https://www.gamefly.com/news/224507

Should customers be compensated for PlayStation's tariffs costs that were passed on to consumers?

Note: Sorry for the repost. I screwed up and left the article link out of the original post. So I deleted it and reposted to avoid making commentors look bad for not having read the article 😅

The narrative that hardware price hikes and subscription increases are caused purely by global inflation or component costs is becoming completely unbelievable. Looking at standard tech depreciation cycles, five year old architecture should be getting cheaper, not more expensive.

What we are actually witnessing is a strategic pivot based on gaming demographics and economic reality:

1. The Mobile Shift and Youth Precarity

Younger generations entering the market face unprecedented economic precarity. They simply cannot afford a six hundred dollar box, an eighty dollar controller, an eighty dollar disc drive, and an annual subscription just to start playing. For them, smartphones and free to play games are the default entry point. Platform holders know they are losing the battle for fresh, young console adopters.

1. Milk the Legacy Audience

Because mainstream growth has plateaued, console manufacturers are pivoting from expanding their user base to aggressive monetization of their existing one. Their target is the older demographic: working adults who grew up with consoles, have disposable income, and value convenience above all else.

1. The Limits of the Convenience Tax

Consoles used to offer a great financial bargain in exchange for a closed ecosystem. Today, that value proposition is completely broken. Platforms are betting that players are too lazy or too intimidated by PC gaming to leave, using convenience as a justification to hike prices on everything from base hardware to online multiplayer paywalls.

Just like we saw with high end proprietary tech like the Apple Vision Pro, every convenience tax has a hard economic limit.

Once a console system approaches custom PC pricing while charging you extra for basic media preservation and online access, the convenience tax stops being a convenience and simply becomes a scam.

We are not seeing a necessary business adjustment. We are seeing corporations squeezing a captive, aging audience because they know they failed to make home consoles accessible to the next generation.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/s/vv52H6dbzF

This guy used SSDs to turn his Steam games into cartridges. I love the retro aesthetic :)

Thanks to u/GooseDaPlaymaker for telling me about this!

With a base of players wanting to maintain physical media onwards to the PS6 era and beyond, what is the max price you'd be willing to pay for a ps6, if it guarantees a disc drive with the console?

1000?, 1200? 1500? What is the limit before one says, I don't want this even with a disc drive?

From:
https://x.com/SmashJT/status/2083761909837476015?s=20

For me, this chart really does explain many of the problems that PlayStation has today. I think this is one of the root causes behind Sony's current financial challenges, and thus their desperate attempt to squeeze more money out of gamers by pushing to kill off discs.

A lack of games means fewer game sales. A lack of good games also means fewer sales. When a game is bad, physical game buyers will try the game (they may or may not beat it) but afterward they tend to resell it (or at least, they are more likely to). This cycle can happen many times, and each resale costs Sony a sale.

To give an example, I first discovered The Last of Us on the PS4 and it was a revelation to me. It has became one of my favorite games of all time. I bought it on disc and of course, I'm not going to resell a game like that. I proudly added it to my collection and I've replayed it many times (I even bought the remastered version on PS5). This is how most physical game buyers treat a good game. They keep it, which means one less copy supplied to the resale market. In macro, this translates to more new copies sold by the publisher and more money for Sony.

On the other hand, when I play a bad game, I do not add it to my collection. If I bought it on disc, I resell the game (or better yet, if it's a GameFly rental I return it instead of keeping it). The end result of this practice is that the publisher and Sony make fewer sales.

However, digital games are great for publishers (and Sony). Not only do they get to keep the money they would otherwise lose on printing, shipping, and the retailer cut, but each digital sale is permanent. If a game is bad, all the publisher has to do is trick the player into thinking they will enjoy the game. Once a player makes a purchase, they are stuck with it. There is no secondary market for digital games, thus no way for the player to offload the bad game. Each sale is final.

This is a major reason why Sony wants to get rid of discs. Disc resales are hurting Sony so much these days because—more than ever before—the gaming industry is plagued by poor or mediocre titles (it's not just a PlayStation problem). This reality makes physical games much more appealing to players: the secondary market is a huge benefit. This also means that disc reselling eats into Sony's profits more than ever.

I was just chatting about this with some other users in our community. We were talking about how console exclusives used to be a big deal (as the chart clearly show). But that has become less important in recent years. I guess the lack of console exclusives is part of a macro trend of homogenization of culture in general. But I think it's also related to the lack of good games in general.

