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[WRITE-IN] PlayStation Just Dealt Game Preservation a Massive Blow | Firelink Podcast (Patreon)

Published:
2026-07-02 16:38:35
Imported:
2026-07

Content

Hey all! On today's show, we'll be chatting about Sony's move away from physical games, as well as all the stuff we've been playing.

Hit us with your thoughts on the topic, or anything else in general.

Cheers!

Files

PlayStation Just Dealt Game Preservation a Massive Blow | Firelink Podcast

This week on Firelink, KC and Marty chat about Sony's decision to move away from physical games. Keep up to date on the standings of our Firelink Fantasy Critic Draft -- https://www.fantasycritic.games/league/6093c943-c06e-4f44-8206-157e410d7914/2026 If you dig the podcast, considering supporting us over at Patreon -- https://www.patreon.com/SecondWindGroup Check out our excellent selection of merch over at our DFTBA store -- https://store.dftba.com/collections/second-wind

Comments

Alexander Pontier

The backlash Sony is dealing with is amazing! They’re starring down a tidal wave saying “Oops…”

Inverse Skies

I still buy the physical versions of games even today as I worry about my ability to play any game I buy digitally in the future. After all it’s only a license you purchase not the actual game. I’m saddened but unsurprised to see my physical collection will someday come to an end.

Inverse Skies

If companies had shown they cared about game preservation or had ongoing support for games I would be less concerned, but corporations have consistently shown they only care about profit and innumerable game experiences are simply lost to us now.

frogparts

This is the same company that tried removing physical media with the PSP Go. I’m not surprised to see them do this again but it makes me sad. Glad to see the backlash and hope it continues.

Alpha Aquilae

There was the news that the Stop Killing Games movement was unsuccessful, Xbox leaning forward with the digitalisation of discs (not bad in of itself, but indicates towards a physical-less console future), PlayStation killing physical gaming media and GTA VI not having a disc (probably to maximise on sales and make sure they get money instead of second hand game transfers)... and it's all terrible for the legacy of the current gaming era. Wow, that was a long sentence. It's sad that this will affect deluxe physical editions because I think those can be quite cool for people who love a game and are in a strong financial position to support the studios. There's the silver lining of this being better for the environment, but if that could be married with actually preserving games, that would be ideal.

Inverse Skies

Because I do a lot of retro type stuff every so often I stumble on games I want to play that are now simply inaccessible. Like at all. The twin stick shooter bug panic released for iOS devices around 2011 or so by cave - gone. Not supported anymore and no easy way to play it. Half-life gunman chronicles, a mod for the original half life? Gone. Apparently in license hell and not easily accessible. There would be countless others that would follow suit if it weren’t for the fan community supporting them or simply through means like emulation.

Inverse Skies

Sorry I’m getting a bit ranty, but this topic pissed me off as I’m passionate about media preservation and physical media and now here we are losing more things.

ArthurCrane

It really is wild what a massive contrast there's been in the news this week. Sony wants to end physical media, Microsoft is laying off half the industry and then Nintendo is like "Update for Mario Kart World, New Rhythm Heaven, new Splatoon presentation, new Metroid got leaked maybe".

Shane Z

Everything blows these days

Jason Ferro

I hate this move. Also is this the straw that breaks the camels back for GameStop? They've already changed their stores to have a collectible heavy presence, now used games are going to start dying out. If Nintendo and Xbox follow suit, does this kill off resell shops?

Steady Goblin Wood

My son turned a month old today and while on leave I finally played sea of starts (incredible) and am wrapping up a full playthrough of Dragon Quest 11, which as a long time jrpg fan feels like a masterpiece. I'm looking for recommendations on what to play next. I've already beaten all the final fantasy, tales, and persona games and I thought yall or the community may have some solid recos to throw my way. Cheers.

Davsau

Imagine if someone bought the Mona Lisa then made a big display of burning it to ash. They’d technically be entitled to do that, but they’d also technically be a giant asshole. Now imagine that being done to an entire artistic medium.

Cameron Gore

Its easy to point to buying physical game discs to get around ownership issues but when was the last time you bought a game that didn't have a huge day one patch? Unless you are getting you games DRM free from something like GOG even your console games will stop working if they turn off the "patch" server.

