What the hell is happening guys? Sony has offically confirmed that they decided to cease the physical media support for their gaming systems and fully focused on all digital platforms in the year of 2028, so what a horrible decision that Sony had ever made is likely to destroy their gaming career.
Their announcement of "ending the production of physical games in 2028" had recieved a massive backlash from many online users aren't really happy with the Sony's poorly decision to stop producing the physical disc is the reason why having enter to all-on digital release only are largely going to negatively impact on the future of gaming meaning that you will no longer obtaining the physical copy of future upcoming games and being forced to purchase it digitally from PS Store in 2028.
Rembember back in the days when you had the systems like the PS1 and PS2 console in a good old mid-90s and early-2000s era of gaming, the physical media is a primary thing for the video game systems that are relying on discs in order to run software titles...all you have to do is to take out the disc from the game case and place it onto the system and then power it on to boot up the game is quite simple without any additional installation like the modern gaming system do in later years.
Those were awesome back then because it's simply plug and play video game system that does not need a complicated guides and stuff.
Then pushing forward from mid-2000s to early-2010s, we had system like the PS3 and PS4 console that are so advanced and powerful with the technology like high-defination quality graphics, hard-drive spaces for additional storage, online gaming for matchmaking, plays Blu-ray movies, region free support for most of their games, and of course introducing digital gaming where you can purchase the digital games individually or get it free on PS Plus subscription through PS Store, so these are just an optional choice for consumers which they mostly prefers getting the physical games from the gaming retail store like GAME and CeX or online store like Amazon and Ebay.
Then going forward to the 2020s, we had the PS5 consoles which is the recent gaming system that pushes a new technology like the ray-tracing support for visual and performance, adaptive triggers for PS5 controller, has ability to play most of PS4 games and Ultra HD Blu-ray films, internal SSDs for faster loading times and external M.2 SSDs for additional storage, and of course you not gonna believe it...this is a Sony's last physical media console which unfortunately it's likely to be end in 2028 meaning no more physical disc for upcoming PS5 games and it is confirmed that the future unannounced next-gen PS6 will be likely to be going full-on all-digital without disc-drive add-ons.
Let's talk about why the physical media are so important in gaming and what makes the physical games as our prefered choice for gaming collection?
Physical games are easier to trade and share
Many of discs and carts are fully complete in box which we all know that these are being manufactured through the factory to produce it and then its been transfered to the gaming retail store where they can able to sort and place the physical copies on the store shelves for the display, so that the customer can able to interact the gaming retail store that has a full of video games software.
They go inside the shop, then browsing through the libary of games to choose, and then lastly pick-up and buy the copy for your gaming platform, but the gaming retail store are also provides an trading options in which you can also sell or exchange your second hand copy which is a reasonable choice so that you can able to either save and keep money or exchange it for the other titles.
There are some of the other places like rental store where it had full collection of films, TV shows, and video games, so instead of buying it you just simply pick and choose stuff that you want to borrow it for the few days and then after the few days you can head back at the rental store to return back the item before the date hits the deadline, so this is the cheapest way of borrowing stuff for less than £5 which is quite acceptable for those who wanted to use it for try outs or just do it for one time.
You can also ask your friends or family members to borrow the games that you wanted to play, so that they can lend you a physical copy of the game for borrowing or keeping it.
This makes physical gaming a lot easier to trade and share things makes it an accessible to many of customers or owners can to pick-up and play it on their system without any restriction whatsoever.
The digital gaming on other hand is the total opposite which is heavily restricted with the DRM-system which prevents many of customer from sharing their games from primary to other console meaning that your digital games are locked behind your primary user account which can only worked on the primary console, so that's sounds absoulte a joke that you can't able to share and download games to your friend's console in which your friend will have to rely on your user account in order to play your digital games on their console, but the problem is that you have to deactivate your primary user account off from your primary console which you don't want to do it otherwise all your digital games on your console will get locked out and becoming unplayable without your primary user account.
The worst part of it is that once you have deactivated your user account from your console you can't able to re-register your user account back to your console where it was originally before, so you had to wait longer for 6 months till its ready to re-register your user account back again which sounded like a total pain the ass.
I think sharing games digitally on consoles did not work at all which I can blame it on Sony's horrible DRM-system practice.
