The future of video game saving has just taken a big hit. This morning, Sony announced that, from January 2028, the company will no longer produce physical PlayStation discs, which means that from then on you can buy new PS5 games digitally. At the same time, Sony also announced that it will begin shutting down digital stores for both the PS3 and PS Vita, helpfully illustrating one of the most important problems with the digital-only future of games: Once the stores are gone, so are the games. It is a serious blow to the preservation of the medium.
In many ways, both announcements seemed inevitable. It’s clear that consumers have largely – though not entirely – switched to buying games digitally. According to Sony’s latest financial results from May, almost 80 percent of PS5 games sold are digital. Meanwhile, just last week, Grand Theft Auto VI The developer Rockstar Games announced that in the following period The GTA coming to retail stores in November, it will actually just be coded in the box, without the disc.
Digital games are in some ways good for players. You can schedule downloads in advance, keep a huge library of games on one console, and take advantage of regular sales. There are also other drawbacks that are immediately noticeable, such as not being able to sell used games or simply share a copy with a friend. From a publisher’s point of view, digital games are very profitable for Sony and its contemporaries, who no longer need to deal with the costs of producing discs.
But the most hidden cost in the digital transformation comes in the form of saving video games. Given the complex nature of consoles and ever-changing formats, maintenance has become a major challenge. Back in 2023, the Video Game History Foundation said that 87 percent of classic games — defined as anything released before 2010 — were “critically endangered.” The reason for the 2010 cutoff? It was then that the digital storefront came to the fore, signaling an even bigger problem in the future. “Our experience collecting data for this study suggests that these problems will increase over time due to the low diversity of re-release sources and the long-term volatility of digital game store locations,” the report reads.
Digital store closures are not new, of course; Just two years ago, Nintendo shut down both the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. And while you can still (for now) download games you’ve already purchased, this ban means that titles that are only available on that particular store aren’t accessible to everyone. If you buy a 3DS right now, you don’t have a way to play the classic puzzle game BoxBoy.
In the past, this probably seemed like a minor problem, as the number of exclusive digital games for platforms such as Wii U and PS Vita was relatively small. But all media are moving towards digital, including industry-shaking giants like GTA VIthis problem becomes very obvious. Starting in 2028, every PlayStation game comes with an expiration date; as soon as the PS5 digital store is closed, a lot of games will become inaccessible. That means not only small digital games, but also big blockbusters.
There have been steps taken to alleviate these problems. Many modern game consoles now allow you to manage your digital library across devices – Xbox has made notable efforts here before – and on PC storefront GOG has an entire system dedicated to keeping classic games playable on modern hardware. These are great and necessary efforts, but they are not enough in themselves. For one thing, plenty still slips through the cracks; Mobile games, for example, are very popular, but they are rarely subject to conservation efforts except for fan projects. Most importantly, these efforts depend on the good will of the field administrators. Once they close up shop, or stop making efforts to keep games playable on multiple generations of hardware, the games are no longer legally playable. (This isn’t just a gameplay problem, by the way; the switch to broadcast has the same effect on film.)
Virtual media is not a perfect solution to these problems. Discs and cartridges will degrade over time, and often require special hardware to use. But at least they give gamers and preservationists a greater degree of control over how they can collect, share, and preserve these experiences, without having to deal with the whims of console makers like Sony. It’s become a nightmare trying to keep old games alive – by 2028, the problem will be even worse.
