13 years after an iconic PS4 advertisement took a shot at the competition, Sony is now the first major console in the console game to fully embrace the trend they used to mock.
PlayStation Game Share Instructions Video Doesn’t Hold Up
Back in the early PS4 and Xbox One era, the topic of digital-only games was just emerging and Xbox was actually the company to test the water first. The Xbox One’s E3 reveal was very poorly received by consumers and it didn’t take long for Sony to pile on and take a few playful shots at the competition.
The PlayStation team released a playful “Official PlayStation Used Game Instructional Video” that jokingly showed how to pass a physical disc from one gamer to another to share or resell a game. The video was very popular at the time, but now, 13 years later, Sony is preparing to abandon the simplicity and tradition of physical media.
Earlier this week Sony announced that physical disc production would be ending in January 2028 for new games releasing on PlayStation consoles. It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that the news was taken poorly by consumers and fans quickly took to social media to criticize the decision and point out what they believe to be the many benefits and perks of physical media.
Sony is justifying its plan by explaining that this is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs. The official press release went on to claim that this transition will enable SIE to align more closely with how most of the community prefers to access and play games today.
The company has not responded to the criticism yet and, at this point, it seems like the company is unlikely to backpedal in the way that Xbox did back during the Xbox One era. Between rising component costs and other global economic pressures, it seems like Sony and Microsoft are both looking for any way they can increase profits and reduce the production costs of hardware and software.
There are already multiple sources suggesting that Xbox may be following suit and that the Project Helix will also be a disc-less piece of hardware. That console also hasn’t been officially revealed yet, so it’s unclear what Microsoft’s vision and plan are for now.
Be sure to check back soon for more news and updates on Sony and the upcoming PlayStation hardware generation.
At this time, there is no official release window for the PlayStation 6 hardware generation.
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