For gamers who've been following industry news long enough, Sony's recent announcement of plans to end physical PlayStation discs echoed Microsoft's plans for always-online DRM back on the Xbox One. Now, Sony is spiritually following another dead-end path first embraced by Xbox One: live TV.

A PS5 update today adds a "Live TV on PS5" app to the media tab on US consoles. The results look like any other faux-cable streaming service, with a big list of channels to tune into. The service promises an array of movies, TV shows, anime, sports broadcasts, and more, and specific shows like Naruto, Sailor Moon, Community, The Walking Dead, and others are noted in the announcement.

It's along the same lines as the speciality TV stations provided on Roku boxes and similar devices, and honestly, it's a decent value-add for PS5 users. Did I buy a game console to watch Community reruns? No, but I don't mind the option to put on some background noise in the afternoon.

But there's a reason that the trailer for this feature is filled with comments like "it’s like Xbox One all over again," "they've gone full Xbox One," and "hey Don Mattrick is that really you?" When the Xbox One was unveiled in 2013, it was presented not as a game console, but as an all-in-one home entertainment box, which would work as a sort of souped-up DVR that would integrate with cable subscriptions.

This initiative, led by executive Don Mattrick, helped build the impression that Xbox One was abandoning the core gaming audience that the brand was meant to serve. Then came the controversy over the console's always-online DRM plans, which Sony was happy to dunk on alongside the rest of the gaming world.

While Xbox One eventually ditched the DRM and the TV stuff was ultimately a footnote on the console, bad PR dealt the platform a blow that Xbox as a whole has yet to recover from. Now, over a decade later, it's a much different world. Consumer buying habits have shifted mostly to digital. People use their video game consoles as streaming boxes all the time.

But bad PR is bad PR in any era, and Sony's decision to end discs has kicked off a controversy that's shown no signs of slowing down. Whether it actually affects the company's bottom line remains to be seen, but one thing's for sure – PlayStation is making all the wrong choices if it's hoping to win in the court of public opinion.

Sony lawyers argue that nobody is stupid enough to believe they actually own digital games, because then only one person could buy GTA 6.

With the end of physical PlayStation games looming, the need for clear digital ownership rights is more pressing than ever. For its part, Sony believes your rights are very clear: you do not own your digital games, and it's unlikely you're stupid enough to believe otherwise. At least, that's roughly the argument the company's lawyers are presenting in response to a proposed class-action lawsuit.

Sony argues that its current customer-facing disclosures ensure that "reasonable consumers would not be misled" into believing they actually own their digital games. That's according to a Game File report (paid article link) citing an August 21 filing Sony's lawyers made in California's Northern District.

The publisher is responding to a proposed class action lawsuit, which alleges that Sony is violating a California law that requires digital stores to clearly explain that customers are purchasing licenses rather than actual products when they buy digital goods. The law requires a "clear and conspicuous" warning about the nature of the purchase.

Sony's terms of service and software product licensing agreement (SPLA) both clearly lay out that you "do not own the product" and "it is not sold for you to own." But those are statements buried deep within lengthy documents, so the idea that they meet that "clear and conspicuous" requirement is fairly suspect.

But from here, Sony's argument gets quite a bit weirder. "As Plaintiffs admit, Section 1 of the SPLA likewise explains that 'The Software is licensed to you, not sold,'" the filing says. "This makes sense. In the digital age, it is not plausible to allege that reasonable consumers believed they were obtaining 'ownership' of a digital game."

In other words, Sony's lawyers are arguing that if you truly own your digital games, only one copy of GTA 6 could ever be sold. "Were that the case, then Plaintiff Edward Heycock would not have been able to obtain the game Resident Evil Requiem on February 25, 2026 for $69.99 from the PlayStation Store after Plaintiff Jason Mendoza had obtained Resident Evil Requiem on February 14, 2026, because Mr. Mendoza, not Sony, would have owned it then," the filing says.

Notably, these arguments were filed just before PlayStation sent out email reminders to its customers reminding them that they don't own anything. Clearly, Sony wants to make its position on this matter clear.

Sony's terms of service also specifically bars users from taking part in class action lawsuits against the company, with disputes instead resolved by private arbitration – a process which tends to be preferable for big companies. But it's ultimately for a judge to decide whether that arbitration clause is actually binding. These arguments are part of an effort from Sony to ensure the case goes to arbitration – whether the judge agrees remains to be seen.

Industry lobbyists ridicule "false premise" that "consumers 'own' digital games" amid Stop Killing Games fight.

Just as with Insomniac's previous Spider-Man games, Marvel's Wolverine promises plenty of callbacks to its titular character's long history in comics, movies, and TV. But I got quite a laugh out of one detail in the game's latest trailer – a direct reference to an infamous meme originating in the beloved '90s X-Men cartoon.

The new game features trailer shows us a brief flash of what appears to be a level select screen, where you can replay previous missions. In the foreground, a text menu breaks down the stages by location and mission name, and on the other side we see a brief description of that level, alongside a tracker showing how many of its collectables you've missed.

In the background, we see Wolverine laying back in bed, longingly staring at a small picture frame he's holding in his hands. This, of course, is a tribute to the Wolverine Crush meme, which originates in X-Men: The Animated Series. You've probably seen '90s Wolverine staring at all kinds of things over the years, but in the original episode he's jealously looking at a photo of Jean Grey and Cyclops.

According to a breakdown on the PlayStation Blog, this mission replay screen appears in Logan's Nightmare Cabin, which tracks with my hands-on time in Marvel's Wolverine. While wandering through levels, you'll stumble upon unreal doors that lead into a nightmare version of Logan's home, where you can take on various challenges. I didn't see this level select screen in my preview time, but it looks like the cabin will also be how you select missions to replay.

There are plenty of other low-key references to specific moments in Wolverine history, including numerous suits to unlock ranging from the classic brown-and-yellow to the nearly indecent Weapon X look. But I never would've expected such a goofy reference to creep into such a prominent part of Marvel's Wolverine, even though I love it all the same.

Marvel's Wolverine was inspired by one of the few video game movie tie-ins that doesn't suck: "We had the same challenges as those devs."

Former PlayStation boss Shuhei Yoshida has praised the new Xbox disc-to-digital initiative, with many pointing out the irony of his classic PS4 game sharing video following Sony's decision to drop physical games.

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced that physical Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S discs will soon be able to be transferred to digital games. This comes around a month after Sony confirmed it will stop producing physical games in 2028 for the PS5 and any future PlayStation console. That, funnily enough, also came shortly after GTA 6 confirmed that its 'physical' games will be codes in boxes instead of a real physical game, meaning you're buying a license that can be revoked at any time, as Sony was keen to remind players in an ill-timed email.

Over on Twitter, Yoshida tweeted Xbox CEO Asha Sharma's post announcing the initiative, calling it "A great move by team Xbox." But of course, many people's minds went straight to one of PlayStation's biggest dunks on Xbox, with the "Official PlayStation Used Game Instructional Video" showing Yoshida simply handing a game to Adam Boyes as a jab at Xbox One's potential no-used-games policy.

However, despite the irony, many have been praising Yoshida, asking for the former PlayStation boss to return now that Sony is consistently upsetting players due to its poor, somewhat anti-consumer, decisions, with one user saying "You've always had class praising Nintendo Microsoft and even Steam for the good they do even when you were directly working for PlayStation." adding that "PlayStation hasn't been the same without you."

Here's why we think PlayStation killing discs is bad for everyone, whether you care about physical games or not

Sony recently sent an email to folks with PlayStation accounts reminding them of the Terms of Service they agreed to when signing up, the lack of full rights to digital purchases, and all.

The email has arrived not even two months after Sony made its decision to end physical disc production for new games on PlayStation consoles in 2028 public, which is certainly… a choice.

If you've not received it yourself, it's quite lengthy, but it basically outlines all of the company's Terms of Service. Most notably, it gets into digital purchases, and how they can be rescinded – yes, "even those you paid for," as the email reads. "The software is licensed to you, not sold," after all.

Now, that's not to say that this will happen, but more so that it can. For example, should you lose access to your PlayStation account, you'll also lose access to your digital purchases. Or, if Sony issues a ban or the like against you, you can similarly lose access to your digital games.

It's a tough pill to swallow amid all the game preservation chatter, especially as Sony recently doubled down on its plan to axe physical discs.

Folks aren't taking the email very well, unsurprisingly, as it serves as a reminder that we'll never truly "own" our digital purchases.

That's not all, either – there are other tidbits that aren't sitting well with users, like the fact that Sony writes it "may track and record your activity on PlayStation Online Services" and that its "liability will not be more than £100." In other words, that's the most the company can pay you back, should it need to.

Over on X, one disgruntled user points out some of these eye-catching Terms of Service highlights, starting with the fact that "you don't own your digital games, you rent a license," and if an account is "closed or banned, your games are gone, even paid ones."

Comments show disappointment across the board, with many people upset by the blatant lack of consumer rights for digital purchases.

"This company are total greedy assholes right now," one response reads, "and Rockstar Games are just as guilty." They're likely referencing the fact that GTA 6 is essentially digital only – a point that allegedly spurred the recent GTA 6 leaks circulating the web.

Another adds, "Sony's executives truly represent everything that is wrong with gaming." A good few responses bring up pirating games, too.

That checks out, considering how game preservation experts recently predicted the rise in digital gaming would all just lead to more piracy – but it's important to note that this isn't a PlayStation-exclusive problem.
As a separate thread explains, Microsoft has similar Terms of Service for Xbox users. It's an issue that isn't tethered to one console or platform, but rather… well, pretty much every single one that supports digital purchases.

Here's hoping we're able to find a nice middle ground in the future that allows for both digital and physical purchases – and consumer rights, too, please.

Here's why we think PlayStation killing discs is bad for everyone, whether you care about physical games or not

Earlier today, a new report claimed that PlayStation is planning a substantial rework of Horizon Hunters Gathering, responding to poor playtest feedback for the multiplayer spin-off by stripping the live-service elements in order to make it more of a traditional co-op game. That report also has some bad news for fans of the traditional Horizon games: Horizon 3 is apparently still years away.

The "majority" of developers at Guerrilla Games are still working on Horizon Hunters Gathering, according to Jason Schreier at Bloomberg. That leaves a very small team planning the next single-player Horizon game, which is apparently still years away from being finished.

That's pretty much the same story that's been reported since February, when Horizon Hunters Gathering was first announced. Even then, Schreier was reporting that the majority of Guerrilla was working on the multiplayer spin-off, leaving Horizon 3 on the backburner. It seems that hasn't changed, even as the studio finds itself forced to pivot from the initial plans for Hunters Gathering.

Five years separated the launches of Horizon Zero Dawn in 2017 and Horizon Forbidden West in 2022, and it's looking like there might be an even longer wait before Horizon 3 rolls around. I'd even hazard a guess that we won't be buying Horizon 3 on a physical disc.

