The Crossplay Cooperative E011 - Friendsweat Can't Even Save Us Now

What do we got? Where do we start?

Yeah, let's just get straight into the news cycle here.

And so this is...

I really thought that Sony were doing their best to shove Xbox off the top of the negative news cycle and really take the crown on that because, boy, no one's been enjoying what Sony's been up to this last week or two.

But then somehow Microsoft just comes in with the three-pointer, just absolutely slam dunks it with a gigantic bloodbath, and good Lord.

So I guess we'll start with what Sony's been doing because they did it first, and there's some valuable discussions to be had there, and then we'd better talk about what's been going on elsewhere because, oh, my God, it's just ridiculous.

Hell of a week.

So, what's Sony been up to? Sony are to discontinue physical discs for new games launching on PS consoles from January 2028.

This is from Sophie McAvoy over at gamesindustry.biz. Sony will discontinue physical disc production for new games releasing on PlayStation consoles starting January 2028.

Games will be available only in digital format through the PlayStation Store and other retailers.

This change does not affect titles released or launching on disc before that date.

So, you know, we'll still have the next year and a bit of releases before they cut it off.

As reported by Game File, Sony recorded that nearly four in five purchases of full games on PS4 and PS5 were digital over the past financial year.

And as with all digital content, including games, movies and music, players are purchasing a personal license for non-commercial use, a Sony spokesperson said.

So, you know, they're just clarifying there that when you buy these things digitally, you don't own them.

You're renting them until the point where Sony decides that they don't want to rent them to you anymore, right? So there's no real permits in that.

And you need to be very aware of that going into any of these digital purchases that they're only valid as long as the servers are up and the companies behind them still want to let you have them.

And obviously, this is pretty positive for the companies because they get full control over the line of sale to you.

So, you know, it's on their store where they get uh the maximum cut versus say through retailers and third parties uh and of course it prevents uh second-hand game sales which again is can only really be seen as a positive for the companies involved because it removes the secondary market you can't trade things in yeah when you're done with them you can't sell them to someone else they can get a brand new purchase from every single person who wants to get this game every single time uh so i personally i think that kind of sucks uh but from a from a capitalist point of view it makes sense for them so i guess i can't argue with that um yeah yeah have you have you ever been much into the the sort of secondhand or used used games marketly

I was like, back in the day, yeah, I definitely would go to let you be games and buy games with a bit cheaper or wait for the secondhand games to be on special.

And periodically I'd sell my games when I wasn't using them or just give them away or just let people have a chance who wouldn't otherwise play those said games to play them.

But now it's like since 2020 when I bought my PS5, I've pretty much been all digital.

which I do like the convenience of going all digital, but yeah, I am quite concerned about the...

Yeah, the ramifications of giving all of the power to Sony or whichever storefront owns those games.

Yeah, yeah.