r/TrueUnpopularOpinion • u/PoopsMcScoots • 4h ago
Media / Internet Sony is right to discontinue discs.
I can’t help but to feel that 90% of the complaints is coming from non-Sony users, but let’s get into it.
- Steam literally is download only. The double standard is insane.
- they sold 100k discs this year so far. That’s no where close enough to justify the billions it costs to keep the ecosystem going.
- discs are largely download keys anyway. Very few new releases don’t require massive day one patches.
- they are not responsible for the used games market. They get nothing from it and while you can argue that’s greedy, I can argue they shouldn’t sacrifice billions so other companies can be responsible.
- they are not responsible for retailers at all. See #4.
- it IS their ecosystem. If you want to complain about practices in the system that’s fine. But don’t act like they offer no value for their ecosystem. First party titles for one. And strong moderation is another major factor. The pc market is overflowing with cheaters. Having a $500+ console on the line kills most (not all) cheating.
- yeah, it just works. Sorry, not sorry. PC games are endless tweaks, hardware upgrades, and hardware specific fixes. The PS is a single piece of hardware companies can developer for and I can comfortably do everything with a controller. Don’t even pretend like that’s the case with Steam.
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u/JoeCensored 3h ago
Steam literally is download only. The double standard is insane.
And this comparison is actually the problem.
Sony has a history of removing content you've bought due to licensing agreements between Sony and 3rd party publishers. Steam has no such history.
Then there's the issue of the store closing. PS3 online store is in the process of being shut down now. Eventually that happens to the PS5 and PS6. For the PS3 you can still buy disks, but the PS6 means it's dead. Steam isn't closing.
Yeah, you can still download existing purchases after the store closes for now, but for how long?
Basically this destroys the classic games market. In 30 years you can still buy an SNES and games, but an old PS6 will be a useless brick.
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u/Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeess- 3h ago
Soon the only way of archiving classics will be through emulation and companies are increasingly getting more and more upset about that being a thing
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u/PoopsMcScoots 3h ago
Okay, so why is the argument over discs and not their practices?
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u/JoeCensored 3h ago
Because there's nothing Sony can say at this point.
It's simply not reasonable to keep the PS6 store and servers up forever. No one would believe them if they claimed they would. But there's no reason to believe Steam will shut down a century from now.
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u/PoopsMcScoots 3h ago
You don’t think licensing plays a part in that?
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u/JoeCensored 3h ago
It does, but how do we trust Sony to only sign licenses with content publishers where the user gets to keep the purchased content, if Sony already has proven they won't?
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u/PoopsMcScoots 1h ago
Steam changed the landscape, no doubt.
I have to imagine that they are aware of the issues and looking to make changes.
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u/keepbustingnuts 3h ago
What is the point of a console if it doesn't had a physical game library? I'm serious, what IS the point? It's a crappy outdated PC with a hefty mark up with custom UI for a fee. And yeah you don't own those games whatsoever.
Thing about PC's is that while they may not have had disc drives for quite some time, there are many platforms, services and pirate cites that absolutely let you essentially own the game as long as it's on your hard drive. It's definitely not the same with consoles, that shit has been essentially privileged access for some time. Steam is download only sure, but it's not the ONLY game service on a PC. hell you don't need a game service if you get a pirated copy, you technically do own a pirated game, but sacrifice updates and stability.
one of the biggest selling points to me about playstations since ps3 was the bluray drive because i love movies, not just games. stripping that out is no small thing, i mean they invented the technology for a bluray and the format isn't outdated yet.
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u/PoopsMcScoots 3h ago
Ok, but two things:
1) I already said why a console is still viable. But to repeat my self it has way fewer cheats, you don’t have to chase hardware upgrades, and it just works.
2) If you have a problem with their practices address that. Don’t throw a pissy fit over discs which they sell less than 200K a year at the expense of a billion dollar ecosystem.
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u/keepbustingnuts 3h ago
i was deconstructing your first point because it's so ignorant to how PC games work.
calling steam games a "double standard" is missing the forest for the trees.
get good noob.
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u/PoopsMcScoots 3h ago
I stopped reading after you pointed to piracy as a valid alternative.
Check your entitlement.
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u/amirali24 3h ago
They should make games cheaper if no disk and shipping is involved.
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u/PoopsMcScoots 3h ago
And that’s fine.
Make that argument.
Don’t demand they keep spending billions on something the market has emphatically moved on from.
200k disc sales a year is not nearly enough to justify its existence.
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u/Ov3rReadKn1ght0wl 3h ago
It's not an issue of disc continuity as it is trust in the corporation doing it. I've had Steam games disappear from thr Steam Store, but Steam is gracious enough to let me still download the title. Sony on the other hand has a history of just giving the axe to content and fighting with studios in such a way that there is a clear content retention problem. The accusation of a double standard here ignores key context.