PlayStation has made a big push into live-service games over the past few years, and during that span we saw the launch and immediate shutdown of Concord, a middling response for Bungie's Marathon, and the death of Destiny 2. The publisher's biggest recent multiplayer hit is certainly Helldivers 2, which wasn't even developed internally. It's tough to put that context out of mind when another multiplayer experiment is dragging resources away from one PlayStation's biggest single-player franchises.

"Single-player, narrative-driven gaming is here to stay," ex-PlayStation boss says: "It's how we built this business. That's what sustains it."

Horizon Zero Dawn and sequel Horizon Forbidden West spin-off Horizon Hunters Gathering is reportedly taking on a new shape following ill-received playtests.

Horizon Hunters Gathering, a project from developer Guerrilla Games and publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment, has been in the works for a little while now. Guerrilla unveiled the game as a live service multiplayer spin-off back in February, at which point it was reported that "most of the studio" was on the new title (much to the dismay of folks hoping for a Horizon threequel, unsurprisingly).

It doesn't seem to be going all that well so far, however.

According to a new report from Bloomberg, unnamed sources familiar with the project's current state allege that PlayStation has been reworking it since June after receiving poor feedback following private playtesting – perhaps the second round of playtesting that rolled out in May.

Supposedly, the devs and publisher are transforming Horizon Hunters Gathering into a more "traditional" co-op experience with a story mode… and much smaller scope.

BREAKING: PlayStation is rebooting the online game Horizon Hunters Gathering after negative playtest feedback. New plan is smaller scope, more traditional co-op multiplayer, no more live service.Yet another entry in PlayStation's ongoing live-service struggles: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

— @jasonschreier.bsky.social (@jasonschreier.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-08-19T16:04:34.727Z

What that means precisely is unknown, but at the least, the game doesn't seem to be entirely scrapped – yet, anyway.

As per the report, Sony apparently told Guerrilla that devs would have until the end of December to change things for the better and impress higher-ups with the game. That's not all, either.

Apparently, many of Horizon Hunters Gathering's current devs will end up reassigned to a separate project (although there's no title provided here).

Bloomberg states that a representative for PlayStation has declined to comment. There's also no solid word from Guerrilla itself, but it's disheartening to read nonetheless.

It hasn't exactly been an easy time for live service games recently, with failed and axed projects from Sony popping up left, right, and center. I'm immediately reminded of the supposed live service God of War spin-off and, of course, The Last of Us Online.

As for what's next for Horizon Hunters Gathering, it's hard to tell. Here's hoping that either the dev or publisher provides a bit of information itself soon.

Horizon Steel Frontiers is coming out in 2027, publisher confirms, while we still wait for news on Forbidden West sequel.

Perhaps no single object in all of video games is quite so haunted by infamy as the golf club in The Last of Us Part 2. The prop used to represent that golf has apparently remained in PlayStation's motion capture studio for all these years – until, it seems, the day Deborah Ann Woll walked on set for God of War Laufey.

First, if you haven't yet played The Last of Us Part 2 and have somehow avoided learning about its first act twist for all these years, here's a SPOILER WARNING for the rest of this article. Still here? Good. The opening hours of The Last of Us Part 2 see Joel, the protagonist of the previous game, brutally beaten to death with a golf club by the vengeful Abby.

The golf club itself instantly became something of a meme. Now, years later, it still serves both as a symbol of the game's most devastating moment and a lazy shorthand for those who didn't like the way the story went. Either way, the actual prop used in the motion capture sessions for the game is nigh unrecognizable. You can get a brief glimpse of it in the 2024 documentary on the making of The Last of Us Part 2, around the 52:50 mark: a big, purple stick shaped like an elongated baseball bat.

So you can forgive Deborah Ann Woll, who portrays the title character in God of War Laufey, for not instantly noticing the significance of the purple stick. "My very first day on set for Laufey, we were doing a scene, and they handed me a prop," she says in a San Diego Comic-Con panel. "Unbeknownst to me, this was a very famous prop that they had used on The Last of Us."

A clip of Woll's comments was recently shared on Twitter by Santa Monica Studio. With an ironic grin, she turns to game director Ariel Lawrence and asks, "Was it a hockey stick? Or a baseball bat?"

"It was a golf club," Lawrence dryly responds.

"Some sort of sporting equipment, you know," Woll continues. "They gave it to me, and I was supposed to use it like an axe. And I… broke it."

The clip also shows footage of the incident. Woll is in normal clothes – not motion capture gear – so this seems to be some sort of test footage or rehearsal session. But she's so into the scene that she absolutely smashes that stick into the ground, where it snaps in two with a loud 'thunk.' She awkwardly drops the stick, clearly afraid she's broken something important, but in the background, somebody shouts "Yeeeeaaaah! Yeah!"

"She swung it so hard, it cracked, and it echoed throughout" the motion capture studio, Lawrence says. "And we were like 'hot damn, let's go.'"

God of War Laufey is just one of many upcoming PS5 games worth keeping on your radar.

After catching flak for their opinions on Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls, fighting game icon SonicFox has commented on their win in the game's first major tournament.

Marvel Tokon has been available for just over a week, and it has already had its first major tournament appearance at CEO 2026 over the weekend. The tournament had 1,057 entrants – the second-highest at the tourney behind Street Fighter 6's 1,110 – including the likes of Marvel vs Capcom legend Justin Wong, Leffen, and SonicFox, who would go on to win the tournament from Losers Top 8.

While SonicFox is best known for their domination of NetherRealm games like Mortal Kombat and Injustice, they were a big winner in Arc-Sys' previous tag-team fighter Dragon Ball FighterZ, so their win isn't too shocking, but this win also comes in the wake of their criticism of the new fighter.

Back during the beta, SonicFox said the game "needs way more work still since so many decisions don't make a lot of sense," while adding that "The characters are genuinely pretty interesting, just heavily restricted by the game itself." Naturally, this inspired a ton of comments about SonicFox disliking the game being a skill issue, or using the fact SonicFox primarily plays the generally poorer quality Mortal Kombat games as an excuse to discredit their opinion.

After the CEO win, SonicFox took to Twitter to say "this win should definitely make people actually shut the fuck up and let me voice my opinions on the game" and that it's "delusion to believe that I don’t like a game because I can’t be 'good' at it." SonicFox then adds, "This win was purely out of spite" to those reactions to their opinion on the game.

Marvel Tokon has been struggling out the gate a bit. It launched with rough PC performance (which was swiftly patched by Arc System Works after the game's first weekend), a lack of Linux support, and a requirement for a PSN account, which locks players in certain countries out of the game entirely, resulting in the game sitting at Mixed Steam reviews. This includes seasoned players, like Sajam, who called it "one of the worst fighting game launches," while Maximillian ended up uninstalling the PC version of the game live on stream to grab a PS5 copy after issues with the port.

Meanwhile, analysts reckon the game's reported 485,000 copies sold mark could've been closer to a million had the PC version not had so many issues.

Check out our Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls review to see how Arc System Works' latest stacks up.

It sounds like a detail from an alternate universe now, but former Sony Interactive president Shuhei Yoshida was convinced turn-based JRPGs were too unpopular while Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 was in development. So he advised its publisher, Kepler Interactive, to describe the 2025 game as something different from what it actually was, and the studio listened.

Yoshida spoke about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and the guidance he'd given other indie publishers during his tenure as PlayStation's indie division lead during the Busan Indie Connect Festival 2026, reports Japanese site 4Gamer, in a write-up which was translated by Automaton. Yoshida recalls during his Busan Indie Connect lecture informing indie studios on how to pick the best publisher that he was impressed by Expedition 33 when he played the game two years early, but he wasn't optimistic about its allegiance to vintage, turn-based JRPGs.

Baldur's Gate 3 refreshed the public's memory about the simple pleasures of turn-based combat when it launched in 2023, but Yoshida felt sure that most new turn-based games were overlooked around that time for being unfashionable.

Fellow AA hits like Lies of P suggested players at the time wanted their combat to be action-based and brutal. So while Yoshida loved Expedition 33's "combination of turn-based JRPG mechanics and real-time action inputs reminiscent of The Legend of Dragoon" – the PS1 fantasy game Yoshida produced in 1999 – he was skeptical. Developer Sansdall Interactive heeded his warnings about the turn-based genre and started promoting Expedition 33 in broader terms, touting its "reactive turn-based battles."

"It's incredibly well-made," Yoshida remembers informing Sandfall, "but it would be better not to call it a turn-based RPG. That alone might cause players to overlook it.”

But Yoshida offers this anecdote as an example of why trend-chasing publishers may sometimes find their efforts unnecessary. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 ultimately released to an infrared blast of praise, critical acclaim, and it earned a historic number of GOTY awards.

Its genre might have been more suited to 1991 than 2025, but that made no difference once audiences got smacked with Expedition 33's quality. Yoshida says, after the game's success, publishers have been receiving more pitches for turn-based RPGs.

So, after all of its GOTY wins and accidentally revitalizing a genre, here's another best-case scenario for Expedition 33: it set a trend instead of following one.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's "untranslatable" inspiration is finally getting an English release after 22 years.

Between our love for angry Logan himself and how solid Insomniac Games' Spider-Man series has been, Marvel's Wolverine has been high on our new games wishlist for a while even before we saw any gameplay. I know, I know, that's a bit naughty of us – but sometimes our comic book loving brains are just waiting to be scratched just right. Thankfully, Wolverine's claws are reaching all the right places now we've visited the development studio and played the game for ourselves.

In our Marvel's Wolverine hands-on, we've been overjoyed that Logan's adventure doesn't just feel like a Spider-Man reskin, but something that really celebrates the character. Spending two hours with the game through its first act, across two sections, we've had plenty of time to sink our claws into Wolverine's rage-fuelled combat, play with stealth, get a little too invested in its story, and even hang out with Team X.

But what are the best bits? Why get excited? Luckily for you I'll lead you right to the 'X' marking my superhero fandom spot across eight highlights I've pulled together below! Excited? Let us know which features you're looking forward to trying for yourself in the comments.

8. "This is uniquely Logan"

Make no mistake, we love Marvel's Spider-Man, but with three web-slinging games under its belt, we had some reservations about how distinct Insomniac Games' take on Wolverine would be. Thankfully, the studio seems to have been conscious about that themselves. Director Jess Reiner-Reed tells us that "any decision we're making, we're trying to go: 'Is this right for Wolverine? Is this telling a Logan-centric story?" Having played the game ourselves, we agree – this really does feel like a game that could only exist for Wolverine.

7. Feeling the Rage

Claws out, Marvel's Wolverine was always going to need combat that feels excellent – and Insomniac Games have hit on something special with Logan's Rage. A meter that builds up while fighting, it can be unleashed to enable instant kills, and lasts longer the more violence you dish out. It gives scraps an excellent sense of momentum that really highlights the berserker fighter that Wolverine is. It even loops back into his health system, where his Rage will allow him to get back up again, supercharging his regenerative capabilities so he won't stay down. Again – this is a fighting system that would only make sense for Wolverine.

