I decided to write this article as a response to apologetic consoomers that completely misunderstand anything regarding consumer rights movements.
I'm sure all us Gamers are aware of Sony ending disc production therefore killing off physical games so let's just get to the point. People aren't mad because they can't buy their flimsy plastic boxes and fancy thin cylinders. They're mad because Sony ending physical games represents crossing the line of "You will own nothing and be happy." in console gaming.
Physical games are one of the reasons to even game on consoles because it's the closest thing to actually owning your games in most cases. Most PC games are no different to digitally bought console games, being riddled with DRM, controlling what you can do with the games you bought and paid for and since on PC, physical media died long ago, only games sold without DRM can you truly own which are in the minority. On console, you still have a rich market of physical games that companies can't just take away your access to should they wish. In digital console storefronts, games are exclusively sold with highly restrictive DRM and licensing that not even the publishers can choose to not have.
It also takes just one little oopsie to lose all your digital console games and there's not a damn thing you can do about it. Company shuts down service or itself goes under? Too bad, games gone. Called someone a mean word? Oops, permabanned and can no longer access your $1000s worth of games. Got hacked because someone social engineered the clanker customer support agent or just paid a human agent to hand over access to your account? Those are their games now. All this doesn't apply to physical games. They're still yours no matter what happens to the service and even though they have DRM, it's really easy to bypass and rip DRM-free copies to play on an emulator or hacked console.
It was never about physical media itself. In fact I'd much rather have a digital DRM-free copy of anything that I can just back up wherever than a physical copy I have to take care of and handle but when the DRM-free digital copy isn't an option, a physical copy is the next best thing. There would be no controversy if we actually owned our digital games. It's not about holding onto the past and forcing companies to stick with a dying medium; it's about what we can do with the new medium.
The people defending Sony are like the people who think Stop Killing Games is about forcing companies to spend their resources to keep the servers up for some game with barely any players. No, it's about building legal infrastructure where the companies don't even need to be involved to keep an online game available. These people have succumbed to "Own nothing; be happy" and are fully reliant on the permission from companies to interact with their media they bought and paid for. So no, I don't care so much about Sony killing physical games itself; I care that the only (legal) option after this point is being reliant on companies' permission and upkeep of their services to have access to games which can be revoked at any time for any reason. Don't be an apologetic consoomer for these companies that hate you.
Written 2026-8-25 Published 2026-9-1