Sony is ramping up its drive to go all-digital. This change has far reaching implications about how we'll play games moving forward. Ken Kutaragi (aka father of Playstation) recently spoke about some of the economics behind the shift.
Ken Kutaragi explains why Sony is moving away from physical media
There's a lot to unpack with his words. He's making a major strategic pivot towards all-digital. The disc-based model is being phased out and replaced.
Why does this matter? It marks the end of a certain era for physical game ownership. It's a clear step towards a fully digital landscape.
He admitted that dropping physical copies has led to a lot of player frustration. Kutaragi says the resistance isn't technological, it's psychological. Still, he holds firm that we're on the right path for financial reasons. There's a strong push to streamline content delivery and minimize hardware dependence from a corporate standpoint.
He explains that it's not economically sustainable for them to keep supporting physical discs. Kutaragi says they can't support physical discs indefinitely for modern hardware. This points to the possibility that future Playstation hardware might not even have disc drives. They're setting up for a world where software only comes digitally.
Ken Kutaragi also touched on the potential for game consoles to fade away as a separate hardware category. He predicts that Sony is heading towards a full digital world. One where gaming blends with other media.
In the long run, this means the console could become something entirely different. So expect a heavy emphasis on streaming and cloud access going forward.
We've been following PlayStation pretty closely. We've previously reported on stories that Sony's looking to stop disc support by 2026. In those reports, it was mentioned that digital game prices won't fluctuate in this process.
Kutaragi's latest remarks lend even more weight to that 2026 timeframe. It shows how committed they are to this change. Now the focus is squarely on how this all-digital change affects user habits and hardware design.
Source: IXBT
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