The end is near. I remember a time when disc collections were a thing of pride (as are vinyls, but that finesse is beyond the masses). DVDs, music albums and of course, games. The wider the collection, the more ‘friendlies’ at school and college. Netflix and every streaming app since has eliminated video discs. Spotify, Apple Music and streaming apps mean we no longer touch base with a friendly neighbourhood store to check on when the next most awaited album is arriving in stores.
Grand Theft Auto VI will arrive in November as a digital download. (Sony PlayStation Store)
Rather than solving the problem of barely any PlayStation 5 stock in India (dealers seem to be hoarding them for expected price hikes), Sony has decided it’s more prudent to set in motion a series of unfortunate events that will also take game discs away from us. The company says physical disc production for games will stop in January 2028. Any games released after that will be available on the PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only. This is bad news. Very bad news. For not just gamers, but also independent (and often small) retail stores. And also for the preservation of games. It also marks an end to the game resale ecosystem.
The simple task of sharing a game disc with a friend, will eventually not be possible.
In an official statement, Sid Shuman, senior director, Sony Interactive Entertainment Content Communications says, “This is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs. This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today.”
I am under no misconception that digital downloads of game titles are convenient and have caught on. Just last week, there was some progress on the much delayed Grand Theft Auto VI developer Rockstar Games, and it’ll arrive in stores in November as a digital download code. I’m also under no misconception that there is often more than one way of looking at the same data — and human/corporate tendency tends to be to look at it in a way that’s beneficial.
Soon after, Sony also said that they’ll be closing the PlayStation Store on PS3, as well as on PS Vita. Before you scoff and say, “Who owns a PS3 now anyway?” remember, the PS4 console (which many still have) is next. And the same could unfold there tomorrow, or two years later — its anyone’s guess.
In 2023, the Video Game History Foundation indicated that 87% of classic games, basically titles released before the year 2010, were considered “critically endangered”. The 2010 marker signifies the rise of digital stores to buy and download games from. Saving these games for the future, due to the lack of a physical copy in an increasing digital nature, started to become impossible.
“Our experiences gathering data for this study suggest that these problems will intensify over time due to a low diversity of reissue sources and the long-term volatility of digital game storefronts,” wrote Phil Salvador, library director at the Video Game History Foundation, in the report at the time. They were right. They’d glimpsed at the future.
Then there’s the issue of the longevity of digital storefronts themselves. In early 2023, if memory serves me well, Nintendo shuttered stores for the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS consoles. It also meant titles that were exclusive to these stores at that moment in time, immediately became inaccessible forever.
Dr. Luigi, Chariot, Mini Mario and Friends: amiibo challenge, The Pushmo Trilogy and Dillon’s Rolling Western, some titles that have mostly been lost. Forever. This defines something most of us ignore — being digitally stranded. Absolutely nothing stops a digital store from making a title inaccessible at any point, and gamers will have little recourse. Discs? Well, they sit nicely in your bookshelf, and you can gently slide them into the console any time you’d like to play.
The reality we are staring blankly at is this. Starting 2028, every new PlayStation titles comes with an expiry date that’s not explicitly mentioned. Titles like the GTA VI will be available through the PlayStation Store or another digital storefront. Via a code. How convenient. But (and this is a matter of when and not if) when this digital storefront becomes inaccessible at some point, that game gets lost. Forever.
I’ll raise you the massive game sizes now. Call of Duty (HQ / Warzone / MWIII) ranges between 140 GB to over 235 GB on the PlayStation 5. Gran Turismo 7 is around 160GB space. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth needs about 145GB. First, the download sizes over home broadband lines will take time. Secondly, console storage will fill up really fast.
To be fair, if you do still intend to buy a PS5 at some stage, don’t spend extra for the disc version. I know I don’t intend to (for more reasons than just this), having leaned back towards the Windows gaming ecosystem (for all of Windows foibles) with recent experiences including the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ gaming handheld that ushers the Intel Arc G3 gaming chip leap, as well as the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16s AI gaming laptop.
At this point, one can only hope that Microsoft and Nintendo don’t follow through on Sony’s attempts, with equal enthusiasm. Physical discs were never ideal. They can degrade over a period of time, particularly if used roughly. But there was a sense of preservation. Of the creators effort. Of the memories playing the game. Of the time spent doing it. Gone. Whatever remains of gaming stores will now be gone too. We’ll be left with cold digital storefronts, because it helps console makers and other gaming platforms drive revenue.
We are again trading an illusion of permanence for real convenience, and we’ll collectively regret it much beyond the point of no return.
Vishal Mathur is the Technology Editor at HT. Tech Tonic is a column that looks at the impact of personal technology on the way we live, and vice versa. The views expressed are personal.
