During San Diego Comic-Con 2025, IGN hosted a live video interview with Dan Houser (former Creative Director of most of Rockstar's games up to Red Dead Redemption 2) and asked him about the recent news that PlayStation won't make any more physical discs from January 2028.
Houser prefaced by saying he personally doesn't care (likely implying he has already fully switched to digital), but added that if people still want the discs, companies should continue making them.
I don't know that I care, but if people want that, I think companies should provide it. But I don't know that I personally care. And I also think the ability to update games is critical, as people love, you know, digital releases. The ability to update and fix problems in games has been really useful for the quality of games.
The problem with that, of course, is that it'd probably be quite expensive for platform holders to continue making discs at a much lesser scale. In fact, Sony has already been converting at least one of its big factories in Austria, so even with the social media backlash still going on, any change of heart appears unlikely.
Lazlow Jones, a writer and radio personality who partnered with Houser in Absurd Ventures, shared his own take, too:
I mean, we all have that sort of feeling of you know, when you get that copy and you put the disc in the console. But I also have to say I really like being at the airport and going oh cool, I can download some quick games to my Steam Deck for this 12-hour flight. So that's what's been interesting. We've worked in digital together for a lot of years and then making a physical product of comic book is a different creative process, but also just really fulfilling to have a physical thing you can say, like, look, we made a thing.
So far, Absurd Ventures has released the American Caper comic book series and a novel plus audiobook in the A Better Paradise universe. In the IGN interview, it was also confirmed that they have two open world games in development, though they didn't share any info on their status.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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