Ken Kutaragi: 'I Understand that Physical Discs Have Become a Metaphor for Owning Games' - News
by William D'Angelo , posted 3 hours ago / 727 Views
Ken Kutaragi, known as the "father of PlayStation," speaking to VideoGamesChronicle at the Game Republic New Horizons event in Middlesbrough, UK discussed PlayStation ending physical discs in January 2028 and says he understands the frustration from fans.
He acknowledges that Sony's handling of this has "caused some friction with game enthusiasts," even if he believes it isn't "economically reasonable" for PlayStation to continue supporting physical discs.
"Although we had network capability back in the PS2 and PS3 days, it was not that common [as it is today]. Now, many, many people are connected,' said Kutaragi.
"I understand that physical discs have become a metaphor for ‘owning’ games. I really understand that mentality… But nobody thinks [physical media] is necessary for a networked device like a smartphone, for example, because people feel that they will keep their content. So it’s a mentality.
"I really understand [why some people are upset], but I don’t think it’s economically reasonable. Maybe it’s a mentality issue."
Kutaragi added, "I’m not the CEO at PlayStation anymore, but we still have some common [viewpoints]. Right now, Sony Interactive Entertainment has many people who have come from outside, like from Gaikai or streaming companies.
"So it’s understandable that by utilizing network connectivity [they may see] PlayStation as not just a game console, but also a content terminal. Maybe that’s how those people are thinking. But this has caused some friction with game enthusiasts."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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Calling the purchase of physical media a metaphor for ownership is crazy! He doesn't see the direct contradiction in his statement when comparing it to a smartphone. "Because people feel that they will keep their content" That's the difference. Many people don't want to feel that they own it. They want to know that they own it. Accounts get hacked all the time, Sony especially as of late. If I lose my saves, trophies, bummer. But I still fully have the game in my possession, and it can't be taken away from me if I lose my account or if it gets removed due to licensing.
It's not a metaphor, that's true.
His full of shit! Still siding with his old employer. Mentality issue? Yes, that's true and everybody and their mother want us to change that mentality in order for them to make more profit and take our ownership and rights and destroy gaming culture on the sideline. FUCK NO! We know it's a mentality issue BUT WE DON'T WANT TO CHANGE IT - GET IT! I will be so happy if PS6 will flop hard (although, being discless will not be the cause of it, the price will be it).
His analogy to smart phones is perfect. I downloaded more than my fair share of ios games back in the day. And guess what? Nearly three-quarters of them are still downloadable on my current phone! Viva La progress!
The computing world has accepted a digital future, better and faster internet speeds have allowed the progress for PCs to ditch drives on most modern computers and even servers, it happened as a progress of technology and was accept, just like with phones. We do more and more with phones as a portal to any number of things because it's easier or more convenient.
I still think Sony's issue wasn't doing it, it was announcing it.
PC's are open systems, and the same with at least Android. That's the difference, consoles are closed systems and essentially monopolies in their digital space. That's why it's a problem. Unless companies like Sony are forced to give full and comprehensive consumer rights on their platforms, it'll always be against us. I've steadily moved towards PC for gaming, but if consoles become digital only, I'll only play new games on PC. Digital only makes consoles pointless.
"Digital only makes consoles pointless."
Except the better entry cost, ease of use, plug and play? Did people say the same 15 years ago when Steam basically took over the PC gaming market and all publishers just let discs phase out?
Open system where no publisher even releases a game on disc anymore. Some people even don't use anything but Steam, which has as much DRM and restrictions as Sony and Nintendo but it's fine it's "open".
Apple after years were finally forced to allow 3rd party app installation on iPhones, same can happen with Sony and PS, same with Nintendo but then how many people do you think use it? How many people even know?
Physical game discs are more than just a metaphor for owning games, they're a WAY TO OWN GAMES.
The issue is that ever since most AAA games became too big to fit on one disc, and ever since a game going gold didn't fix alot of the bugs, an additional download of the rest of the game or an additional download of patches, especially the day one patch, meant that you didn't truly own the full game in it's intended state. At some point, Sony was already allowed to just remove the hosting of a game from their servers, and unless you had kept the full game on your limited storage capacity console hard drive, then popping in the disc would only give you a partial download and an error if the whole game wasn't on the disc, or a full game that is quite buggy from no patches.
Basically the governments of the world would need to force Sony to host games and their patches forever, or at least for a set longer time period, and so far they haven't done that. Even in spite of all that though, physical is still superior to digital for long term access since there are still some games that fit on one disc, which you would be able to play as long as the disc and console itself holdup.
While i support both, I can see where he is coming from in regards to the continued support for the medium. Last night I installed SW Galactic Racer from disc. It took nearly half an hour as the read speeds of the disc were ranging from 300mbps down to 120mbps. And that was before applying any sort of day one update. To put that into perspective, after i was finished with that one, I then inserted SW Outlaws into my X and chose to claim the digital license for that one (I did also claim it for Racer, but installed from disc anyway). I ejected the disc and then proceeded to install it from the internet. Its double the size of Racer and took the same amount of time but at double the install speed. Ranging from 480mbps to 600mbps.
My point being, the physical discs have a limit when it comes to their use. Today's games are so demanding that they cant play directly from the discs anymore (some games prob could, but still). They need that internal storage to play from and the physical optical drives just arent the same in terms of performance as modern internet. I did another test with Race on my Series S (seeing as i now have the digital license) and its install time was less than 15 minutes. Same game just installed from the internet instead of disc. So yeah... optical drive technology cant really get very much faster. The medium can get better though... 100gb are now and even upwards of 1tb discs are possible, but think of the install times compared to downloading, or even cloud streaming.
now that has nothing to do with ownership, i just wanted to throw that out there for anyone who is a big physical supporter (of which i also am). Its nice to have, but not something i want to rely on when it comes to playing games. Even in older systems like OG XB and PS2 I rip the discs to the hard drive to improve game performance than use the disc. I hold onto my physical media though, i just dont actually use it to play. I have since added ODE to various systems like Saturn, DC, GC, 3DO and no longer need to use the discs to play the games, but i still like to have my discs.
Maybe it IS a mental thing?