6. PS5 Power

Few PlayStation first-party studios have had the output of Insomanic Games in recent years – Marvel's Wolverine is the team's fifth release on PS5. Both Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 are exclusive to the console, while the cross-gen Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales was one of the console's best PS5 games in its launch window. Quantity hasn't hampered quality either – they've all been excellent. "One thing we're really proud about at the studio is shipping games," says head of technology Mike Fitzgerald. Likewise, Marvel's Wolverine feels like a real technical achievement so far. Stunning to play, this studio really knows how to get the most out of the system this many years deep into the generation.

5. Violence for a reason

Wolverine is an angry man, but he's no caricature in this PS5 game. Respecting the character we know and love from the comics, he has plenty of legitimate reasons fuelling his rage. Marvel's Wolverine tells a dark story from its early hours (we'll avoid spoilers!), and there's some nasty moments of injustice that have Logan rightfully fired up, ready to rail at powerful authority that relishes doing the wrong thing. He might be the best there is at what he does, but, in a way, what he does is nice – just, not if you're on the receiving end of his bloody wrath.

4. Team X gon' give it to us

There's no X-Men in the world of Marvel's Wolverine (at least, not yet), but there is a Team X, Insomniac's own twist on the unit formed as part of the Weapon X programme in the comics. Here, it appears to be assembled by the sinister Nathaniel Essex, and the game's opening revolves around freeing mutants from Trask Industries' clutches while fighting alongside Sabretooth, Mystique, and Jean Grey. Later moments feature downtime where Logan can learn more about his allies-for-the-moment, including a 'never have I ever' drinking game with Mystique at a bar.

3. Moments of wander

Continuing on from those moments of downtime, while Marvel's Wolverine definitely isn't an open world game like Peter Parker's New York adventures, it's not completely linear, either. Getting some time to explore Madripoor before a mission kicks off, we get to have Wolverine sniff around a fairly wide space for optional but engaging conversations, nab collectibles, and take on challenges. All-out, non-stop action could get exhausting across a long journey, so we're glad for some moments to get some time with Logan off the clock. Here's hoping the final balance feels right.

2. Rising to the challenge

Speaking of optional content, we've had time to play some of Wolverine's side challenges and we're impressed so far. Similar in some ways to Spider-Man's challenges in his games, they put Logan through the paces across combat and traversal challenges, dialing up the pressure to ensure we really get familiar with his controls which – while easy to get to grips with – do have a lot of nuance in the right hands. Even the latter has more to it than we expected, and by the time we master them Logan is dashing about with perfect grace, which almost reminds us of Mirror's Edge (really!).

1. Silent, but deadly

Almost like The Last of Us Part 2, Wolverine is full of rage and violence but doesn't need to unleash it all at once in big, straightforward fights. Instead, he can dip in and out of stealth to strike decisively from the shadows. It makes wide sections particularly delicious to play, as we control Logan's angle of approach and can tear groups of guards apart in a sudden ambush in seconds, before moving on to the next. It really helps us feel like Wolverine, who is a scrappy, brutal fighter, not a hack and slash warrior.

Check out our best Marvel games ranking for more comic adventures!

After the announcement of Marvel's Wolverine, I wondered how much had changed from Insomniac's excellent Spider-Man games. The best part of those previous titles was swinging down digital New York streets, exploring the open world at my own pace. My hands-on time with Marvel's Wolverine put those fears to rest. While the foundations built for those Spider-Man games are clearly present here, the action takes a bloody new form that helps Logan's story sing.

"Central to the Wolverine player fantasy is claw combat, in much the same way that web swinging is the central element of Spider-Man player fantasy," creative director Marcus Smith says. "So we developed a lot of systems for our combat that supply the fast, fluid, and lethal combat system that you would expect from Wolverine."

So Insomniac has traded a web-swinging open-world for a mostly linear roller coaster that takes Wolverine on a globe-trotting adventure. It's a game design decision, yes, but one built on the idea of being true to Logan's character – something the developers repeatedly emphasized to me in my interviews with them.

Not-so-friendly neighborhood

"We're telling a Logan story," senior project director Jess Reiner-Reed says when I ask about the decision to ditch the open world. "He's so different from Spider-Man in so many different ways. One of the ways is that Logan is not somebody who stays in the same spot for a while. He's not somebody who has a friendly neighborhood. He's not settling down in one location. He's a loner guy in a lot of ways."

"It took us a while to say 'traversal is not an important part of Wolverine as a character,'" director of technology Mike Fitzgerald says. "As we talk about those key things, it's about his claws, his healing factor, his rage and anger, his past and dealing with that. These are some of the core things. The game doesn't have to be everything and have everything. At the same time, you don't want to be frustrating or slow."

While Wolverine isn't about movement, I never found the game to be slow. In fact, in some open-ended areas, I was astounded by how fast I could move. There's a part early in the game where you have to take out some anti-mutant alarms spread out across a bunch of half-constructed buildings, and Wolverine's ability to get around, claw his way up walls, and leap between rooftops is plenty of fun in its own right.

"Some of it's subtle, though, in fun ways," Fitzgerald tells me. "Like, he can climb trees. I mean, he's a wolverine with claws that you go up. But if you walk out on the branch, the branch bends, because he's a very heavy guy. That's a whole system we had to build [...] But Spider-Man walks out on stuff and doesn't affect those things at all. He's very light and nimble. As soon as we put it so the branch was bending under the weight and the leaves were all moving the right way, it's like, 'Oh yeah, this feels like this character and not that other character,' even because of that subtle bit."

Lone wolverine

Even Logan's personality provided its own challenges to the team. As it turns out, it's a lot easier to depict somebody like Peter Parker as a character than it is to make Logan's brooding solitude compelling. "Wolverine's a very internal character," Fitzgerald explains. "Spider-Man is an external character. He quips. He talks. He says what he thinks. Logan [is] quiet, and needs to express with his face and his eyes, and interact with characters. Oftentimes, saying one thing but feeling another. How do we express that through the game? It took a lot of work and effort."

These sorts of considerations permeated the game's development from top to bottom, as the devs repeatedly emphasized in our interview. "For making Wolverine," Reiner-Reed says, "we were constantly asking the question, like, 'Okay, what would Logan do here?' Doesn't matter what another character would do. 'What would our guy do? How would he react to this situation?' I think development-wise, that was what we were always focused on."

It's paid off, at least in the two hours I've played so far. Building Wolverine on the foundation of Spider-Man makes sense, since there's a core of biff-boom-bang action at the heart of every superhero adventure. But Insomniac has smartly torn down and rethought just about every element in a way that makes sense for this new hero.

As we await the launch of Marvel's Wolverine, here are the other upcoming PS5 game you need to know about.

• Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is perfect if you want to throw hands across a gorgeous celebration of Marvel comic characters in an excellent fighting system

Here's the 60-second pitch for why you should play Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls this weekend: The developer behind the excellent Dragon Ball FighterZ and Guilty Gear Strive have turned its hand to Marvel to create a 4v4 tag-fighter that's a love letter to the comics, and feels like a fresh take on the beloved combo action in Marvel vs Capcom (without the Capcom, of course). No reskin, this uses the Marvel theming to its fullest, and with a fun story to follow, great training modes, and simple controls, this is one of the easiest big budget fighters to get into without sacrificing depth.

Why play it today?

• Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls feels like the next evolution of some great gaming branches, serving as both a Marvel must-play and a next-level expression of the genre. Like Marvel or not, Tokon is simply an excellent fighting game.

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is the fighting game equivalent of hero shooter Marvel Rivals. It's the next big budget Marvel game before Marvel's Wolverine. It's a fresh take on the superhero tag fighting of Marvel vs Capcom 3, and the developer's follow-up to Dragon Ball FighterZ.

Visually, Marvel Tokon is a stunner, continuing to build on Arc System Works' anime style that almost looks 2D until the camera whips around to highlight the impact of attacks. A Japanese studio, this take on Marvel is infused with nods to the culture, such as vampire hunter Blade having trained as a samurai, or Iron Man's armor looking almost Kamen Rider-like. But, it's heaving with nods towards Marvel comics as well, feeling like a love letter to the medium right the way down to deep cut references, and menus designed to look like comic book drafts.

As ever, the best time to check out a new fighting game is always as soon as possible. There's just something special about learning a new system alongside a community as everyone figures out how it all works. Knowing Marvel Tokon may appeal to comic or film fans first and foremost, great effort has gone into making the fighting controls easy to use and learn. Though, there's still some wild combos you can pull off once you get used to Tokon in action.

Time commitment:

Marvel Tokon is a great game to fit into your schedule with a low time commitment that's flexible to what you're looking to get out of it. But, don't be surprised if evenings disappear in a blur of superhero clashes.

Single-player episode content is split into separate chapters, so story content will take six or so hours to beat, with plenty of challenges and arcade modes on top. But, there's no need to play solo at all. Through online or with friends, matches themselves can take only a couple of minutes (or seconds if you're unlucky). This is a 4v4 fighter, but all your characters share a health bar, so few matches will feel like wars of attrition like you can get in Dragon Ball FighterZ.

This is an online game you'll want to keep coming back to, especially as new content is added over time through DLC fighters.

Play Marvel Tokon if you love:

Skip Marvel Tokon if you want:

One thing to know:

While Marvel Tokon has solid solo content for a fighting game, this is a genre that often lives or dies on multiplayer staying power. Whether that's matchmaking online through ranking queues, exploring room lobbies, or playing party modes; or beating up your pals locally or connected, you'll get the most out of this with other people. Don't forget that it's all good to play against players matched to your level and have fun that way. You don't need to be top of the leader boards to have a good time.

A moment you'll remember:

Batting away your opponent with the tag-based counter system and then managing to respond with a proper combo for the first time. Fighting games have a weird bell-shaped learning curve where the more you learn the worse you can feel, but nothing beats when it all comes together and you realize the squad of characters you love to play actually kind of works.

The final verdict:

In the words of Alan Wen, who penned our Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls review, this is "a stunning comeback for superhero fighters, essential for Marvel and genre fans alike". Superhero fans will find plenty to love in this gorgeous but fresh take on familiar faces, the fighting game curious will find Arc System Works' friendliest combat system to date, and fighting game veterans will cackle as they air-combo opponents into oblivion with Goblin Glider cancel combos.

So, where can you play it?

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is developed by Arc System Works but published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, so you'll currently only find it on PC and PS5. It is not part of any PS Plus subscription tiers at the moment.

How to get started with Marvel Tokon:

On launch, Marvel Tokon pulls you into a well-designed tutorial that will show you the basics, giving you the option to continue with more advanced training once completed. After that, you can continue to practice in the story or arcade modes, or hop online where you'll have to complete 10 casual matches before you can join Ranked matchmaking. For the most part, though, grab a controller and dive into matches! There's no better way to learn.

Have your say:

Just want more comic fun? Check out our best Marvel games ranking!

