Does it play?

Sony wants to abandon fans? Let's give them a small taste of their own medicine! Together with other creators we call for a 1 week #PSBlackout in August. No logins, no play sessions, no purchases on any of Sony's platforms.

@OminousNpc @PlayStation Feel free to go longer.

@DoesItPlay1 @PlayStation Soo Sony after the 30th ?

The Mortal Shell II open beta starts on PS5 today Prepare for the full release on August 20: play.st/4yNXqlk

Is this referring to the flawed report from Gamerant? Completely misread our research. Only 17 % of all PS5 games are in the download required department. The Xbox results are also not conclusive like that. It is much easier to add a faulty game to the database, which leads to the overall result looking far worse than it actually is.

A new report based on data from the game preservation project DoesItPlay found that physical games are becoming less self-contained. According to the study: >34% of tested PS5 physical games cannot be fully played from the disc alone and require an internet download. >50% of tested Xbox Series X physical games also require a download before they’re fully playable. doesitplay.org

@Just_Gr34t @PlayStation We won't stop you. ;-)

@DoesItPlay1 @PlayStation Why not start now?

Another piece of the Sony earnings call: Sony claims the killing discs announcement was made this "early" as a heads-up for retailers. They offer code-in-a-box to mitigate the loss. We've been told 1st hand CIAB doesn't sell, so hopefully retailers gave them a proper telling-off.

@ichigo3490 We fight for as long as we have to.

@DoesItPlay1 Fight for longer than planed

During today's earnings call Sony for the first time in a month reacted to the backlash against their attack on physical media. And it went about the way we expected. Let's analyze it. (Disclaimer: We are going off of the official English translation in the clip provided. It wasn't that long of a statement, but there might be minor inaccuracies in there.) First of all, they seem to emphasize that 18 months ahead of time is a respectable period to give notice. No comment on the fact that basically everyone was surprised by their announcement coming this soon, while PS5 is still going strong. Then they dive into the reasons. They claim there are "various", the biggest one being that "digitalization of contents overall has been progressing". This is a clear shift in language. Initially, they blamed it directly on consumer habits. We've shown how that reasoning doesn't fully hold up when looking at the numbers. Then they claim that digitalization does not only impact PlayStation, but "all kinds of content". And that is true. It has been on the rise for quite some years now. At the same time, this conveniently ignores any and all counter trends in recent years. It is a statement that makes it sound like their direction is inevitable on a global scale. But their direction is absolute. Their goal is to kill physical media entirely for games, while basically all other major entertainment sectors have at least a strong niche remaining, with various indicators that physical media is actually growing again. The recent Capcom report saw a 133 % rise compared to the same period of last year. The overall spending is up for physical games compared to the previous year (admittedly, aided by the Switch 2 release). Sony's own physical split last quarter is up, both compared to the quarter before and the same period last year. More and more signs point to a stable plateau of physical buyers at the very least. The call continues and they drop the big one. A few seconds of stuttering followed by, "We put in a lot of thought and time, and we cautiously considered this, and we came to this conclusion, and we are cautiously going to move this forward." They are not really giving any insights here. It is a "trust me, bro" in business speak. At the same time, if we take these words at face value, it means they are aware of the consequences, but do it anyway. Endangering retailers across the globe by removing one of the biggest entertainment brands from the portfolio? Fuck them. Removing a choice for consumers who were loyal to the PlayStation brand? Fuck them. Stripping developers of an additional revenue stream and the chance to immortalize their art? Fuck them. Forcing all remaining customers into an ecosystem without customer protection legislation? Fuck them too. What thoughts did they put in exactly? The only word that might give hope is "cautiously". But even that could be read in two ways. Either they are more cautious not to spark more backlash, but they want to continue regardless. Or they are actually waking up to the fact that this might cause more harm to them than they initially anticipated. They follow up with "to this decision we have received various opinions and people have strong views" and how games are loved and connected to memories. The speaker claims that they "understand those emotions". Really? Why are they calling it emotions when there is a long list of legitimate criticism entirely rooted in facts, though? Because they don't want to acknowledge the facts. Sony tries to paint the backlash as emotional without substance. As completely unfounded in anything tangible. After this bit, they immediately continue to starting damage control for the future and start talking about the "future digital ecosystem". Again, in a manner that makes it sound without an alternative. "How do we engage the gamers, is something we would like to continue to explore", they say. What is that supposed to mean, you ask? It's entirely talking about how they can continue to boil the frog. This part of the statement was not revolving around giving customers anything. Our best guess is that it is the attempt to indirectly address the monopoly criticism, and that there is no customer protection in an all-digital future, and that customers will be entirely at the mercy of the platform with zero control over purchased goods. With this statement the clip concludes. The overall tone remained. Cold, distant, no real explanations, no apologies for the past weeks either. But they did get a message. It had some impact. They ran damage control here. 100 % confidence would look different. But they won't correct course for now. It is up to us to continue. If anything, we need to step it up now. #PSBlackout is just one of those steps. Many more need to be taken. This needs a collective effort from all gamers, regardless of how you like to play your games. x.com/ethangach/stat…

@mrpyo1 That's what they want you to think.

