Let’s Not Kill Physical Games

Last week, Sony decided to finally drop the bomb on everyone and announced that it will be ending physical disc production for all PlayStation titles, come January 2028. This news also arrives a week after Rockstar announced that GTA VI‘s physical release will basically be a box with a game code on a piece of paper inside. Obviously, these decisions to end physical game production are not made without any evidence of the growing popularity of digital-only titles.

On the other hand, I strongly believe we should not allow physical releases to die. Not only is it bad for the preservation of titles, but it also gives the company too much control over how we play and utilize our purchases. This may not be such a bad thing if corporations like Sony had displayed any level of trust or financial responsibility over the past few years, but there are numerous pieces of evidence I could cite that point towards the contrary.

Additionally, I have always felt that the data showing the decline of physical games is influenced by more than consumer preference. What do I mean by that? Well, let’s, for example, think back to when physical games were on top. Not only were retail stores like Target and Walmart well stocked with the newest titles, but GameStop was absolutely everywhere. I remember when virtually every mall outlet in any town had a GameStop selling tons of games, both new and old, and offering consumers generous prices and sale incentives just like any retail location.

With GameStop collapsing due to poor management and a myriad of other factors, it becomes a lot harder for people to buy physical games in general for a good price, especially if it’s not a brand-new game. Your best bet to find great deals for things now is a local game store, which not everyone has nearby, or turn towards digital platforms like Amazon. Of course, you can still go to major retailers, but they never have prices as good as GameStop once did, nor do they have the wide and varied selection. I never see anything other than the most popular games on a shelf at Target and Walmart these days.

It’s small factors like this that I feel influence people more than an actual preference for digital-only games. If you take a look at digital storefronts, you see more evidence of this point. The reason Steam and Epic have become the best digital platforms is that they offer the two things that GameStop once did: Frequent sales and deep discounts, as well as an expansive catalogue. I know this because these are the same reasons I primarily game on PC these days.

If games are going to cost more and more money, the consumer base is forced to do what they can to keep up. Therefore, in my eyes, the issue with physical game sales is based less on consumer opinion and more on manufacturer pressure as a way to cut further costs. No doubt this is just another step in recovering from financial losses as a result of overspending on AAA title productions. We have seen how big studios across the industry have fired hundreds of employees to rectify this same issue, and so it seems likely that cutting manufacturing costs is another step.

Personally, if I have a console, I always buy the physical game. I haven’t bought PS5 games because I don’t own a PS5, but every game on my Switch I have bought physically. Console gaming should always be a physical-first platform; otherwise, it isn’t really a console anymore; it’s become a PC, especially if prices for current consoles are already pushing into budget PC territory.

I know that consumers have little power in this scenario. The one thing we can do to stop this is to support physical releases until this cutoff. Hopefully, influencing a brighter future where we, as consumers, can continue to share games, collect them, and play without shelling out monthly subscriptions or risking our purchases being erased for the sake of selling newer digital platforms.