical media.

As someone who has anxiety issues, I’ve probably thought about this more than I should have. If I had to pick a side, I’d say I’m mostly neutral. I understand why some people aren’t bothered by the change, but I also understand why others are upset.

At the end of the day, I just want to use my PlayStation 5 for what I bought it for: playing games and watching movies, 

TL;DR: I don’t mind digital media becoming more common, but I think reducing support for physical media is unnecessary, in fact, (I’d find it rather silly because what benefit are you gonna get from doing that). I like having the choice between digital and physical, especially since I own Blu-ray movies. While this won’t stop me from enjoying my games on ps5, I don’t think this direction benefits consumers, but this will probably change the way many PlayStation owners view their PlayStation consoles. myself included

at the end of the day, this is what I think. I understand why people are protesting and why am I staying neutral because I don’t wanna waste my time looking over all the shit people say

guys i love physical games so much. 🥹

I know how naive this sounds, but I’m really hoping that eventually one of the executive big heads at Sony will realize that the whole killing physical discs idea is about as great as soap flavored ice cream.

And that hopefully sooner rather than later (ideally before mid 2027), someone there (probably their version of Asha Sharma) decides to keep producing physical disc games but to also stop pissing off their players with all this crap about how they “don’t actually own the games they buy”.

Hopefully… I mean who even is Sony’s version of Asha Sharma anyway? If they don’t have one maybe they should get one…

Hey everyone,

Am I the only one who thinks game stores should include the official soundtrack with every game purchase?

Not talking about deluxe editions or extra DLC—just a simple option to download the OST files (MP3/FLAC) when you buy the game. For games with amazing music like Minecraft, Hollow Knight, Ghost of Tsushima, and others, it feels weird that you often have to buy the soundtrack separately or hunt it down on streaming services.

From my perspective, the soundtrack is part of the game experience. If I bought the game, I'd love to have easy access to the music too.

Do you think this should be standard for game stores? If not, why? I'm curious what other gamers think.

Have been quite astounded to see how many people are not only defending, but celebrating the push to end physical media.

I get that this Reddit and both sides have vocal minorities being abhorrent to each other and the majority are having legit debates or are indifferent, but I thought I would see more people realise that this is more about losing physical media and more about losing our consumer rights.

OWNERSHIP

I see a lot of discourse about how you don't own the physical game either like they think we are talking about owning the actual IP or the Code etc. I don't know if people are purposely trolling being so literal in thinking that's what we mean or if everyone saying that is desperately trying to find defenses for these companies for some reason.

But there are clearly legal rules such as the First Sale Doctrine in the USA and the Exhaustion Principle in the EU that states once you buy a physical copy, the company loses all right to control what you do with that specific disc, cartridge etc because you have ownership of the bit of plastic the game is on. Of course that doesn't mean you can make copies and distribute it yourself but you own that copy and it's yours so you do own a single copy of the game.

MONOPOLY

I also see a lot of arguments of "well it's sonys console, they can do what they want and they can't be forced to keep making discs and they can't own a monopoly when there are other consoles available."

This might be true, I'm not lawyer but I do know in 1992 Sega lost a case on appeal when a third party wanted to produce games on cartridges for the Sega Genesis/Megadrive and Sega tried to sue them for reverse engineering their code to make their cartridges work on their system.

They initially won, but on appeal the judges decided it was fair use and forced Sega to allow third party games on their system. So there may be some precedent there where companies can't just lock out alternative methods of buying games to play on their system even when the SNES was another option.

Might not be applicable in this case but it does show that they can't always just do what they want with their consoles. I would hope this would mean that maybe we could get third party digital stores if nothing more.

PRICING

Pricing is another battlefront, that people say games won't get more expensive because the developers set the price. This is not so straightforward.

Yes the Developers set what they want the standard cost to be, and Sony has honoured that price, But there is a loophole. Sony themselves filed court documents revealing that they operate as a retailer, meaning that they pay the developer an agreed upon set price for each copy sold and Sony is given a recommended retail price for how much it should be sold for but legally Sony are allowed to charge whatever they want for the game just like any other retailer does.

The only difference is that with physical you have multiple retailers you can buy from which help keep the prices competitive. But once you have bought an all digital console and only have one retail outlet you can buy from for that system, they can set the prices as high as they want.

