A War Against Shadows
SONY PLAYSTATION’S DISC-LESS INITIATIVE
Ever since Sony PlayStation announced their intention to end production of physical discs for their first party video game titles, the embers sparked by their controversial stance have ignited raging fires that are burning through various gaming communities. Desolating these magical lands and poisoning all discourse. Chants of “no disc no buy” ring out into the heavens but have evidently fallen onto deaf ears. As a passionate cadre of gamers whip themselves up into a frenzy, Sony PlayStation remains resolute in its stance. There is no impasse, no negotiations and no retreat. If this is war, Sony has scored a decisive victory without firing a single shot. However, this begs the question, who are gamers really fighting against? Waging wars on shadows can only lead to subjective victories. Running pitch battles naught more than busy work. Meaningless distractions that stoke the passions of a highly excitable few but disrupt the usual peace of normal gaming discourse. Even stalwarts in the segment have imbibed this cocktail of bitterness. Routinely dipping their beaks on the internet’s various watering holes. Their content turned radio broadcasts filling the airwaves with updates of progress or lack thereof in this imaginary war. Perhaps this anger belies deeper societal issues.
Waging wars on shadows can only lead to subjective victories. Running pitch battles naught more than busy work.
It feels like it was only yesterday when anti-A.I. clerics were marching back and forth in their inquisition denouncing anything and anyone even tangentially related to “A.I.” Carrying out routine patrols on the internet hallways seeking out any who held positive views of the nascent technology no matter how benign. Part of the anger was and is justified as there is consumer frustration with rising costs directly and indirectly linked to the advent of resource hungry data centres. I am willing to wager that if we were to map out Venn diagrams on these happy angry few we would find a significant overlap between the inquisitors and those loudest in voicing their disappointment towards PlayStation. Perhaps fed by a compulsion to lash out, their veracity cannot be sated. Unrealistic proclamations will lead to surrealist outcomes. The numbers have spoken and seldom do they lie. Sony will do what’s in the best interests of its shareholders and stakeholders, incidentally, this does include many a gamer. To keep the lineage alive, there has to be some death. The video game industry is going through a rather tumultuous period. Cheques written out during the pandemic boom have to be cashed in one way or the other. More than ever line items on Sony’s ledger have to balance out.
Our fates are inextricably linked to each other. One cannot survive without the other…If one yings the other will inevitably yang.
This being said, there is legitimate fear amongst consumers that their ownership rights will not be protected. Sony has already proven adept at rescinding ownership rights to digital content rightfully purchased and owned by its customers. However, even with physical discs, unless one games on PC, there is very little control over Microsoft and Sony’s proprietary hardware. A physical disc may simply be the gate pass that gives access to a playground co-owned and managed by these mega-corporations. Server issues on either company’s side can and will cripple any attempts at access content already owned even if on hard copies. The recent server outage on Xbox a recent highlight of this. Our fates are inextricably linked to each other. One cannot survive without the other. If these corporations fail, our hobbies die with them. If we leave, they fail and our hobbies fall with their demise. As consumers we have only but one hope: To saddle our expectations to savvy lawmakers who will then draft legislation that is both fair to these enterprises but honours our ownership rights. If the stop killing games initiative is anything to go by, the future does indeed look bleak. However, perhaps hope can be found elsewhere. We live in a capitalist society and market forces will always prevail. For the moment, both corporations and consumers have equal footing. If one yings the other will inevitably yang.
Video companion piece here.
Image credits in order of appearance: Image par OpenClipart-Vectors de Pixabay ; Image par Clker-Free-Vector-Images de Pixabay