Oh...one thing I totally forgot to mention is that digital gaming doesn't have an proper trading option like the physical medias do, so instead once you have purchased the digital game in day 1 you will only have a 30 days of making decision to sell the game digitally by going into the Sony's customer support services to contact them and then asked them that you want to sell your digital game that you've previously bought, so they can able to proceed it to you for full refunds.
This is not straight-forward because when you had these digital games after long 30 days then you just can't get a refund from Sony's customer support services, and it's pathetic that the PS Store doesn't have an trading options menu meaning that you just can't sell or exchange your digital games at all, which is why many of consumers find the physical media is much more flexable and easier to trade their physical games which is why everyone goes to many retail and local shops outside or they sell stuff at online retail store which makes the physical media a huge win for gaming.
Physical games has the complete in box
The cool thing about owning the physical games is that you will have a colorful art-cover inlays, the instruction booklet, and of course the game disc or cart on a standard game case, where as you will also have an option to choose the special limited edition boxset which packs with not only just the physical game but also includes extra goodies like keychains, stickers, posters, artbook, and CDs soundtrack.
These physical games and collector's boxset are looking quite awesome when being stored on the shelving unit as the display are perfectly well suited for the gaming rooms.
This hugely benefits most of the video games collector are very passionate with collecting stuff that they really love as the part of their favourite hobby, as much as many of movie & TV fans loves to collect their favourite films and TV series for DVDs and Blu-Rays as an example.
The digital games does not have the kinds of things besides the DLCs are the only thing that adds the content of the game which is fine, but you don't get really cool stuff like the physical games are full of booklet, posters, stickers, and reversable art-covers in complete boxed copy, which proves that the physical media is always a huge win for console gaming was widely known for its boxed gaming collection.
Physical games is the best for video games preservation
The benefits of physical media is that their data of games are normally stored on the disc meaning that the games is permenently stays on the disc will last forever is the best way of preserving the gaming archives is the reason why the physical media keeps the gaming industry alive and the best thing of owning the physical copy is that once you've picked up the copy of the game physically from the shops you actually own the game that you are happy to have a right to keep it on your collection and your games on the disc is not going away from your ownership, so take it and keep it forever guys...no fuss.
As opposed to digital format which unfortunately it didn't last long is because of the digital games are likely to get wiped out, if your console's internal hard drive or SSDs as well as the external HDDs or M.2 SSDs gets corrupted easily meaning that you have to do re-downloading all over again to get it back, but nope what's even worst is that once the company has shutting down their Playstation Network servers in the future then there's no way of getting the digital games back.
The truth is that you don't actually own the digital copy of the game as an owner, so instead you just actually had their license key that requires to play the full digital game that you previously bought meaning that your digital game needs a one-time check ins through online connectivity to authenticate your local license by having to re-sync with your user account on the PSN servers, but worst part is that if your user account gets permenently banned forever then all your digital games that you previously bought gets locked out completely.
Those practices are badly designed which adds up vulnerability on these libaries of digital games are likely to get bricked if your user account on your primary console are completely dissapeared meaning that the license key for digital games gets fully revoked and leaving it instantly unplayable.
What about most of the movie or comic book licensed games that are likely to be removed from the digital store and never be available to purchase at all which makes it difficult for players to find games digitally, so this is why the physical media is the best way of preserving games libary that you're not going to lose these licensed titles that can be replayed again (via game disc).
My thoughts on Sony's ending physical gaming
After I read the gaming articles of Sony had confirmed to cease the production of physical media for their gaming system in 2028, so I'm completely gobsmacked by Sony's horrible decision that likely to affect future gaming meaning that the end of the physical media has part of disadvantages that you need to keep in the mind.
For example:
The stuff such as the detatchable disc-drive for PS5 consoles are likely to limit the availabilty on online store causing the item shortages if Sony are no longer to produce the physical disc which seems to be a bad news for those who owns the digital edition of PS5 console are planning to buy a detatchable disc-drive unit or someone who has the disc edition of PS5 console has their disc-drive unit stopped functioning are planning to get a detatchable disc-drive unit as an replacement, you guys aren't able to get these if its ran out of the stock or the price gets really expensive on the online store makes it impossible to find it in-stock and buy it cheaper.
