PLAYSTATION

The PS6 sure sounds like a handheld by Sean Hollister

Here’s what I think: Sony is making a handheld PS6, as has been reported for some time, but it’s no longer a side dish — it might even be the main course. The Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, respectively the company’s best-selling and fastest-selling game consoles, have cemented that a do-it-all console-handheld hybrid is the most popular and profitable kind of console yet.

All conjecture at this point but I’m not sure how this will work. Has processing improved so much that we can get the full PS experience in a handheld?

Do I want to carry it with me in a bag wherever I go? Things break in a bag.

The cost of everything is increasing though - and I don’t know if the current PS5 type console will be affordable in the future.

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.

Ghost of Yōtei is exactly the kind of game PlayStation needs by Andrew Webster

Things have been weird for PlayStation of late. After years spent cultivating an image akin to the HBO of video games through single-player franchises like The Last of Us, God of War, and Horizon Zero Dawn, the company shifted focus, jumping on the live-service bandwagon to mostly disastrous effect. Aside from a few standouts and a number of remasters, those beloved single-player games have slowed to a trickle: which is what makes Ghost of Yōtei so notable. Like its predecessor Ghost of Tsushima, it’s an attempt by studio Sucker Punch to merge the freedom of an open-world game with the style and drama of a classic samurai movie. More importantly, it’s exactly the kind of game that PlayStation needs more of.

This release snuck up on me.

For this year, I had two titles to play - DS2 and Ghost of Yotei.

I have started playing DS2. But progress is slow. I just don’t have the time. Once DS2 is done, I will start with Ghost.

I had thought I would finish DS2, by the time Ghost released, but here we are!