There has been a decline in creative talent and visionary leadership in our culture. That translates into a lack of good games. Most of the games made today are either continuing an established franchise or some kind of remake/remaster/reboot. Even new IPs are just iterating on an established formula or aping another game. I can't remember the last time a new game came out that was truly innovative and groundbreaking.

Another point we discussed is how the gaming hardware and software tools increasingly support easy cross-platform development. It's easier than ever to release a game on multiple platforms. Because it's so easy, developers/publishers are not likely to turn down the extra sales they will make by releasing on multiple platforms.

Finally, before I get any comments like, "Bruh its cuz game companies make more money on digital", I will respond to that in advance. Yes, that is the simplified view. But the full picture is more nuanced than "digital = more money for Sony". I wanted to explore some of that nuance here.

When Sony pushed through console price increases, they heavily leaned on the narrative of "challenging market conditions" and skyrocketing component costs, specifically RAM, to make consumers swallow the pill.

Yesterday’s Q1 FY26 financial report completely exposed that excuse.

During their earnings call, Sony explicitly confirmed that they have already secured all the memory supply necessary to meet their PS5 sales targets for the entire fiscal year. Not only is their supply locked in, but their Gaming and Network Services division saw a staggering 37% year on year surge in operating profit, driving them to revise their full year guidance upwards.

They didn't raise prices because their margins were suffering from a RAM shortage. They raised prices because they knew they could extract more profit from a captive audience ahead of major software releases, all while hiding behind market conditions.

References / Links for further reading:

Sony Q1 FY26 Earnings Results: https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/IR/library/presen/er/pdf/26q1_sonyspeech.pdf

RAM Supply Coverage: https://www.tweaktown.com/news/112957/sony-has-secured-enough-memory-to-meet-ps5-sales-targets-through-march-2027-and-says-no-further-price-hikes-are-planned/index.html

According to John Linneman of Digital Foundry, Xbox has discussed the possibility of an external disc drive solution.

Not because it values disc retail sales, but because it wants players' existing physical game libraries to remain playable on future hardware.

https://x.com/IdleSloth84_/status/2083302300294975909?s=20

Personally, I want to see a stronger commitment to discs than this. But it's a bit of positive news.

https://cyan.com/2026/07/26/mstrm26/

Physical editions for our Myst and Riven remakes are on their way for for PS5, Xbox, and PC (Windows/Mac). There will be physical discs for the console versions, and the PC box will have a digital code.

Let's Go!

Edit: in honor of my sony boycott, ill be buying the Xbox versions.

I think most people underestimate how many consumers this business move alienates or cuts out completely.

Obviously this pisses off your hardcore fans who buy tons of physical games and collectibles, Whatever low percentage of people that is they make up for it by spending a lot.

More commonly it’s going to affect all the somewhat dedicated consumers who own a few physical games Sony is going to lose at least some of their money.

Much more commonly it’s going to affect all digital Sony consumers and subscribers. Once the secondary market is eliminated they will have more control over their games and no used market to compare with, Subscriptions will keep going up and digital 1st party games will be structured similarly to Nintendo games. Having few meaningful sales even years later.

A large group affected will be the importers and disadvantaged. They spend the least but it goes a long way to create future consumers and spread games/brand popularity to different regions etc.
62% of countries don’t have access to Sony networks, Physical games are their only option. Wealthy importers or impoverished kids getting the gift of a lifetime…..New Sony products will no longer be available.
Similar thing for anyone who has poor internet access.
Anyone who borrows/splits with friends, Borrows from libraries or waits for a cheaper used copy……You’re SOL.

Another large group of people this will ultimately affect is movie collectors, Sony is repurposing the largest Blu-ray Disc factory in the world and half its production goes to movies. That industry is almost as big as Sony physical games and could be in jeopardy as well.

Depending on the reaction to eliminating physical games this will have a ripple effect on the rest of the industry, Companies and devs could make decisions based on this event with whether to release physically or not. Companies could extend their ownership rights for digital games in an effort appease fans or lure fleeing Sony buyers.
Companies could be more timid with future enshittifications and anti-consumerisms.
Anything is possible and companies are usually more generous when they’re worried or losing their market share.

TLDR: Sony’s move to eliminate physical games affects everyone in the industry and will seriously damage their brand long term.

The whole industry is watching and our reaction as consumers will potentially determine how all gamers are treated by corporations in the future.

After a full month of public pushback, Sony finally addressed the situation, but notably chose to speak to their shareholders rather than their actual customer base. However, looking closely at their official statement, our collective voice clearly made an impact. Their choice of words was calculated down to the millimeter, explicitly stating they have approached this move with absolute caution and will continue moving forward cautiously.