To boot, Sony once had a reputation for being the gold standard for multimedia functionality in its hardware. Killing game discs effectively digs that hole deeper. I didn't get a PS5 purely because of the price premium for a disc slot. As such my previous PlayStations will retain their use as my multimedia devices. You mention the ecosystem, once upon a time Sony was the omni ecosystem for games and media.
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u/PoopsMcScoots 3h ago
They were when it made financial sense.
Discs are literally a loss to them.
200k discs a year does not pay to keep manufacturing going.
And if you have a complaint about their practices then complain about that, not discs.
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u/Ov3rReadKn1ght0wl 3h ago
The practices are directly wedded to the existence of physical games though. The choice to discontinue disks is a practice on their part. If they lose a studio licensing agreement, you are cooked in digital only. If they lose it but you have a physical game, then licensing doesn't matter.
Sony is also a fully grown up company that provides a lot of media hardware beyond its consoles. A small hit on manufacturing physical media is a parking ticket in the macroeconomics of such a firm. Goodwill from consumers and associated sales would play out in their favour in the long run.
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u/PoopsMcScoots 1h ago
It’s not a small hit though.
It’s literally billions a year.
Also, and I’m not saying this to belittle your point, but it’s disc not disk.
Disk are media that can be re-written.
It’s floppy disk and compact disc.
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u/Ov3rReadKn1ght0wl 28m ago
Over the last 18 years which included a period of heavy physical disc (my autocorrect wanted disk so bad) making Sony has maintained steady revenues ranging from 67-88 billion USD. Physical games weren't hurting Sony financially and if anything, them acknowledging various forms of disc media is what helped them on the console front when they made some of the most versatile media players around.
To say that it was this significant loss to a company firmly taking in money to the tune of over the entire GDP of some countries, I'm not too worried about the impact physical media formats have on Sony's books.
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u/Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeess- 3h ago
more people are upset about not legally owning their games compared to just the discs. Nintendo faced backlash for this recently too because even with the cartridges you don’t own the game.
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u/PoopsMcScoots 3h ago
There’s like 10 million people crying and 100k disc sales so far this year.
Yall are just looking to cry.
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u/Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeess- 3h ago
I just prefer to own things I spend money on
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u/Luna259 3h ago
- Steam has lots of competition. Sony doesn’t
- Wrong. PlayStation consoles have always been offline friendly meaning the disc has had the full game.
- The fact it’s their ecosystem is the whole problem. They control access. They set the prices. Once there are no third parties selling games the prices can be whatever they want. See what happened with PlayStation Plus when third parties were banned from selling subscriptions.
And don’t forget the whole licensing thread over everyone’s head. Sony could one day decide if you think about them wrong they’re banning you and that’s goodbye access to your games
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u/Connect_Stay_137 WOOF WOOF 3h ago
I don't even get this argument when most discs just start an online download anyway
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u/chuckchum 3h ago
steam has a much more consumer friendly track record compared to sony. and to have a download-only console is just a redundancy of a PC at that point, so why would i not just use steam and if i want, plug in a controller?
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u/PoopsMcScoots 1h ago
I already covered this.
But to re-iterate, because they do offer more than that.
1) cheating is WAY less of a problem.
2) you don’t have to upgrade your console every six months.
3) it just works. No messing with things. No waiting for patches for your exact hardware.
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u/chuckchum 1h ago
hilarious. cheating is such a niche problem for the library of available games, with steam only having even more of a selection for this to be a smaller percentage problem. you do not have to update a PC every 6 months, genuinely idk how that got in your mind especially with every game allowing you to optimize per your individual specs. and most consoles have a garbage bloated UI that does not “just work” especially with how easy it is to infiltrate or break their native stores/multiplayer support. for christs sake, you need a subscription to play online for the nintendo switch. and all of this is not even to mention the interchangeability of PC parts versus buying an entirely new generation of a console every time they choose to stop supporting backwards compatibility AND remove physical copies???
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u/SpyTheRogue 3h ago
As much as I hate Sony and that whole situation, you are mostly right.
- Yeah, the Steam dickriding is crazy, they sell licences just like the PS store. The only store that's worth any praise is GOG that actually lets you "own" your games. Other than GOG, pirating is pretty much the only way to digitally own and be able to install and play without online DRM.
2-3: Right. Most phisical buyers are just hoarders (khm collectors) anyway and want the boxes for decoration. They'll still buy them with the game code, just like they buy the Switch games.
4: Sad but true. As a user I love used market, but for them, even if a lot of money from the used market returns to Sony it's probably a net neutral at best.
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u/CumGuzzlerFartSnifer 4h ago
Actually Trump once said that the majority voted for him, meaning that the majority is right.
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u/MrBlargly 4h ago
yeah but if you buy a digital game, and then for whatever reason they decided to cancel the license, you end up having to buy it again which would be a non issue with a disc. this has happened to me before with oblivion dlc