Story-driven action-adventure games have a special place in my gaming time, because my wife and I have been bonding over them for years. What started as a desire to show her why I was so obsessed with Metal Gear Solid eventually became a couples' tradition, where she'd sit in and we'd enjoy the twists and turns of games like Uncharted and Yakuza together. When Insomniac announced Marvel's Wolverine, I instantly figured it'd be perfect for our gaming time together.

That thought was instantly wiped away when I saw how violent Wolverine is going to be. I can't blame Insomniac for wanting to be true to the character's violent lore, but my partner has an intense blood phobia. Even a quick glimpse of the goopy gore that permeates the game's trailers would likely be enough to push her to the edge of a panic attack.

So when Insomniac announced that it was introducing a new accessibility option for Wolverine which will allow you to toggle off blood and gore, my interest was more than academic. Alongside my hands-on time with Marvel's Wolverine, I had to get the developers' insights into implementing this option and finding new ways to cater to players – and watchers – with diverse needs.

What I do isn't very nice

While I don't have direct access to the violence options in my hands-on, creative director Marcus Smith demonstrates them ahead of my demo. "Yes, we are making a Wolverine game," he says. "Yes, it is extremely bloody. But we also understand that not everybody has the same level of squeamishness where it comes to blood. So we have settings where you can disable blood, disable gore, disable [dismemberment]."

He shows a screenshot of a character on the wrong end of Wolverine's claws. This enemy soldier is spattered with blood, with gore shooting absurdly from the spots where you'd expect. In the next screenshot, everything's the same – all the visual and emotional content is there – but the red stuff is gone. It's not a haphazard edit. It genuinely looks like a version of the game that was targeting a T for Teen rating from the start. There are other content toggles, too, like an option to turn off profanity if you simply want to make the game's dialog a bit more family friendly.

Offering these kinds of options is a big technical challenge since the gore itself is built from "a very complex set of systems," according to head of technology Mike Fitzgerald. "The way it affects characters is one thing. The way it affects environments is another thing. The way it sprays out of the characters is another thing. A lot of cinematics have custom authored blood that's independent [to what] someone very carefully painted onto a character or object. Finding all those places, making them all relate into the accessibility system the right way, took quite a bit of work, effort, and testing."

No surprises

When I first heard about these sorts of accessibility options, my instant fear was that not every edge case would be accounted for. There are, after all, cutscenes where characters get beheaded, or we see Wolverine get shredded to the bone by gunfire. In cases like those, the game simply blurs out scenes with content you don't want to see.

People like my wife have "a real reaction to that stuff," Fitzgerald acknowledges. "We don't want to surprise anyone with it when they think they have it turned off."

A part of me does wonder if these gracious nods to accessibility might undercut something of the game's bite. "The tone of this game is a bit darker, more mature than recent Insomniac games," Smith says, "and the reason for that is because we need to stay true to these characters. They have lived long and complex lives, and the only way to represent them with authenticity is to do so unflinchingly." Is a blood toggle a flinch?

"Wolverine is a brutal character," senior project director Jess Reiner-Reed acknowledges. "That's a part of the DNA of Wolverine. It is rated mature as far as topics, and as you mentioned, as far as violence, but Logan is not somebody who is ever glorifying violence. He's not cutting up people for violence' sake. He's doing it because he got into some situation. He has to defend somebody who can't defend themselves. He has to fight [against] injustice."

That distinction, I think, is why letting people play a substantially less violent version of Wolverine makes sense, even within the themes of the character. This Logan lives in a brutal world, yes, but his own brutality exists as a shield to protect others from having to endure the same hardships. And personally? I'm just glad my time playing Wolverine won't be as lonely as I feared.

We'll keep you up to date with every upcoming PS5 game worth knowing about.

Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls has managed to sell a total of 485,000 copies across PS5 and Steam in the week since it launched, but Alinea's head of market analysis Rhys Elliott guesses the 4v4 tag team fighter could have done much better than that if Steam reviewers didn't hate its PC port so much.

The game itself is great. Guilty Gear Strive developer Arc System Works predictably infused Marvel Tokon with its characteristic, ostentatious combat style and vibrant art, leading writer Alan Wen to say in GamesRadar+'s four-and-a-half-star Marvel Tokon review that the game makes you "so convinced that it's 2D animation of the highest caliber until you launch an opponent or execute a screen-filling super skill." Notably, Wen played the game on PS5. Many of Marvel Tokon's Steam reviews, instead, fixate on the fact that the game requires a PSN account to play on PC, and then it crashes, and they bemoan missing Linux support, which makes Marvel Tokon incompatible with the Steam Deck.

Marvel Tokon's overall Mixed Steam rating is complicated in this sense – many of its 2,658 total negative reviews have no problem with Arc System Works's actual game. But they see Marvel Tokon as a representation of everything currently wrong with PlayStation, which is now experiencing the beginning of the three million years of bad karma it's earned for its decision to stop producing physical game discs.

A popular negative Marvel Tokon review with over 1,000 "helpful" ratings on Steam explains it this way: "As much as I adore this game, i will call out the blatant bullsh*t Sony pulled to make TOKON on PC the way that it is... My review will remain negative until the game is optimized enough for all users that can run the minimum reqs, as well as Linux support at some point…"

So, yeah, according to Alinea, Marvel Tokon moved 485,000 copies and made $33 million. It should be a full-fat comeback story for Marvel fighting games, a niche previously made boring by the underwhelming Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite in 2017, but Elliott emphasizes that 485,000 copies sold is a minimum.

He recognizes Marvel Tokon's Steam launch "was marred by performance issues, bugs, intrusive DRM, and no Linux support." And "the Steam review score is pretty telling," Elliott continues, "at under 50% positive as I write this. It's just 19% positive among those who played under an hour, suggesting a wave of bounce-and-refund players."

"Arc has been patching hard, and many issues are already fixed, but first impressions are sticky," he concludes. "Tokon might have sold closer to 1M if the Steam stuff hadn't been such an issue. Word of mouth was cut short." Huh, it sounds like prioritizing people over the mirage of fast, infinite growth is important. Who knew.

Sony killing PlayStation discs will make PS Store prices cheaper, former Square Enix financial exec says, and you only need to look at Steam to understand why.

It took Hollywood decades to learn the truth about superheroes: the origin stories are usually the most boring part. Insomniac Games was clued into that fact from the start with the Marvel's Spider-Man games, which deliberately avoided showing us Peter Parker's fateful meeting with a radioactive Spider. It seems they're taking a similar approach with Marvel's Wolverine.

"During our story, Logan already has adamantium infused to his bones," creative director Marcus Smith explains at a preview event for Marvel's Wolverine. "He does not remember how that happened, why it happened, and we are not really covering it because we're not doing an origin story."

During my hands-on time with Marvel's Wolverine, I saw the very start of the game, which does open with a brief flashback. There, we see Logan in the woods, seemingly feral, when he meets Nathaniel Essex – a character whose name will ring a calamitous bell for X-Men fans. The scene is just a few moments, and we quickly fast-forward apparent years to the actual action.

There's a sense of history to the characters, as they regularly reference past events and conflicts, but it's all flavor that makes the world seem bigger. If you have history with Wolverine in the comics or other media, you'll have a pretty clear picture of what these events look like – if not, it'll just be there to make the characters seem richer.

It's the exact same approach we saw Insomniac take in Marvel's Spider-Man, which references Spidey's origins and history in ways that make sense and add to the story, but never explicitly spells out that story. Perhaps the most important part is that it lets players just start being a superhero from the second they load up the game – whether we're talking about Peter Parker or James Logan Howlett, there's no need to make people wait for the fun part.

These are the upcoming PS5 games you need to have on your radar.

There's a moment in the Marvel's Wolverine story trailer released toward the end of July where we see the camera pull back behind Jean Grey as she enters a dance hall. To my eye, it seemed like an obvious tease of a playable sequence featuring Jean, but looks can be deceiving – Insomniac tells me in no uncertain terms that Wolverine himself is the game's only playable character.

When I alluded to that moment with Jean Grey in the trailer in an interview with senior project director Jess Reiner-Reed and head of technology Mike Fitzgerald, they both registered a bit of genuine confusion, before they both told me, "Wolverine is our only playable character."

That'll likely be a relief to many players of Insomniac's previous superhero games. I never hated the Mary Jane stealth sections in the Spider-Man series as much as other people seemed to, but they're unequivocally the least exciting bits of those games. Insomniac going all in on the game's central hero sounds like a good thing to me.

My hands-on time with Marvel's Wolverine was still filled with loads of side characters, and many of them do have a role to play not just in the story, but the gameplay. In my demo, there were big combat sections where Wolverine is accompanied by Sabretooth or Mystique, who'll dynamically join in with your combos for little team-up moves to knock out the bad guys.

Some similar interactions with Jean were shown in the public gameplay reveal, and "there's more of that," Fitzgerald explains. "There's definitely the team vibe in that sense. But we were really focusing on Wolverine as a playable character and making sure we nailed that."

For more, check out all our Marvel's Wolverine Big Preview coverage.

Insomniac built the adamantium skeleton for Marvel's Wolverine with its Spider-Man games. The upcoming PS5 game clearly builds on the combat, the cinematic presentation, and even the progression systems of those previous titles. But after spending two hours playing Marvel's Wolverine, touring Insomniac's Los Angeles headquarters, and speaking to some of the developers bringing the game to life, it's clear that this is more than a simple reskin of Spider-Man. James Logan Howlett's burning heart beats at the center of it all.

"One thing we're really proud about at the studio is shipping games," head of technology Mike Fitzgerald tells me. "This is our fifth title on the PlayStation 5. We're really proud of that. Part of that is knowing how to build on prior games effectively. If we'd taken a Spider-Man game and put a Wolverine character model in, that wouldn't feel right. It wouldn't be right for the character. It wouldn't be fulfilling the player fantasy for the fans. So it's about building carefully on what we have and then rethinking a whole lot of the fundamentals."

So the flippy, acrobatic combat of Spider-Man – which, itself, echoes Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham series – has slowed down, with a closer camera perspective and more tightly-packed enemies. The violence is more extreme. The story is darker. And, most obviously, we're now following a linear, globe-trotting adventure rather than exploring a singular open world.

Rage against the killing machines

"Throughout development," senior project director Jess Reiner-Reed explains, "any decision we're making, we're trying to go: 'Is this right for Wolverine? Is this telling a Logan-centric story? Is this the best way we can do this to make the player feel like they're playing as Wolverine?'"

Nowhere is this intent more obvious than with the Rage system. As you fight, striking enemies and parrying their attacks, you build up a meter representing Wolverine's bestial anger. Once it's maxed out, the color drains from the scene, Wolverine powers up, and you can launch instant-kill takedowns by pulling both triggers at once. The meter quickly drains once you reach this state, but you can keep it going longer by continuing to kill.

This system really incentivizes you to be aggressive, constantly escalating the speed with which you're taking down the bad guys, perfectly in line with your character's own overflowing rage. It's introduced with a great little moment in the game, where Logan's anger at seeing his fellow mutants mistreated boils over, and you're given control with maximum Rage to rip the perpetrators to shreds. If you've seen any of the trailers for Wolverine, you'll know just how bloody this game can get. But, importantly, Logan's violence feels like an outpouring of his desire to protect others.

