Recently, Sony announced that as of 2028, they would no longer be selling games on discs.

I remember when “Warhawk” came out on PlayStation 3 as a digital game day and date with the retail disc. GameStop and Best Buy threw a fit, as I recall. Even back then, in 2007, retailers could see the writing on the wall. The digital version of Warhawk was $39.99. The Blu-Ray was $59.99, and came with a Bluetooth headset. The game was multiplayer only, and as it turned out, not very good. But it was the canary in the coal mine.

This afternoon, I was enjoying a cupcake, listening to an episode of the “Deconstructor of Fun” podcast. The crew were talking about how irrelevant physical media now is. I looked at my kitchen nook table, and saw a boxed copy of “Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII” sitting there, purchased this week from Target. I remembered opening an Amazon package earlier in the day, which held a new copy of Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air” on blu-ray. I like physical media.

I get the convenience of digital media, and sometimes, I buy games digitally, even when physical is an option. Usually, I do that when I’m so excited to start a game that I want to have it pre-loaded to enjoy the minute the clock hits midnight on launch day. That was recently the case with “Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynched”.

I also really like to read books digitally. I love my kindle, because the backlit screen means I never have to finagle with reading lights, while turning pages. And I always have the book with me, since I can carry on where I left of on my iPhone, if I left by kindle device behind.

But I don’t want to be exclusively digital, despite those conveniences. I want choice. I like having the option to share my game library. I loved Astro Bot, and I was able to extend my joy by sharing my copy with a close friend. I was so glad to have a physical copy in that instance. I love when my kids get interested in a Nintendo franchise, and can just grab earlier games from the series off a shelf to pop into the Switch 2 consoles. I also love giving physical games as presents.

When I bought my PlayStation 5 Pro, the first thing I did out of the box was add the optional disc drive to the device.

But that is not the future. Not in 2028, and not in 2048, when the games of this generation are 20 years old, and I have an itch to play them again. I won’t be able to go into a retro shop and pick them up for a bargain. And that sucks.

I’ve discussed the topic with friends who are also industry vets. Some of them think this is equivalent to ripping off a band-aid – it’s never going to feel good, so just do it with one quick pull. I think we can see by the constant post-bombings on Sony’s social media pages that maybe this wasn’t the best call. I think they should have at least had some very good news to share on the same day. Perhaps a promise that your digital games will last you 100 years before there’s any risk of them being pulled from servers. Or a significant price drop on games. Or the elimination of the practice of selling virtual currencies. None of these would take the sting away entirely, but they could have helped. Right now, there is nothing pro-consumer to point to in this decision, and that’s just clumsy.