this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2026
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[–] DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip 6 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I like Valve but stfu dude.

Physical discs was the only thing that was a plus side of consoles compared to PC gaming (you could trade and resell it).

This is so clearly a company employee portraying a certain sentiment that the company stands to profit from and acting like that is what consumers chose.

Sony, chose this. I didn't chose this. And valve knows that now 30- 40% or better of PlayStation players will be making their way over to them in the next 5 years with this very sentiment of "oh well its what consumers chose"

I know it wasn't the company of valve that said this and just an employee but still fuck this dudes opinion on the topic. Of course he shills for the end of discs that was the only thing that set consoles apart from Steam.

[–] TimothyOilypants@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 day ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (1 children)

The quality, tone, and tenor of this entire debate says FAR more about the type of people who want to talk about video games on the internet than it says about the ethics of corporations, creators, or the video game industry...

I was hoping that Lemmy game communities may be better than Reddit, but it seems like the same old circle-jerk...

[–] DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

What does it say?

That people are getting tired of companies bleeding them dry for every single thing in every way that they possibly can?

You expected a website primarily full of people who hate greediness and billionaires in general to not have anything to say about a decision that is anti consumer?

The cool thing about communities is that you can find all kinds of people who agree with your viewpoint. You could make your own with the 5 other people that feel the way you do on this topic and get the conversations you were hoping for.

[–] TimothyOilypants@lemmy.ca -1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Some facts:

  • Video games offer orders of magnitude more, and higher fidelity, content then at any point in history.
  • Video games are accessible to more people, in more parts of the world, across more platforms than at any point in history.
  • In 1996 there were 100,000,000 active video game players, 30 years later in 2026 there are now 3,600,000,000. That represents a 3000% increase
  • Adjusted for inflation, video games are the cheapest they have ever been.
[–] DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

It is wild how much gaming has grown.

But none of that means you can't still produce disks especially if all that growth equates to more profit overall.

[–] TimothyOilypants@lemmy.ca 0 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

What if you just don't want to? Can you provide any other examples where artists or creators are LEGALLY COMPELLED to produce art on a specific medium or under a specific distribution/licensing scheme? Because that is what is being suggested by many who oppose the move to digital.

Imagine you were a photographer who works exclusively in digital art, and the courts rule that you cannot continue to sell digital art unless you also maintain a physical darkroom and also offer physical prints of your art. Would that seem reasonable?

[–] DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 45 minutes ago) (1 children)

"I don't agree to the terms of your storefront and I won't sell it there"

Also, many games release on PlayStation and Xbox that are digital only and have no discs. This has existed since PS3.

Do you know how many exclusives are only on Steam?

Same way with gog's DRM free stance which is why people get upset they don't have every single game that comes out, its the publishers choice.

The freedom to make that choice is important.

For what you described to have any merit you would have to force companies to sell their games on all gaming storefronts which will never happen and shouldn't because that is anti consumer and anti business all at the same time.

Same way with Denuvo. If a company wants that shit in their game they can do that and I can choose not to buy it until they remove it. But no one should ever try to force that across the board.

It would be different if PlayStation and Xbox had always been digital but they haven't. They are taking a consumer choice and right (reselling a disc) away by this decision. That's why people are pissed.

The ability to release your game only digitally with no disc has ALWAYS existed.

And no your imagined fantasy scenario of the photographer would not be right.

I am starting to think maybe you are saying PlayStation shouldn't be forced to make discs and the fact is that they ARENT digital only has always existed and they just said they are stopping making discs with no court cases or forcing their hand and it will stay that way they get to do whatever they want.

Thing is, people who have been with them since 1994 have a right to be pissed off about an anti consumer move like this.

If my wife fucks another dude at the bar I'm going to bitch about it very vocally so she knows I'm unhappy and leave her. That's kind of like this. You have a right to do something and people have a right to react the way they want to about it short of violence.

Sony has a right not to produce discs but I also have the right to call out that greedy decision for what it is and never buy from them again. No one is forcing publishers to do shit and they never have.

I would not agree with some sort of law that FORCES Sony to keep making discs but I would agree with their customers bitching enough about it that they choose to change course.

