To illustrate why this is stupid, I will furnish two links to purchase Dark Souls 3 (PS4, 2016)

Ebay, to buy: $11 + shipping[0]

PS Store, to rent: $60[1]

[0] https://www.ebay.com/itm/298370753624

[1] https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/dark-souls-iii/

> Sony's announcement follows Rockstar's announcement that Grand Theft Auto 6 will come with a download code in a box rather than a physical disc. It's a move that most notably stamps out second-hand reselling of a game.

This is the big point for me. If one buys a digital PlayStation game there's virtually no easy way to transfer it to another owner or sell it like one could do in past console generations. There will always be modding and ways to play game dumps, but it limits that level of "ownership" to those technically inclined to make it work.

In a few years Sony executives will be wondering why a portion of their consumer base decided to prioritize other forms of entertainment. I can speak for myself in that I’ve never upgraded past the PS3, and I feel no regrets about it.

I've reached an age where I don't actually buy games anymore, I just load up my wishlist with games and between Christmas, birthday and fathers day I get all the games I will care to play for the year. My wife, parents, extended family likes being able to buy me a physical gift, wrap it, and hand it to me. I understand that this is just getting rid of the disc and keeping the box, but pretty soon there's gonna be no box either, and I know my wife will hate the idea of just handing me a gift card on special days. I just hate how all physical products are evaporating.

Imho this is no issue, as long as the game is playable after download without some kind of server or account.

The moment you need an account or server to play you don't own the game. I think governments should step in here. They must force stores to use words like rent or lease instead of buy. That way it is way more clear where you are going to spend money on.

Never been happier that I've turned into a retro-gamer. This is more the result of being old than a principled stance, but never the less. Increasingly I don't view myself as actually owning anything that connects to the internet. Minecraft is delightful on my disconnected Xbox-360, thanks. Nobody can break it by forcing an update or shutting down a server.

Haven’t bought a physical game in at least 15 years (because of Steam). I do wonder how many people still buy physical copies these days.

Not sure what the sales are like on PS but at least on Steam you can find great deals for the digital copies as well. (You lose the reselling though)

Most games with retail copies drop in price soon after the hype window is over. They stay full launch retail price in the PSN store unless there is a "sale". Anti-consumerism at its finest.

Guess I’m throwing my PS5 out the window and going to PC. This war on physical media is ridiculous. Pretty soon they’re going to require us to buy the console but rent the controllers for the very low price of $79.99 a month.

The Sony that has just proved you can't trust them to maintain access to the digital content they "sold" you right?

<Unplugs PS5>

This was bound to happen. I’ve long suspected the #1 reason physical games exist was to placate a few big retailers like Best Buy and Walmart and Target so they’d continue to carry the console.

Clearly that’s no longer necessary. Download-only retail boxes or gift cards or whatever are enough.

I know some people really care about physical releases, but I think the writing has been on the wall for years that this was coming.

Previously:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48745456 Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation (playstation.com)

1 hour ago, 32+ comments

I will no longer buy playstations starting now

Dupe https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48745456

I don't buy every game on a physical disc—I don't see the point for live service games, for example—but I do have a fairly large collection of physical PS5 games because I like that assurance that I can continue to play that game forever. I guess what we see here is that after 2028 I have no reason to own a PlayStation ever again.

Last step is for them to say that due to rising components' cost, they are transitioning to rent-only model for consoles.

This way you will finally own nothing except for maybe console rent arrears.

> As consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital

_Goddamn citation needed!_

"You'll own nothing, and you'll be happy."