There are rumblings that third-party publishers are quite unhappy with PlayStation’s announcement to end disc-based games in 2028, and those rumblings are getting louder.
The rumors began recently and got louder in the wake of gamescom as it’s been the first major games industry event. A recent Nash Weedle report said that the backlash to Sony’s decision had generated enough noise at the event that it was openly being talked about in Cologne.
“Things from the gamescom backstage are starting to reach me; they tell me that the public’s reactions, despite what Sony wants to make it seem, have indeed sparked controversial internal reactions,” they said (via translation). “On a marketing level, it’s having an impact, and they’re going to make changes in communication and planning. Plus, some third-party studios are temporarily choosing not to tie themselves to PlayStation.”
But that was just the beginning. Today, The Washington Post’s Gene Park echoed that sentiment after Digital Foundry’s John Linneman also had similar things to say on a new episode of the DF Direct Weekly podcast. Basically, it sure sounds like the uproar is becoming harder and harder to fully ignore.
“This was the first event I’ve been able to attend since the discontinuation of discs were announced, and I spoke to a lot of developers and publisher people about it, and they were largely very upset,” Linneman said. “A lot of these companies see a lot of return, in fact a majority, through physical sales. And I feel like this is really going to affect a lot of businesses, and obviously, the big partners, the big AAA studios don’t care. They’re fine. But this is gonna have some pretty negative effects and I get the feeling that a lot of these companies, they really wanna put their weight behind the Switch 2 now, and sort of try to keep that alive.”
Will this change anything as far as the end of physical media? That still remains to be seen, but you’d have to think that there are some tough conversations happening at PlayStation if their third-party partners are genuinely pissed off, and they have plenty reason to be given the near-unanimous anger in the community since the hugely controversial July 1 announcement.
“The industry side of things is not positive right now about what’s happening,” Linneman said. “There seems to be a lot of resentment for what Sony has done and what they’re doing, and I’ll be curious to see if that actually manifests in any way that’s tangible, so we’ll see.”
Sony will host a State of Play presentation this Thursday, and gamers around the world will be tuning in to see if the company has any updates on its decision. I wouldn’t count on it, but the news that the industry itself is pissed may make some changes necessary in the long run.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.destructoid.com/gaming-devs-publishers-resentment-for-sony-handling-physical-disc/