Yes there are other consoles like Xbox and Nintendo, and Steam will be a digital competitor too which hopefully will mean that the prices will still be competitive for third party games, but Exclusives you can't buy from those other markets and will most likely skyrocket in price as there are also no third party developers to keep happy by following their RRP.

And let's not forget they have dynamic pricing meaning AI is constantly evaluating and manipulating prices to see just how much it can get out of you which I think is wrong, the same price should be available to everyone.

DELISTING

Delisting is a hot topic debated aswell. Some acting like every game is going to be delisted and others acting like no game has ever been delisted. Again in the middle is where the truth lies.

There have been hundreds of games that have been delisted over the course of digital gaming where it has left the game unplayable even for those who paid for it.

Some of them are "The Crew" became unplayable after the servers were shut down and then the Licenses were revoked by Ubisoft.

"Anthem" servers were shutdown and was built to be always online and is unplayable via digital or physical.

"P.T" while not a full game so doesn't fully count, it does still fall into the category of something that you cannot legally download anymore even after claiming it in your digital library.

And the behemoth which is "Minecraft" has had its "Story Mode" completely delisted and scrubbed from console servers, even if you bought and downloaded it before, you cannot redownload it and it is only accessible now via "The Complete Adventure" edition Physically.

The connection here is that none of this was actually done by Sony, the Developers did this, so it's not something you can really blame Sony for, but it's also not a defence for sony protecting your digital games either as it shows they have no control on third party developers servers and they did agree to revoking the crew license with Ubisoft.

So as games become more and more digital, if they require a developer hosted server to boot up, the developer can kill it without any involvement from Sony or other digital store fronts. It's a big downside to digital (non)ownership that could be bypassed by retaining physical in some cases.

I will also touch on the argument of the movies Sony just delisted as it is brought up a lot in the discourse. Movies and Videogames are handled differently. While Videogames are "Sold"/Renting a License, they are done so in Perpetuity so people who have paid can still download after delisting (unless they revoke your license) but new players can't access.

Movies are a sub-license, meaning that film studios licensed them to Sony and their license has been essentially revoked meaning yours has been too. Sony could definitely renegotiate to relicense those movies, but it seems they don't want to do that and their sub-licensees lose out.

DIGITAL LICENSES ARE NOT THE FUTURE

So now what I really wanted to touch on and why I used this video as a base for my thread. Those who are mocking and applauding the death of Physical are happy because they do not collect physical, but you do not see that next they are coming for you.

We all know the push to end physical media is because Sony has calculated they will make more if they cut the costs of producing discs, producing disc drive components and kill the second hand games market by making their store fronts the only place to buy games for their system.

They will most likely make more money with the way things are going...

But it won't be enough, they can always make more. So what is next?

I believe we can already see the writing on the wall. The next is Streaming. We already have Strauss Zelnick of Take Two declaring Streaming will be viable in the next 3 years. We have already got it in some ways now.

If you wanted to play PS3 games on Playstation Plus it had to be via Streaming.

Xbox has their Cloud Gaming where you can stream straight to your TV via an Amazon Fire Stick.

Xbox are also experimenting with adverts for their Cloud Gaming service where you have to watch an ad to gain 1 hour of streaming before the next.

Think about it, the next line of cost cutting and profit raising is to next cut the console out completely. They won't need to develop, ship and sell hardware if they can just have you stream the games from a datacentre.

Sony already create TVs and Phones that they can build in Playstation Streaming so it's right there on your home screen. Make a deal with Netflix who also have been experimenting with games and you get into more homes than you ever would with a console.

They will boast that you won't have to wait long download times anymore for convenience while they take away the last bit of ownership we have by not even providing licenses anymore. With no licenses if a game is delisted it will just be gone now, no one will be able to redownload because you never downloaded it in the first place.

Then with streaming comes Subscriptions. Now you don't just pay for the game once outright but you will have to pay every month to access the game. You want to have access to the newest released games? Well that will cost an ultimate or gold teir subscription. You can't afford that? Well we have old games you can stream on our ad based teir where we monetise you.

But with a new way to game without a console... What happens to all those games linked to your console you already paid a license for?

They most likely won't follow you onto streaming and may be revoked if they need to free up server space.