Fas

I'm a big lover of physical media, I love having the things I love at all times and not being shut off from them due to corporate dealings. However most of my game purchases are digital nowadays due to physical store closures. The main UK games retailer (Game) has imploded in recent years and no company has truly taken its place. There is still pre-owned stores available however, it's potluck what they have. So on the rare occasions I do physically purchase a new game nowadays It's through an online retailer, I.e Amazon, which ch depending on your disposition isn't the best. Honestly I'm feeling kind of tired of having to take the moral high ground with almost every one of my hobbies nowadays. It feels like every single day now I'm having to boycott something, fight against something else or generally just having something taken away by a corporation looking to maximise their profits. As a average person, it's hard not to feel at a loss when the only moral way to fight against a lot of capitalism seems to be deprive myself of any enjoyment in life

TooManySpreadsheets

If you haven't played In Stars and Time before, I highly recommend that one. It's a very different JRPG, but if you enjoy the genre so much you will probably appreciate this deconstruction.

linaloki

I've had friends point out that game sizes have made some physical media production a lot more difficult to justify, especially in combination with the constant push for multiplayer options. Imagine having to change discs mid-Fortnight match or something, I suppose... but I still think it would be largely doable. The thing that frustrates me most is that it seems to be a media-wide push for control more than anything. "Ah, streaming is more popular! That's why we're doing it!" Maybe, but it's also "more popular" because it's being forced onto people by eliminating things like optical drives in PCs and refusing to sell DVDs because you want everyone paying for your streaming platform, etc. And what's the point of buying new consoles without optical drives if the games will eventually appear on PC and they're all digital?

LaboratoryManiac

Xbox's disc-to-digital program they're testing could be a great clapback to this if they just continue to offer disc support through the next hardware generation. Not having to swap discs would give physical media a lot of the convenience that digital affords, and staying in the physical market while a major competitor pulls out would make for great PR (which Xbox badly needs right now).

Charles Reimer

I think that PS5 is it for me for consoles. I'll probably just be a Nintendo boy. I don't really play many AAA games, so I think that I'll survive. Hell, I have a massive backlog, so I will survive. Sony also announced that they are closing the PS3 and PSV stores. Glad that I made my final purchases on PS3 this year (Tales of Symphonia 2 and Grandia III). Really prescient.

Freakjob

Wild how just a few podcasts ago, you were talking about how Xbox shot itself in the foot with the 360, and how that Sony commercial about sharing games clowned on them so hard. The irony is palpable. When was the last time a company made such a publicly-despised choice; maybe the Helldivers 2 region-locking?

Charles Reimer

Have you played Metaphor ReFantazio? I actually liked it a lot more than Persona while having a similar structure. Oh, if you are a fan of specifically the PS1 Final Fantasy games, check out Fantasian. The console/PC version has the subtitle Neo Dimension. It's by the OG creator of Final Fantasy trying to recreate that late 90s style. Both games have extensive demos which transfer to the full game.

Steady Goblin Wood

Looks like a total subversion of the formula. Definitely worth checking out

Steady Goblin Wood

Oh I lumped metaphor in with persona 3-5. Great game. I love the look and feel of neo dimension. And it's on sale on psn for 20$! I'm definitely interested. Thanks!

The Kokiri Child

First they show they can revoke access to things you have already purchased digitally with the movies, then they show they can prevent the purchase of content only available digitally with the PS3 and Vita store closures, then say “we are going digital only”. Honestly, the perfect marketing combination.

lee medcalf

The worst thing about this particular news story is that it literally rides on on the back of two other Sony stories that further erode trust in digital only platforms. Firstly with Sony wiping out their movie library and then with the closure of the PS3 and Vita online stores all in the same week. Who in their right mind is going to trust a company that does that and then says “Trust us bro” when it comes to the preservation of your library in the future? Additionally, one of the very earliest of promises for digital stores in general was the price of games would come down because of the lack of physical production processes. Something these companies have conveniently forgotten as the next game with no case, no disc and no printed instructions, rolls out to their store for £70. Sony, have in one week, taken what little good faith we had in them and took it out with a single shot to the head. A £1100+ PS6 and a walled garden storefront by an untrustworthy company that demands a monthly subscription to play games online looks like a terrible waste of money when PC’s cost the same and you have multiple stores and cheaper games to choose from.

