@inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world
Former Valve writer says PlayStation killing physical discs is no conspiracy: "You, the consumer, have made your choice, and the choice is for digital"
2026-07-21 01:13 UTC
Replies (23)
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@missingno@fedia.io 2026-07-21 03:06
I hate it as much as the next person here, but it was always inevitable. It was never a question of if, but when. I know a lot of people look at physical media from a preservation angle, but in an era where games have a long tail of post-release updates and DLC, I'm not so sure they even serve that purpose anymore. If I want to replay my old games in 50 years, in many cases I probably don't just want to play the 1.0 that's on the disc. If I'm still dependent on the availability of a third-party download server to get the remaining data, do discs even still matter all that much?
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@Salamanderwizard@lemmy.world 2026-07-21 01:45
I just wanna say this is my opinion. 98% of the shit we deal with. Not just game shit, but everything…all boils down to these folks with power being utter rotten puss filled cunts. Like honestly. Fuck disc. I hate em. I love digital. But fuck me. Let it be mine. Let me mod it (without cheating in it) let me play it on any console I want. Let it be my $80 of the game to do with as I want. Like stop being such assholes. Why do these folks gotta turn into hateful cunts cause they got money or they made a game or media or whatever the fuck. Consumers wouldn’t be as pissed if they weren’t being fisted constantly.
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@Kolanaki@pawb.social 2026-07-21 01:14
Easy for Valve to say; they never deleted anything anyone paid for without refunds. While I still think they would get pushback for it, I don’t think it would have been as much had they not deleted over 500 movies from accounts just like a week before.
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@666dollarfootlong@lemmy.world 2026-07-21 03:14
I think part of the reason why games have inflated so little, compared to any other goods, is that they slowly but consistently moved from selling physically to selling digitally, thus increasing profit without needing to raise prices. Now they are forcing more to switch to digital AND they are increasing prices. I do think the AAA gaming industry is about to hit a wall quite soon
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@Korkki@lemmy.ml 2026-07-21 03:24
Yeah… for global gaming market disk sales are like under 5% of total sales, even for consoles it’s like 10%. It’s a nice option for you and me, a collectors item, aftermarket sales, a hedge for digital “ownership” rugpulls? For publishers and devs it’s just a cost that doesn’t even justify itself, because nobody is buying or putting their money where their mouth is. How low would the marketshare have to go for them to be justifying pulling the plug. Nobody really gave a shit about physical until few days ago. Plus 90% of the games that come with disk option these days are irredeemable AAA slop anyway. Digital distribution enabled the indie scene where all the innovation is these days. if we had disks we we wouldn’t have indie studios. Companies like EA, Sony, and Ubisoft would dominate totally and act as gatekeepers, because only they would have the resources pay for the upfront cost of publishing to make the damn things. Digital won, accept the caveats and be happy about the upsides.
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@HarkMahlberg@kbin.earth 2026-07-21 02:11
"We constantly say voting with your wallet will make it so businesses will only create what you're willing to buy. ... Gaming is in the state it's in currently because the vast majority of gamers are okay with it? Have the wallets already voted?" In this sense, Chet is right, the 'democracy' of consumers has prevailed, and the people have spoken. They said 'digital.' I myself have been a PC gamer for over a decade now and I can't remember the last time I bought physical media. "You as the consumer have forced the large corporations hand, and you've told them 'Stop with retail.'" But then Chet shows his entire rancid asshole by actively ignoring the power dynamics between corporation and customer. The corporation always has the upper hand because the customer CAN ONLY buy what the corporation is OFFERING to sell. The corporation is always, at all times, presenting the customer with a false choice. A customer who has shitty internet and has to purchase all physical media, they may be in the democratic minority but that doesn't mean we feed them to the wolves. But an ex-Valve writer wouldn't know shit about that, they haven't shipped a physical game since Portal 2. What choice did you give consumers for Counterstrike, 2023? Half Life Alyx, 2020? Dota, 2013? Once you, apparently, regretted your decision to invest almost entirely in digital, you didn't start buying Crimson Desert discs while you could, nor did you abstain from making digital purchases altogether. Now it's too late, says Faliszek. Suck my dick, clown.
