Is this the end of physical disc releases of ShotTriggers etc..?

[Restart_Point]

Please move or delete this is it's in the wrong place, I looked for an existing thread and couldn't see one....

As I understand it, Sony make all discs for Playstation, so does the July 1st announcement mean that smaller publishers are screwed for releasing Sony discs after 2027 too? Like 100% with no chance of being given permission to make their own or even being able to afford to make their own even if they were allowed? Is it too early to say just yet?

https://blog.playstation.com/2026/07/01 ... -consoles/

[CerealPT]

switch is still a thing so fingers crossed.

[Jonpachi]

As I read it, yes, it means that. After 2028 no more Playstation discs, period. They want to own and control all content on their platforms. I would be happy to be proven wrong.

[Creamy Goodness]

Man if only someone had got Batrider, Futari, and DDP taken care of before this happened.

[CerealPT]

at least Futari has a very competent 360 port, DDP has a ps1 port which is far from perfect but better than nothing I guess? now batrider, i would pay good money to have that ported lol, really hope they announce some proper Raizing or Cave bangers in October.

[pablumatic]

I'd like for someone to convince Sony to allow third party disc manufacturing, but I'm expecting to have to get Switch 1/2 cartridges if I want to keep my physical M2 collection going.

[Jonpachi]

We do have two more years. M2 miracles can happen.

[hamfighterx]

We do have two more years. M2 miracles can happen.

One and a half years. I could see M2 releasing one of those games before the end of 2027.

Beyond that, at least there’s Futari 360, MiSTer and MAME for Batrider and DDP, and the console DDP ports (Saturn PSX and the 360 bonus game with Instant Brain.

Yeah, the emulation and FPGA stuff doesn’t have a physical disc, but at least once you have it downloaded it’s very easy to back up and use whenever you like without relying on connecting to some corporation’s servers.

And of course, the last hope of Switch 1 or 2 carts (non-GKC please).

[spmbx]

We do have two more years. M2 miracles can happen.

One and a half years. I could see M2 releasing one of those games before the end of 2027.

Beyond that, at least there’s Futari 360, MiSTer and MAME for Batrider and DDP, and the console DDP ports (Saturn PSX and the 360 bonus game with Instant Brain.

Yeah, the emulation and FPGA stuff doesn’t have a physical disc, but at least once you have it downloaded it’s very easy to back up and use whenever you like without relying on connecting to some corporation’s servers.

And of course, the last hope of Switch 1 or 2 carts (non-GKC please).

Those downloads will most likely outlive the discs/carts too. I mean i get that some people want physical discs, but but i just don't understand the attitude that it would be problematic to.play any of the mentioned games in the future should a disc release not happen

[tzm_rade]

Let's face it, modern Sony probably never wanted these games on their platform to begin with.

[davyK]

No game dev/publisher wants people to own a physical copy. Physical games ever since the early days only existed because of practical matters. You don't and have never owned a game, you own a licence to play the game. The copy on the piece of media you have comes with a licence. Ownership of the game is an illusion. That doesn't please me as I'm very much in love with physical copies. Digital distribution is the realisation of the game licencing reality.

[Augemitbutter]

Hopefully we can at least get one more release. Clear River has some re-releases up for pre-order.

If Sony doesn't backtrack after the big backlash i wish the worst microsoft years on them.

Let's face it, modern Sony probably never wanted these games on their platform to begin with.

I don't think California ever wanted to sell a full game release. It's all service games and subs. People still don't know what kind of vile monetizing schemes GTA VI has baked in, nobody even asked and they get paid anyway. No wonder they will boldly do this while deleting 500 movie purchases and pulling the plug on PS3/Vita stores.

[hamfighterx]

Those downloads will most likely outlive the discs/carts too. I mean i get that some people want physical discs, but but i just don't understand the attitude that it would be problematic to.play any of the mentioned games in the future should a disc release not happen

This is a ridiculous argument. I have lots of media from the 80s and 90s that still works just fine. I’ve lost lots of stuff on PSN already - even going through the excruciating process of downloading games from your purchase history via the PS3/PSP/Vita store is torturously slow, hard to find anything buried among all the DLC, and lots of games are just no longer there.

For example, I redownloaded most of the PSP Neogeo Station games just a couple months ago, but some are just lost to time and no longer in the PS Store. Yet my physical media that I’ve had for decades is still fine.

