The whole house is pissed off.
Scott Duwe | Senior Staff Writer
Published: Jul 2, 2026 10:08 am
Updated: Jul 2, 2026 10:09 am 
It feels surreal that two beloved gaming brands have somehow damaged themselves to a point of “this is going to be tough to come back from,” but both Sony’s PlayStation and Microsoft’s Xbox have done it.
The news is basically all bad lately, but it’s felt especially bad thanks to the putrid vibes around the two iconic console-makers that can’t help but seem to pile on one piece of horrible information after another.
It’s the summer of 2026 and it feels like everything gaming-related sucks. If you’re on this website, you feel it. I definitely feel it because it’s my job and it revolves around everything I do. Even any excitement around Grand Theft Auto 6’s hype has been dulled by the fact that it will be a digital-only game…and therein lies the rub of the latest, biggest controversy yet.
On top of rising prices across the board (even Steam’s console hybrid clocks in at over $1,000), Sony made the bold decision to reveal that, in less than two years, disc-based games just won’t be a thing anymore. Don’t like it? Too bad. Live in a region where PlayStation Network doesn’t exist? I guess you’re shit out of luck.
Sony’s announcement of abandoning physical disc-based games starting in January 2028 has been met with one of the nastiest, jarring ratios I’ve ever seen on social media (the PlayStation Blog comment section is just as bad, if not worse):
And in 2026, where seemingly every topic on every subject in every community on the internet is controversial and worth picking sides over, both PlayStation and Xbox have somehow forced everyone to band together on the same side of the argument: this just plain sucks.
Sure, there are a handful of people who like to point out that they haven’t bought physical discs in years and this isn’t a big deal, but they get dogpiled and ratioed pretty quickly by those who can see the bigger picture. I’m a fully digital gamer myself, but there’s no way around the fact that abandoning physical media and leaving all of the control in the corporations’ hands is bad, bad, bad.
The ability to play a physical game is as important as it ever was. Digital may be the top choice for most gamers (the revenue numbers are probably a big reason behind this change), but taking away the option entirely is just brutally anti-consumer. I feel like most of it has to do with the fact that companies will be able to control the pricing at all times. Physical disc-based games often sell at a much lower price after a while to clear out stock from different retailers, but if there’s only one option, then the power is entirely in the hands of the publisher. That’s terrible.
You also can’t share games with a friend or family member. That, too, is bad. It’s all bad, really. I love the ease of access for digital games so a lot of these scenarios do not apply to me (and seemingly quite a few others), but taking away the option of physical media is a slap in the face to consumers everywhere.
And then there’s Xbox. It seems as though the rival companies love to one-up each other when it comes to bad decisions and worse vibes lately, in a never-ending cycle of shitty feelings. This PlayStation news, for example, followed up the rumors circulating around Microsoft potentially unleashing the worst wave of layoffs ever seen in the industry.
According to Windows Central, Xbox’s next console codenamed Project Helix will also be discless, too, so this is our new normal we should just accept. Because what other choice is there? The reaction to Sony’s announcement has been met with furor and disgust, and I’m sure that there are some boardroom conversations happening this week, but it also feels like it’s just kind of too late. This switch felt inevitable.
It’s no secret that we are in a digital society and have been for quite some time. All media is digital now: movies, TV shows, books, the news, and everything between—but somehow, the option for physical versions is still there. Newspapers still exist. Books and comics and blu-ray movies still exist. The powers that be in the gaming industry are now saying you don’t have a choice anymore, and everyone is rightfully pissed off about it.
I’m not sure if there’s all that much that can be done about it besides flooding both companies with negative reactions to their BS, canceling subscriptions to services like PSN and Xbox Live, and simply not buying games anymore. The only thing that matters to executives and suits is the bottom line…and even then, if their wallets are hit, then more layoffs are to follow. So, yeah. Here we are. It’s hell. (Nintendo, if you’re reading this, you can get an easy “win” by simply maintaining the status quo with physical cartridges for now).
I’m struggling to really see much of a happy ending to all of this (it’s really, really difficult to feel positive about the state of a lot of things lately), but we can continue to stick together and tell these companies we’re against their decisions and hope it somehow resonates.
In the end, though, the hobby I used to love feels like a husk of what it used to be, and I don’t know how (or if) it can be rehabilitated.