"He's not bloodthirsty," Fitzgerald says. "He's not a sadist. He's not reveling in the violence that he's doing. We want the game to reflect that as well. The game itself isn't like 'look at how bloody and gross we can be.' It's more like this is a natural consequence of who this character is and what he grapples with over the course of the game."

The Rage system also accounts for Wolverine's superhuman healing. You do have a traditional health meter, but as long as you've got some Rage in the tank, you can get back up and keep fighting. Die without any Rage to keep you going, though, and you'll have to restart from a checkpoint. It may not be 100% true to the specifics of Logan's mutant ability, but it does keep the spirit of those powers intact and faithfully represents the character's relentless nature.

"You wouldn't see another character with that set of abilities or mechanics," Reiner-Reed says. "This is uniquely Logan."

This is no origin story

The start of the game shows a brief flashback to when Logan was living a seemingly feral life in the wilderness, just as he meets a mysterious figure promising a home for mutants. But this isn't Professor X talking about a home for gifted youngsters. This is Nathaniel Essex, a character with a lengthy X-Men comic history as the villain Mister Sinister.

But if Essex is going to become the villain of this story, that's going to be a late game twist. Insomniac dragged out the ultimate heel turn of Otto Octavius as Doctor Octopus in the 2018 Spider-Man game, which could be the blueprint for what's happening here. For now, though, the game flashes forward, with Wolverine rejoining Mystique, Jean Grey, and Sabretooth as part of Team X to rescue Essex from the anti-mutant extremist Bolivar Trask.

What follows is something of a superpowered D-Day invasion, where I charge up a muddy hill toward a massive fort, slicing through Trask's minions as I go. While there's plenty of action and bombast, this is very much the game's tutorial, as I'm introduced to the basics of combat. The true depths of the Rage system haven't unlocked yet, but even here the combat feels meaty and rewarding.

My favorite move is pushing triangle to leap forward and quickly close the distance with an enemy. It's not entirely dissimilar to Spider-Man's Web Strike, but at this closer combat scale, it reminds me of how Batman would automatically leap between opponents in the Arkham games. Here, it's an active ingredient in the combat soup, something to stay engaged with as the rhythm of parry, dodge, slash slash slash carries on.

I find myself surprised by how quickly I can get around the game's bigger areas. Wolverine can't use web shooters to speed through these levels, but he can still move. Logan runs quickly, can climb up walls, and leap leg-shattering distances. There's an open-ended area early on where I have to take out a series of mutant-detecting alarms guarded by patrolling soldiers. It feels like an absolute playground, thanks largely to how quickly I can move through it, and how easy it is switch between brutal, stalking stealth and full-blown combat.

I'm also introduced to each of the game's major cast members, but notably, this isn't their first meeting. Nor do I hear much about Wolverine's backstory, and that's very much by design. "Logan already has adamantium infused to his bones," says creative director Marcus Smith. "He does not remember how that happened, why it happened, and we are not really covering it because we're not doing an origin story." There are already plenty of places where you can learn of Wolverine's origins, and having the specifics shrouded in mystery here helps build gravity and intrigue around his relationships.

Later in the demo, I'm whisked forward to a part near the end of the game's first act. Here, I get the culmination of all the combat tricks I've learned up to this point as I take on a massive Sentinel prototype. It's a multi-stage boss fight where I've got to wear down its various weak points to deal big damage.

It's familiar stuff if you've, uh, ever played a video game before, but it's a great little challenge. In fact, it's the only time I die outside of a later optional challenge room – and it sneaks in a few unique mechanics, like an ability to call in a sniper shot from Mystique with a tap of the R1 button, which stuns the giant machine so I can get a few extra licks in.

Madripoor me another

Eventually, Logan ends up in Madripoor, and here the game allows me a bit of a breather. The story slows down as I wander a small bar and nearby stretch of street while Logan meets up with his allies to discuss everything that's transpired. There are fun little Easter eggs to discover here – a playing card hinting at Gambit wandering around this universe, for example – but the real treat is the character interactions.

I'm impressed by just how convincing the storytelling and character performances are. There's a wonderful little moment between Logan and Mystique where they play a round of "never have I ever," as our hero is grilled on topics like lost loves. I get to choose what parts Logan drinks to, and relish the chance to get inside the character's head and imagine his past and what's brought him to this point.

There's a haunted sense of history to how Logan and the crew refer to their past adventures and the mistakes they've made along the way, and it works in part because the story is so well-delivered. The devs say getting this right was a monumental task. "Cinematics is something where there's not, 'Hey, this is just the cinematics department, and they take care [of it],'" Reiner-Reed explains. "It takes everybody. There's lighting, there's artists, there's performance and optimization, there's animation, mocap."

This Madripoor section is also my first opportunity to properly explore, finding collectables here and there that tie into the game's various upgrade systems. I'm able to unlock a few new abilities – both passive buffs and active attacks that run on a cooldown in combat – and check out some additional suits for Wolverine, but I don't have much space to actually dive into those systems before my time with the demo ends. For now, it feels more like a teaser for the fact that, yes, there will be reasons to explore and go off the beaten path in the full game.

There are also additional challenges to take on in a sort of dreamy cabin space that will apparently appear at various points across the story. Inside, Logan can interact with various totems to take on optional timed challenges, like fighting hordes of soldiers in a snowy battlefield or racing through an abstract, nearly psychedelic collection of parkour obstacles. I certainly wasn't expecting to be reminded of Mirror's Edge during Wolverine, but the abstracted arenas for the traversal challenges put me in a similar frame of mind. These time trials are fun enough, but those that I played were pretty simple and easy. I was able to get not just a gold rating, but platinum after just a couple of tries.

The combat challenge I took on, however, really put me through the ringer. Here, I had to manage an array of goons pelting me with fists and bullets while I whittle down a big, muscular brute with parries, dodges, and strikes – then I had to do it again, with a second wave of foes, all within a strict time limit. I failed this one over and over, but I had a great time doing it, and really learning the fight made my eventual success feel pretty sweet. The solution? Rage. Building up that rage is essential.

Before playing Marvel's Wolverine, I was afraid I would miss so much from Insomniac's previous Spider-Man games. Sure, the combat and missions in those games were fun enough, but the truly excellent part was swinging through the streets of New York City at breakneck speeds and digging for little odd jobs and side missions along the way.

Going hands-on with the game completely erased those fears. Insomniac has repurposed the fundamentals of its previous games here, yes, but it's done so in a way that feels appropriate for Logan. The turn from friendly neighborhood wall-crawler to this brooding new hero makes all the difference.

More from our interviews with the Marvel's Wolverine developers and further impressions from our hands-on time are still to come. For now, here are the upcoming PS5 games you need to have on your radar.

PlayStation and Sucker Punch have announced that Ghost of Yotei is getting a major DLC expansion called Echoes of Sekigahara. It launches on October 1 alongside other new content and Ghost of Yotei: Complete Edition, which includes all previously released updates and will be available on a physical disc.

"Ghost of Yōtei: Echoes of Sekigahara is our new narrative expansion. Split between the present day and flashbacks to Atsu’s time on the mainland, you’ll meet Nagato, a figure from Atsu’s past who has arrived in Ezo," Sony explains on the PlayStation Blog.

"In the present, you’ll explore a previously unseen valley once inhabited by The Snake and his gang of loyal followers, the Vipers. In the past, you’ll experience Atsu’s time in the Battle of Sekigahara and a key moment in her life before she returned home for her quest for vengeance. You’ll meet new enemies and find new heavy weapons, new armor sets, new dyes, and more."

October 1 will also see the launch of Most Wanted, a "single-player combat survival mode" which the devs describe as "our spin on a roguelike." Each run will see you taking down enemies to earn perks and unlock new playable characters. The devs plan to announce more details on both expansions ahead of launch.

Both of these DLC add-ons are part of the $70 Ghost of Yotei: Complete Edition. If you already own the base game, you can upgrade to Complete Edition for $14.99 USD.

The Complete Edition also includes the content that was previously included in the Digital Deluxe Edition, as well as "new tracks for Watanabe Mode," alongside "new photo mode stamps, additional cosmetics for New Game+, and new Trophies for both Echoes of Sekigahara and Most Wanted."

Additionally, a free update will launch on October 1 with a transmog feature, allowing you to equip gear for its aesthetics without being stuck with its stats. This patch will also include the "Beauty of Yotei" mode, which offers what amounts to an in-game screensaver showcasing digital Japan.

The YouTube description for the trailer also confirms that the Complete Edition will have a "physical version available October 1." While Sony is seemingly fully committed to its decision to end physical discs in 2028, it appears the company is treating physical games as normal until then. I'm just hoping that the physical Complete Edition will, indeed, be complete, with all that DLC and add-on content actually included on the disc rather than a download code.

These are the upcoming PS5 games you need to know about.

While PlayStation will end discs for new releases in 2028, most of its major first-party releases still seem to be launching on discs in the meantime. That includes Marvel's Wolverine – but the limited edition console Sony's releasing alongside the upcoming PS5 is set to be digital only.

Sony revealed the Marvel's Wolverine Limited Edition PS5 console and accessories today on the PlayStation Blog. At a price of $649.99 / £569.99 / €649.99, you're getting a digital PS5 model cast in the black and bright yellow of Wolverine's trademark spandex, with a screaming Logan drawn on the side of the console.

I can't decide how I feel about the overall look of the console, but I do like the detail on the claw marks running down the side of the machine. Those are made up of transparent plastic, allowing you to see the PS5's innards at work, just as if the Canadian anti-hero had really cut a little viewing hole in the side of the machine.

The price is slightly more than the standalone console, but it does come with a download code for the game, so you're getting a slight deal here. Unless, of course, you want Marvel's Wolverine on disc, but Sony is willing to throw you a $75 bone if you're in that camp.

If you already have a PS5 and want some X-Men flavor, you can also just buy console covers for the same effect at a price of $74.99 / £64.99 / €74.99. These include parts for digital only models alongside those for real consoles with disc drives. There's a separate cover set for PS5 Pro consoles, as well, which also comes in an "Adamantium" silver color if you don't care for the yellow.

This is all pretty standard stuff for a limited edition console released alongside a major new game, but given all the scrutiny around Sony's decision to drop support for discs, players are having about the response you'd expect to this digital-only console. "Wolverine would have fought for physical media rights," as YouTube commenter SolidSmiech puts it.

Here are the upcoming PS5 games you need to know about.

Stop Killing Games has joined an ongoing legal effort in the Netherlands pushing against PlayStation's alleged "monopoly" over digital game sales on its platform. While the lawsuit primarily concerns digital game pricing, the end of physical media has exacerbated worries over Sony's ability to fix its own prices.