Downloading ROMs you can store on your PC/MiSTer/whatever is different since you aren’t getting those from Sony as the exclusive source.

Quit being a bootlicker for garbage corporations doing their best to be anti-consumer.

[DietSoap]

switch is still a thing so fingers crossed.

They were already going this direction with game key cards. They tend to let the others take the brunt of bad PR for shitty things like paid DLC, paid online, etc first, but they always get there shortly after.

[Princess]

... You don't and have never owned a game, you own a licence to play the game. The copy on the piece of media you have comes with a licence. Ownership of the game is an illusion. ...

That may not be quite well according to my memory, of remember a news that, someone or some people, someone brought a physical game disc of a street fighter game or tekken, which the game requires additional purchase to unlock more characters but however, that someone managed to hack or unsolve or retrieve the data on the disc to use all characters freely (yes!) bypassing the passkey, as everything is already included in the disc which is already paid. I forget which country but the court verdict is the gamer win, meaning you brought the disc then it's yours property. I personally support that logic, gamers should be more respected, instead of treated with scam everywhere. Online only is a thing, digital only if technology is advance enough then it will be not a thing, but right now just too many things to deal with.

So this topic is about physical and digital, how about digital first, then some time in the future release a physical disc of final edition, no more content no more excuse.

[davyK]

You do not own any game you haven't developed and published yourself. You can hack it and bypass content protection. But you still do not legally own it. All games physical or digital are licenced for your use. You own the physical media it comes on. You own the disc. You own the cartridge. But that comes with a licence that legally allows you to use the game. It's why pre-owned is tolerated because the media comes with the licence but you do not own the game. No matter what you may think is right or wrong is irrelevant. You do not own a game and if you have copied it from a ROM site or ripped it from its officially licenced piece of media to play it that is not legal.

Impossible to police of course - unless publishers go all digital which can make it far more difficult to rip off. But there's ways around even that no doubt. But lets not fool ourselves into believing playing ROMs or ripped games is legal because it simply isn't. You can argue the rights and wrongs of it and the ethical side of it but the fact is unless it's been bought from a legal source then it isn't legal. You only thing you buy when you buy a game is the licence to play it. If it's physical you also buy the piece of media it's on (disc, cart, tape etc.) but not the game itself.

My Atari 2600 Asteroids cartridge states that "PROGRAM CONTENTS (C) 1981 ATARI INC.". I own the cartridge. I do not own the game. You cannot own anything that is copyrighted. You buy the right to use it / play it / whatever. That's enabled by the licence you buy when you buy the cartridge.

[Starfighter]

Sort of like when you buy a record, you don't own the music on it, you only own the container and that particular copy (even if you technically are prohibited from playing it in a public context etc) of the master recording. But that's also what makes it tolerable, the copy in a container part. You own the standalone container and can therefore re-sell it, lend it to a friend, listen to it after the record label shuts down etc.

I guess when licenses are (pretty much) unrevokable and possible to transfer to others then we accept them, take away those factors and many of us don't anymore. And that's fine, we all decide for ourselves what we agree to.

[Udderdude]

I'd like for someone to convince Sony to allow third party disc manufacturing

Not only will this not happen, but the PS6 will 100% not even have a disc drive to begin with.

[Starfighter]

If they add the functionality for "legacy" games (disc based) during the transition I guess it'll have one of those USB connected ones? Only compatible with their own, oddly more expensive, model of course.

[CerealPT]

You do not own any game you haven't developed and published yourself. You can hack it and bypass content protection. But you still do not legally own it. All games physical or digital are licenced for your use. You own the physical media it comes on. You own the disc. You own the cartridge. But that comes with a licence that legally allows you to use the game. It's why pre-owned is tolerated because the media comes with the licence but you do not own the game. No matter what you may think is right or wrong is irrelevant. You do not own a game and if you have copied it from a ROM site or ripped it from its officially licenced piece of media to play it that is not legal.

Impossible to police of course - unless publishers go all digital which can make it far more difficult to rip off. But there's ways around even that no doubt. But lets not fool ourselves into believing playing ROMs or ripped games is legal because it simply isn't. You can argue the rights and wrongs of it and the ethical side of it but the fact is unless it's been bought from a legal source then it isn't legal. You only thing you buy when you buy a game is the licence to play it. If it's physical you also buy the piece of media it's on (disc, cart, tape etc.) but not the game itself.

