If anyone still needs proof that gamers are no longer the primary customer base for the likes of Sony and other large video game companies, then Sony’s announcement that it’ll no longer support physical discs starting in 2028 should serve as your final wake up call. This kind of move is only happening because they’re confident that people are either sufficiently trapped on the platform now, or that the mainstream casual players won’t care. They should care, though, as we’ve all basically been getting fleeced without even realizing it.

To preface this, it’s not just Sony. Xbox and Nintendo operate under the same rules, retaining the right to revoke our “purchases” at any time and for any reason they deem necessary. It’s something we’ve all had no choice but to agree to too, since they all make you “accept” a TOS (Terms of Service) agreement before you can even use the very expensive machine you purchased. This is all because game purchases aren’t purchases at all, but technically just long-term rentals. All you’re getting is limited access and nothing more.

This has always been the “agreement” (forced though it is), but it didn’t matter so much in the past because technology limitations forced these companies to actually sell you a physical disc or cartridge containing the game. Such was the case even as recently as the Xbox One, Switch 1 and PS4 era. Now, though, they can force you to “buy” (again, you’re not really buying anything) what amounts to a digital access key.

Frankly, this reaction to how things are done in gaming is long overdue, as the issue isn’t just about being able to use discs. Most discs don’t even contain full games anymore, and, even if they did, the system is still set up so that your machine has to talk to a server somewhere and get it to “okay” your access to the game on your disc. If that access gets revoked or that server ceases to exist at some point, then you no longer get to play “your” game. Seriously, all any of us get for our money most of the time is nothing more than a rental.

The same is also true on PC, but it’s not as all-encompassing as it is in closed systems like PSN, Switch Online or Xbox Live. Thanks to markets like GoG (Good Old Games) and Steam (to a lesser extent), players can download entire games and store them locally however they wish. Then there’s the ongoing efforts of the game preservation community to make even more games that aren’t initially available DRM-free permanently playable. In a nutshell, we still, for now, have options on PC.

But why should you care right? So long as you get to enjoy your game at launch and for a couple of years after, what’s the harm, yeah? Well, aside from the fact that you’re getting charged a full-purchase price for what’s effectively a rental, how about the day, maybe years from now, when you want to re-visit your purchase or maybe even share it with your children? 

Wouldn’t it be massively disappointing and aggravating to find that your purchase had been nullified? And for no other reason than the company you “purchased” the game from just no longer felt like paying a couple bucks annually to keep the authentication server running? Do you really want hundreds of dollars’ worth of games, your entire library, to exist at the whim of some soulless corporation driven solely to increase “shareholder value” at the cost of everything else? 

I doubt you do, and that’s why this announcement by Sony to remove the very last shred of consumer control over their purchases has got so many people so upset. I used to love PlayStation, even though I was aware that this was how things were set up. Looking back now, I was being entirely too apathetic and short-sighted, and I now regret having bought access to so many games on Sony’s platform. I guess you could say that the current situation has finally driven home the fact that “my” library isn’t mine at all, and it’s quite upsetting.

Between this move, what Xbox is doing and all these big tech company decisions that are making hardware explode in price, it’s becoming clear what kind of future all of these companies want for us. They want an entirely subscription-based business, where you rent everything from the games to the hardware itself, just like what Google was trying to do with Stadia. And, maybe the casuals will even go for it. Well, the rich ones that these companies are targeting will, at least.

As for me, between this and the ever-declining quality of AAA, I’m now looking for my exit. I want to get off PS5 and move over to PC so that anything I purchase in the future will at least stay mine. The number of good games I haven’t played yet is great enough, and indie gaming is robust enough, that I’m confident that I could leave both PlayStation and AAA behind entirely with very few regrets, and I bet I could even do it with just a mid-range PC. 

If Sony and these companies are so desperate for control that they’re willing to squeeze people like me out of the market, then so be it. They can have their cruddy walled garden. I’ll just take my business elsewhere or maybe even revoke it entirely. If they can do it, then so can I. I refuse to keep buying from businesses that don’t even want to sell me something anymore.

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How do you feel about this whole situation? What do you plan to do?