It's like corporations don't know how to do anything but enshittify anymore

They are also lobbying to make hosting your own videogame server illegal: https://www.pcgamer.com/gaming-industry/esa-bafflingly-declares-private-minecraft-servers-illegal-in-stop-killing-games-hearing-we-consider-it-piracy-we-have-lawsuits/

Sony is part of ESA.

Bet the Sony fanboys wish they didn’t make so much fun of the Xbox one’s digital plans now. Xbox’s digital plan had:

• digital reselling
• digital game lending
• retail pricing competition

PlayStation buyers will definitely not get the first 2, and Sony will likely prevent the third.

“Arrogant sony” is well and truly back.

It warms my heart to see that EVERY comment on Sony's blog post about it is negative. Hope the decision ends up biting Sony in the ass, but even if not, at least people weren't silent about it.

EDIT: and they're being yelled at everywhere else on the internet that people can post as well. Good.

I can’t speak to market trends, but I can say this 100% makes my PS5 my last Sony console. I’ve bought every one, and the only reason I continue to buy them is so I can collect exclusives on disc for my collection.

A digital only console is just a bad, expensive gaming PC. I already have a good expensive gaming PC, so I’ll just buy games digitally there.

I feel like defending consoles is a lost cause at this point. We can’t trust any of the big 3 anymore.

Ahhh, remember this PS4 promo video (YouTube for sharing physical games vs Xbox)? Pepperidge Farm does.

So, nothing to look forward to. This is why you’re so behind in sales.

Its like they saw how much Xbox has been sucking and thought "hold on, instead of building on this market lead, I bet we could beat Xbox in enshittifying!"

I don't pay $70 for a game I can't even sell after using it.

A funny anecdote from outside gaming land:

Sony mirrorless cameras, even MEGA expensive ones, have this quirk where they can’t film 30P HEVC video.

The A6700 for instance, can record 24, 30, 60 h.264, but only 24 or 60 h.265. The A7C II is particularly handicapped, with only 24 h.265.

The $7000 A1 flagship is the same. It doesn’t make any sense; all their hardware supports it.

Why?

Well, people kept asking Sony, and someone finally got a response:

https://us.community.sony.com/s/question/0D54O00007B6m2ISAR/why-sony-a7s-iii-doesnt-support-25-or-30-fps-in-h265-codech265-is-available-for-24-50-60-100-120-fps-but-not-the-once-ive-mentioned-aboveplease-sony-update-this-h265-is-going-to-get-more-and-more-popular-with-new-powerful-laptops-coming?language=en_US

Hello, Sony's commitment to customer satisfaction is our top priority. The reason for that is that we determined the current product specifications from our analyses of target users and available technologies. For XAVC HS, we envision users enjoying HLG movies by connecting the camera to an HDR (HLG) compatible BRAVIA TV over HDMI, and 60p is what we view as the default setting for playback with it. To record movies in higher quality in 4K/30p, we would recommend selecting XAVC S and XAVC S-I, 10-bit 4:2:2 sampling, either Long GoP and All-I codec. Could you tell us how creators such as yourself want to use HEVC at 30p so we can provide feedback to our design team?

I found that oddly enlightening.

“Well, it’s not optimal for a BRAVIA TV over HDMI, so why would users want this? Why is it worth it for us to waste half a kilobyte for this option in the UI?” Sony cannot fathom anything outside that.

It makes that whole list in OP’s post make total sense. It’s not even cynicism on their part; with that mindset, what would they need a disk player for? What value is Bluepoint is a business review?

They literally cannot understand why PlayStation users would want any of those things. It’s outside the domain.

Don't forget they also paid $3.6 Billion for Bungie just to shut down their most popular game and put all their hope in their new extraction shooter that's been struggling. No new games in dev or even green lit. Also they just laid off a bunch of people.

Don't forget that they've halted PC ports for their games, including shitcanning nearly-complete work on Ghost of Yōtei.

Just get a console they said. Console just works they said. Why get a PC when it won't work in a year they said.

This is why I don't buy consoles. I can use a controller on my computer which is upgradable and not subject to one individual company dictating what I can and can't do.

I’m not one of those people who pretends they will play a physical disc game for the rest of their life

I do however like physical for two reasons. Firstly, the price, how tf can you justify charging more when you are cutting out all of the middlemen and listing on your own online store. Secondly, resale. I can buy a game, play it and resell.

If the tradeoff on going digital was that games were 50% cheaper, then I’d be happy. I wouldn’t have to hoard games and I’d have the convenience of digital.

Why are people still buying shit from Sony? It would be less work to just flush your cash directly down the shitter.

This only reinforces the reasons why I bought a PC for gaming instead of a console.

Time to double down on retro gaming and buying second hand. Industry wants to burn I say let it.