My Atari 2600 Asteroids cartridge states that "PROGRAM CONTENTS (C) 1981 ATARI INC.". I own the cartridge. I do not own the game. You cannot own anything that is copyrighted. You buy the right to use it / play it / whatever. That's enabled by the licence you buy when you buy the cartridge.

You are allowed to RIP your own discs hence emulators are legal.

[Jonpachi]

If they add the functionality for "legacy" games (disc based) during the transition I guess it'll have one of those USB connected ones? Only compatible with their own, oddly more expensive, model of course.

Doubtful. The PS5 Pro was their test case. I’d wager very few people that bought a Pro also bought the disc drive. I very much doubt they’ll do a disc-diaper solution on PS6.

[pablumatic]

Not only will this not happen, but the PS6 will 100% not even have a disc drive to begin with.

I figure so.

My digital-only ShotTriggers collection started when M2 launched the brand with Mahou Daisakusen/Sorcer Striker anyway. I don't believe its ever been put on a disc.

[Princess]

I just have AI found what likely was going on in my previous message:

The controversy you are remembering was the infamous "disc-locked content" (DLC) scandal surrounding Street Fighter X Tekken by Capcom in 2012. Hackers successfully bypassed the game's code on the Xbox 360 to reveal that 12 unreleased fighters were already built into the retail disc, hidden behind a paywall.

While there was no formal, high-profile lawsuit that made it to court, the situation triggered a massive consumer uproar.

Key details of the controversy:

- The Discovery: Before the game even launched, dataminers and hackers accessed 12 hidden characters (including Mega Man, Pac-Man, Sakura, and Alisa) who were physically written onto the shipped game discs but locked from player use.

- The Business Model: Capcom planned to sell these characters as a bundle at a later date for \(\$20\), forcing players to pay extra for data they had already purchased and was already sitting on their hard drives/discs.

- The Backlash: Fans flooded the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and various gaming forums with complaints, viewing it as highly anti-consumer.

- Capcom's Response: Capcom defended the practice, stating that including the data on the disc saved hard drive space and provided more "efficient" gameplay throughout the game's lifecycle, arguing there was "no distinction" between downloading a patch or unlocking an on-disc file.

- The Aftermath: The fiasco severely damaged the game's initial sales and reputation. As a result, Capcom was forced to re-evaluate its DLC strategies, and "on-disc DLC" became a widely condemned industry practice that has largely disappeared from modern fighting games.

Will the digital-only game practice trigger another backlash? Damage the sales and reputation of PS6? (This is written by me)

The phrase "If buying isn't owning, then pirating isn't stealing" has become a massive viral protest motto. (This is AI again)

[davyK]

You do not own any game you haven't developed and published yourself. You can hack it and bypass content protection. But you still do not legally own it. All games physical or digital are licenced for your use. You own the physical media it comes on. You own the disc. You own the cartridge. But that comes with a licence that legally allows you to use the game. It's why pre-owned is tolerated because the media comes with the licence but you do not own the game. No matter what you may think is right or wrong is irrelevant. You do not own a game and if you have copied it from a ROM site or ripped it from its officially licenced piece of media to play it that is not legal.

Impossible to police of course - unless publishers go all digital which can make it far more difficult to rip off. But there's ways around even that no doubt. But lets not fool ourselves into believing playing ROMs or ripped games is legal because it simply isn't. You can argue the rights and wrongs of it and the ethical side of it but the fact is unless it's been bought from a legal source then it isn't legal. You only thing you buy when you buy a game is the licence to play it. If it's physical you also buy the piece of media it's on (disc, cart, tape etc.) but not the game itself.

My Atari 2600 Asteroids cartridge states that "PROGRAM CONTENTS (C) 1981 ATARI INC.". I own the cartridge. I do not own the game. You cannot own anything that is copyrighted. You buy the right to use it / play it / whatever. That's enabled by the licence you buy when you buy the cartridge.

You are allowed to RIP your own discs hence emulators are legal.

I'm afraid that is not the case. The emulator may be legal which sometimes itself is debatable. Not using the ROM as per the licence agreement isn't legal.

You and I may feel ethically right about ripping a game. I do that to play games I own on official discs on my Saturn using the Satiator but that doesn't make it legal.

The emulation scene has probably saved some games from being lost forever. Also it is often the only way to play a game. I've used MAME for decades. But that doesn't give us a right to do it.