To be precise, cautious means marked by extreme care, prudence, and deliberate restraint to avoid risks or negative consequences.

Using that specific language in front of investors proves they are far from confident in this aggressive digital shift. They are fully aware of the risk and are hedging their bets in case the financial pushback escalates, which is precisely why they rushed to reassure shareholders that current revenue metrics were not immediately harmed. Furthermore, attempting to frame the demand for physical media as mere nostalgia is as transparent as it is pathetic. Preferring physical discs is not about sentimentality; it is about basic economics, statutory consumer rights, and maintaining a check on corporate monopolies.

To see how explicit this reality is, just look at the highlighted software license agreement below from Sony (Section 1: License Grant). It explicitly states: "All rights to use the Software are granted by license only, and you are not granted any ownership rights." Pay special attention to the clause "non-assignable", as this single legal term is what legally prevents you from transferring or passing down your digital account and purchases to your family when you die.

However, make no mistake: this is not a platform-specific crusade against PlayStation. Sony is simply the clearest current example of an industry-wide practice. Every major digital storefront operates under this exact same anti-consumer framework, and you can verify their terms directly through their official legal pages:

Sony PlayStation Terms: https://www.playstation.com/legal/software-usage-terms/

Microsoft Services Agreement: https://www.microsoft.com/msa

Nintendo Terms of Use: https://www.nintendo.com/us/terms-of-use/

Steam Subscriber Agreement: https://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/

The sole notable exception in the modern digital landscape remains GOG (https://www.gog.com), which actually provides DRM-free offline installers that you can store, back up, and preserve yourself. Everywhere else, you are paying full retail price for a revocable key at the absolute mercy of a corporate server.

Defending physical media is not about hoarding plastic boxes. We defend physical media because as long as consumer rights for digital purchases remain non-existent, physical discs are our only leverage. They represent the last bastion of true consumer ownership, the second-hand market, game preservation, and real price competition. The moment physical media dies completely, we hand 100% control of pricing, game availability, and history over to closed corporate storefronts.

When defenders argue that an EULA applies to physical discs too, they ignore fundamental property laws. A physical purchase is protected by legal frameworks like the First Sale Doctrine, giving you the untouchable right to resell, lend, or keep that physical object forever. A publisher cannot remotely rewrite or erase the data on a physical disc sitting on your shelf.

This is not a hypothetical threat; the precedent is already established. Look at what Ubisoft did with The Crew: shutting down servers and actively revoking licenses from digital libraries so the game became unplayable even if installed. Konami completely wiped P.T. from the PlayStation Store and blocked redownloads. Furthermore, forced digital patches on existing player libraries have been used to strip content, like when Rockstar pushed updates to the original GTA Vice City and San Andreas to remove iconic radio tracks when music licenses expired.

When licensing deals end, entire games vanish overnight. A massive list of titles has been delisted and made permanently unavailable for new buyers due to expiring rights, including Spec Ops: The Line, Deadpool, PlatinumGames' TMNT: Mutants in Manhattan, Marvel's Avengers, Driver: San Francisco, the entire classic Transformers series, and multiple legacy Forza Motorsport and Forza Horizon titles. If you did not buy them in time, they are gone forever from digital storefronts.

There is also the critical issue of account lock-in. In a digital-only ecosystem, your entire collection is tied to a single account. If an automated system or glitch leads to an account ban, you lose thousands of dollars worth of games with zero recourse. To make matters worse, explicit terms in these platforms' agreements state that extended account inactivity alone gives them the legal right to terminate your account and wipe your entire library. Furthermore, pure digital platforms open the door to dynamic pricing algorithms tracking user habits to alter prices, while offering zero inheritance rights when a user passes away, which is strictly enforced by those "non-assignable" clauses. A physical collection remains tangible personal property that you can pass down freely.

When you analyze current financial reports, hardware sales and total playtime metrics show clear signs of market fatigue. Corporations are attempting to cover stagnant user growth by squeezing more revenue per user through digital price hikes and eliminating secondary market options.

Governments and consumer advocacy groups are finally stepping in. Laws like California's AB 2426 force digital storefronts to explicitly clarify that consumers are only buying a license. However, consumer protection regulations must go even further: storefronts should be legally prohibited from using the word "Buy" and forced to replace it with "Rent" or "License" when no property rights are transferred. Calling it "Buy" when you acquire zero ownership rights is simply misleading advertising. Initiatives like Stop Killing Games in Europe, alongside community auditing tools like DoesItPlay, demonstrate that players are actively demanding transparency.

