While there are other issues to consider here — like the impact on people who lack a fast, stable internet connection and companies that specialise in physical games — nixing discs entirely is terrible for game preservation. The closure of the PS3 and Vita stores is testament to that. The last time the company tried to shut those digital storefronts, VGC looked at the data and determined that around 2,200 digital-only games would no longer be available to purchase. Of those, 138 were not available on other platforms, meaning they’d essentially disappear.
Those exact figures may have shifted over the last five years, but they illustrate the game preservation problem. It’s not unfathomable that digital-only games from more recent generations will meet a similar fate. Having a game on a disc means you can still play it. For instance, Microsoft has delisted Forza Horizon 4, but you can buy a second-hand copy and play it on Xbox One or Xbox Series X.
Archiving digital-only games, even for research purposes, is a complex issue. While Video Game History Foundation director Frank Cifaldi described the death of PlayStation game discs as “unfortunate news,” he said in a statement that there were broader concerns when it comes to archiving new games:
Museums and archives have been preparing for this future for a while, with the expectation that putting discs on a shelf isn’t going to be a long-term solution for preserving new games. What continues to baffle us is what the industry expects institutions like ours to do about it.
If platform owners are deciding to eliminate physical media and older digital storefronts, then we’d also like to see trade groups like the Entertainment Software Association offer meaningful solutions for archives and museums to legally preserve digital-only content and make it accessible for research. Everyone agrees this is a serious problem, but the ESA has repeatedly opposed the efforts of cultural heritage institutions to reform digital copy protection laws to make it easier to do this work. The industry needs to meaningfully come to the table on this issue, because asking museums to download a copy of Grand Theft Auto VI and hope it’ll run in 50 years is not a preservation solution.
Meanwhile, Sony also said that after it ends digital sales of PS3 and Vita games — a phase out that will take place over the next year — “players will still be able to download previously purchased content after the closing date for the foreseeable future.” The last part of that sentence is ominous. It implies that, at some point, the company will turn off the PS3 and Vita servers entirely, preventing consumers from being able to download the games they’ve purchased
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