Introduction
It’s been a busy summer and in the UK we have continued to have so many heatwaves that it’s been too unbearable to sit in my office playing on the PlayStation 3 let alone adding to the fear that the extra heat will break the console.
We’ve also had more sad PlayStation news from Sony with their announcement that physical games are no longer going to be produced for the PS5. Whilst this is probably not a big shock, it’s still sad for us who love physical media and marks the end of an era. So it makes me think, why physical?
I’ve never had a problem with digital games, I own many, but for most of the time, when I have looked, physical games have been cheaper or at least comparable in price. And even if it was a bit more expensive, if I have a physical game I can sell it if I don’t like it or am done with it. I never understood why people would give up on those potential benefits. On some consoles at least, it also took up less disk space if you had a physical copy and saved the churn on managing your disk space.
There is also something about having a shelf with the artwork, the books, a physical presence that reminds me “Oh yeah I want to play that again”. And with physical media came all the video game shops and markets which were fun to explore.
The PlayStation 3 sits on a special borderline where for most of the games in the library, there is enough content on the disc to remain playable long after servers are shut down, I think the PlayStation 4 and especially 5, they are glorified digital keys.
It’s a predictable but sad progression in the video game culture.
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