Sony and PlayStation confirms they are moving forward with digital only future and won’t reverse the decision no matter what There is no amount of fan backlash, losing fans, or whatever that can make them change this decision. It’s truly over for physical games

Necrophosis: Full Consciousness PS5 Does it play offline? Yes Does it require a download? No Includes Necrophosis: Full Consciousness and The Shore Enhanced Edition as separate installers. A few minor visual and performance issues across both experiences, but nothing severe.

@NKBHD We'd be surprised if they ever admitted anything. At the same time, yeah, we haven't done enough yet.

@DoesItPlay1 Do you see the part where they said the backlash has had no impact so far, do you think it’s too soon for it to have affect or it’s something that will gradually grow overtime

@satchmosax Point us to the statement in which they apologize and walk the decision back or just shut up, m8. This constant corpo apologetic behavior of yours serves nobody.

@DoesItPlay1 Not the first time you do it. So hopefully you understand the difference between consumer focused messaging and shareholder focused. They are aimed differently.

@satchmosax Thanks for your tremendous help.

@DoesItPlay1 They are different messages, absolutely. And I have already discussed the part about consumer preference. I am just saying that what they said towards shareholders is not a change in reason, that was always the reason. Your analysis is built upon a prec message for consumers.

@satchmosax The fault is that these aren't the same.

@DoesItPlay1 1. Previous message was for consumers. 2. Second message was for shareholders. Two different ways to communicate. First fault is always to analyse the shareholder message through a consumer lens.

@bluebya933 @ethangach Can you link us to it directly, please. Can't seem to find it on there.

@DoesItPlay1 @ethangach sony investor portal

Sony responds to the backlash over ending PlayStation discs. "We put in a lot of thought and time, and we cautiously considered this, and we came to this conclusion, and we're going to cautiously move this forward..."

@bluebya933 @ethangach Is there an official upload of this to watch?

@DoesItPlay1 @ethangach earnings call today

@Genki_JPN Thank you for adding that context. Gonna check out the report in depth later.

PlayStation report 82% of their game sales are digital! Note: Includes all PS4/PS5 full game software units sold on PlayStation. Including games that are digital only.

@VinayakSoni07 Nope, it's not us. This one comes from @PNPGames.

credit for hosting this petition: @DoesItPlay1

If you're an active PlayStation User, this should concern you! PlayStation has decided to end support for Physical Games starting JAN 2028. We need PlayStation to Keep Supporting Physical Library for Exiting Users on Next Gen. Link: change.org/p/don-t-kill-t…

@FoxdenGamer @TRex_Teacher @DirectlyToU We didn't say that. We said they will lead to it, if we don't push back.

@DoesItPlay1 @TRex_Teacher @DirectlyToU Agree to disagree on that front, compromises don't always mean complete annihilation

Capcom Q1 results are in and everybody talks about how 93 % of all sold units are digital. So here we go again and take the closer look almost nobody else will. You will love this! Remember, Sony was arguing their attack on physical media is based on shifting consumer trends. Surely Capcom will support that, right? Or maybe not. First of all, the digital-physical split includes PC games. 100 % digital with not other choice for the customer. That's over 60 percentage points of the 93 %. To check consumer preference, we can disregard this portion entirely. Just comparing console games we are looking at 17 % physical. Yeah, still not great, but still far from "physical is dead". How did this number come about, though? First we need to factor in digital games that ... ... might not be available physically in certain regions (or only in limited stores that do imports). ... didn't even have physical releases in the first place, like Monster Hunter Rise on PlayStation, e.g. Those are in the digital tally without an option for the consumer. Not qualified to make a statement about preference. Another big factor is what types of games were sold in Q1 2026. Almost 90 % of all sold games are so-called "catalog units". Older games, which might not be available in retail anymore due to being sold out. Add to that that those often land in digital sales with heavy discounts, so if people shop for something online, they might be lured in to get the game that way. At least debatable whether that is actual preference. We'd argue against it. Then we need to look at which and how many new games came out. The Q1 2026 report banks primarily on Pragmata and Devil May Cry 5: Devil Hunter Edition according to Capcom. Not a lot. So while physical is obviously still the minority, it still doesn't support all the doomerism. And we have one more stat in the report to prove that, especially given that the other quarters for comparison had more games released: Year on year growth in physical units sold. The data shows that Capcom sold 1,3 million physical units in the same quarter in 2022 (only new game was Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak). 1,9 million in 2023. Then a big drop to 700k in 2024 and another to 680k in their 2025 fiscal year. What does their current fiscal year report show for this past quarter in 2026? 1,59 million units sold! The second highest year for Q1 in the past 5 years and a year on year growth of 133,8 % for this quarter. If you look at this data, it is obviously not meant to claim everybody plays physical. But our analysis should show you that everybody just going with the 93 % is not telling the full picture, once again. So please be aware of that.

@FoxdenGamer @TRex_Teacher @DirectlyToU We are just focusing on the end result. If people continue to accept compromises that only go one way we will inevitably end up at complete annihilation.

@DoesItPlay1 @TRex_Teacher @DirectlyToU Yeah, but ignoring the difference between a compromise and a complete annihilation of physical media doesn't help