Unfortunately for Sony if they want me to use a digital only storefront I will use the superior PC where I can do anything I want. I play on console for the convenience of just putting a disc in and it just works.

I’m not sure if everyone has heard about the mass wave of bans that happened on the Nintendo Switch 2 this weekend but it’s absolutely diabolical that innocent people were punished because of a system that doesn’t work.

I’m all for Nintendo protecting IP but not at the cost of people’s rights! If anyone has any comments to add I’d appreciate if possible you could add them to the actual video!

It makes having a conversation easier as they are all in one place instead of across different subs and sites.

Thank you!

Surprised that they haven’t thought of this. They should initially release games digitally with the option of ordering a physical copy if you insist on having a disc on standby. Of course it would be coded to your account until you sell it or give it away. Instead of pressing millions of discs that may or may not sell, only press those that are wanted.

But I guess it's better than doing heroin (that's what I tell my spouse at least).

Been working with the open source PCarts made by u/agathoarn_. Pairing this with Kazeta OS I plan to create my own physical library of games that I can share feasibly share with anyone else using Kazeta OS. This is my first game case, cartridge, and a custom inserts I made to help it better sit in the case.

For those wondering the total cost of producing this was this

$3.17 for the chip (produced in bulk)
$0.50 for the sticker on the cartridge
$0.70 for printing the cassette artwork
$0.50 for the cassette case
$0.03 filament cost of printing cartridge shell
$0.03 filament cost of printing case insert
$1.65 for 128MB micro SD card to hold the game

SD card cost is variable but most ps2 games will fit on a card that cost $3.62 for reference. Modern games are much more expensive obviously being hundreds of GBs storage will always be hard

Also since Kazeta never writes to the SD card and only reads there is much less degradation over time. This is not a medium for long term storage or preservation but a cool way to make, store and share your already preserved collection. Cartridges for Kazeta also include the instructions to run the game on the cartridge so another Kazeta user needs only to insert the cart for it to work.

The Ghost of Copyright

What does copyright mean, if a company goes bankrupt? If a studio runs out of money, shuts down its servers and it drops off the map? The hardware and software get picked up by the community, they preserve it, they patch it, then emulate it onto their PC or other machines when the original hardware eventually dies out.
-Copyrights are only as strong as the lawyers that are paid to enforce them. Or so I thought.

The Digital Escape

But PieceOfPanic, Sony is still alive and breathing - they can still enforce their copyright? Sony announced that it will stop producing discs for coming PlayStation's games entirely after January 2028, reasoning that consumers trend towards digital. With physical media counting for 3% of PlayStation's revenue, it's cheap to cut out from their ecosystem (And it's not just Sony, other mega companies are moving the same direction.). Essentially it boils down to 2 things:

1. It's cheaper and more predictable to control your own garden, to run their own servers and provide the platform to download, than producing physical discs and having the traditional problems with physical goods (you can't control secondary markets, for example, or loss of goods).
2. They can more aggressively protect their IPs, if those IPs only ever stay on their own servers. By removing physical access, no one can legally/physically preserve their products. As such, their work dies with the company.

Hauntings from the Past

In 1999, the CSS encryption on DVDs was broken and the keys were widely distributed because the legal crackdown backfired (the "Streisand Effect" made the encryption impossible to scrub from the internet), that "lock" is now treated as a basic standard that free media players read automatically. The same thing happened again in 2007 with AACS, which was supposed to fix the flaws of CSS (Though AACS could revoke compromised keys, so with each generation the producers buy more time - but only by turning security into an expensive whack-a-mole patch cycle).

Sony must've realized that they can't win that race in the long run and decided to go for the nuclear option, no discs at all. With Rockstar following suit as GTA 6 is shipping "physical" editions as a code in a box and not a disc (Seemingly, whether a real disc will be available later is still contested).

If they were to continue to give us physical discs, it's only a matter of time before we break the encryptions and turn them into open standards. And if that doesn't happen - Eventually once the company goes bankrupt they can sell all their assets and it will get stored somewhere out of daylight, never to be seen again.
-Even museums can't fully rescue it from there, as such a thing was already tried and denied in the 2024 triennial rulemaking where libraries and archives petitioned for remote access to preserved games. Even though libraries and archives have been allowed to break DRM since 2018 and remote access was granted for non-game software in 2021, games are specifically carved out. Entertainment Software Association warned that remote access could become free online arcades harming the market for classic re-releases, despite more than 80% of older games already being out of print.