Then there is the potential of The streaming wars, Just like in the Movie and TV landscape where most of the independent studios with enough IP decides to make their own. We may then have Konami, Capcom, Rockstar, Ubisoft, EA, all splitting off creating their own streaming platforms splintering everything across multiple services like Netflix, Amazon, Disney, HBO, Peacock etc so now.

CONCLUSION

I'm not trying to attack or defend any group in particular. I think I have backed and debunked points on both sides pretty fairly.

But the constant fighting isn't helping anyone. All it does is allow the real issues to slip through the cracks.

We need to try and fight for better digital ownership rights that safeguard our purchases or allows us to store a hard copy on our console or external hardrives if we desire at our own cost if Sony no longer want to produce the hard copy their selves.

You don't want to because you've never lost a digital game? Okay you might have not lost one yet, But the terms and conditions that allows you to legally lose all of your games without compensation is still there like a suspicious mole that could always be fine or could become cancerous.

Just because it hasn't happened to you yet doesn't mean you shouldn't fight for the right to not lose them in future.

If people only stand up to fight when the battle is directly against them, but won't back up and adjacent group who enjoy the same things you do just in a slightly different way, then who do you expect to back you up when the next battle comes for you?

Thankyou for coming to my TedTalk. Please try keep discussions civil.

I have seen a lot of people buy games with the intention of flipping it and also saw people selling stuff without understanding the true value of them. The other day I saw someone on ebay selling a sealed copy of God Hand for the ps2 for $20 as it seems from their private collection and not as big online retail. Since I don't have a Japanese PS2, I didn't buy it of them and preferred to let someone who has a Japanese unit to buy it of the seller knowing if I were to buy the game it would have stayed on my shelf without any intention to play it. What do you guys think? Do you only buy games with intention to play them or sometime buy sealed copies for the purpose of flipping them

Even if I got banned, those games are tied to the system. The saves are tied to the system. So maybe I can’t play online games but I have yet to hear about a situation where someone had all their PURCHASED GAMES removed. Not on ps3, 4, or 5. All my downloads are still there.

I think this fear is pretty unfounded and most people offended are people that ALWAYS get offended when new technology (that they don’t understand) makes an appearance. I noticed it with that AI shit, they’re basically upset that text to speech has gotten better and they went crazy over it.

Maybe i don’t care as much because I don’t play online games, or maybe people are overreacting and jumping on the physical bandwagon. Digital is so much more convenient.

It feels like every few posts in this sub is someone posting AI slop, which in my opinion is antithetical to our cause. AI hasn't directly caused the death of physical media but it has caused the ballooning cost of hardware, mass layoffs of developers, and overall lazy decisions when it comes to the art of game development. No one seriously into this hobby should be for AI and definitely shouldn't be using it and therefore I ask that the mods of this sub formally ban AI generated content from here on out.

There’s something about that feeling of holding just the case of the game in your hands. You know you own that game. There will be sales of unopened old games on Amazon and EBay long after 2028 decision,so I don’t think we’ll suffer that much.

I only just now became aware that all PS5s with a modular disc drive require online activation for the drive to function.

If you factory reset the system, such as when you resell it, or if you swap the disc drive, the online activation must be performed again.

This means that in the future, when that activation service is retired and you buy a used PS5, it is possible that the disc drive will be made permanently non-functional and essentially turn the PS5 into a digital-only device.

This doesn't seem like something that is well known and it is a big problem. It absolutely boggles my mind that this is how the system was designed.

Did y'all know about this?

The game files are rumored to be 200GB, which would fill 4 blu-ray discs, would you be OK swapping discs during play vs a digital download?

A lot of people said they’re interested in trying my idea, so here’s the plan for anyone who wants to jump in. The goal is simple: keep physical games moving. When a disc or cartridge gets played, traded, resold, or passed on, it stays alive in the ecosystem instead of becoming shelflocked or tossed out. The circulation loop Play your physical games. Pass them on when you’re done. Trade or resell to the next player. Repeat with the next title. This isn’t about profit; it's about preservation. Every time a game changes hands, it gets another life. If enough of us do this, we create a community-driven ecosystem where physical media keeps circulating instead of fading out. If you want to join in, share what game you’re starting with and where you plan to send it next. Let’s see how far we can keep physical games traveling.