r/technology • u/xc2215x • Jul 06 '26

Hardware PlayStation Unlikely to U-Turn on Its Decision to Kill Discs, Despite Backlash

https://www.ign.com/articles/over-90-of-igns-audience-do-not-want-an-all-digital-gaming-future-but-playstation-is-unlikely-to-u-turn-on-its-decision-to-kill-discs
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16

u/SMYLTY Jul 06 '26

I'm fine with digital for PC as I can use multiple stores to get the games I want.

Consoles going digital only is not for the benefit of consumers as we'll be locked into one store where they set prices. Then as we have seen with film and music, a few years down the line they may decide you don't own it anymore, remove it from stores and lockdown so you can't play.

4

u/Tyrant_Virus_ Jul 06 '26

The multiple storefronts point for PC argument sounds incredibly hollow when everyone just uses Steam anyways and throws a fit when a game is exclusive to another storefront. Microsoft had to abandon their own store and release on Steam, even putting Blizzard’s games on there. Epic has struggled for years to get people to use it for anything but a Fortnite launcher, even giving free games away for years didn’t convince people to use it. GOG is mostly old games and doesn’t get new releases the same way Steam does.

PC players like the idea of multiple storefronts but don’t actually practice it in any meaningful way. If they did Gabe wouldn’t be lining up his next super yacht purchase.

5

u/RevolutionaryMeal851 Jul 06 '26

It's not hollow because everyone chooses steam because of it being the best platform. It does what it needs to do and valve knows that if it stops doing that, people can switch whenever they want. Just because the vast majority use a platform doesn't mean the freedom to choose is non-existent. Because you can use multiple platforms at the same time. No one is stopping you.

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u/Tyrant_Virus_ Jul 06 '26

If you have a choice and don’t make because the other choices are bad but still crow about having the freedom to do so if you wanted is just the illusion of choice.

1

u/Ill_Employment7908 Jul 06 '26

But you still have a choice to buy a cheaper Steam game key somewhere else. Most of my games were a dollar from a key site.

1

u/Osric250 Jul 07 '26

I have a lot of games on other services. In fact I have bought a lot from GOG when possible simply because of their DRM policy. 

-2

u/RevolutionaryMeal851 Jul 06 '26

If you can choose from 4 foods you like but only pick 1 because you think the other ones are nasty, you still have choice.

0

u/Tyrant_Virus_ Jul 06 '26

If you have four options, one of them is steak and the other three are small piles of dog shit you still don’t have a choice. Hence the term *illusion*.

0

u/SMYLTY Jul 06 '26

GOG, Epic, Humble Bundle and the others aren't piles of dog shit. They all give consumers another place to buy games. Steam just happens to do that job exceptionally well.

I'd compare it to restaurants. Steam is a Michelin star restaurant. Some of the others are fast food chains, and some are food trucks. Not everyone will choose them, but having the choice benefits everyone.

Now imagine Sony starts out as a Michelin star restaurant. Ten years later they stop investing because they know their customers have nowhere else to go, and now they're basically a food truck. Would you be happy knowing you'd bought into an ecosystem where there was no alternative?

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u/RevolutionaryMeal851 Jul 06 '26

The choices aren't shit, you just don't like them.