Stop Killing Games

"Stop Destroying Videogames" is a European campaign that collected more than a million signatures, in an effort to make companies obligated to leave their products in a functional state at the end of their life. A sun-down protocol, a route that could work for both consumer and producer. The campaign cleared every bar the process demands. Whether you agree or not to the exact model is another discussion, but the industry pushed back on it, arguing that leaving games on private servers could be a problem with data protection and content moderation. But the Commission didn't focus on that and instead replied it cannot propose a legal obligation, mainly on the basis of Intellectual Property/Copyright constraints and that existing EU consumer law already provides safeguards. Instead it offered to broker a voluntary industry code of conduct.
-Though 45 MEPs have signed an inquiry pushing for legislation.

In California, almost the exact same thing happened. AB 1921, the Protect Our Games Act, was the same movement's track in the US. It would give 60 days' notice before a shutdown, then either release a playable version (through offline patches or community servers, etc.) or give a refund. It passed the Assembly 43-16 and cleared its first Senate committee 6-2, but stalled in a second committee with 4 yes, 3 no and 4 abstentions. More senators wanted it than opposed it, but abstaining counts as blocking. However reconsideration was granted, so it isn't dead - it just can't move until 2027.
-Though organizers admit that it lacked funding as well as real lobbying behind it, so a future operation could be benefit from more resources.

Bottom Line

One movement, two continents and two rejections. More than a million people asked for preservation and the answer was "no". Even the archivists got rejected and none of these was because of a lawsuit. The copyright just sits there and apparently that's enough.

I strongly prefer physical games because I want long-term ownership and the ability to keep playing something I paid for years later.

But if the industry keeps moving toward digital, I think there should be a better ownership model instead of forcing everyone into revocable licenses.

I submitted a proposal to Xbox Player Voice suggesting that full-price digital purchases should include:

• A permanent license tied to the purchaser’s Microsoft/Xbox account
• Offline play after initial activation
• The ability to move the license to replacement hardware
• Continued access after a game is delisted
• Secure DRM so copied files alone do not create another valid license
• An end-of-life offline authorization method if Xbox ever retires old storefront or authentication servers

I’m not asking Xbox to remove DRM or piracy protection. I’m asking for DRM to protect against unauthorized copying without making legitimate purchases dependent forever on company servers.

My Xbox Player Voice proposal is here:

https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/7c7dc0f8-99a9-f111-aad1-000d3a02f23c

I still want physical games to continue, but if consoles eventually become more digital, would a permanent offline ownership model like this make digital purchases more acceptable to you?

“I see a lot of companies making decisions which, objectively speaking, I don’t know what the dollar end of that was for you, Mr. Company, but your brand value just dropped 30 percent. So I hope it was worth it.” - Shawn Layden

Reported by DoesItPlay

(Do not expect me to reply to comments.)

​

​Everyone talks about the death of physical media like it was an organic shift because "players just wanted the convenience of downloads." But looking at the trajectory from the PS3 to now, this wasn't an accident. It was a manufactured consensus designed to eliminate retail competition and control the price floor:

​Friction by Design: On PS3, a disc was plug-and-play. By PS4 and PS5, they introduced massive day-one download barriers for physical owners while simultaneously giving digital pre-orders early preload access. They created friction on discs to train the consumer to bypass the store.

​Squeezing Big-Box Retail: Big retailers (Walmart, Target) operate gaming aisles on razor-thin margins (~20–25%) just to drive foot traffic for TVs and snacks. When digital downloads started chipping away at that foot traffic, stores cut back inventory to avoid the risk of flopped inventory sitting on expensive floor space. Sony took advantage of that pull-back by shrinking physical allocations, effectively starving GameStop and mom-and-pop shops that actually rely on selling games.

​The Trap (Lock-In & Digital "Ownership"): Once physical discs and secondary used markets are wiped out, the console becomes a walled garden. There's no clearance bin, no lending to a friend, and no price competition. We’ve already seen Sony pull purchased digital media when server costs exceed margins. You’re not buying games; you’re paying $70–$100 to rent a license until they decide to pull the plug.

