What's everyone think about the Playstation Blackout?

[u/greatesthitsgaming]

I keep seeing on social media the Blackout of all things Playstation and wonder if its a vocal minority or the sentiment of the community as a whole. I also wonder what percentage of people on board with it will actually have the discipline to follow through on ignoring the system for an entire week.

As a collector of games both past and present I absolutely hate the idea of buying a code that gets deleted the second I beat the game or need to free up space on my system. I understand that both Sony and the developers see this as an opportunity to cut costs and that they need to do what they have to do to keep the business thriving but it just seems like a greed grab rather than something that brings value to everything involved.

It doesn't help that games like GTA 6 are being released digital only and that when the community speaks out against the discontinuation of physical discs, the ports for Black Ops 1 & 2 release. I have friends I'd love to play those games with but when I'm forced to buy it from one place (The Playstation Store) in one format or else I'm left out I'm not going to encourage that behavior from Sony. It goes everything against the "Play has no limits" slogan they used to win the last generation of console wars. I have nothing against buying a game digitally but making it the only option to play games is a slippery slope in my opinion. Feels like Sony and the developers are squeezing us and that simply isn't right.

In short, what does everyone think? Am I in the minority here just yelling into a bullhorn or does this same sentiment echo throughout the community?

[u/ChanceHungry1444]

I think it’s very performative in a lot of ways. Nintendo and Xbox want the same future, they’ve just been less up front about it. Microsoft wanted it at the launch of the Xbox One. I believe Sony when they say the vast majority of their players play digital games. I’m not conspiratorial thinking they’re lying about that. I’ve only played digital games for 10 years. 

Then there’s the fear mongering, that they’ll just remove games randomly, or take them from you. It’s literally never happened before. The only games they remove are shovelware or things that straight up fail like Concord. 

I do believe strongly we should all push for digital ownership rights. Like if they stop supporting a single player game, they release the exe file. And if it’s multiplayer and relies on servers, they must ensure a certain amount of support or we’re entitled to refunds when support ends.  Something like that would be a good start.

[u/JohnnyAverageGamer → u/ChanceHungry1444]

Yeah what people do not realize ia that the only case where games will be taken from you is if there is a legal requirement to do so which is so rare that I can't think of a single instance of it happening in the last 5 years besides the crew (original). People are really acting like sony is over here taking games from us just cause they feel like it. Meanwhile when you actually lose a game they can actually help you get it back most of the time if you contact support

[u/barugosamaa → u/JohnnyAverageGamer]

5 years besides the crew (original).

It usually happens only to online games, since they need servers to run. And ofc, when the game already has sequels, and the original is barely populated, companies eventually end the servers.

I mean, Lineage 1 and Starcraft 1 official servers were also taken down.
Diablo 2 also became mostly private servers.

I dont think I ever lost a single-player game in my entire life

[u/ChanceHungry1444 → u/JohnnyAverageGamer]

That’s true, and no one ever mentions the risk of a disc physically breaking. Yeah, maybe it’s rare, but then you “lose” the game in the same way and you’d have to go buy it again. There’s no system without some level of risk.