On July 1st, 2026, Sony posted an announcement that stated that starting in January 2028 they would discontinue making and distributing physical games for purchase. This announcement started a series of various spin-off stories that really has put the community in an uproar. Maybe rightly so, especially when a lot of us love to have choices when it comes to what we purchase and consume as customers.

I am pretty much 60/40 when it comes to digital versus physical ownership. I own a lot of physical copies of games going back to the early 80’s until now. What I like is that I can display them, play them, borrow them, and sell them at my leisure. For digital, I like to have them on my handhelds that I can take anywhere and play. If I am at a friend’s place, I can pull up my account and play which is so convenient, which if I forget a physical copy or it gets damaged, I’m up a creek. But with recent actions spoken by Sony I am having trouble not seeing them in the role of villain.

Over the last few weeks, we have seen a few things take place after the announcement. We saw a few Sony executives sell stock shares before possibly having a price drop, we saw that Sony implemented a 36-month sign-in clause, which if missed, permanently shuts down a player’s profile with all purchases tied to that account. We had legislation trying to pass the rights to ownership of the digital content and not just a license to the content be voted against. We have countries like Mexico and parts of Europe now creating lawsuits against this future with convincing reasons. We heard whispers and rumors of the price of a PlayStation 6 all-digital system and how Sony says digital sells better even when leaked statistics say otherwise. What is Sony and possibly other companies trying to accomplish here and how does this help the typical customer? The answer is it doesn’t.

Problems that arise from this is having only one place to buy these games, directly from Sony’s console. This does not provide healthy competitive prices with games between different retailers, so what would be Sony’s pressure or willingness to lower game prices when they are the only ones selling their first party IP games? Who keeps them in check? If I have bad internet in my area, how can I download my games at a moderate speed? What if my whole account gets hacked, how do I prove it was mine and how do I get it back? If I only own a license of the game, how long can I access them anymore before they are revoked? I just borrowed a game too my brother on the PS5 to see if he liked the series, if he did, he would potentially be a lifetime customer, but if I didn’t share it would he potentially never get to try the game to see if he even liked it in the first place? What if I want to sell my game to someone else? What stores and other businesses will cease to exist after no physical games are distributed? These are all things to think about and consider. Options matter.

What are your thoughts on removing physical media from the lineup? Even if you use all digital now, what effects will this bring to this medium? Will you buy a PlayStation 6 if it is digital only and how expensive do you think it will be considering the PlayStation pro is now going for 899.99 USD currently? Let us know your thoughts on this subject.

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