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Well what’s the point then. Might as well go over to PC gaming the only real reason to stay with consoles was the physical disks.
Everything else about consoles is terrible compared to PC, no mods, limited games, limited sales, if any, (looking at you Nintendo), limited control scheme options, can only play games so device doesn’t have a lot of utility, you have to pay for internet access even though you already pay for internet access, no private servers, limited community tools.
The one thing you could say for consoles was that you owned the game. Now that’s gone.
The other advantages were lower price for hardware and not requiring tinkering to get games to run properly. While the price is still lower, it’s a smaller gap than it used to be since everything is ass-expensive now, so less benefit there. The last advantage isn’t even remotely worth all the downsides at this point.
This is my last console Gen, 30 years deep.
Owning a console means owning your game—being able to share it, save it, display it, sell it, and trade it.
It’s been an amazing, wild ride. But Sony, I’m out.
It really is an end of an era. I won’t buy an all digital console. I already have a PC for that and it plays everything better in 4k. Nintendo is truly the last console maker with great first party, physical media, and console gimmicks that interest me.
We finally made it here. They been making digital only consoles for years now.
Why get into consoles now? One of the best reasons to get a console is gone.
Due to licensing agreements expiring with publishers, 500 titles of your digital games will no longer be available. We are also shutting down our digital storefront for this generation’s console next year, after which you will no longer be able to download any other titles onto your puny price inflated ssd. Please consider upgrading to the PS7 to continue paying to play online, where you can pay to purchase your games again. Thank you for your business.
Guess who’s getting rid of movies you bought on Playstation?
Considering that Sony are practically a monopoly in the disc market, this could be interpreted as exiting blu-ray entirely. If they’re not behind it, nobody is.
This is games only, nothing to do with movies.
Also physical movies have been dead for years anyway, no one buys them. Even less people buy them than physical games, and barely anyone buys them.
What?
What the fuck?
They are just going to let Nintendo be the last physical game producer?
Physical copies are about to cost so much, fuck them!
Microsoft still allow physical copies?
Articles were going around yesterday talking about Microsoft’s next console being digital only.
Nintendo: Game key cards don’t seem so bad now, huh??
Microsoft: our Xbox one “physical as digital” plan doesn’t seem so bad now, huh?
Consoles now cost nearly as much as a PCs, digital purchases are being revoked, and now discs are going away and you’re being locked into one storefront where Sony can charge whatever they want. I’ve enjoyed owning consoles for my entire life but they don’t make sense anymore. Somehow, Sony just made the the Steam Machine look like a smart purchase.
They’re not locking purchases to only the PS store. Retail can still sell codes in boxes, just no discs that don’t contain a playable game anyway like currently.
…codes which can only be redeemed through the PS Store.
Maybe not the Steam Machine itself, but a dedicated PC plugged into the TV using SteamOS, certainly. That’s going to be my “console” going forward after this gen.
To be fair, i’d say the Steam Machine is relatively cost competitive with other PC pre-builds. DIY will save you money but you’ll never end up with a system that’s as small or quiet, and you have to really know what you’re doing.
The Steam Machine is not such a bad deal really, aside from the fact that every PC is a bad deal in 2026.
You can totally build a system as small and as quiet. You really have to be experienced to do it, for sure, but it can be done. My last build was a shoebox sized mini itx. It was 1" taller and one 1.5" longer than the top of the line video card I put in it. It had 4 SSDs and a full size PSU.
It was whisper quiet until you asked for the absolute maximum output. It was always silent doing anything a console could do.
I get what you’re saying, but it’s worth mentioning that even a Mini ITX board has a larger foot print (6.7" squared) than the Steam Machine’s absolutely tiny 6" cubic form factor. It’s really a very small device!
FWIW, I’ve always found that small form factor parts are a little more expensive too.
It’s not upgradable, it’s a bad deal. One of the main reasons to play on pc is upgradable hardware, which the Steam machine doesn’t have.
The Steam Machine is a good value for its form factor. Some people prioritize form factor. Some people don’t. That’s really the main factor in whether someone would want a Steam Machine. I feel like both sides of the argument are ignoring that.
Giving up every other reason to buy a PC just for the form factor is ridiculous.