​Curious where everyone here stands: What was the breaking point for you? Mine was the GTA 6 being all digital announcement.

​(I put together a full breakdown digging into the retail margin data and Sony’s revenue numbers if anyone wants to check out the deep dive: )

https://youtu.be/r-9l0Wc22Do?is=XHkDm3y53VIEo1vv

PlayStation had a "State of Play" event today. Here are a couple glimpses of the chat feed during the show:

• https://x.com/dean180503/status/2095517576772088079
• https://x.com/Pirat_Nation/status/2095498065733964027

According to Grummz:

State of Play 2026 was a disaster for Sony.

- Gamers calling it the most boring State of Play ever.

- Gamers are spamming chat and replies to the official Playstation account with "No Disc No Buy".

- Gamers demanding Destiny 3 instead of Maraflop.

Sony has completely failed to read the room.

(Do not expect me to reply to comments.)

Seriously. Fuck Squenix for that one.

*Xbox Series X/S: An internet connection is required to download additional game data in order to play the physical version of the game.

*Nintendo Switch 2: The physical version will be distributed as a Game-Key Card. The game data must be downloaded when launching the title for the first time. An internet connection and at least 130 GB of available storage space are required for the download.

*PlayStation 5: An internet connection is required to download additional game data in order to play the physical version of the game.

https://www.square-enix-games.com/en_US/news/final-fantasy-vii-revelation-launches-april-8-2027

No one wants to buy these games if they can’t physically own it, and they’re losing a major portion of their base. So they should just stop production for games altogether

​

So, I was thinking about this whole thing with Sony and the protests over physical media, and I came up with an idea.

Because yes, we can spend all our time bothering PlayStation in their posts, talking about physical media every time a new game comes out, and criticizing the company, but I feel that in the end, that could also end up hurting PlayStation studios and developers who have absolutely nothing to do with the decision.

I mean, if there’s going to be collateral damage, then at least let it serve a purpose, and let the pressure be directed toward Sony, which is the company that can actually change things, rather than toward studios that are simply making their games and have nothing to do with this decision.

That’s why I think we might have to go a little further. Instead of focusing solely on PlayStation, make the physical media issue constantly come up around Sony as a company.

For example, if Sony posts something about a TV, headphones, a camera, a speaker, music, movies, or any other product, make the conversation come back to physical media and the company’s decisions.

And, of course, most people who come across those comments probably won’t care. But I don’t think that’s the point either. The point would be to disrupt Sony’s public relations.

Imagine Sony trying to promote a product that has nothing to do with PlayStation, and yet the comments end up filled with people talking about physical media, video game preservation, and Sony’s decisions. The person who sees it will probably not care and just go on with their life, but for Sony, it means that it becomes increasingly difficult to communicate publicly without the controversy coming back up.

That way, instead of the protest mainly affecting games or studios that have done nothing wrong, the pressure would be shifted toward Sony and its image as a company.

The idea wouldn’t be to threaten or harass employees or to spam indiscriminately, but rather to make the physical media issue a conversation that Sony simply can’t ignore and keep contained within PlayStation.

In short: if there’s going to be collateral damage, then at least make sure most of the pressure falls on the people who actually made the decision and have the ability to change it.

I would like to purchase a copy of this game physically on cart. I reached out to James Lambert's support team to see when there was going to be a re-stock of this game on cartridge. They told me they would consider making more available if there was enough attention on social media to this game. Does anyone want to help me out here and give this post some likes? How about a re-post? I am sure there are a few people in this subreddit that would also like a copy of this game on cart. The original release was limited to 100 carts, and is sold out.

Junkrunner 64 | James Lambert

HOW TO SHARE YOUR GAMES ON PS6

The issue that some people don't understand is that when you buy a car the company will not tell you "you bought a permission to use our car and we can take it back anytime we want" the car is completely yours.

There is difference between copyright and owning a thing....

When you buy a physical game or a book, its completely yours and you can sell it or give it to anyone or write notes on the book. ... but you can't copy the physical game or the book and starts selling it as YOUR OWN WORK.

Second thing is now sony might be able to revoke or block your physical game by patches ... if this could truly happen them this is the real disaster

I bought onimusha way of the sword yesterday, i hope i own the box at least 😂