Digital isnt the worst thing, but how "ownership" is controlled can be. I wouldn't blame Sony for the move but their method is garbage, and their past practices with digital ownership is too.

GoG on the other hand knows how it should be done. I have tons of games from them on a thumb drive. I've never actually needed to use it, but its nice to know I can. Major kudos to them.

That said, most of my games are owned on steam, which still has DRM, but at least I can play those games on a 20 year old PC, a modern one, a box in my living room, or on a multitude of hand helds. With Sony you are tied to a specific console and thats that. Good fucking luck when they stop selling that console.

Nintendo churns out the same slop franchises year after year and aggressively sues anyone for anything.

Sony (somehow) believes that investors are what give their company value, not customers, and certainly not employees. They're abandoning physical media and not backing down on their anti-consumer practices that only continue to get worse.

Microsoft has become the new EA, aggressively buying up every single schmedium-sized gaming studio they can get their hands on, mismanageing them all into the ground, then selling them off for parts to save their own asses while leaving talented studios to die on the vine. They're basically buying the right to scrap their competition and they'll get away with it because they have enterprise IT subscriptions to absorb the losses.

AAA gaming is dead. And greed killed it. I'll be playing indie PC games and emulators for the foreseeable future.

I'm reluctant to buy any digital games on anything but Steam at this point, and that's because Valve has begrudingly earned my trust over 20 years of use. I do wonder what plans are in place for the point at which Gabe isn't around to steer Valve.

I have zero confidence in any other game related corporation to have a long term view in mind, and especially not one in which the platform is designed to be consumer friendly.

only responds to their investors...

Did you know this is legally enforceable? The shareholders can sue a publicly company if it doesn't prioritize 'shareholder value'. For example a company that cut profit instead of doing layoffs.

It's not spoiled leadership, but a rotten ecosystem that breeds amphibian avarice as the dominant culture.

I've been years buying digital for PC but never did once on PS4, PS3 or XBOX 360, I mean what the point? The only reason to have a console was so that you can sell your discs once played or lending to friends.

The PS5 probably won't see any noticeable decrease in game sales, because pretty much everyone who wants one already has one, but I'll be interested to see if gamers call Sony's bluff for the PS6 or not.

Every company that goes public stock shifts their priorities from customers to investors (extracting money).

https://kazeta.org/

don't need these shitty corporations and their walled platforms...

I'm starting to think consoles are cooked. The massive jumps in technology between console generations have turned into small incremental steps. The game quality has dropped (independent games and a few others are exceptions). PC's used to be slow to boot and load a game vs consoles and also required updates to download, but now PCs are quick and updates are mostly automatic. Consoles used to be nice to just turn on and play without thinking about all that other stuff, yet now they require downloads and updates as well. Loading times aren't much better either. Consoles used to also be very cheap compared to PCs, but now with the "next gen" being around $1000 the price difference isn't that huge anymore - especially when you factor in modular updates that can be done to a PC to cheaply extend it's life. One of the last hold outs for consoles were physical games and now they're taking that away too.

Got fed u with the fucking stick drift and Sony's bullshit. Plugged my Rog ally that was taking dust to the TV, put bazzite on it. Now I can play what I want with a 20$ controller.

Playstation can go to hell.

What would really grind Sony's gears is if everyone stops updating their system and waits for the PS5 Linux hacks to catch up to their firmware version. Then, they install Linux and get Steam working and only buy digital games from Steam and GOG, or emulate older games, on their Linux hacked PS5.

Meh, most games are available on PC, and the exclusives that aren’t will come to emulators eventually. It’s worth paying extra for a PC that can run anything you like, including games, especially when you can install Linux and cut a ton of bullshit out of your life.

Sony didn’t really “double down”. The decision to wind down their physical games category was made years ago. Everything after the initial public announcement is to manage public relations.

Not sure many outside Japan realise but Sony are a conglomerate that dip their fingers into unrelated industries. This to them is clearly just a line through a smaller category on the balance sheet.

There’s a discussion to be had about ownership and physical games but i think that market is going to re-emerge in the future in perhaps a more bespoke way, like the resurgence of music vinyls.

To me, Sony seems to be interested in just managing the distribution of IP opposed to “gaming” itself. They’re not true custodians in that space or if they were, then they’re not now.

im never buying a sony title again.

Guess Im done with Playstation moving forward.

Well this will be my last PlayStation. I only buy discs so I can trade them with my friends.

"Fiduciary responsibility"

Thanks Milton Friedman!