June Gloom

Cool. I'm done buying from Sony. Fuck 'em.

Henchman 24

I wonder if there will be any push back from the retail market; Amazon, Target etc.

Pixel Grip

Do you think that this will lead to a big enough uptick in piracy that Sony would eventually backtrack this at some point?

Lil' Cass (CJ)

A lot of the business side of the video game industry is showing up as a result of certain choices being made, with this being one of them, and it's encroaching on what is meant to be the heart and soul of video games as a medium and an art form

Lil' Cass (CJ)

Stop Killing Games is still going, they haven't given up. Heck, they just expanded into a Stop Killing The Internet movement to also help address internet censorship and control alongside the Stop Killing Games movement.

Andy Curtis

I suspect the physical collectors editions will still be a thing just with a code in a box or on a card

Alpha Aquilae

It's just not quite the same! It's possible we start to see this get phased out or become its own type of merch, separate to the game itself - buy the game separately.

Andy Curtis

This feels like Sony testing the waters for whether or not the PS6 is fully disc free. They absolutely could backpedal if people kick up enough of a fuss like the Xbone always online stuff

JoMo SlowMo

And now Obsidian is also reported being on the chopping block. microslop seems intent on me never buying another product from them ever again. I saw Jason Schrier disputed this, but I've no trust in microchop so we'll see what happens on the 7th. And sony's decision to stop putting games on pc while doing their darndest to have a sales monopoly, makes me not want to buy anything more from them either. At this point I'll warily anticipate the few upgrades I can still do to my pc (as long as it isn't completely ai-poisonpilled) until if/when it breaks and then just take up crocheting or sewing or looking through peoples windows or beatboxing. I'm so fucking done with these rich ghouls destroying my hobbies

Lil' Cass (CJ)

There's been no social media response from Sony since they mentioned the PlayStation news on PlayStation Blog

BKGrila

Any current console with an optical drive copies the data to internal storage and runs the game from there. The last console that streamed the game data directly from the disc was the Wii U. From a developer/publisher standpoint, the biggest challenge in releasing games on disc is probably the fact that the games simply aren't finished at the time the discs need to be printed. Usually there are day 1 patches and more bug fixes post-release. Still, I agree that it's largely about control. Most people buy games digitally now, but there should still be enough demand for a physical product to justify its existence. If there's still a niche market for vinyl records, there should still be one for the likes of Limited Run Games (at a higher price and later than the digital release so they can fix the major bugs).

JDINCINERATOR

SONY wouldn't make such a move to stop physical games if they've got the statistics that show a landslide of PlayStation gamers prefer digital. Personally I'm not phased by it, we should understand that the evolution of the industry is digital, and that owning games is passe. Yes, SONY could meddle with digital games by taking them down from the PS Store, yet games are far more accessible when they are digital-only. I don't want to be owning discs that can get scratched and go missing, I want to be able to play without the blemishes. If gamers really hate SONY for abandoning physical media, then boycott them, do something that attracts viral attention and who knows? SONY might go back on their word, which they'll have to do if enough people show their contempt.

linaloki

I thought that was largely the case for disc games, but it's been a hot second since I've bought a game for console. And yeah, I bring up the vinyl sales in the music industry all the time. While they're not the industry's biggest seller, they broke $1 billion in sales globally in 2025, and physical media in total was 12% of the market (meaning CDs and I guess whatever other physical media is still printed and sold were about 3.5% of the total market). And that's with the majority of people not having easy access to physical media players. Imagine if cars and computers came standard with optical drives how much higher those percentages would be, especially in light of companies straight deleting your media and fracturing accessibility behind 400 paywalls.

Mack

I feel ya on the Microslop hate... as if all the bullshit in Win 11 wasn't enough, the huge layoffs and studio closures have to be the shitty cherry on top. I've also wondered what hobbies I'll go back to if modern gaming/upgrading my PC becomes unaffordable. Aside from reading, the retro games backlog, I guess. Still got my dreamcast, gamecube, and ps2 lol (and ps3 but it hurts my soul to call that one retro... maybe in another 10 yrs 😅)