GAMING

Sony is killing discs — and showing us why it’s a terrible idea by Andrew Webster

Sony announced that, starting in January 2028, the company will no longer produce physical PlayStation discs, which means that from that moment on you can only purchase new PS5 games digitally. At the same time, Sony also announced that it’s going to start winding down the digital stores for both the PS3 and PS Vita, helpfully illustrating one of the most pertinent issues with a digital-only future for gaming: Once the stores are gone, so are the games.

Microsoft is doing something else - Xbox testing disc-to-digital feature that digitizes a physical game collection

Microsoft will likely soon follow Sony and stop the production of physical discs for Xbox games. But instead of leaving physical discs behind entirely, sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell me the company has quietly been working on a disc-to-digital feature that will allow Xbox owners to digitize their existing physical game collections.

Maybe they should add a feature which allows a user (or some archiving company) to convert a digital game to a physical one? Or some other way to conserve the games.

I have (or had) some physical games on the PS4. Maybe a 50/50 split. Since moving to the PS5, even though I paid extra for the disc drive, I have not bought a single physical game.

Physical games allow for sharing and re-playability. They could do the same with digital games, but won’t. The benefit (for the game companies) is that each players has to buy their copy of the game. The problem (for the players) is that some may not be able to afford the games. The companies must have done that calculation though.

I have started playing maybe half an hour or so each day now. I am playing [[202605290954 Ghost of Yotei|Ghost of Yotei]] now. So I’m looking forward to playing GTA 6 when it comes out. Would I play when it releases? I don’t know. It is a single player game. I can enjoy the story later as well, when the prices drop slightly - which has been my modus-operandi with games on the PlayStation.

So, let’s wait and watch I guess.

Amazon’s new plan for games: James Bond and AI Snoop Dogg by Jay Peters

Amazon’s bet on putting Tomb Raider everywhere — there are also a handful of titles available through Luna — indicates where the company sees things going. “We really believe that this line between TV and video games is increasingly coming together” such that “I think every major IP is going to have to have a video game story” as part of its go-to-market strategy, Gattis says. He also points to Amazon’s rights deals with sports leagues like the NBA and the NFL, saying there are “all kinds” of “companion-type games” that it can make.

Having both IP and execution is important. Good games need to be at their core, good games. But there is an increasing trend in the market of Sony and Nintendo making movies and TV shows from their games, so why not go the other way around?

Leaked images show Microsoft’s new Xbox Cloud Gaming controller by Tom Warren

But this Xbox Cloud Gaming controller is separate and designed to compliment Microsoft’s expanded cloud gaming efforts with Game Pass. It will connect directly to Xbox Cloud Gaming servers to reduce latency, much like how Google’s Stadia controllers used to work.

I am interested to see how this all works out.

Cyberpunk Edgerunners 2 will be even sadder and bloodier

I loved Edgerunners. It was a big reason why I eventually got around to playing Cyberpunk 2077. Cyberpunk 2077 was famously shit at launch, but they fixed it over the many years. The main complaint remained, however, which I felt too, that the final, no way back from here, quest line came too soon.

The quest lines in general in Cyberpunk were the typical CD Project Red quests. There was no good or bad in them. Every choice has consequences. Mostly shitty consequences.

That was what happened in Edgerunners. Something similar (worse) would happen in Edgerunner 2.

Looking forward to this.