A Dutch consumer rights organization called Stichting Massaschade & Consument has been preparing this lawsuit since 2024 as part of its "Fair PlayStation" campaign. "Sony has a monopoly on digital game sales on PlayStation," organizers argue in a video breaking down their stance. "Your PlayStation is designed so you can only buy digital games through Sony's own store. And once Sony stops selling physical games in 2028, you won't have any choice at all."

Today, both Stop Killing Games and community resource DoesItPlay? have announced that they're backing the Fair PlayStation campaign. They've reposted SM&C's video with the title "It's time to sue Sony, join us."

"We're putting our full weight behind SM&C's case, with the Dutch court," the groups explain in the video description. "SM&C has to show the court it actually represents gamers, not just claims to. Our support backs that up globally. Every Dutch gamer who signs on backs it up directly."

PlayStation's ability to set its own digital prices is a big part of why I'm so concerned about the end of discs. On PC, where digital has been standard for decades, there are at least a variety of different stores that can compete against each other to offer different prices on digital games. On PlayStation, the prices are set purely by Sony and their third-party partners.

The same issues obviously hold for Xbox and Nintendo, as well, but neither of those platforms have yet announced that they're going to stop selling physical media. "You end up paying way more" on digital PlayStation purchases, SM&C argues, even without the physical media market driving prices down. "On average, up to 47%. It's basically a Sony tax, and that's clearly against the law."

"The end of physical discs removes the last place where a PlayStation game could still be bought and sold at a competitive price," SM&C said last month in response to Sony's announcement about the end of disc production. "No discs means no second-hand market and no alternative to the PlayStation Store, so from 2028, Sony alone decides what a game costs and even how long you are allowed to use it."

Up to this point, Stop Killing Games has largely focused on campaigns to ensure games remain accessible to players even after servers for them shut down. Notably, the EU commission ruled against Stop Killing Games' biggest effort back in June, but it seems the group is expanding its remit to help support other digital consumer rights efforts. Maybe the all-digital future really is inevitable, but legal challenges will be the only way to ensure digital purchases offer the same sorts of rights as physical ones.

With GTA 6 digital only, Take-Two boss says discs "don't really make sense" – "if you're already connected, who cares if you download digitally?"

Sony's decision to end physical disc production for new games on PlayStation consoles in 2028 isn't exactly popular among consumers – but that doesn't mean the company thinks it's making the wrong choice.

The end of physical media as we know it is quite the hot topic, with game preservation experts predicting it'll all just lead to more piracy and folks within the industry speaking out against companies' move toward digital-only gaming. Lords of the Fallen 2 publisher Marek Tyminski, for example, stated that Sony's choice to axe discs and the fact that GTA 6 is going disc-free itself "feels unfair to studios still backing physical" – so, yeah.

However, Sony appears to be unwavering in its decision. Following its quarterly financial conference during an earnings call Q&A (as transcribed by Investing), Sony chief financial officer Lin Tao implies as much.

The "biggest" reason? "The digitalization of contents overall has been progressing. That's the big factor. It's not just for PlayStation, but for all kinds of contents – digitalization is progressing." I immediately think of DVDs, personally.

According to Tao, Sony considered its decision for quite some time.

"When we think about the future – and we put in a lot of thought and time, we cautiously considered this – we came to this conclusion: we're going to cautiously move this forward. To this decision, we have received various opinions; people have strong views, and we understand that the community has put forth those views to us. Games are loved by many people."

That's perhaps an understatement – and, unsurprisingly, the nostalgia factor doesn't help. "It's a form of entertainment that's loved by people," as Tao says, "it's connected to people's fond memories in many cases."

And, although Sony isn't backing down on going disc-free, the executive explains that it's not a cut-and-dried process. "We understand those emotions. We want to consider that," she admits. "And in the future digital ecosystem, how do we engage the gamers is something that we would like to continue to explore."

I do wonder what that means – but, again, it's probably not what most gamers want to hear. It's not an admission of Sony taking its choice back and opting to support physical media… and "future digital ecosystem" is admittedly a tough quote to swallow as a longtime game collector myself.

Plus, Sony goes on to say it doesn't "see that there will be any negative impact on our business."

I'm choosing to remain hopeful that we'll still see discs and game cards in the future in some capacity – even if I'm holding on to a dying form of media here. A girl can dream, right?

Here's why we think PlayStation killing discs is bad for everyone, whether you care about physical games or not.

PlayStation might make the growing $7.2 billion second-hand games market shrink down to roly-poly size once it officially abandons physical discs in 2028, analysts say.

A CNBC report cites data from market researcher Dataintelo describing the video games resale market as worth $7.2 billion in 2025, though experts anticipated in March that it would expand to $13.8 billion by 2034. But that estimate might look dramatically different now that PlayStation has decided to stop feeding it.

"Brick and mortar game retail is doomed," Wedbush Securities managing director of strategic planning Michael Pachter tells CNBC definitively. He explains that at least one-third of sold games are used, and these sales help fuel new game purchases, too. Fewer discs from PlayStation lead to fewer opportunities to purchase games in general, whether new or old.

Morningstar equity research director Kazunori Ito likewise imagines the secondhand games market will "keep shrinking and eventually disappear" once Sony makes the transition to digital-only. PC games are already there with the help of major online shops like Steam, Epic, and GOG, and while Xbox technically hasn't renounced game discs yet, it's apparently headed that way, and it's practicing by testing a feature that digitizes entire disc collections.

Without new PlayStation and Xbox games to keep it freshly stocked, the secondhand games market will grow stale. We'll all be passing around the same 5,000 copies of Cabela's Monster Buck Hunter until they'll rot, and then I'll really have no chance at securing one of the world's highly coveted Silent Hill 2 discs for less than $300.

Ito adds, "There is an important difference between players accepting that shift [to digital] because they see value in it, and having it effectively forced on them by taking away the alternative." But it doesn't seem to matter to PlayStation.

PlayStation killing discs is bad for everyone, whether you care about physical games or not.

A game publisher has spoken out about Sony's plan to kill off physical games, saying it's still valuable to reach certain audiences.

You know the story by now: Rockstar Games opened the floodgates by announcing that GTA 6 will only release digitally – well, technically there will be a physical version, but it's a code in a box, so I'm not counting it – and then shortly after, Sony announced it will stop making disks in 2028. This caused massive outrage from players, with the latest Marvel's Wolverine trailer – and most trailers on the PlayStation YouTube channel – being bombarded with comments demanding Sony change course.

Speaking to Game File, founder and CEO of publisher Serenity Forge, Zhenghua Yang explains, "For us, physical publishing has actually never just been another sales channel" and that the disk releases are "actually an important part of our mission to bring meaningful games to as many people as possible globally."

Serenity Forge has published a number of iconic indie titles like Lisa, Doki Doki Literature Club, and Slay the Princess over the years. Yang adds, "Physical games help us reach audiences that digital often can’t," explaining, "They can be discovered in retail stores like Walmart/GameStop/etc, given as gifts, distributed to places with limited internet access, and preserved as lasting works of art."

However, Yang stresses the importance of digital games too, saying, "Digital distribution has made games more accessible, and it's been one of the biggest drivers of growth for our industry."

However, he doesn't see it as a 'one or the other' situation, adding, "We see physical and digital as complementary rather than competing" and that a combo of the two helps games reach the "widest possible audience."

Yang adds, "Every platform holder has to make long-term decisions based on manufacturing costs, logistics, consumer behavior" and says he has "no doubt Sony evaluated all of those factors carefully."

Industry analyst Mat Piscatella also revealed that in 2026, only seven games on PlayStation have sold more than 100,000 physical copies in the US this year, suggesting that, unfortunately – despite the massive online outrage – people aren't putting their money where their mouth is.

Despite Sony's decision likely having massive effects on the industry, Yang says the company's mission statement hasn't changed: "Our responsibility can really only be to adapt, continue serving our players, and keep finding new ways to make meaningful interactive art accessible to the widest possible audience."

PlayStation killing discs is bad for everyone, whether you care about physical games or not

PlayStation fans continue to demand physical game discs from the company after it announced it would stop making them in 2028, but actual sales numbers gathered by Circana industry analyst Mat Piscatella suggest that – as much as I hate saying this – Sony might be right.

People are not buying physical games, though the 12,000 wailing comments under the latest Marvel's Wolverine trailer might confuse you into thinking you fell asleep and woke up in a physical media Eden. But – I'm consoling my tired, creaking DVD shelf as I say this – we are not in Eden, as Piscatella reveals only seven PlayStation games have sold more than 100,000 physical copies in the US this year.

"2 PlayStation video games sold more than 10k physical units in the US during week ending July 11, 2026," the analyst shares on Bluesky, "7 have sold more than 100k physical units year-to-date." Global estimates from earlier this month by Alinea Analytics suggest EA Sports FC 26, Resident Evil Requiem, and 007 First Light might be among those seven games, as each saw at least 12% of their millions of international sales derive from physical games. In Requiem's case, a hefty 27.8% of its 3.5 million copies sold are estimated to have come from physical discs.

Those are not small numbers. But they're not big for PlayStation, either, especially when considering the fact that Piscatella's data comes from "all games, all pubs, all PS platforms," he explains.

Things used to look very different for all games, all pubs, all platforms. According to a wedge-shaped chart Piscatella posted on Bluesky in June, US consumer spending on physical games went on a sleigh ride downhill from $11.5 billion in 2009 to $1.6 billion in 2026. We're still nurturing a capital-B Billion, but that wad of cash is a much smaller prize for Sony than it's used to.

Piscatella predicted this summer, "More than half of all Xbox Series consoles in the US don't have a physical drive, while over a quarter of PS5's are the same. We likely have less than a decade left of physical software."

Now, PlayStation is fulfilling the prophecy. Piscatella says about players' recent outrage, "Commenting is cool, use your voice and all that. But commenting is cheap." So, remember, if you really do care about physical discs, buy them.

Sony's attack on physical goods spreads to Crunchyroll as it adds a $14 subscription requirement just to access new store "experience."

Marathon game director Joe Ziegler has stepped down and left Bungie a short two months after the developer announced its final update for fellow FPS Destiny 2. His last day at the company was July 17.

Former Destiny 2 design lead Del Chafe III will take over as game director with help from Marathon's current creative director Julia Nardin. Ziegler writes in a Twitter announcement, "Both of them have been operating in a strong leadership capacity for the team and are ready to guide Marathon into the next chapter with an even better and brighter future." Marathon launched in March with a peak concurrent player count of 88,337, according to Steam DB, and its current player count as of writing is 6,775.

Nardin told GamesRadar+ earlier this summer that Marathon's team already knew "where we want to take the story over the next few years," so, at least publicly, Bungie looks ready to invest in Marathon as it leaves Destiny 2 in a sad, comatose state. But the fact that the shooter has gone from nearly 90,000 simultaneous players to under 10,000 is a foreboding one.

"I just want to say a deeply heartfelt thank you to all of you for supporting me and Marathon in our windy mission to bring a dark and terrifying space survival frontier to your screen," Ziegler says. "The mission will continue in new and surprising ways so stay tuned for what this team has in store for you!" The developer says he will "be heading to something new, somewhere else" with updates to come "soon."

