this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2026
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For those who don't know, there has been somewhat of an uproar due to Playstation's announcement about stopping making disks.

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[โ€“] Wahots@pawb.social 2 points 4 days ago

Nope. PCs haven't had physical games for well over a decade. Even "physical" games like Battlefield 1 just had a code in them, and that was 2016, a decade ago now. Discs were going away for PC games by the early 10s. I've been surprised that consoles held out for as long as they did, considering the always online stuff, the updates, seasonal DLC, DRM, etc. I miss when games were feature complete, like Pokemon Emerald or the early Sonic franchise.

I would like to be able to legally resell my digital games that I don't want anymore.

Its a dumb ask. I bought the Playstation to play it when I have the time. I think way more people would be on board if it was a ps store blackout. No MTC, no purchases, nothing. Easy. Doable. Asking people to ignore the $600 widget they already bought and use? Pretty unreasonable.

[โ€“] Soapbox@lemmy.zip 5 points 6 days ago
[โ€“] Adonis1172@feddit.uk 4 points 6 days ago

No. Its that simple.

People will keep using the playstation, people will keep playing games, buying shit etc. Its wishful thinking that the boycott will do anything other the slightly lower overall numbers. The equivalent of a normal workday.

[โ€“] TribblesBestFriend@startrek.website 49 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (6 children)

PlayStation sold more PS5 without BD reader than the one with. Consumers have already voted

[โ€“] ByteMe@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

It's kinda not only customers fault. Sony charges much for the bd version plus 9/10 of the games require huge downloads and installs even if they are physical. Most people just don't see the point anymore.

[โ€“] TiredTiger@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If the disk cannot install and play the full game, then it holds little value as physical media for preservation. At that point the only value it has is for collectors.

[โ€“] watson387@sopuli.xyz 7 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Or someone who wants to resell it when they're done playing it. Us old dudes did that often. You could always get a little of the cash back from a game you could use to put toward a new game. With digital it's full price and no resale.

[โ€“] TiredTiger@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago

Yeah, but every game has an expiration date if you have to rely on a server still being live to download the full game, which is kinda my point.

[โ€“] just2look@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 week ago

On top of reselling, you could let friends borrow games that you weren't using.

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[โ€“] watson387@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I bought the one with the disc drive and buy physical games as much as possible. I honestly always felt ripped off paying full price for a console game without getting the physical media. The problem is that nowadays, shipping games before they're fully cooked and patching later has become the norm. Buying discs of brand-new games doesn't actually let you keep the full experience anymore. You can resell them though.

Did the same thing

[โ€“] just2look@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 week ago (4 children)

Do you have a source for that? Because I know for a long time the disc version outsold the digital by a pretty wide margin. And the pro doesn't count because it doesn't offer a disc option.

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[โ€“] Racoonwithbenefits@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Consumers are dumb

Buy the disc system, then Its only a few physical games, and then youd have saved the money a disc drive would cost

Ive gotten all physical games i have, for 70% of the price sony sells them for on their digital store

Incl brand new releases

And i own it forever

[โ€“] KaChilde@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Sony has rigged the game though, and youโ€™ve bought into it.

Your physical discs are only as good as your ability to download the game files and day-one patches from their servers. For the average user, there really is no benefit to having a disc.

I hate it, but Sony made the choice for us as far back as the PS3.

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[โ€“] qwestjest78@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

"And i own it forever"

We are not talking about the PS2 or even PS3 here though. These new games do not fit on a disk and require constant updates and connection to servers. Any game that requires you to connect to the internet, even if you own the disc, you don't really own. They can shut that down anytime they feel like it.

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[โ€“] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 4 points 1 week ago

To add to what you've said, Microsoft has effectively abandoned physical media as well, with Nintendo being the last hold out whom is constantly lambasted for their prices. Computer gaming had completely abandoned physical media for over a decade.

[โ€“] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)
[โ€“] jtrek@startrek.website 32 points 1 week ago (3 children)

No.

  • most people don't know about it
  • many actual children won't care
  • many "gamers" are little better than children
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I'll answer with a question that should well serve as an answer

What boycott?