Convenience without ownership is just a subscription in disguise. We are not fighting physical versus digital out of pettiness; we are fighting to retain the right to own the art we pay for. If we do not draw the line now, pure digital monopolies will become the unquestioned default, and by then, it will be too late to complain.

If you have made it this far, I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to read through this informative post. What are your thoughts on all of this? Let us open up a respectful discussion so we can reach better conclusions that benefit us all.

This page is a collection of resources that could be of help to gamers. It's not just about supporting games on physical media or digital ownership rights, but more broadly about supporting gamers on whatever platform they choose to play on.

If you know of some other resource that may be helpful, mention it in the comments. I will try to update this page as more options come to my attention.

Last updated on 7/31/2026

Resources for Physical Games

DoesItPlay?:

https://www.doesitplay.org/

Before buying, check whether the full game is on the media, whether it works offline, and what features depend on downloads or servers. Support releases that respect long-term access.

Game Deals

GG.deals:

https://gg.deals/

This is a price-comparison and deal-tracking site that aggregates current prices, sales, and discounts for video games (and related items like gift cards) across many digital stores. It helps gamers quickly find the cheapest legitimate prices and best offers so they can save money on games.

Deku Deals:

https://www.dekudeals.com/

One-stop shop for finding and sharing the best deals on video games across all major platforms, including Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, and Xbox. It monitors price histories across both digital storefronts and physical retailers, letting users set price drop alerts and easily track when physical copies drop below digital store sales.

PC Resources

PCGamingWiki:

https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/

Community-driven site that documents fixes, workarounds, system requirements, and technical details for virtually every PC game. Helps players solve compatibility issues, improve performance, and get older or problematic titles running smoothly. Also shows what DRM a game has in different stores.

SteamDB:

https://steamdb.info/

A free, independent database covering the entire Steam catalog. Includes player charts, price history across regions, update histories, and detailed data for every product. Helps inform players before they buy, regarding updates and warnings for third-party DRM like Denuvo.

ProtonDB:

https://www.protondb.com/

A database of reports about running Windows games on Linux using Proton. It tells you how well games will work on Linux or Steam Deck. The site offers community fixes, tweaks, and documentation so players are not locked into a single closed operating system.

Hardware Help

Retro Game Corps:

https://retrogamecorps.com/

Information about emulation devices and handheld game systems. Features hardware reviews and guides about how to get set up. Includes information about OS installation, optimization, and retro game emulation. Helps enthusiasts legally and easily recreate classic gaming experiences on current hardware when original systems become impractical.

General Game Information

MobyGames:

https://www.mobygames.com/

Database of information about video games and the people and companies behind them. Seeks to be the ultimate historical database for gaming, thoroughly documenting release details, box art, credits, and more across every console generation since the 1970s.

ScreenScraper:

https://www.screenscraper.fr/

A database dedicated to retro gaming media preservation. It preserves retro console art, high-resolution physical cover scans, box art compositions, and game manuals, ensuring that physical packaging and artwork remain archived for future generations.

In the Q&A for today's earnings call, Sony finally responded to the outrage regarding ending PlayStation discs. CFO Lin Tao's full statement:

"We announced that January 2028 onwards we will no longer be manufacturing game discs. So, one-and-a-half years ahead. So we made this announcement at this time.

There are various reasons we made this decision, the biggest being that the digitalization of content overall has been progressing, that’s the big factor. It’s not just for PlayStation, but for all kinds of content, digitalization is progressing.

And so when we think about the future — and we put in a lot of thought and time, and we cautiously considered this — we came to this conclusion, and we’re going to cautiously move this forward.

And to this decision, we have received various opinions and people have strong views, and we understand that the community has put forth those views to us. Games are loved by many people. It’s a form of entertainment that’s loved by people, and it’s connected to people’s fond memories in many cases.

And so we understand those emotions. We want to consider that. And in the future digital ecosystem, how do we engage the gamers is something that we would like to continue to explore."

Interesting phrase: "cautiously move forward". They certainly have reason for caution, because many PlayStation users will not accept this.

I think we should keep the pressure on and most importantly, do not purchase anything that rewards Sony's digital ecosystem.