Right now it’s way too expensive for me, but that’s because I currently have a PS5, Steam Deck, and Switch 2 that were bought when prices were reasonable. Once games I want to play come out that I can’t play on my current hardware, we’ll see where the market’s at and what makes sense, price-wise. I might have to go without high-end games for a while or even for good if prices never become sane again. Hoping I can squeeze several more years out of what I have now.
If someone had no way to play games and wanted to start gaming on the TV now without having to build something, a Steam Machine still would be a hard recommendation when the Switch 2 exists at a decent price, with the added benefit of being portable. The Steam Machine’s only worth it at its current price for people who like to tinker.
I’m out. I would never buy a console without physical media.
Realistically, with half-finished games on launch and mandatory day one patches, this won’t be a meaningful shift in how much you actually “own” your games, but dropping this 2 days after they deleted 550 movies that folks had bought and paid for and ostensibly “owned” from the ecosystem is a real bad look.
They’re dropping this news now so people forget about it in a few days when they all pick up their pitchforks and go after Microsoft for the upcoming layoffs.
The funny thing is the main people going after MS will be people that want Xbox to die anyway, leaving Sony free to do things like this.
The problem with discs vs. digital never was how much of the game you own or the fact that you can play the same disc 20 years down the road. It boils down to the fact that you can no longer sell the game you own after finishing it.
Or even just lend it to a friend. When I was a kid everyone in my group would get a different game and share them. We barely would have been able to play anything if we didn’t share
See, this is the real problem. Anybody with an MBA is going to look at your statement and think about all the money they didn’t get because they’re too fucking stupid to realize that you would not have bought more games if you had to buy multiple copies. It’s the same thing with like pirating music they used to talk about how much money they’ve lost, and I used to think no I just wouldn’t have bought that album. So they’ve spent all this time trying to figure out how to chase down dollars they never would’ve gotten to begin with.
Yeah the reality is I would have just read (more) books from the library and played fewer video games
I don’t think reselling is the big issue to me; just ownership. Some high-guarantee method of both retaining and controlling the product in question, which is often failed by our technical measures and server checks.
I’m fine with digital, even when it prevents reselling. I’m just less fine with it when license holders have the right to say “No, I’m done!” and pull their side of the contract.
yeah but the way they “release” games the disc is just a series of wget requests for patch files and if they take that endpoint down the disc is worthless.
Yes, it’s less than ideal, but still preferable to having NO way to sell or trade a license while the servers are still up. Games are becoming too big to fit on a single Bluray anyway.
true indeed.
We used to finish games. No update bullshit. A game was done when it was done. Humans can do this shit. Capitalism erodes our skills and our brains.
Just look at crash on ps1. Amazing.
I would rather a game that is supported for years with new content, updates, and fixes over one that isn’t. This thinking that “games were done back in the olden days, now they’re not” is dumb. They were just smaller, and they often had lots of bugs that could never be fixed.
Yes, but also no… For instance there were definitely bugs in Mario 64 that were corrected in later editions of Mario 64 like Mario 64DD and the one that came out on the DS. One very famous bug that’s been corrected is the ability to backwards long jump up the stairs in the upper section of the castle before having enough stars to climb the stairs.
Obviously these weren’t game breaking bugs in the same way that day one patches are fixing things, but it’s also not exactly correct to say it didn’t happen in the before time.
Right, it happened, but Usually they were small bugs.
I’m referring more to unnessecary updating every week . i hate that shit
I’m with you, this is an insanely ballsy move. One of the biggest pros of a console is that you could still buy physical games and trade it with friends or sell it used to someone else. If everything is going digital, what’s the point?
Here we even have a local chain that rents you physical games for a week at a time…
It’s not ballsy at all. They’ve basically got no competition in the high-end console space, and the overwhelming majority of console buyers only buy digital already.
For me it’s called a library.
On a side note, while I very much understand people’s general hate of DRM, I am curious if there’d be interest in a digital library service that lets people borrow video games to download with lite-DRM systems attached (something small, to make certain people don’t borrow the whole catalog, and then crack them on the spot)
I’m sure it’s easy for people to come up with gripes about such a system, or any use of DRM, and would express their preference for physical, but: Physical games prioritize/benefit consoles over PCs, and prioritize AAA games for which the costs of large disc printing runs make more sense. You’re not likely to find many copies of Mina the Hollower at libraries.