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@fluffykittycat@slrpnk.net 2026-07-21 03:48
No we havn’t
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@W3dd1e@lemmy.zip 2026-07-21 04:14
The problem isn’t with digital. The problem is with digital licenses and rights.
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@drmoose@lemmy.world 2026-07-21 04:21
I have no love for disks. It’s a dead technology. We should work on software ownership instead.
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@Ludicrous0251@piefed.zip 2026-07-21 03:47
Friendly reminder that GOG exists and has a backlog of great games that can keep you entertained for ages. If you want to put your money where your mouth us, I suggest putting it there. Buying the hot new thing no questions asked is how we get more of the Sonys of the world. I agree physical games are dead, but I’m sure as shit not buying digital from anyone with a history of plucking purchased shit out of people’s libraries.
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@Don_alForno@feddit.org 2026-07-21 04:31
That’s not an argument to take the same choice away from future customers. We made the choice for mostly digital in a world where physical was still available as a fallback. That’s not the same situation as if it wasn’t. The existence of physical media and a resale market does prevent some of the worst fuckeries of an otherwise monopoly, regardless if you ever bought or sold used games.
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@Polisheocket@lemmy.zip 2026-07-21 04:42
I own zero physical copies and don’t care too so I don’t see a problem
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@Jumi@lemmy.world 2026-07-21 05:12
Last time I bought a disc it had just a downloader on it
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@mysterious_cake@feddit.nl 2026-07-21 05:31
Over the last 10 years, I bought 5 digital games and played through dozens of physical. I guess it’s on me.
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@LSNLDN@slrpnk.net 2026-07-21 06:43
What the fuck!?! looks inside a blu ray disc. 1s and 0s IT IS DIGITAL YOU UTTER CUUUUUUU
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@RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 2026-07-21 06:47
Really? I didn’t have a choice. You can play the games they offer as digital downloads, or you can not play the games. There is no “or you can buy the BluRay.”
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@Gonzako@lemmy.world 2026-07-21 06:54
There’s a reason he’s former steam.
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@Phoenix3875@lemmy.world 2026-07-21 06:55
“You chose digital.” Chooses DRM-free, piracy otherwise “Not like that!”
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@ricdeh@lemmy.world 2026-07-21 07:21
Nonsensical quote, discs are also digital.
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@LilyVess@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2026-07-22 17:14
Funny. The consumer didn’t make physical media worse for the last 15 years. Manual or at least something besides the disk: Gone Price: Same as digital despite they getting more profit from digital. Disc: half the game, other half downloads. (Not always, mind you) Game: Half baked without at least two patches. They’ve been giving less and less with physical editions to push the more profitable digital store, and then they act shocked when no one buys physical. Shockingly, if the only difference between physical and digital is that you need to go out of your way to pick the physical, most people will just get the digital. Still I got my Switch games in physical so I can trade with friends.
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@MrKurteous@feddit.nu 2026-07-22 09:25
I just wanted to add that it’s also really stupid to claim that “consumers chose thing” because companies did it since they found it more profitable. Companies do many things people don’t actively want (or even dislike) for profit.
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@Arcane2077@sh.itjust.works 2026-07-21 14:57
Can we stop spreading the propaganda for them? Sony lied about digital sales by including digital-only games in their figures. Every game with a physical release, according to their developers, makes most of their sales on disc. It’s literally always a 70/30 split every single time (give or take 10%). I cannot find any evidence of a game that sold more in its digital form than physical
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@just2look@lemmy.zip 2026-07-21 02:11
If it was actually the consumers choice then Sony would continue offering the PlayStation with a disc drive and physical media since that is what the vast majority of consumers chose despite it costing more to purchase.