Do you remember when buying a video game involved leaving the house? You walked into a shop, stared at several shelves and picked up the cases to examine the artwork. Sometimes you even scrutinised the four screenshots on the back as though that revealed whether the game deserved your money or not. Then you dashed home to start playing.
How terribly old-fashioned.
If you miss those days, you are not alone, because Bloober Team says it wants to keep that experience alive. Piotr Babieno, CEO of the studio behind the Silent Hill 2 remake, said the company would continue producing physical editions of its games for as long as possible. The promise arrives at a time when PlayStation has announced that it will stop producing discs for new games from January 2028.. Existing physical releases will not suddenly disappear, but new PlayStation games will move towards digital distribution. PlayStation
Looks like the plastic box is becoming an endangered species.
You might think Babieno is crazy, right? But he understands why publishers prefer digital games. They cost less to distribute and do not need to be manufactured, packaged or transported. The game simply appears online, and players can download it from their couches.
I’ll admit that the convenience is difficult to argue with. There is nothing more convenient than buying a game at midnight without changing out of your pyjamas, or whatever it is that you’re wearing. More importantly, there is no disc to lose or lend to somebody else. The console handles everything while you continue making important decisions from the sofa. But convenience is only part of the story.
Babieno believes physical games create an emotional connection between players, developers and the games themselves. Tymon Smektala of Broken Mirror Games agrees. He said collecting formed an important part of being a gamer for people who grew up with boxed games. GamesRadar
And therein lies the difference.
A digital library may contain hundreds of games. But it can hardly be placed on a shelf or lent to a friend without giving them access to your account. You also cannot sell the games when you are finished with them or discover an old copy inside a cupboard several years later.
On the other hand, physical copies are not perfect either. Many modern discs contain only part of a game and require enormous updates before anything works properly. Then again, some boxes do not even include a disc. They contain a download code, which feels like ordering a meal and receiving directions to another restaurant.
But a proper physical release still gives players something digital ownership cannot fully replace. And that is control.
A company can do many things. It can remove a digital game from sale, close a shop, end support or allow a licence to expire. Players who already purchased the title may retain access, but that depends on the platform, the publisher and whether the necessary servers remain available. And while a disc does not solve every preservation problem, it does offer another way to keep a game alive when the company responsible for it has moved on.
Bloober Team’s position also suits the games it creates. Horror fans tend to enjoy collecting things. Steelbooks, art books, soundtrack records and limited editions somehow make being frightened feel more organised. The company’s publishing division, Broken Mirror Games, is developing Onyx: The Dark Grip for the Switch 2. The team describes the handheld format as a way of placing horror directly into the player’s hands. That sounds slightly dramatic, but this is horror, after all. I guess the drama comes with the territory.
The business side will eventually decide how long Bloober Team will maintain its promise. Because physical editions cost money, and smaller print runs can become expensive. Enough demand will have to be generated for shops to stock them, while enough players must buy them to justify the effort.
But it still matters that a studio is willing to try.
The gaming industry often talks about progress as though every new convenience must replace what came before it. Downloads replaced discs. Subscriptions replaced purchases. Cloud gaming may eventually try to replace the console sitting beneath the television. Not every old idea needs saving.
But owning the game you paid for feels like a strange thing to surrender without a fight. Bloober Team cannot preserve physical gaming by itself. However, it can keep placing games inside boxes for as long as players continue wanting them.
And judging by the reaction to PlayStation’s decision, quite a few people still do.