More evidence I did the right thing by completely avoiding Sony this generation.
Remember when XB1 was going to be digital-only and Sony roasted it so badly Microsoft had to walk it back?
Sad thing is, I always figured this was going to be inevitable. I just didn’t think it would happen this soon.
Hilariously still up on their YT, and rightfully getting roasted in the comments
That is why you need a strong competition. Unfortunately Sony doesn’t have one, so they can do whatever they want.
Microsoft has the chance to do the funniest thing.
They won’t, of course. They’d rather shoot themselves in the foot than do something smart.
The next Xbox is a PC, it’s already 99% digital only.
PlayStation players are already basically digital only, have been for years.
The people complaining are the vocal extreme minority.
I just didn’t think it would happen this soon.
I hate to be the one to tell you this but…
That was 13 years ago. That announcement is almost high school aged.
And 13 years before that announcement was the start of the PS2 era.
Someone at Sony is feeling very smart and modern right now, totally unaware that PlayStation is now a dead brand walking.
They are a strong brand, but that’s not going to be enough to justify a definitely-$1k+ PS6 compared to increasing handheld and console-like gaming options that are not locked down ecosystems. Their exclusives likely can’t save them, they have been dying out already.
Physical media was one of the few remaining differentiators for hardcore collectors and loyalists. Even if I’m sure it’s a greatly diminished part of their bottom line, it’s a psychological anchor that justifies the existence of a console. Now their console will be just another extremely handicapped and uncompetitive digital box, even if (as recently reported) they copy the Switch dockable format.
For me, the locked ecosystem of consoles was justified by a lower price for the hardware and the option to sell or trade the software. Now that neither is going to be a thing any more, my 40+ years of console gaming will be ending after this gen. It’s gonna be dedicated PCs plugged into the TV from here on out.
that’s not going to be enough to justify a definitely-$1k+ PS6
I’m inclined to agree. They might be able to sweeten that with a one year PSN voucher or something. Otherwise, you’re just paying for access to exclusive content, access to PSN, and the ability to say “I have a Sony.”
Imagine if you will, they released a new ps2 with ps1 backward compatibility and optional discs.
I’d pay $500 right now.
Just use an emulator, even PS3 emulation has gotten pretty good.
But thats an emulator, yes 99.9% the same but not “real”.
Pretty much all 3D PS2 games can be played in widescreen via emulation. They’re better than the original.
Sorry boss, I only play mine on a CRT in 4:3 the way it was intended 😁
Playing on emulator is fine, but like everything in today’s world, its fake, and not as visceral of an experience.
You can still play on a CRT in 4:3 via an emulator if you like. You just have more options if wanted.
I know there are many who swear by original hardware only, though, which is fine if you have the luxury of obtaining and maintaining them. Many don’t.
Yep totally
It just works on pc btw
You can buy a used PS2 right now that has that for way less? Even if you demand an hdmi mod, it’s way less than that
Of course, but someday they will all be gone. I dread those days. Caps dont last and its very very hard to repair smc ones.
This is the way to go. Make sure to get the drive serviced so it doesn’t crap out prematurely. There are so many PS2s out there, you can probably still get one cheap.
Is there any reason not to be on PC? Larger libraries, open source, better graphics, larger communities, no extra sub on top of your internet to play with friends.
If we can’t have discs, in my opinion, why have consoles? If you want a console-like experience you can even use distros like SteamOS or Bazzite.
But absolutely fuck Sony and Rockstar and everyone trying to remove our physical media and games. If it weren’t against IP laws and such, I’d love to work for a physical production company who re-makes discs, cartridges, etc to preserve games. I know there are some who do limited runs for indie titles, giving them physical releases they otherwise wouldn’t have.
We need a more chill, less capitalist world.
There’s also a number of outlets reporting that the PlayStation 6 will likely be over $1000
How much you bet that it will be some cloud computing genAI slop?
Guess it’ll make the steam machine pricing more attractive 🙃
The current PS5 is more powerful and half the price of a Steam machine.
Totally worth not owning my library and having it taken away at will and remaining on a closed ecosystem.
I’m assuming you’ll go buy some more fifa slot rolls eh?
You think you own your steam games? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I’m assuming you’ll go buy some more TF2 hats or loot crates in CS eh?
