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Jason Schreier - The Death Of Physical Games Is A Sign Of What's Coming
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sanitation lemmy.today sanitation@lemmy.today
Joined: 2026-05-05
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Amuro_eat lemmy.blahaj.zone Amuro_eat@lemmy.blahaj.zone
Joined: 2026-08-20
#2 · Quote Reply

I hope it just kills the industry then, fuck it

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altphoto lemmy.today altphoto@lemmy.today
Joined: 2025-04-14
#3 · Quote Reply

I hope it just kills the industry then, fuck it

Can't sell you a CD or a chip with the game, but how about some audio tape!? 😁

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THE_GR8_MIKE lemmy.world THE_GR8_MIKE@lemmy.world
Joined: 2026-01-03
#4 · Quote Reply

His main points I got are the industry is reaching the point where actual growth is more or less done. The absolute maximum number of people who will ever purchase one generation of console is between 100 and 150 million, and we've seen this a few times already when prices were reasonable.

The other part is that AAA development has become unsustainable given modern cycles. When games release once a decade, they need to squeeze every cent out of the consumer. But we're at the point now where even microtransactions can't sustain 10 year, thousands of developer cycles. Even if so, consumer fatigue is an ever increasing issue.

Growth, now, comes from stretching what we have like Rockstar with GTA, or by gobbling up smaller groups who then get shredded in the corporate grinder, like with Xbox.

And finally, his point that in 30 years, walking in to a retro shop will never result in you finding old PS6 games is sad, and I think he's correct. My whole life I learned about new games in the used shop.

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user_6282638282 sopuli.xyz user_6282638282@sopuli.xyz
Joined: 2026-01-10
#5 · Quote Reply

His main points I got are the industry is reaching the point where actual growth is more or less done. The absolute maximum number of people who will ever purchase one generation of console is between 100 and 150 million, and we've seen this a few times already when prices were reasonable. The other part is that AAA development has become unsustainable given modern cycles. When games release on...

And finally, his point that in 30 years, walking in to a retro shop will never result in you finding old PS6 games is sad, and I think he's correct. My whole life I learned about new games in the used shop.

I think this is where Sony et Al. will actually pay a long-term cost for this decision. How many current PS5 owners were kids who got a hand-me-down PS2 with a stack of discs from a sibling or friend? Or someone from a country with garbage internet who migrated somewhere better?

They're looking at this whole dark market as lost profits and not as gaining future customers and loyalists.

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