Sony is killing discs — and showing us why it’s a terrible idea
Sony is killing discs — and showing us why it’s a terrible idea
索尼正在终结光盘——并向我们展示了为何这是一个糟糕的主意
The future of video game preservation just took a major hit. This morning, Sony announced that, starting in January 2028, the company will no longer produce physical PlayStation discs, which means that from that moment on you can only purchase new PS5 games digitally. At the same time, Sony also announced that it’s going to start winding down the digital stores for both the PS3 and PS Vita, helpfully illustrating one of the most pertinent issues with a digital-only future for gaming: Once the stores are gone, so are the games. It’s a terrible blow for preservation of the medium.
电子游戏保存的未来刚刚遭受了重大打击。今天上午，索尼宣布从 2028 年 1 月起，公司将不再生产实体 PlayStation 光盘，这意味着从那一刻起，你只能以数字方式购买新的 PS5 游戏。与此同时，索尼还宣布将开始关闭 PS3 和 PS Vita 的数字商店，这恰好说明了纯数字游戏未来最紧迫的问题之一：一旦商店关闭，游戏也将随之消失。这对该媒介的保存工作是一个沉重的打击。
In a lot of ways, both announcements seemed inevitable. It’s clear that consumers have largely — though not entirely — shifted to buying games digitally. According to Sony’s most recent financial results from May, around 80 percent of PS5 games sold are digital. Meanwhile, just last week, Grand Theft Auto VI developer Rockstar Games announced that when the next GTA shows up in retail stores in November, it will actually just be a code in a box, with no disc.
在很多方面，这两个公告似乎都是不可避免的。显而易见，消费者在很大程度上（尽管并非全部）已经转向购买数字版游戏。根据索尼 5 月份的最新财务业绩，售出的 PS5 游戏约有 80% 是数字版。与此同时，就在上周，《侠盗猎车手 VI》（GTA VI）的开发商 Rockstar Games 宣布，当下一部 GTA 于 11 月在零售店上架时，盒子里实际上只会是一个兑换码，而没有光盘。
Digital games are in some ways more convenient for players. You can prep downloads in advance, keep a big library of games on a single console, and take advantage of frequent sales. There are also some notable immediate drawbacks, like the inability to sell used games or simply share a copy with a friend. From the publisher’s perspective, digital games are more lucrative for Sony and its contemporaries, who no longer have to deal with the costs of producing discs.
从某些方面来看，数字游戏对玩家来说更方便。你可以提前下载游戏，在单一主机上保存庞大的游戏库，并利用频繁的促销活动。但也有一些明显的直接弊端，比如无法转售二手游戏，或者无法简单地与朋友分享副本。从发行商的角度来看，数字游戏对索尼及其同行来说利润更高，因为他们不再需要承担生产光盘的成本。
But a more hidden cost to the digital shift comes in the form of preserving video games. Given the complex nature of consoles and constantly changing formats, preservation is already a massive challenge. Back in 2023, the Video Game History Foundation claimed that 87 percent of classic games — defined as anything released before 2010 — were “critically endangered.” The reason for the 2010 cutoff? That’s when digital storefronts became prominent, portending an even bigger issue in the future. “Our experiences gathering data for this study suggest that these problems will intensify over time due to a low diversity of reissue sources and the long-term volatility of digital game storefronts,” the report read.
但数字转型带来的一个更隐蔽的代价是电子游戏的保存问题。鉴于游戏主机的复杂性和不断变化的格式，保存工作已经是一项巨大的挑战。早在 2023 年，电子游戏历史基金会（Video Game History Foundation）就声称，87% 的经典游戏（定义为 2010 年之前发行的所有游戏）都处于“极度濒危”状态。以 2010 年为界的原因是什么？那是数字商店开始兴起的时候，预示着未来会出现更大的问题。报告写道：“我们在为这项研究收集数据的经验表明，由于再版来源的多样性较低以及数字游戏商店的长期不稳定性，这些问题会随着时间的推移而加剧。”
The closure of digital stores isn’t new, of course; just two years ago, Nintendo shut down the storefronts for both the Wii U and the Nintendo 3DS. And while you can still (for now) download games you’ve already purchased, these closures mean that titles that are exclusive to that particular store are essentially inaccessible to everybody else. If you buy a 3DS right now, you have no way to play the classic puzzler BoxBoy.