[โ€“] bigbangdangler@reddthat.com 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

No. Convenience always wins. Same reason people decided streaming is better than owning.

Some percent of those upset and boycotting will simply give it up. These things have about a 2-4 week lifespan. Then they'll just miss their PlayStation and everything will be over, except they'll own even less.

[โ€“] DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

And the same thing that could also work in Win365's favor against PCs should it get a consumer tier.

[โ€“] Shellofbiomatter@lemmus.org 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Noup, it's not going to have any effect. Like the other person said. People have already voted with their wallets and will keep voting the same way, because for some reason. Not buying something is completely unthinkable to way too many people.

[โ€“] DFX4509B@lemmy.wtf 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Plus like I pointed out, even if PS and their home electronics division died, Sony themselves will still live on because they have their hands in basically everything. They have a pro audio and video division, including ENG. They're in the still cam business and make image sensors for pretty much everyone else too, and unless that changed, they also have an industrial imaging division as well.

Also, Sony barely makes dedicated disc players anymore, only having one model each of 1080p and 4K BD players in production, and I feel like those won't be much longer for the world either.

Sony's future dedicated media player is probably gonna be a glorified Roku-type streaming box; effectively a thin client to stream rented media to.

I'm surprised they even still make traditional AVRs and speakers and didn't switch exclusively to soundbars or drop out of that market entirely yet, even.

The future for physical media is gonna be grim as even though you can still buy BDs/DVDs and CDs and vinyl second-hand, there might not be any new players for those formats being made in the foreseeable future anymore apart from videophile/audiophile stuff. Although in an odd twist of fate, and potentially a repeat of a trend from the early '80s when the audio CD first launched, CDs are outselling vinyl again.

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The disk battle is the wrong one to fight.

The correct battle is that buying=owning not leasing.

[โ€“] TORFdot0@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

If I know gamers, it will be just as effective as the Modern Warfare 2 PC boycott back in the day

[โ€“] Melobol@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago

I don't think it will matter to them if I boycott them. But that won't stop me of not buying their products.
Same thing with Target - my yearly $200 I spent there before I started my boycott - won't even ping the radar. But my 'boycott' still going strong.

[โ€“] ndondo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 week ago

I think people underestimate the power of collective action. People have been underplaying the strengths of these actions in online discourse to the point where I wonder if its coordinated.

Being loud and boycotting does work. And even if it doesn't why support anti consumer practices.

Nope. You will own nothing and you will love it.

(Nobody was buying disks โ€“ boycott for DRM free offline or something useful)

[โ€“] treadful@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

When was the last time a boycott worked?

[โ€“] Sibshops@lemmy.myserv.one 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

On the right, Bud light after the transgender ad. On the left, people have called for boycotts for so many things it gets drowned out as noise.

[โ€“] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The BDS movement had a lot of successes.

[โ€“] teawrecks@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

The lack of affordability in the console space will do more. I'd ballpark 95% of playstation purchasers have no idea about Sony's announcement. And when it finally happens, they'll just do whatever they need to do to make the game run. But if they just can't justify the money it takes to do what they need to do, then sony won't get the money, and they'll notice.

But no, playstation won't notice the blip of people who refuse to purchase for long-term ownership reasons.

[โ€“] KulunkelBoom@lemmus.org 4 points 1 week ago

If there's an actual boycott - yes it will work. Will EVERYONE refuse to buy their products?

Yeah... right.

[โ€“] gary_host_laptop@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 week ago
[โ€“] solrize@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 week ago

It's working for me. I didn't even know about the boycott and I still don't have a playstation. It must have succeeded in controlling the narrative.

[โ€“] TwinTitans@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

All I know is Iโ€™m not buying shit from them again.

Yes, the even more powerful way of protesting: not giving a shit.

[โ€“] callouscomic@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

No.

People already buy digital games at greater rates for years, plus most digital games havent been the full game for a while now. Some of them are literally just download codes now.

Also, boycotts and protests almost never work.

Nope, nobody really cares about physical media or owning anything anymore

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