PlayStation is reportedly sending a lengthy survey to game developers with a question about how they sell physical games after their decision to stop producing physical game discs prompted intense backlash.

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[–] 146 points 1 month ago* (9 children)

"You're sheltering physical discs, are you not?"

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  • [–] 21 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

    First they came for the cheaters
    And I did not speak out
    Because I was not a cheater

    Then they came for the jailbreakers
    And I did not speak out
    Because I was not a jailbreaker

    Then they came for the pirates
    And I did not speak out
    Because I was not a pirate

    Then they came for the disc users
    And I did not speak out
    Because I was not a disc user

    Then they came for me
    And there was no one left
    To speak out for me

    • Slaacaa, 2026
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  • [–] 6 points 1 month ago (3 children)
  • [–] 93 points 1 month ago (12 children)

    If you want to sell without discs, then you need to open your hardware up and allow storefront competition and DRM-free games.

    That's why people are angry, not just because of the physical media aspect.

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  • [–] 38 points 1 month ago (8 children)

    And while you’re at it, open up the OS so it’s more than just a game console. And it would be nice if it had interchangeable parts so we could customize the hardware.

    Wait a minute…

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  • [–] 4 points 1 month ago* (4 children)

    I think the next Xbox is supposed to be more open, but still, yeah, just a buy a PC... when it's affordable... gulp

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  • [–] 12 points 1 month ago (3 children)

    Magic 8-ball, when will PC prices be affordable?

    "Ask again later"

    Dammit, I think my magic 8-ball is busted. Whenever I ask about PC prices, it just keeps saying THAT!!!

    ...........except later never comes.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    They do that. They still sell PCs, as far as I know. Consoles are subsidized because you have to buy from them.

    Those PCs just don't run PlayStation games (unless they have a PC version).

    I always felt like if you bought a PC, you should be able to buy a license to play Xbox and/or PlayStation games on it. Just have to pay the piper. Sadly it didn't work like that. They all make money if you buy multiple machines, so they will push you in that direction if you want more diversity in your gaming.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    That would require every console game to be compatible with PC. In theory it's at least possible for any game that has a PC port to just give you the port, but not every game does. And for those that do, well, why pay for this service over just buying the ports?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 month ago

    There are so many other factors and motivations that a) keep console games from being PC compatible and b) incentivize closed console ecosystems

    It's one of my pet peeves around the the online discourse regarding discs. So many people are looking at the issue one-dimensionally, and don't have a full picture of motivations and implications.

    I'm not gonna pretend it's not about profit. Of course it's all about money. But it is decisively not "we're gonna make more money by taking people's stuff away when we feel like it"

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  • [–] 21 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    No kidding. I have literally thousands of games on PC, that are digital. But I also can run a script and have it download all my GOG games to a drive as a backup.

    I also have tons of digital music I bought, because I can download it.

    I don't have any consoles newer than PS3 and 360, and I don't buy digital movies. Because there is no guarantee the digital on those works forever.

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  • [+] 33 points 1 month ago (4 children)
  • [–] 20 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    "Who cares about those sheep? They OWE us their money!"

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  • [–] 21 points 1 month ago

    I mean what’s the point of PlayStation if i can’t buy a physical game?

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  • [–] 35 points 1 month ago

    ... fans are making their voices heard as loudly as possible, to the point where PlayStation itself is reportedly reaching out to game developers...

    And yet... Anybody else notice you can't write in your reason for canceling PS+ (at least I couldn't when I did it a few weeks ago)?

    I won't spoil what the reason would have been but it wasn't "not enough developer surveys"

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  • [–] 15 points 1 month ago

    This is what happens when the person running the business does not patronize the business and is only interested in short term profits.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    Not the Onion...

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  • [–] 8 points 1 month ago (2 children)

    Both platforms will be discless for their next generation. PS6 and Helix will both be digital only.

    The problem is, PlayStation does not have the infrastructure in place to implement a proper disc to digital system like Xbox has. Xbox's still half-arsed though as it only covers XB1 and Series games. Like PlayStation games, Xbox and 360 games are not individually license-coded. So they both need a mail-in programme where you can mail in your discs and get a code to redeem the game on digital.

    The only real issue I have with that, aside from the possibility they can take your game from you, is that at this point, we don't need a next-gen console. GTA VI is the big release this year (though I personally don't care about it) and IMO it doesn't look better than Cyberpunk 2077 from nearly 7 years ago. Okay, the faces look better, but the world? Hell no. I just got Pragmata and it in no way pushes the envelope of what XSX/PS5 can do. Hell, the 360/PS3 era games are still peak, IMO. I don't need PS6 or Helix.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    Pragmata is in the ballpark of what a Series X or PS5 can do, with that level of performance. The best benchmark might be 007 First Light, and even then, it smells suspiciously like they cut content that they couldn't get running well. The biggest bottleneck at that level of fidelity and performance is the development cost, which is why so few games can output what these games are doing, and it's a contributing factor for why so few of us feel like we need a PS6.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    Hell, the 360/PS3 era games are still peak, IMO.

    I recommend you look at GTA5 comparison videos between PS3, PS4 and PS5. There's a massive jump in overall graphical quality coming from PS3 to PS4, less so from PS4 to PS5 unless you look at specific things like shadows and reflections. The reason the jump is smaller from PS4 to PS5 except in those two areas is because we've essentially hit a dead end with rasterization. You can pump up the fidelity but the improvements are so marginal that unless you a direct side-by-side comparison you probably can't tell the difference. So what makes those two exceptions so special? That's raytracing. The reason PS4 shadows and reflections look like ass compared to PS5 is because PS5 can do raytracing. But it kinda sucks at raytracing because raytracing was still in its infancy when Xbox and PS were putting together their hardware for this gen. They pretty much had to do a last-minute pivot into raytracing because Nvidia came out with the 30 series and showed raytracing is actually commercially viable. The current gen is still largely stuck behind rasterization with some raytracing sprinkled in for nicer shadows and reflections.

    And that's why I'm excited for the next gen even though I'm not going to buy any of the consoles. I'm excited because the next gen will be designed with raytracing in mind and I think proper dynamic lighting is going to the huge generational graphical leap that we didn't get with the current gen. There's no reason to be excited for the next gen consoles themselves, but there's a reason to be excited about the hardware update.

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  • [–] 5 points 1 month ago (1 child)

    Probably want to assess how much you spend vs how much you care for physical games.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago*

    They did this without consulting developers so they probably want to work out how to pissed the developers are.

    Imagine your hard at work developing your game, and you've got your distribution strategy locked down, and then Sony comes along and gets rid of game discs, well that's the entirety of South America and quite a lot of Asia gone then, with no consultation or warning.

    This was a massive screw up on Sony's part and now they're trying to work out how to rectify it without actually rectifying it.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 month ago

    Question 1: Are you over 50 years old?

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