There are a surprising amount of DRM free games on steam, is valve perfect? Fuck no, at the end of the day they are a company that only want money, and as much as they made my favorite games from my childhood, they did have a gigantic hand in normalizing loot crates. But with that list in combination with my GOG library, if I back up the install files I’m golden.
Also on pc we have DRM Free games on gog that include goodies like soundtracks, manuals , wallpapers and more. Gog is now my favorite store…
Gog is great and all, but it has virtually zero recent major games.
💯
Previously, the reason to not be on PC was a lower upfront cost, being able to sell and trade games, and not having to mess around to get games working. The first one still applies, but much less than in the past, and the second one is being killed outright. Consoles really don’t make much sense over PC any more. If price and not being tech-savvy are big enough issues, just game on a phone.
Oh no, I’ve just realised that this might mean the end of bluray too because most people use PlayStation’s for watching blu rays. I know I bought a PS5 earlier than I needed to specifically for 4k blurays
There are many significantly cheaper bluray players than PlayStation consoles. I’d wager that only a handful of a percent of console owners have ever watched a bluray movie on their PS5, because barely anyone buys and watches blurays, and people who buy consoles are overwhelmingly buying things digitally.
It’s more that it’s a two birds one stone kind of situation. 4k bluray players still fell expensive considering all they do is play blurays
A bluray player can be bought for like a hundred bucks even here in Australia. They’re not expensive.
They don’t sell because no one gives a shit about physical copies movies.
They should though because the difference between a movie on streaming vs on bluray at what’s supposed to be the equivalent quality is just not comparable, audio being the most obvious compromise streaming services make that I always spot and I’m not even a massive audiophile and have bad tinnitus to deal with too.
Fortunately, someone linked an article in here saying that Blu Ray sales are up a lot in the past few years, which is a metric I’ve been contributing to personally.
I get if they reduced disc output but fully ending is nasty work and stripping away consumer choice. There tons of factors of why people have been going digital lately and I still do a mix of both. I don’t trust the big 3 with a digital only landscape even Switch’s 2 gamekey cards still have issues. I guess the good times are slowly ending.
I would argue that DRM-free has always been what we really need rather than the physical media, particularly in the era of patching.
I’m with you on that which is why I love GOG’s efforts.
True. but also, some places that don’t have reliable Internet access rely on physical media. They’re cutting out part of the market entirely.
I read PS physical sales are currently about 15% of the market. That was about 70 million sales in 2025. Seems dumb to cut that out, but maybe it will work out for them.
It seems dumb to us. But I’m sure they’re (selfishly) considering the cost of manufacturing and distributing physical discs vs the number of people who can and will switch to digital if that’s all that’s available.
Seems risky, since the video game market is in an unprecedented place economically now. It may just be that the old AAA model just doesn’t make sense any more. I’d welcome a collapse of it, but am interested to see what the market can bear.
I forgot about that part. I hope people get them to rethink this.
This 100%. Discs are actually just ewaste these days but we absolutely need competing storefronts on consoles and a way of selling digital licences second hand.
The issue, normies dont understand DRM free digital media. Once its digital its like its invisible. A disc or a tape, is so easy to understand, you just HAVE it and it works.
My tapes from the 80s/90s just work when I put them in. Does a disc game or digital game from even 2018 do that? Likely not.
Does a disc game or digital game from even 2018 do that?
Yes. When it comes to Sony, any PS4 game (so from 2013 and on) will work on a PS4 or PS5 with a disc drive.
I meant for PC, sorry
Ah, with PC it varies. There can definitely be issues when you go back to games made for Windows 7 and earlier, for example. If a game is popular enough, it’s almost guaranteed to have fan-made patches to work on modern hardware, at least.
Even without a game being popular, if you sort of know what you are doing, you can “patch” it yourself via relatively easy to use tools:
https://github.com/elishacloud/dxwrapper
There is even a patch to enable 16 bit emulation support on x64 Windows (sometimes needed for installers or some weird Windows 3.1 game ports to Windows 95).
It’s going to make companies like Limited Run and Video Games Plus more important. You’ll end up waiting a LONG time for a physical release, though.
Since it’s guaranteed the next gen of consoles won’t have disc drives, they’re going to be gone as well.
