00:00The second-hand NES that I got in the 90s still works.
00:03The same goes for all my old games, with hundreds of other titles still available to buy second-hand.
00:08When I spent $700 on a PS5 Pro, my expectation was that it, too, would continue to work for another
00:1430 years
00:15and that I'd be able to play its library of games whenever I got around to them.
00:19But what good is the promise of that investment when the PS6 comes around
00:23and every single game I purchase is tied to a server that Sony could choose to shut down at any
00:29time?
00:30Sony recently announced that physical PlayStation game discs will cease production in 2028,
00:35but a disc-less future for PlayStation is a dark one for us all.
00:39Okay, the advantages of digital distribution are too numerous to count if you're a game publisher,
00:44but for those of us out here actually buying and playing games, the consequences are vast,
00:49even for players who prefer the digital format.
00:51Despite the fact that some discs are essentially unlocked keys that contain very little game data,
00:57they are still physical objects that hold value in the real world.
01:00I can lend these discs to a friend or sell them on eBay,
01:03or use them to revisit favourite old titles instead of rebuying the latest remaster,
01:08all things that, presumably, publishers like Sony would prefer us not to do.
01:12With the end of physical games, PlayStation now controls its entire ecosystem.
01:16The end of physical discs benefits no one but Sony.
