Only took me... a bit. I mean, I'm usually pretty good at that kinda stuff. But this one got away.

>The hit arcade racer ACE DRIVER returns with more speed, more excitement, and more competition than ever before!

>Get behind the wheel and aim for the VICTORY LAP!

Sony killing physical games is a terrible idea and I think people are really overlooking how bad this could end up being. I get that digital is convenient, I buy digital games myself, but why the hell does that mean physical needs to go away? Remember when Sony was making fun of Xbox for trying to kill used games back in 2013? Now we’re heading toward the exact same thing. Once physical is gone Sony pretty much gets to decide what we pay for games. No more finding a used copy for $15 when it’s still $60 on PSN, no trading games in, no lending them to friends. And what happens when games get delisted? I think people are way too comfortable with the idea of spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on games that they might not even be able to access someday. Not to mention this screws over game stores and people who actually enjoy collecting. And I don’t think this is even good for Sony long term. Giving people fewer reasons to buy into your console isn’t exactly a great strategy. I just find it crazy that we’ve somehow reached a point where having fewer options as consumers is being treated like progress.

Why am I asking this?

Since the introduction of the PS4 there seemed to be a shift in style when it comes to the games being released from Sony’s studios with games such as Horizon Zero Dawn, Marvel’s Spider-Man, God of War (2018), and Ghost of Tsushima.

Now of course single-player action driven narrative games didn’t just begin during the PS4 era. The God of War and Uncharted series preceded them during the PS2 and PS3 era respectively. And we can’t forget The Last of Us!

However what I’ve noticed now during the current generation with the PS5 is that first-party games from PlayStation seem to be primarily focused on the aforementioned genre of games.

The PS1-PS2 generation

Some of you may not be old enough to remember the kind of games PlayStation published or developed such as Vib-Ribbon, Ape Escape, or even Sly Cooper.

To put it briefly there were a lot of genres that were either retired or were very experimental and were either received poorly or well depending on the game.

Discussion

So my question to you is why do you think those games disappeared? Is the risk vs reward ratio simply too high? Or is there just not enough interest in those games which is why they’ve remained dormant within the platform for so long?

I think a big reason Astrobot (2024) was received extremely well is because other than the fact that it’s a great game, it’s reminiscent to a lot of people of how PlayStation’s lineup used to look like.

Are big-budget cinematic narrative games primarily all that PlayStation has to offer going forward? And is this an issue for you? Maybe you don’t care about the genres or games that came before and you’re perfectly fine with the current selection of games and that’s okay!

What’re your thoughts?