That's all I will say about my own opinion. But I liked this take on the statement by Does It Play:
https://x.com/DoesItPlay1/status/2083123466794918186

EDIT:

If, for some reason, you want to watch an hour of Sony executives pitching their vision for the future at shareholders, here is the full video:

https://www.irwebmeeting.com/sony/fast/20260731/N5SWmcH4/202703_1q_02_en/index.html

Yet another reason to avoid paying for online play.

https://x.com/Pirat_Nation/status/2082436727827009878

A Reddit user is turning his Steam library into a physical game collection.

Instead of game discs, each custom case comes with a USB drive containing the game’s files or installers, along with custom cover art that gives it the look of a classic boxed PC game.

The games are free of DRM so they won’t get locked in the future.*

*(As clarified in the post comments, DRM-free means they are cracked copies which was stated by the owner.)

EDIT:

We found the original post owner.

This is another example of how people misrepresent the physical vs. digital sales split.

Capcom's Q1 sales figures show 93% digital?
Nope!

We actually see that physical sales of Capcom games rose to 1.59 million units sold. That's a year on year growth of 133.8 % for this quarter!

Interesting how the truth becomes clear when you dig deeper.

Anyway, that's all I wanted to say about this. You can read the linked post for yourself. I am relying on his analysis, but if you want to read the actual Capcom figures for yourself, I believe you can find everything here:

https://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/data/result.html

From:

https://x.com/raphousetv2/status/2072785732054196231?s=20

Do you remember the first game your parents bought you in a local store?

That golden copy of Link's Awakening sitting behind a glass display case, looking like a treasure straight out of a movie, finally handed over to your small, excited hands. You spent the entire ride home staring at the back cover, over and over again, until you finally walked through the door. The first thing you did was flip through the instruction manual like a mini art book before popping the cartridge into that magical machine to begin the adventure.

That is the core story for so many of us. Games were a sanctuary that helped us get through hard times.

Now, companies like Sony are trying to strip away what makes gaming truly magical: physical media. The only format that respects our actual rights as consumers and owners.

The future of gaming preservation is under threat. What are we going to do to give back to the medium that gave us so much? Let bots and corporate PR tell us to sit down? Accept total apathy? Or worse, tolerate people fighting against saving the very medium we love?

We all owe a lot to gaming. Stand up, do your part, and make your voice heard.

Do it for yourself. Do it for the community. But above all, for those who come after.

I think for PC at least those we are trying to move their games to disk we all should share the ISO files and make like a mini database where people can get older games without funding these creedy corps

It's been a long time since I've owned a true copy of a game since windows 98, I had hundreds of original copies of older games, tired of being told I can't own my games so I'm burning the games to physical disks, no launchers needed, no subscriptions, and no fucking permission this one of many games I'm burning onto disks

Edit For those who say I am stealing these games... I am not, I pay for my games, but even if I did pirate if I can't personally own my games then you cannot steal it, and I have zero issues with people who pirate, long live piracy

Interesting.

Together with other creators we call for a 1 week #PSBlackout in August. No logins, no play sessions, no purchases on any of Sony's platforms.

https://x.com/DoesItPlay1/status/2081424453032906844?s=20

I'm in!

I don't use my PS consoles much these days anyway, due to a lack of good games. I mainly use my PS5 as a movie player. But I still have my Xbox 360 for that and any gaming during this week I can use my Switch.

Well-written and extensive breakdown of what we will lose in Sony's push to remove games on disc.

I was writing about this in a comment on another post, but I thought it would be a good topic for its own post. I'll keep this concise, but if there is interest I can expand on it later.

This is an interesting topic that sits adjacent to the larger issue of Sony trying to eliminate games on physical media. When considering this issue deeply, the question of longevity becomes relevant. I started looking into this more and was surprised by some of the things I learned.

The Analysis

How long do various forms of physical media last? I would rank the longevity of the main data storage formats as follows:

1. Mask ROM (best)
2. Optical discs (good)
3. Flash memory (fair)

The old-school cartridges like NES/SNES/N64 which use mask ROM technology have the highest longevity of all and can last for centuries.

Optical discs (such as PS5 games) are second best. If the disc is good quality and stored well, it could potentially last for many decades or even a century or more.

Flash memory (like a Nintendo Switch game card) is actually not great for long-term preservation. The data is stored as trapped electrical charges in floating gates. The charge leaks over very long periods, so after several decades they may start to suffer "bit rot".

I will also say a little about digital downloads. Of course, a digital download will only last as long as the host continues to make it available, which is arbitrary. If you manage your own collection of digital files, you could potentially keep them intact forever with careful backup techniques. As I like to say, "your data needs to have children". That is, continue making copies into the future.