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| This "Sony Pony" is really mad. |
Oh, you already knew that? Okay so this might turn into a bit of an opinion piece because I just got home from a convention and I'm exhausted but let me also hit you with some hard facts. Feel free to cite this blog post or any of the coming resource links when you post your own opinions on Sony's big fail.
First off, if you haven't heard, Sony has announced on the PlayStation blog that they will cease production of physical game discs by January 2028.
The blog post written by Sid Shuman, senior director, states,
As consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital, physical game disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January 2028. Following this date, new games will be available on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only. This transition has no impact on games that already released, or will be releasing, prior to January 2028 in disc format. (Source)
Note that right off the bat Sony is placing the blame for their decision on "consumer preferences" because clearly they believe their consumers are stupid. We, the consumers, know that our preferences have absolutely nothing to do with this decision. We know that we have been white-knuckled grasping our physical games for over fifteen years now as the AAA game industry has tried their hardest to wrench physical media from our hands. When the PS Vita was killed, we screamed. We shouted. We were unheard. Now the PlayStation store for PS Vita games and PS3 games is being removed completely, and the only games we will ever be able to play on those systems are the ones we purchased in physical format (or, if we're very lucky, games we downloaded and managed to keep on our hard drives).
Why do we care, though? Why does it matter if physical games go away? Okay, first please peruse my blog so you know what my entire everything is about. Here's a link to my 14-year-old (and somewhat outdated) introduction post where I stated the original purpose of my blog. (This article copyright Kirsten Rodning. I have to put this here because the internet is full of robot bandits.)
Now that you've done that, let's talk about media preservation. Let's talk about libraries and archives. Last night I saw a comment where someone said, "I don't think it's that serious. We're all gonna die. Eventually everything we've owned and loved will turn to dust and be recycled." Yes, I did the janky cover-up of the picture and username for that commenter because I don't think he wants attention for this bad opinion.
I feel that this defeatist response is very short sighted. I responded and told him that I wrote my Master's thesis on a book that was written over 600 years ago. This isn't a brag. My point is that the story I wrote about, Lancelot by Chrétien de Troyes, STILL EXISTS. Countless generations of people have been able to read Chrétien's work in those actually EIGHT centuries (I know you all know I'm bad at math). Furthermore, after all of that time I was one of the first people to publish a paper on Lancelot's treatment of horses. That means that there are new viewpoints to be had on a piece of literature that has been around for almost a thousand years. And if you think, "yeah, but nobody's going to want to study video games hundreds of years from now" I will ask you, "Uh, did you look at my blog yet?" Back when Don Quixote was written in the 17th century, people thought that romantic literature was "low" and "vulgar." Don Quixote's neighbors burned his books because they thought he was reading garbage. Of course, the books mentioned were ones that we now study in school as classics. I wrote a little bit about Don Quixote before and you can click this link to see it. The literature that is popular now -- including video games -- will be considered classics in 50, 100, 1000 years. Final Fantasy VII is already being studied in classrooms, and one day schoolchildren will be forced to play it and won't want to because they think it's old and boring. And, of course, it will be preserved because physical copies are being saved in museums and libraries.
But how are museums and libraries going to preserve digital information that could degrade and disappear? Well, the professionals are working on that. Check out this page, where I have a whole bunch of links to different library and museum archives that are working hard to preserve video game history. This very optimistic panel was hosted by the American Library of Congress at PAX East in 2011. They talked positively about how they were working to preserve not only physical copies of games, but also the code and developers' notes. But don't get too excited, because in 2024 this happened: Video game libraries lose legal appeal to emulate physical game collections online. We are still working to find ways to preserve video games in the same ways we preserve other forms of media, but the big gaming companies (probably their executives, not the actual developers) are fighting hard to keep that from happening.
There is a lot more to discuss regarding Sony's terrible announcement about physical video games. Others are pointing out that if physical games go away, so does the concept of ownership. Here and here are some other responses that I think are very thoughtful and informative. One additional point I'd like to make is that if we can no longer build a collection of physical games, we can no longer count our collections as assets. There will be no way to "liquidate" assets -- i.e. sell your possessions -- if you reach a point in your life where you need some money and need to sell part or all of your game collection. All of your money spent on digital games will be gone forever (especially when digital game distributors don't even allow returns). I have had many friends over the years who have had to make ends meet by selling their collections of Pokemon or Magic the Gathering cards, or selling their video games. Living in America, I certainly know that at any moment I could be saddled with a hospital bill in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. I believe that removing these physical assets from people who are already in the lower income levels -- upper middle class or literally poor as dirt (like me -- buy me a Ko.Fi?) -- is an intentional choice by the executives who own companies like Sony. They do not want us to own assets of any kind. I'm not going to make this a huge economic soap box, but do think about that for a while.
I'm certain I will continue to talk about this subject extensively in the coming weeks, so please feel free to follow me on social media for more thoughts (links are at the top right and right sidebar of this website). Before Sony's announcement my plan for today was to edit and upload my panel video from my recent convention appearance, but that got pushed back because it was imperative that I respond to Sony's nonsense. If you are interested in my panel on The History of My Little Pony Video Games, watch my YouTube and other socials for that video to be posted soon. Funnily enough, I spent a whole section of that presentation talking about what I call the "Dark Ages" -- approximately the years 2009- 2020 when many developers, especially of licensed games, chose to make mobile app games that were only available for a few years, and that are no longer available to play or view. Literally download-only games that are no longer possible to access. My audience and I cheered for physical media as we talked about the newer games that came out for the Nintendo Switch and PS4/PS5. It was a more innocent time (last weekend). That presentation should be available on YouTube in the coming days, and there will be an embedded post here on this blog as well.
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