Sony has announced that starting January 2028 they will be ending physical production of video games for the PlayStation console.
With this announcement has come major backlash from the gaming community, including boycotting and digital protests. People online also discovered within the Sony Terms and Service agreement that when you purchase online content from their store, Sony has the right to remove your ownership for a wide variety of reasons including not having an online and active account.
This has lead to multiple lawsuits within the Untied States claiming that Sony has mislead consumers within the advertising of games and within their website, constantly using the terms “own” and “ownership” when purchasing a game, which has led to lawsuits against the Company.
Unfortunately the shift towards fully digital media is not new, for many years companies have been making a shift towards streaming services and the removal of disks in new games even if you choose to buy a physical game.
With the advancements towards streaming and cloud gaming, many people have started to question what they own and why it matters to own it.
Physical media ownership is one of the only ways that we can keep track of history, and preserve media for the future as without it companies can change the contents without people knowing. One of the many examples of physical ownership being important is Disney’s constant removal of content on Disney plus. Many episodes of childhood shows like Bear in the Big Blue House, and the Muppets show have had content removed due to a variety of reasons including music licencing and Disney deciding the content included is not appropriate for audiences. Without physical media collections there would be no way for people to legally revisit these episodes.
This also applies to many video games as overtime they are removed from digital store shelves as companies don’t want to pay the fees to keep it on shelves, or they no longer own the licence to characters they based the game around. Without physical disks and second hand stores these games would never have the chance to be enjoyed by a new group of people or those who want to replay their favorite games. The loss of physical media can also cause serious harm to your own community, as many second hand stores survive off used books, video games, and DVD’s. These places also provide a way for people to afford entertainment as many times the price of video games and streaming services can become a large limiter for people who want to access the media.
Unfortunately, going fully digital hurts the consumers the most while giving a large benefit to developers who make the games, as they don’t need to add production costs of creating and distributing physical disks which can go towards marketing or production of the game.
With all of this said, it is very easy to feel like this is a hopeless endeavor. But there are many things that we as consumers can do. The easiest and most impactful way to make a difference is with your wallet, if you show companies that you still want physical products through purchases or not buying digital there is a better chance companies make the choice to reverse their decisions
Another thing that you can do is show your support for activist groups like the stop killing game initiative, whose goal is to preserve the art and history of video games.
If you want to know more about this, listen to the latest episode of Almost 107 https://almost-107.simplecast.com/episodes/why-does-owning-phisical-media-matter