It is going to affect on big AAA game's sales if the physical media aren't around anymore meaning that the future game titles are unlikely to get sold well at the launch relase if the players aren't willing to buy the game digitally, and also the digital games are much expensive to purchase in which you had to wait for longer till the price goes down slowly, where as the physical copy do get a cheaper quickly in 6 months after the release in which you can get it cheap from online store like Amazon and Ebay has the reasonable price during the season sales or discounts offer that makes it easier to purchase for the customers.
Most players are unlikely being interested to get a future unannounced next-gen PS6 if its goes fully digital gaming only that would negatively affect the launch hardware sales in 2028.
Sony could lose many of the PS Plus subscription's players count for their gaming machines could end up made PS Plus less popular meaning they stopped playing games online and they are no longer download and play the latest free titles from PS Plus subscription.
This is a huge slap to the gaming consumers who are a huge video games collector for decades are hoping to look forward for the future upcoming games of 2028 if Sony wouldn't had to shut down the physical media for gaming, so unfortunately this is offically confirmed on PS Blog website at July 1st 2026 stated that the company are no longer produce the physical disc for Playstation consoles in 2028 and the result of the news had sparked overwhelmingly negative from the player users aren't really happy with the company decision.
I'm pretty upset to hear this is because physical media is my prefered choices of collecting video games titles adding to my shelves in my gaming room and its really sad to see physical media are going away in the next 2 years.
The worst thing that Sony had ever said on their news is they making claim that the sales of the physical media for PS5 has been sold less compared to digital sales which I think it's a huge lie by the company, so they don't have the clear evidence of the sale figures which they are hiding it from the public eye is just to make many consumers forced to buy the digital games.
If you take a look on the twitter or reddit messages, there are a users who are really good at providing the leak information on the documents that has the list of sales numbers of software games for both physical and digital which tells you exactly what Sony is been hiding from and proves that the company is nothing but a lie that doesn't explain the actual sales figure.
Sony's bad decision is a major sign of the end of the era for gaming will no longer be the same.
Conclusion
To conclude the whole thing, the initial reaction of Sony's ending support on physical media and goes all full-on digital in 2028 had negatively impacted on the future of gaming which could resulted the abysmal hardware sales is not only just the cost of the systems are rediculously expensive, but also going to lose all the player users are likely to giving up on Playstation gaming meaning they are no longer be interested in getting the recent PS5 console and the future unannounced next-gen PS6 if its goes on fully digital in 2028.
We will never going to see the future game titles being listed on online stores like Amazon and Ebay, and there will not be on the store shelves at the second hand store like CeX, Cash Generator, and Cash Converters.
It's really depressing to hear that the physical media in gaming are no longer in the production meaning that the gaming are not going to be the same without it as used to be.
I had many of great titles being shelved on my storage cupboard and I can able to browse through the libaries of games that I like to pick up and play it on my systems like the PS2, PS3, PS4 and PS5, so thats what made me keep playing the video games over the years.
I just can't believe the company like Sony had done f***ed it up to screw over the gaming fans who are not completely happy to hear and they demanding the company to bring back the physical media where it's supposed to be in order to continue their gaming.
Physical media is what keeps the gaming industry alive and active that benefits many games collectors who can buys stuff and play games to enjoy their time, the store that can sell or trade stuff is what makes the amount of money in order to continue the business, and of course having the successful software sales unit is the only way to support the game developers that worked so hard on creating the best games as possible to impress many players who can able to buy and enjoy video games is what made the gaming team keeps continuing their career.
So without it, the digital gaming is not going to save Sony and their future console if the sales went plummeting down faster will be the Sony's downfall in 2028, so that will be the fault of Sony for killing Playstation brand.
Sony, it is time to stop giving up on physical media is because we all know that you're not gonna last very long, you're not going to win console wars against your rivals in next 2 years, you're going to lose all customers and player base are likely to cancel their subscription, you're going to lose your trust from the gaming community feel very betrayed from your stupid decision, and of course you're going to destroy your gaming business if no one ever being interested to buy your future gaming machine in the next 2 years which is the reason why you shouldn't reject the physical media and start focusing on the digital gaming, that is not going to save your company.
I hope that you will live to regret it with your decision you make is because this is going to be your final nail in the coffin at the darkest days of gaming that will happen pretty soon, so please reverse your decision and go back where it normally it be before its too late, so give us a physical disc or else you will end up failing at the end.
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This is Zeeshan Mirza's Blog and I'll see you next time, happy blogging everyone.
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