Here’s how Saskatchewan’s gaming industry feels about PlayStation discontinuing physical games

Gamers in Saskatchewan are upset following PlayStation's announcement that it will discontinue physical games in 2028. Hallee Mandryk reports.

When Anthony Foster learned about Sony’s decision to cease production of physical discs in 2028, it was hard to process.

Foster is the owner of Next Level Game Exchange.

“It’s probably the most shocking email I’ve ever woken up to. I’ve been in the industry for 20-plus years, 20 years here with Next Level and I was shocked,” Foster said.

The recently announced decision has been met with a lot of backlash from consumers. A number of petitions calling for a reversal of the change have been circulating, gathering thousands of signatures.

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“It’s going to be a huge change because as a consumer, you aren’t going to own anything anymore. You’re going to be paying for the licence to play a game until they choose to remove it, and you won’t be able to send it to your friend or gift it to somebody,” Foster said.

While the news came as a surprise to Foster, those who have worked on the publishing side of the gaming industry, like Kevin Hovdestad were less shocked, but still disappointed.

“I’m unsurprised, we know that right now, the overwhelming majority of video game purchases are made digitally anyway. Depending on the platform, 80 to 90 per cent of games are sold digitally. Sony probably looked at that and said, the cost-benefit of having to produce very expensive hardware when they’re competing for memory and storage with AI and everything else that’s going on, it doesn’t make sense,” Hovdestad said.

He added that while dollars will likely be saved on the production side, it may come at the cost of brand loyalty.

“It seems like maybe they have correctly identified the trend line in the cost opportunity, but sort of misread the room in terms of how people are going to respond,” Hovdestad said.

Patrick Larsen, the program officer for Sask Interactive, echoed these sentiments.

“It’s very expensive to build the disk drives, and it’s expensive to ship discs to stores. And when that’s a very small percentage of your user base, it’s really hard to justify that cost and from a business perspective, you’re not thinking about it as a fan, right? When you’re looking at the spreadsheet,” Larsen said.

Larsen emphasized that video game fans are a dedicated community, and many are feeling betrayed by the lack of options they will soon have.

“This is a very fan-driven industry. So having that fan engagement, people go to conventions all the time to look for rare video games and things like that when you can no longer do that, I think it’ll definitely hurt their fan engagement going forward,” Larsen said.

While the majority of video game purchases are on the digital side, many fans still opt for a physical copy for certain games depending on their collections.

“Consumers care about choice. They want to have the option. They want to see that that investment is being made. There are people for whom maybe they only buy one or two games physically, but they bought a collector’s edition, something that they’re going to keep on a shelf and display and that they’re proud of ... Not being given that option anymore is going to be a source of frustration to the core consumer,” Hovdestad said.

Hovdestad emphasized that many gamers are also collectors, and this change will limit the ability to expand game collections.

“If you loved to run, you’ve got a collection of the shoes that you’ve worn out or retired after a marathon. If you are someone who used to be big into dancing, maybe you’ve kept costumes over the years,” Hovdestad said.

“People who played games and really love them, they have memories of those things. They’ve become transformative properties in people’s lives.”

Larsen shared that he falls into this category. While he has been consuming more digital media, he still seeks out physical copies depending on the game.

“Most games these days are sold digitally. I haven’t bought in a physical game in a very long time ... But I was also kind of saddened because I like to collect video games. I do occasionally buy a collector’s edition to have on a shelf, or I like to also give [them] as gifts,” Larsen said.

Another major concern is the lack of security that comes along with owning a physical copy.

“If I want to go back and watch a movie that I loved as a kid, I can still do that. If I want to read a book that was formative to me 30 years ago, I can still do that. But if I want to go play my favourite game from 25 years ago, it’s entirely possible that that’s not actually doable,” Hovdestad said.

" ... Everyone over a certain age, I think has had that experience of: I used to have all my stuff on this app and now it’s gone."

Hovdestad shared that the gaming industry is unique in the sense that the frequently changing format can sometimes result in media being disappearing.

“Imagine if tomorrow you woke up and no one could watch ‘Gone with the Wind’ ever again. That would be really weird. And in games that just happens all the time and we treat it like it’s normal,” Hovdestad said.

Many video game collectors have consoles and games that have not been publicly available for decades yet remain playable as physical items.

“I think people may be a little more hesitant to invest money, especially if more games get pulled offline. If that becomes a consistent trend, I think people will be more reluctant to buy a new game. They’ll stick to their old games ... or they may not be as willing to buy new properties if they are known to disappear,” Larsen said.

For Foster, he is anticipating a big shift in the gaming industry.

“Your physical stuff is safe and it’s yours forever, but your digital stuff, you’re paying to borrow it ... I’m sure it’s going to push the retro market even further, because [there are] lot of people [that] are very passionate about owning the things that they pay for,” Foster said.

He added that this decision has sparked a lot of frustration for those who have been loyal to the PlayStation brand for decades.

“I think a lot of people probably feel like they’ve been stabbed in the heart,” Foster said.

“You’ve been fans of a particular console. Everyone’s got a favourite. People are very dedicated to which ones they like. And for your team to tell you, ‘We’re done’ is pretty bad.”