The ultimate aim of all game devs/publishers is to have game streaming in place removing the need for having any part of a game stored on a local device. You won't like that. I won't like that and it's why I'm backing out of collecting any new games because I'm done with modern publishing.

[Jonpachi]

I just have AI found what likely was going on in my previous message:

The controversy you are remembering was the infamous "disc-locked content" (DLC) scandal surrounding Street Fighter X Tekken by Capcom in 2012. Hackers successfully bypassed the game's code on the Xbox 360 to reveal that 12 unreleased fighters were already built into the retail disc, hidden behind a paywall.

While there was no formal, high-profile lawsuit that made it to court, the situation triggered a massive consumer uproar.

Key details of the controversy:

- The Discovery: Before the game even launched, dataminers and hackers accessed 12 hidden characters (including Mega Man, Pac-Man, Sakura, and Alisa) who were physically written onto the shipped game discs but locked from player use.

- The Business Model: Capcom planned to sell these characters as a bundle at a later date for \(\$20\), forcing players to pay extra for data they had already purchased and was already sitting on their hard drives/discs.

- The Backlash: Fans flooded the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and various gaming forums with complaints, viewing it as highly anti-consumer.

- Capcom's Response: Capcom defended the practice, stating that including the data on the disc saved hard drive space and provided more "efficient" gameplay throughout the game's lifecycle, arguing there was "no distinction" between downloading a patch or unlocking an on-disc file.

- The Aftermath: The fiasco severely damaged the game's initial sales and reputation. As a result, Capcom was forced to re-evaluate its DLC strategies, and "on-disc DLC" became a widely condemned industry practice that has largely disappeared from modern fighting games.

Will the digital-only game practice trigger another backlash? Damage the sales and reputation of PS6? (This is written by me)

The phrase "If buying isn't owning, then pirating isn't stealing" has become a massive viral protest motto. (This is AI again)

Please no LLM slop in chat.

[Starfighter]

You and I may feel ethically right about ripping a game. I do that to play games I own on official discs on my Saturn using the Satiator but that doesn't make it legal.

I thought there was no legal precedent to creating a ROM from your own cartridge to use personally with no sharing? I can see how it would be some sort of unauthorized copy and therefore certainly in violation of some DMCA rule, but aren't we then closing in on "recording an album onto an audio cassette to listen to in the car is illegal" territory?

[TransatlanticFoe]

Years back, yes some publishers aggressively used DLC as a way to kill the trade-in market. On occasion, it was found to be on disc and all the DLC purchase did was unlock it. Sometimes it was day one DLC which gated off semi-important content (Mass Effect 3's Prothean party member anyone?).

Meanwhile the PC market went with limited activations, and in some cases (hi Ubisoft) always online DRM before Steam took over and killed physical media on PC entirely. But PC (even 80s home computers did it sometimes) has always had weird activation methods in an atempt to combat piracy.

Streaming (Google Stadia) has failed once but I'm sure scrapping physical media is the first step to trying again. It elimates retailers and the trade in market - everyone pays full price and directly to you. And those savings will be, erm, passed onto the shareholders. In no way will games be cheaper with the physical media overheads removed. Of course, the endgame is streaming - total control of the market and the end user. It'll never be as good as local compute resource but it doesn't matter - all the big players have the same goal and will try to go there. You know Nintendo will be the last hold outs - but not because of morals or duty to the customer, simply that Nintendo always takes forever to get its online services up to scratch. Maybe Nintendo will steal a march off the back of that and the others will rethink, but seeing as they've already gone hard on game key cards... I doubt it.

[Udderdude]

You and I may feel ethically right about ripping a game. I do that to play games I own on official discs on my Saturn using the Satiator but that doesn't make it legal.

I thought there was no legal precedent to creating a ROM from your own cartridge to use personally with no sharing? I can see how it would be some sort of unauthorized copy and therefore certainly in violation of some DMCA rule, but aren't we then closing in on "recording an album onto an audio cassette to listen to in the car is illegal" territory?

The backup exception (17 USC 117) does not really say you can do anything with the backup except use it to restore/repair the original. And if you lose/sell/destroy the original, you also must destroy the backup copy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limitatio ... r_programs
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/117

It's pretty clear it was written with the intention of allowing people to make backups, and then let them sit there on a shelf in a closet until needed. Not run them on another PC or emulator.

Copyright law sucks and "Death of the author plus infinity plus one" copyright extensions can fuck off forever. But it never will, because "Fuck everyone, we own everything forever, p.s. fuck you".