The gaming industry is abandoning CDs. Why is this important

Sony has announced that it will stop releasing computer games on CD-ROMs. Developer Rockstar Games also refused to distribute the expected GTA VI game on physical media. These decisions have caused discontent among gamers, who complain that they have been deprived of their usual format. How the disappearance of the discs will change the gaming industry is in the Izvestia article.

Disc Rejection

• Although the gaming industry is at the forefront of digitalization and has long been distributing its products digitally through online services like Steam, selling games on physical media has remained an integral part of it. However, in the near future, CD-ROM games may disappear, just as game console cartridges disappeared.

• The developer Rockstar Games was the first to announce the complete abandonment of the discs. His long-awaited GTA VI game, which will be released on November 19th, will be released digitally only. In June, the company opened pre-sales, after which gamers were surprised to discover that in the physical version it would consist only of a box with a digital download code. It is noteworthy that in February, the CEO of Take-Two, the parent company of Rockstar, Strauss Zelnik, assured that the developer had no plans to abandon the discs for GTA VI.

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• Sony was the next company to announce its refusal to release games on discs. It will stop distributing PlayStation games on media starting in 2028, both from its own and third-party developers. The games will still be sold in stores, but as with GTA VI, the boxes will contain only a digital access code for the PlayStation Store. Sony justified this decision by saying that "consumer preferences and the entertainment industry as a whole continue to shift from physical to digital discs."

A symbol of the industry

• CDs have always played a huge role in the gaming industry. It is to them that it owes its sharp rise in the mid-1990s. Initially, games for consoles were distributed through cartridges, which were not unified and, because of this, were difficult to produce and quite expensive. The invention of disk drives and CD-ROMs has made the distribution of video games much cheaper.

• It is noteworthy that it was the introduction of discs that allowed Sony to become a giant of the gaming industry. During the company's collaboration with Nintendo, they developed a console that could run on disks. However, Nintendo ended the partnership and began developing the Nintendo 64, which continued to run on cartridges, while Sony used the existing developments to create the PlayStation. Its release allowed the company to revolutionize the entertainment world.

• The introduction of discs allowed us to attract more developers to the industry, as it was easier and cheaper to distribute games in the new format. CD-ROMs and DVDs also became indispensable for personal computer games, as they had the necessary amount of memory and were suitable for any device with an appropriate disk drive.

• Over time, the distribution of games via disks has revealed some problems. This made it easier for illegal copies to appear, disk damage led to the loss of the game, and the media themselves turned out to be dangerous to the environment due to complex disposal. The advent of digital services and mobile games has led to a rapid decline in sales of games on discs, which in turn has made their release on physical media more expensive and raised prices for games. Nevertheless, CDs continued to hold their niche in the market, as is the case in film and music, where individual fans still tend to buy Blu-ray films or vinyl records of their favorite artists.

Gamers' discontent

• The announcements by Rockstar Games and Sony caused discontent among gamers for several reasons at once. The complete disappearance of the discs will change the very pattern of behavior in the game world, which will lose the ability to interact with games on a physical level. Users will no longer be able to sell, exchange, or borrow their favorite games, or collect collections from purchased discs. Gaming stores will also become a thing of the past, just as movie rental outlets once disappeared - the demand for digital code boxes will drop so much that it will become unprofitable to maintain retail space.

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• One of the aspects that gamers are particularly concerned about when switching games completely to online format is their safety. When a product exists only in digital form, it is easier for its publisher to dispose of it at his discretion, even to destruction. Previously, the game could always be reinstalled from disk, now the developer will have the right to block access to it and oblige users to buy another product that will be more profitable for them. Sony regularly removes movies and TV series from its libraries and denies users access to them. With the discs gone, the same situation can be repeated with games.

• Developers will benefit from the complete abandonment of disks. They will reduce production costs by eliminating recording on media, and will be able to bring products to market faster. However, piracy, which was associated with the sale of discs, will not disappear, but will be transformed into a digital version. Gamers will still have the opportunity to share accounts linked to games and share them without paying for each individual digital copy.

Why is this important

The market leaders' refusal to distribute games to the physical market is leading to a transformation of the industry. Gaming stores will become a thing of the past, the secondary market will disappear, and gaming culture will lose some of its attributes, such as collecting or sharing games. However, the innovations will benefit developers: they will reduce the cost of production and release of games and at the same time increase revenue per user. This will be possible due to the absence of resales and a reduction in price competition, because sales of digital codes will be more centralized and prices will be controlled. Only the factor of competition between equal market players will restrain prices. And although the cost of the game probably won't change much, users will lose opportunities to save money, which will cause losses for them and benefits for developers.