"Hopefully as I move onto new things, you'll join me for those adventures as well," he adds.

Bungie has recently been shedding employees like cat hair – it laid off "most" of its Destiny 2 team in a massive sweep, and while PlayStation CEO Herman Hulst swore to staff at the time that Marathon "remains an important part of our portfolio, and we will continue to support the team," some of its devs were also impacted by layoffs. Following those layoffs, Bundie studio head Justin Truman reportedly stepped down from his position after less than a year.

"Working at Bungie was the most toxic, dysfunctional experience of my professional life," former narrative lead Michael Zenke, who left Bungie in 2017, remarked after Destiny 2's death knell update was announced. Ziegler's sudden departure from Marathon after a now seems like evidence of this. You can't enjoy a home with a crumbling foundation.

As Destiny 2 ends, what's next for Bungie?

Surprise! The official PlayStation YouTube channel has randomly dropped a new trailer for Marvel's Wolverine with some notable story and character reveals, and as you might imagine the community is – wait, what's that? Oh, the comments are absolutely flooded with anger about Sony's decision to end physical discs, to the point where hardly anyone is actually discussing the content of the trailer.

The trailer seems to effectively be an extended cutscene, but it does have some meat for fans to chew on. We see Wolverine chasing a photo of himself and Jean Grey through an array of battlefields, suggesting that their relationship will be a central part of the story. More surprising is that Sabretooth – who we've seen appear in previous footage – seems to be teaming up with Logan. We've also finally got confirmation that Lady Deathstrike will appear in the game.

But if you scroll through the comments on YouTube, you won't see much discussion about those facts. Instead, you'll see messages like "We want physical games," "WE WANT PHYSICAL GAMES!" and "WE WANT PHYSICAL GAMES!!!!" Others are chiming in with comments like "That disc is going to look awesome," "This is gonna be a day one buy on physical disc," and "Can't wait for my PHYSICAL COPY."

Marvel's Wolverine will indeed be released on a physical disc, something that the devs at Insomniac confirmed in the wake of news that GTA 6 would be a digital-only launch. Since then, Sony announced that there will be no more new PlayStation games on disc as of 2028, so it seems Marvel's Wolverine is likely among the last of a dying breed.

Analysts expect that Sony "will not reverse" its decision to kill discs despite the backlash, but boy – that backlash is loud on the official PlayStation YouTube channel. It's not just a response to a big, first-party title like Wolverine, either – every single new trailer uploaded to the channel is inundated with the same sorts of comments supporting physical media.

Non-Sony devs are certainly taking notice. Eat Pant Games, the New Zealand indie studio behind adorable platformer Teeto, posted a harrowing recap of seeing 400 comments under the game's release trailer, only to find that they're all about physical discs. Teeto is a small enough release that it's only happening digitally for now, but the devs are hopeful that could change in the future: "WE CAN HAVE BOTH."

Despite some reports to the contrary, Sony hasn't been shutting off comments in response to the backlash. Trailers for titles like Instant Sports 2 are flagged as family-friendly content on YouTube, which means comments are turned off automatically – presumably to protect kids from the horrors of gamers who are mad about Sony's efforts to hasten the death of physical media.

Sony killing physical PlayStation games is "the latest attack on our diminishing rights," leading digital rights group says: "The end goal is to turn the customer into a renter."

Sony plans to end physical discs by 2028, assuming no one wants to hold anything in their hands anymore now that we have the Fortnite item shop to provide us with Skibidi Toilet backpack in exchange for real money. But if that were even a little bit true, then Mortal Shell 2 developer Cold Symmetry wouldn't have to be so despondent. Its PS5-exclusive Revered Edition with a physical disc is running out of stock, which is great, but Cold Symmetry doesn't yet have confirmed plans to replace it.

"Demand for the PS5 physical Revered Edition of Mortal Shell 2 has exceeded expectations," Cold Symmetry writes in a July 16 Twitter post, ahead of the grim Soulslike sequel's August 20 launch. "Unfortunately supply across a number of retailers has now been fully reserved, meaning that in a growing number of markets fans are unable to pre-purchase a copy of the game. We apologise for the lack of availability."

Mortal Shell 2 follows the first game from 2020 in being a frigid stone slab of an action-RPG, all gray and mist blue as you possess fallen warriors' empty Shells and use their combat powers against heretics. Its fancy $70 Revered Edition comes in a big box with a physical game, steelbook, artbook, and in-game exclusives. While most major retailers seem to still be accepting pre-orders for the Edition, Cold Symmetry suggests there's no guarantee your order will be fulfilled if you place one.

"There is a very low chance of additional physical copies becoming available before the game's release," the developer continues on Twitter. "We are working with our distribution partner to review ongoing demand and we'll update as soon as we hear their decision on next steps."

"To be clear," Cold Symmetry reiterates, "there is no guarantee of a stock replenishment plan after launch as this decision is not ours to make."

But even if the Revered Edition's physical games are sold out for good, fans have decided Mortal Shell 2 will still be the accidental poster child of discs. Niko Partners video game market analyst Daniel Ahmad writes on Twitter about Mortal Shell 2's slipping stock, "Granted this is overall a supply issue rather than demand, but it does show this model works and could continue working."

Others scoff more full-throatedly at PlayStation for ever doubting the game format. In any case, it seems that physical media doesn't lie down and die just because Sony wants it to.

Sony's attack on physical goods spreads to Crunchyroll as it adds a $14 subscription requirement just to access new store "experience."

PlayStation Store's former boss has spoken out about "allegations of monopolization and price manipulation" on Sony's storefront, claiming that it's actually publishers that set the recommended retail price for games.

Folks have been looking at the prices on the PlayStation Store with even more disdain than usual lately following Sony's announcement that it'll be killing off physical discs for new PlayStation games from 2028. After all, one of the greatest virtues of physical games is that they're generally a lot more affordable. Between price cuts at retailers and the second-hand market, more often than not, your wallet will thank you for picking up a boxed copy of a game rather than a digital version, which often stays put at its full retail price outside of sales events.

Needless to say, the idea of not having any other choice to buy new PlayStation games going forward is concerning – many are worried that gaming is going to become even more expensive than it already is as a result, but according to one former exec, that pricing isn't Sony's fault. Gordon Thornton spent the best part of 18 years at Sony Interactive Entertainment before his departure in 2022, and in that time, he held many roles, including that of senior vice president and global head of PlayStation Store and services. On his LinkedIn page, he explains that he "built and scaled PlayStation's global direct-to-consumer business from inception to $13B in revenue, transforming the PlayStation Store into the world's largest digital games retailer and subscription platform."

With that in mind, Thornton was more than involved with the workings of the PlayStation Store, and speaking to Insider Gaming, he claims that Sony isn't responsible for the retail pricing of all games on the storefront – their publishers are. "Regarding allegations of monopolization and price manipulation, PlayStation operates on a buy/sell model where the publisher acts as the supplier," he begins. "Because the recommended retail price is set directly by the publisher, Sony does not control these pricing structures, which counters claims of unilateral price fixing."

Now, it's worth noting that this comes across as a bit odd, largely because it seems to contradict claims made by Sony itself when it was fighting back against a class-action lawsuit alleging violations of antitrust and unfair competition laws. Specifically, back in 2021, plaintiff Agustin Caccuri filed a class action complaint in which it was alleged that – amongst other things – "Sony also requires publishers who sell digital games on the PlayStation Store to relinquish full control over the retail price," and claimed that, unlike Xbox and Nintendo's stores, "game developers must cede total control over the retail price to Sony."

In a motion to dismiss filed in early 2022, Sony acknowledged the claim that it "'force[d] publishers to cede control over the final retail price' of digital games to Sony," and said: "Of course, that is how a wholesale model works: the wholesaler and retailer agree on a wholesale price and, in turn, the retailer sets the price of the product that it sells to consumers." It added: "Under the wholesale model, Sony and the publisher/developer agree upon a wholesale price and then Sony sets the retail price that it will charge consumers on the PlayStation Store."

It further explained: "The retailer (Sony) and the wholesaler (game publisher) agree on a wholesale price that the retailer will pay the wholesaler for the product (videogames); [...] the retailer sets the retail price, which typically includes a margin over the wholesale price; and [...] the retailer sells the product to consumers."

As it happens, a settlement for this lawsuit was preliminarily approved in April, and although things aren't final (there are still a number of stages, including the final approval hearing planned for October 15), eligible class members could collectively be set to receive $7.85 million if it goes through.

Last time PlayStation threatened to close PS3 and Vita digital stores, the players revolted: "As gamers and collectors this is a hard pill to swallow."

Last week, analyst Daniel Ahmad compared the end of physical PlayStation games to the end of disc drives in Apple laptops, noting that nobody these days really seems to care about PC games having gone all-digital. The full post was lengthy and nuanced, but the internet tends not to read that far (congrats on making it over 50 words into this article, by the way), so now he's further clarifying what he meant on social media.

"When I compared Sony stopping disc production to CD drives being removed from computers, I'm talking in the context of games shipping on disc," Ahmad says on Bluesky. "Obviously you can buy an external drive for a PC, but virtually no modern PC game. This isn't me saying 'Wow I love Sony and they are great for doing this', it's to say that PC is essentially 100% digital and you'll be hard pressed to find anyone pining for the days of physical PC games."

Look, I like old-school, big box PC games and collect them here and there, but even as I cling to physical console games I'm willing to admit that the ship has long since sailed for physical computer games. There are all kinds of things making physical versions of modern PC games impractical, from the lack of disc drives on most retail computers to the inordinate amount of discs a modern PC install would require.

Ahmad reiterates the central point from his original post: "Regardless of whether it's bringing physical back, or embracing digital, the conversation needs to shift to consumer rights and what a license should enable. Stop Killing Games was one part of it, but gifting, family sharing, refunds, and other aspects are just as important."

That gets to the key difference separating digital games on console from those on PC. Steam dominates computer game distribution, with easy ways to gift games, solid refund policies, and built-in family sharing options. Valve is pressed into offering those kinds of features because it faces competition from other digital storefronts and the convenience of pirated games, but it would be a lot better for consumers if those kinds of features were required on digital stores by law.

We don't know what the PlayStation Store will look like when physical disc production ends, but none of the three console manufacturers have offered digital storefronts on par with those on PC, never mind something in line with what groups like Stop Killing Games are dreaming of. While I'd love for physical games to exist forever, I'm not confident they will. That's why, as Ahmad suggests, we need to be pushing for stronger ownership rights for our digital goods.

These are the best physical games to grab while you still can.

Sony's decision to end production of disks for new PlayStation games in 2028 has met with extensive backlash from players online, and that backlash is starting to expand into larger consumer rights campaigns around the world. Lawmakers in Mexico and a consumer rights nonprofit in the Netherlands both say that effectively ending the physical games market will give Sony full control over how players buy games on its platforms.

