I'm a bit late to the party, but that won't stop my opinions from being expressed!!
So after a 5-year delay, Sony has finally decided that they will pull the plug on the digital storefront for PS3 and PS Vita in 2027. On the same day, they also announced that physical games for current and future PlayStation consoles will be phased out in 2028.
This doesn't shock nor surprise me. But it is interesting for Sony to take the 'stone wall' approach with not giving their fans any attention. Because Sony has sort of being known for making boneheaded business decisions and then retract those decisions when the fans cry foul. Like with the Helldivers 2 PC situation or when they first tried to shut down the PS3 and Vita digital storefronts in 2021, PlayStation fans had mostly been outspoken with these things with their criticism being rewarded with redemption, which is much more than Xbox and Nintendo fans can say. Until now...
This has naturally revived the debate of physical media vs. digital media and how better physical is (somehow). It has also led people to panic-buy any digital or rare games from the PS Store (with retro YouTubers taking very much advantage of this).
As for myself, this has only lead me into removing my payment information from my PSN account and not giving any more of my money to this anti-consumer DRM service once and for all. I was already fooled into this panic-buying nonsense in 2021 and my backlog is already big enough as-is, so I will gladly just ignore anymore bullshit from Sony and be content with what I have.
However, I was amused by the debate on this topic via this video by Louis Rossmann: Playstation stops providing physical games; this means nothing. Your enemy is DRM, not digital media. Rossmann makes some good points (and also some flawed ones), but the majority in the comments seem claim that he missed the point of this issue of physical media.
The typical arguments for physical games, like cheaper prices, delisted games, and the ability to resell used copies, has usually been the solid reasons as for why physical copies shouldn't go away entirely. It gives people more options to find and explore popular and not-so-popular games without taking a risk in paying full-price.
But there's also the flip side, as Rossmann pointed out. Physical copies of some more recent games have been rendered useless due to online-only requirements and dead servers (The Crew being a prime example). Therefore, the disc to these games are rather useless apart from being a niche collector's item. Not only that, but with some modern games being reliant on updates and patches, it can certainly be night and day with content and playability with what "current version" game is compared to game "version 1.0" (Fallout New Vegas and Cyberpunk 2077 says hi). Sure, you can update your game now, but there's no telling if console manufactures wants to keep their servers up forever, since you are dependent on them.
And if I must play devil's advocate to digital games, PlayStation Store have had sales that vastly rivaled the used physical market. Not to mention retro games sometimes going for the price of bullets due to viral interests generated by SoMe retro collectors and enthusiasts (Suikoden and Klonoa for $5.99 each on PS3's digital store > whatever $100-200+ stupid price for a physical copy). Speaking of collectors, I am a bit disheartened by their cult-ish behavior. Don't get me wrong, I'm a collector myself, but when people in that space either crave, treasure and hype up their physical goods as piles of gold when prices go way to much up, or gladly buy into overpriced products by some scammy boutique companies just to have a game on a disc (that may or may not still need patches!!!), it makes me wonder if this is a hobby or a life choice.
With all of these things taken into consideration, what is the point of consoles anymore?
The simple appeal of consoles was to put a disc or cartridge in and play games, right away. That simple thing is now a luxury. Ever since the PS3/360 generation (and even a little bit before), video game consoles have turned into proprietary PCs that are too dependent on their own intergraded services and ecosystems. Because it's one thing to now deal with the annoying PC stuff like updates and installations, but also with a much restrictive platform, I feel that consoles have become more of a hard sell. Online play? Pay for a subscription. Cloud save? Pay for a subscription. Backwards compatibility and classic games? Only if they feel like it. Game support for third party peripherals, keyboard and mouse? Limited. And this is hardware with no upgrade opportunities. Yes, you may get sold a "Pro" version of the console that you already own, but that's just incentivizing you to double-dip on said console than to allow you to just upgrade the components yourself.
What about PC?
Well, if consoles are like PCs now, why not just use an actual personal computer?
While the PC physical games market doesn't really exist anymore - due to disc-drives being a novelty, the size of modern games, the incompatibility with older games on newer hardware and the stupid Steam/Games For Windows Live one-use CD keys, PC gaming at least gives you a lot of options. Most notable, PC has GOG.com, so you can play new and old games with no fear of being taken away from you. That, and My Abandonware which has a massive archive of old delisted games that's no longer for sale to download. And lots of emulators!
Of course, Steam is the leading platform for new titles and with the biggest selection of games. But while I like Valve for what they are contributing to (like using Linux as the OS for their Steam Deck and therefore bringing it attention), Steam is still a proprietary gaming platform with DRM that also sells games with other companies' bloated DRM launchers. I still have Steam for some games, but I don't like having to launch it every time to play the games I paid for, so the less I have to use it, the better.
The biggest snag with PC gaming right now is the cost of hardware due to the AI boom, although that might depend on the type of games that you play. I'm personally not on-the-pulse of modern games and their spec requirements, but my used PCs do pretty well with the games that I want to play (90's stuff till PS4-ish generation). Besides, the used market for hardware components can't be too bad.......Right?
As Sony keeps digging their grave while the modern industry will squeeze out of what's left of the wasteland of console gaming, I will sit on the sidelines, playing my legally acquired copy of Gran Turismo 4 on my PC via PCSX2 and paying no mind (with bliss).