If they decide not to I'll just decide not to use them anymore. As someone who owns over 500 games on PlayStation though I absolutely have the right to call them out on their bullshit a spade is a spade and Sony is a greedy anti consumer company at this point. Used to love them.

[–] TimothyOilypants@lemmy.ca 0 points 38 minutes ago (1 children)

They are taking a consumer choice and right (reselling a disc) away by this decision. That’s why people are pissed.

You NEVER owned the game, only the media. See my other response about the legal EULA that have been included with every game you have ever purchased. Studios and publishers have no moral or legal duty to sell you a piece of plastic.

If you disagree philosophically, don't buy games from studios and publishers who don't distribute physical media...

However unhappy you are about this decision, it does NOT give you the legal or moral authority to DEMAND that an artist create art in the medium of your choice. I suspect the only reason that this vocal minority is kicking up a fuss is because they realize that the industry doesn't care, because they can still thrive without your business.

No one is going to hold the entire industry back because you and a miniscule minority are too cheap, or afraid to move forward.

[–] DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip 1 points 21 minutes ago (1 children)

Ok not owning that games intellectual property affected my ability to choose and resell a disc in what way?

You are thinking that I seem to think when I buy a disc that I OWN this game. I can make copies, I can make a sequal, I can fucking get a percentage of sales from it.

No dude. I could RESELL the license that existed on that disc that couldn't be revoked.

Do you understand that? I feel like you are not understanding what I am saying here seriously.

Also I just said I didn't want anyone to demand or legally force them to do that is English not your first language or something?

Discs have existed since ps1 and digital only editions of PlayStation games have existed since PS3 no one is forcing shit.

People are rightfully calling Sony anti consumer for this move and upset that a gaming company they used to love would screw their customers like this.

I am not saying they should be legally required to do shit and they won't be. Sony can do whatever it wants but the customers who have been with them for years can call them out on it being bullshit too.

[–] TimothyOilypants@lemmy.ca 0 points 9 minutes ago (1 children)

I guess I just don't understand your point then, so lets walk through it and see if you can state a definitive point.

  • You prefer to own discs so you can sell them.
  • You you acknowledge that owning a disk does not mean that you own of have control over the intellectual proprty.
  • You agree that it would be wrong to try and REQUIRE someone to distribute their art on disc if they didn't want to?

Call them out all you want, but can you at least acknowledge that your opinion is a minority opinion?

[–] DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip 1 points 6 minutes ago* (last edited 4 minutes ago)

"I was hoping Lemmy gaming communities would be better than reddit"

Seems like YOU are the minority opinion, eh?

And yes, just like I said before digital only options have always been up to the publisher. Hundreds of games get released on PlayStation without a disc version. No one is forcing shit.

Also my point that you seem to be intentionally missing is that if you buy a game license digitally you get to have it taken away when the company decides they want to and can't resell it

When you buy it on disc they have to come and pry it out of your dead cold hands before they can make you stop playing it.

Again since I know you really want this all to not be true, online only games are different. I have always referred to single player games when talking about discs in these comments

[–] Paulemeister@feddit.org 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I disagree. The main selling point of a console is not the physical media. There are consoles out there that do not even have that feature. It's the convenience of buying a console once and then knowing everything will run fine. No tinkering, just start it up with your controller and game.

People have fast Internet connections nowadays and can just buy it online and download. You probably have patches to download anyway. It might be even more convenient because you don't have to go to the store or insert the disk to play. I don't think people are sharing games that much anymore.

I think the average guy does not care. There might be some complaints at first like with the iPhone dropping the headphone jack, but then people are just gonna be fine with it. Consoles are not going anywhere. They are the iPhones of gaming, small selection but great optimization for that specific hardware.

[–] DanceMomsSavedMe@lemmy.zip -1 points 1 day ago

Really now the price point is the main thing because any game can be ran very easily with steam forums and reading like two comments for problematic games.

Console is still plug and play sort of when it comes to games just working but any game can be ran PC trivially. Although console is a lot smoother to wake up and just start gaming in seconds PC has to boot and all that unless in sleep mode which isn't always consistent