While many gamers are absolutely furious that Sony is phasing out physical games, there are others who are affected by the decision as well, and CNBC has now published an article suggesting that the $7 billion used-game market is also under threat as a result.
They point out that Sony was the company that championed physical games the most 13 years ago, when then-PlayStation head Jack Tretton said: "Trade in the game at retail. Sell it to another person. Lend it to a friend, or keep it forever."
The major problem, aside from reduced choice and the ability to actually own your games, is that Sony offers very little protection for the future. While Nintendo clearly continues to invest in physical games, Microsoft has a comprehensive backward compatibility programme and plans to let users convert their old discs into digital copies so that Xbox players can keep their titles well into the future.
Steam, on the other hand, lets you own the games you buy, and they'll still be playable even if Steam were to shut down. Sony offers none of this, so when they phase out physical games, there will be little chance of accessing your purchased classics again in the future, and there's a risk that some of your digital games will be removed (Sony has pulled content before) and never be available again.
This has now prompted Michael Futter, co-founder of the gaming industry consultancy F-Squared, to speak out strongly, and he argues that Sony is acting in an extremely negative way toward its consumers:
"This is an extremely anti-consumer decision that has no legitimate justification and communicates a disdain for players in their ecosystem."
And for those who think Sony is following the same path PC gamers have already taken, Futter explains that it is absolutely not the same thing, pointing to PlayStation players' lack of protection for their purchased games and lacklustre future-proofing:
"Sony would love for us to believe that the PC market's shift to digital is the exact same thing as consoles going down that path. It simply isn't."
Sony itself has not yet commented on the matter beyond its definitive announcement that it will discontinue physical games as of January 2028.