当然，关闭数字商店并非新鲜事；就在两年前，任天堂关闭了 Wii U 和 Nintendo 3DS 的商店。虽然你仍然可以（暂时）下载已经购买的游戏，但这些关闭意味着该商店独有的游戏对其他人来说基本上无法获取。如果你现在买一台 3DS，你将无法玩到经典的益智游戏《BoxBoy》。
In the past, this has perhaps seemed like a minor issue, as the number of digital-exclusive games for platforms like the Wii U and PS Vita was relatively small. But with the entire medium moving toward digital, including industry-shaking giants like GTA VI, this problem becomes much more clear. Starting in 2028, every PlayStation game comes with an expiry date; as soon as the PS5’s digital store shuts down, a huge swath of games will simply become inaccessible. That means not just small digital games, but also major blockbusters.
在过去，这似乎是一个小问题，因为 Wii U 和 PS Vita 等平台的数字独占游戏数量相对较少。但随着整个媒介向数字方向发展，包括像《GTA VI》这样震撼行业的巨作，这个问题变得更加清晰。从 2028 年开始，每一款 PlayStation 游戏都将带有“保质期”；一旦 PS5 的数字商店关闭，一大批游戏将直接无法访问。这意味着不仅是小型数字游戏，还包括主要的重磅大作。
There have been some steps made to alleviate these issues. Most modern game consoles now let you carry your digital library across devices — Xbox has made some notable efforts on this front — and on PC the storefront GOG has an entire program dedicated to keeping old games playable on modern hardware. These are great and necessary efforts, but they aren’t enough on their own. For one thing, plenty still slips through the cracks; mobile games, for instance, are massively popular, but are rarely subject to preservation efforts outside of fan projects. Just as important is the fact that these efforts rely on the goodwill of platform holders. Once they shut down a store, or stop putting efforts into keeping games playable across multiple generations of hardware, the games are once again impossible to legally play. (This isn’t just a gaming problem, by the way; the shift to streaming is having a similar impact on film.)
目前已经采取了一些措施来缓解这些问题。大多数现代游戏主机现在允许你在不同设备间迁移数字库——Xbox 在这方面做出了一些显著努力——而在 PC 端，GOG 商店有一个专门的项目，致力于让老游戏在现代硬件上保持可玩性。这些都是伟大且必要的努力，但仅靠它们是不够的。首先，很多游戏仍然会被遗漏；例如，手机游戏非常受欢迎，但除了粉丝项目外，很少有保存工作。同样重要的是，这些努力依赖于平台持有者的善意。一旦他们关闭商店，或者停止努力让游戏在多代硬件上保持可玩性，这些游戏就再次变得无法合法游玩。（顺便说一句，这不仅仅是游戏界的问题；向流媒体的转变对电影也产生了类似的影响。）
Physical media isn’t a perfect solution to these problems. Discs and cartridges will degrade over time, and they usually require specialized hardware to even use. But they at least give players and preservationists a greater degree of control over how they’re able to collect, share, and preserve these experiences, without having to deal with the whims of console makers like Sony. It’s already a nightmare trying to keep old games alive — in 2028, the problem is only going to get worse.
实体媒介并不是解决这些问题的完美方案。光盘和卡带会随着时间的推移而退化，而且通常需要专门的硬件才能使用。但它们至少让玩家和保存者对如何收集、分享和保存这些体验拥有了更大的控制权，而不必受制于像索尼这样的主机制造商的突发奇想。试图让老游戏存活下去已经是一场噩梦——到了 2028 年，这个问题只会变得更糟。