Do Physical Games Still Matter?

**Holden** (0:00)
Nerd of Mouth.
Physical media in video games are in crisis. On July 1st of 2026, Sony released this statement on their PlayStation blog. As consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital physical game disc production, for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January 2028 And then like a graphic, there's like a graphic that comes in with like you know what I mean something I think pew pew like you know or some 2028 with like bricks made out of bricks. What right Jake?

**Mike** (0:56)
And then old men and bomb shelters be like, you're going to take my copy of Metal Gear Solid from my cold dead house.

**Holden** (1:04)
We need footage of World War II soldiers kind of coming flashing in and out of this part.
It is terrifying what's happening. This is again, this is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to customer trends as the general preference for video digital media significantly outpaces physical disks. This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community, most of our community prefers to access and play games today.

**Jake** (1:33)
Yeah, it feels shitty doesn't it?

**Holden** (1:35)
Well, let's see. I mean, this look, I don't want this.

**Mike** (1:38)
I've been afraid of change.

**Holden** (1:44)
This is also gonna be a celebration of physical media and video games this episode. We're not just gonna be dour and down. And I just want to throw it out there. Who of us has bought a physical game?

**Mike** (1:56)
Yeah, exactly.

**Holden** (1:58)
Okay, Mike.

**Mike** (1:59)
And then I lost it.

**Jake** (2:01)
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

**Mike** (2:04)
I got the whatever that that last Zelda was, cause I've never played it.

**Holden** (2:09)
Tears of the Kingdom.

**Mike** (2:10)
No, no, the where you play as Zelda.

**Holden** (2:13)
Oh God, what's the name of that game? I'll tell you what, I fell off of it.

**Jake** (2:16)
That's the first Zelda game I actually stopped playing.

**Mike** (2:19)
Thank God it wasn't brought up in our women's video games.

**Holden** (2:22)
Because I didn't think it was the best show.

**Mike** (2:24)
And I never got to play it, but I had it and it was in the Switch, and then I lost the Switch.

**Holden** (2:30)
And then if it was just in your Switch digitally, it never could have been lost. And isn't that interesting?

**Mike** (2:37)
Well, unless Nintendo decides that they don't want us to have it anymore, then it could be lost. Exactly. Which is the bigger fear of this episode.

**Holden** (2:44)
The bigger issue in this episode, which we will be unpacking.
I think we like to start with a little bit of the personal experience and things like that. The positive. Well, yeah, I guess this would be positive. I just have a personal story of, I remember Nio, the video game came out on PlayStation 4 Okay, yes. And it was a surprise hit. I don't think they thought it was going to be a successful.

**Mike** (3:07)
Yes, you play R&B singer-songwriter Nio.

**Holden** (3:09)
I mean, I ain't turning that game down. Yeah, let's do that.

**Mike** (3:14)
Your character is so sick of love songs.

**Holden** (3:18)
So yeah, I went to a Walmart and a Gamestop. I was in New York City, so I could very quickly, very easily jump from store to store to store Nobody had it. I was streaming at that time. Literally went home complaining about this issue, like the boomer that I am. And everybody in my chat was like, why don't you just download it, dude? The disc only gives you, you still have to download it when you get the disc, which was a eureka moment. I hadn't even, it hadn't clicked with me because I'm such an idiot that, oh right, every time I bought a game recently, I have to wait for the game to download before I can actually play the game. This is just literally like a key card that gets me the game.
And on top of that, I have to have the physical disc to play the game, whereas I lose that step if I just download. And then I downloaded the game and I sadly like, I would say I never looked back, but I definitely bought more physical games after that point. I have a Tears of the Kingdom physical cartridge. I think the Switch also, first of all, if you lick it, it tastes bad, which is awesome. But also, I think there's something about a cart that I enjoy a little bit more physically than a disc, you know, than a CD.