Hideo Kojima Comments on Physical Production of Games Ceasing; Fears End of Game Ownership
It’s been days and the gaming world still hasn’t gotten over Sony is looking to stop new game production of physical discs by 2028.
It seems not only is the gaming community united against this move, but even developers are too.
Possibly one of the biggest voices in gaming has commented about it, and this is none other than legendary game creator Hideo Kojima.
Hideo Kojima Fears a Future Where Companies Control Access to Games
In a lecture held in Italy, Hideo Kojima was asked about about the end of physical game production, and his answer didn’t mince words.
Kojima said (via machine translation), “It has been announced that physical game software will no longer be produced starting in 2028. As someone who grew up with physical media, that makes me very sad. Because of that, I’m buying as many CDs, Blu-rays, and other physical media as I can while they’re still available.”
“The transition to digital will happen in stages. Right now, even if physical discs disappear, you’ll still be able to download game data onto your hard drive. At least in that case, the data is still on your own computer. But I think the next step will be a complete move to subscription services and streaming. At that point, I won’t actually own anything anymore.”
The game auteur (thanks, KAMI) also mentioned major streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon, and how these companies will control whether they can access the data or not. Not only that, but also how there is always that risk that these companies, whether for commercial or political reasons, could stop making content available.
“It will be similar to Netflix or Amazon. The data will be stored on a company’s servers, and I’ll only have the right to access it—as long as that company allows me to. The games or movies themselves won’t be in my possession. They’ll belong to a private company, and my access will depend entirely on whether that company decides to keep providing it. That means there will always be the risk that, for commercial reasons or even political reasons, a company could stop making that content available,” Kojima noted.
Kojima transitioned that idea into games, and said, “If that happens, I could lose access to my favorite movies, or I might never be able to play my favorite games again…That’s what scares me. This is the direction I believe the video game industry is heading, and I also think the same thing will eventually happen to the movie industry.”
I can’t say I disagree with Kojima’s statement, as that is a worrying future to think about.
Another major player in the gaming industry has spoken out against the cessation of physical media, and it’s none other than former PlayStation CEO Shawn Layden.
While all this backlash is happening, it doesn’t seem like Sony is changing its mind, as its disc manufacturing is transitioning to optical microlenses in preparation for this move.
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