"The end of physical discs removes the last place where a PlayStation game could still be bought and sold at a competitive price," according to a statement from Stichting Massaschade & Consument provided to Wccftech. "No discs means no second-hand market and no alternative to the PlayStation Store, so from 2028, Sony alone decides what a game costs and even how long you are allowed to use it. That is exactly the harm our Fair PlayStation claim is about: a price can never be fair when the buyer is left with no ownership and no alternative."

Stichting Massaschade & Consument is a Dutch consumer rights organization that's already taking Sony to task as part of its Fair PlayStation campaign. That campaign, which has already been ongoing for years, argues that Sony's digital marketplace can charge artificially high prices because there's nowhere else to get your digital games. If physical games go away, too, consumers will have no alternative to paying whatever price Sony and its third-party partners choose to charge.

This argument is a big part of why I'm so concerned over the end of physical PlayStation games, but for all intents and purposes, it's perfectly legal – which is why groups like Stichting Massaschade & Consument and Stop Killing Games have been pushing for changes regarding how digital purchases are regarded in the law.

Separate from those movements, federal representative Iraís Reyes and senator Luis Donaldo Colosio are set to file a complaint about Sony's move with Mexico’s National Antitrust Commission, according to a statement provided to LevelUp. This is a purely civilian process – the two lawmakers aren't yet advancing legislation to try and stop the end of PlayStation discs, but they are raising their concerns before the country's regulators.

"Sony would become both the referee and the player within its own ecosystem, and we know what can happen when a single company controls every part of the market," Reyes argues, echoing the concerns of the Dutch regulators. But this complaint covers several additional concerns about the end of physical media.

"Consumers would stop truly owning their video games," Colosio adds. "With digital distribution, you’re no longer buying a game in the traditional sense – you’re purchasing a license, which means access to the content depends entirely on the conditions established by the company." He also notes that access to reliable, high-speed internet – a requirement for using a digital game – isn't consistent across Mexico.

These are all arguments we've heard before, and both these efforts are local to their respective regions. But the backlash is expanding beyond the gaming community, and even if Sony has no intention on backpedalling its all-digital plans, changes to the law around digital ownership could solve most of the problems around the big pivot anyway.

After Sony announces its sunsetting PlayStation discs, Hideo Kojima shares a warning about physical media: "What is happening to video games in 2028 might also happen to movies."

Former PlayStation lead Shawn Layden thinks that "we've lost a lot of the variety in games" releasing these days, with more titles that look like "the game next to it" rather than something entirely unique – and you can thank "the rising cost" of development for that.

It's no secret that game budgets are inflating massively. Earlier this year, it was reported that new AAA games could cost upwards of $300 million to make, and with that in mind, it's little wonder that publishers have such high standards for what actually counts as a success these days. What's more, as Layden, the former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment America, points out, those massive costs are also driving "risk tolerance" extremely low.

"I was at a game awards show a couple of years ago, and I was a bit disappointed to see that all the games I saw at that awards presentation were either zombie apocalypse, some kind of space marines, [or] guys in medieval Europe with really big swords," Layden tells PSI in an interview (below).

"That was so central to what everyone was building. There's so many games that looked like the game next to it and looked like the game next to it," he says, adding: "I'm concerned that in today's world, quirky games like PaRappa the Rapper don't get made anymore."

Layden continues: "I think we've lost a lot of the variety in games that are out there. We have: 'this one's a looter shooter, and this one's a hero shooter, this one's an extraction shooter. Shooter, shooter, shooter.' We have mountains of those. But where's the next Katamari Damacy?"

Furthermore, he warns that the games industry could be losing "the opportunity to attract new users" by refraining from increasing the amount of different kinds of games on offer to players.

With all that said, Layden obviously sees the reason why this is the case: "The rising cost of games." He explains: "I mean, if you could make a game for $5 or $6 million, like we could back on PlayStation One, then you'd do ten games. [...] Like, let's see what people are excited by.

"We had so many crazy games on PS1 because the cost to risk was manageable. You know, you could literally throw away $6 to $7 million on a project that didn't work, but go, 'Well, at least we learned something.' Now, if every throw of the dice is triple digit millions, then risk tolerance goes to about zero."

Now, Layden says, trying to get funding for a new game means getting hit with questions like, "'is it a sequel? Is it an established IP?'" Devs might find themselves pitching something as "'like Fortnite meets Call of Duty in Zombieland,'" he suggests. But ultimately, "no one wants to take a risk on unicorn ballet in space. No one's going to give you any money to make that game, even if it's really super exciting.

"So yeah, the high cost is driving risk tolerance to zero," he concludes. "I think as long as we judge games solely on revenue projections, then, you know, again, your risk tolerance goes to zero."

It's not that games that stray from the mainstream don't exist, of course. I think it's fairly safe to say that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33's popularity last year was, at the very least in part, driven by the things that made it different, from its blend of action and turn-based combat, its delightfully French vibes, to its stellar story. Similarly, before Balatro blew up, could you honestly say you'd played a Poker-themed roguelike deckbuilder full of illegal cards and weird Jokers? I doubt it, somehow. The point remains – let's have more unique, weird, and wonderful games, please.

Ex-PlayStation boss says PC ports weren't losing Sony any hardware sales, questions how it could think otherwise now it's reportedly keeping big single-player games console-exclusive.

Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden is a big believer that "single player, narrative-driven gaming is here to stay," saying it's "what sustains" the business.

When you think of PlayStation's greatest hits, chances are, you're going to think of a whole bunch of single-player games. Whether it's The Last of Us, God of War, Uncharted, or Ghost of Tsushima, there's no doubt that games like this have been huge drivers of PlayStation's success, and although Sony has delved more into the world of live-service in recent years (to mixed success), Layden – former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment America – says it's with single-player games the games business was built, and what'll continue to keep it going.

"I firmly believe that single player, narrative-driven gaming is here to stay," he tells PSI in an interview on YouTube (below). "It's how we built this business. That's what sustains it. It's a type of game where you can enjoy it by yourself and talk to friends about it. Maybe there's multiplayer, maybe there isn't.

"But I think essentially most of our great gaming experiences are when we allow ourselves to be immersed in that world with that character, to learn that story, more so than 'I got online with a bunch of friends and we played team deathmatch.'"

That's not to say that live-service games don't have their place, of course. Helldivers 2, published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, has been hugely successful since its launch two years ago. However, we've obviously also seen a lot of live-service horror stories – Concord didn't even last two weeks before it was shut down for good, and while it still has plenty of fans, Destiny 2 has been in decline for a long time at this point, so much so that it's now received its final update.

It's worth noting that Layden's comments were made before Sony's announcement that it's killing physical discs for new PlayStation games in 2028, so he's not responding to that backlash here. In a separate interview about that decision, Layden called the move "dramatic," and suggested it could "heavily influence" Xbox and Nintendo's approach to physical games going forward.

Sony killing physical PlayStation games has folks so angry that its announcement has even more views than Rockstar's GTA 6 trailer posts on Twitter.

God of War Laufey will be available on a physical disc, developer Sony Santa Monica has confirmed. This strongly suggests the game will launch before the PS6, which is strongly expected to be a digital only console.

In the before times, this wouldn't be much of a story, but in a world where the biggest game to release this century, GTA 6, seemingly has no plans for a traditional physical launch, and more pertinent to this story, where PlayStation is ending production of physical discs, it's pretty big news. For physical game collectors, it's one of the biggest upcoming PS5 games on the horizon and one more they'll be able to save a space for on their shelves, like the good old days.

Responding to questions on Twitter, the official Sony Santa Monica account confirms: "We can confirm God of War Laufey will be available on disc."

God of War Laufey is the next mainline game in Sony Santa Monica's God of War series and the third game in the Norse saga. Instead of being a direct sequel to 2022's God of War Ragnarok, Laufey's story picks up directly following the scene depicting Faye's funeral from 2018 God of War, serving as a sort of connective link between God of War and God of War Ragnarok. And as you might expect from the title, longtime series protagonist Kratos isn't the lead protagonist here. Instead, players take control of the much more agile, but equally powerful, Laufey, Kratos's second wife and the mother of Atreus.

There's no release date for God of War Laufey yet, but again, if it's getting a disc, it's likely to launch as a PS5 game instead of a PS6 exclusive. Analysts think the PS6 could launch around 2028.

God of War Laufey proves women are still gaining ground in gaming, and I'm thrilled Kratos is sitting this one out

David Hayter, the striking voice behind the Metal Gear series' various Snake roles, isn't a fan of Sony's decision to end physical disc production for new games on PlayStation consoles in 2028 – and he's certainly not afraid to show it.

The end of physical media as we know it is dominating online discussions following Sony's announcement, which cited how "general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs" – a statement that plenty of folks definitely cannot get behind.

One of them is none other than David Hayter, the iconic voice actor known for his work on Metal Gear Solid games as Solid Snake, Old Snake, Naked Snake… you name it.

In a new online post, Hayter makes this as clear as he possibly can, sharing a picture of all his consoles and games (physical, of course, mind you). Between the Xbox and PlayStation 5 – and various controllers – I see a plethora of gems, including everything from GTA 5 to Red Dead Redemption 2.

As for his caption? "No disc, no buy." And, yes, he tags the official PlayStation account on Twitter, too, so as to catch Sony's attention.

Unsurprisingly, fans are largely in agreement with the actor, who admits in the comments that "this is a fraction of my game collection" as well. Not to mention, "I also have 2500+ DVDs." Physical media, you say? Hayter's no hater in that department.

He's not alone, either, as big developers in the industry themselves have spoken out against the move toward digital-only. Take former Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra, for example.

He says "we can't live in a world of fear if our games will work in the future or not," and game preservation experts share in that sentiment, explaining how this will all lead to more piracy.

Just yesterday, CEO of Lords of the Fallen 2 publisher CI Games, Marek Tyminski, also stated that Sony's choice to axe discs and the fact that GTA 6 is going disc-free itself "feels unfair to studios still backing physical" – so, yeah.

There's no telling what the future will bring for physical media enthusiasts, but I'm choosing to remain hopeful that game discs won't do a DVD on us and all but disappear. Something tells me Hayter is, too.

Here's why we think PlayStation killing discs is bad for everyone, whether you care about physical games or not.

On July 1, Sony announced the impending end of both physical PlayStation games and, in a demonstration of just one risk of a digital-only future, the shutdown of the PS3 and PS Vita storefronts. In its first social media post since this one-two bombshell, PlayStation discusses its fight stick controller.

The 10,000 Twitter replies this post has received in 30 minutes are not about the fight stick controller.

Increasingly, it appears that, just as PlayStation was previously bullied out of closing the PS3 and PS Vita stores in 2021, Sony has underestimated the scope and intensity of backlash resulting from its decision to end support for physical games.

Sony's July 1 announcement post has, according to Twitter view and comment metrics, outperformed both of the GTA 6 trailers shared by Rockstar Games. Rare close-ups of the most-anticipated game in history sparked less discussion than the death of discs on one of gaming's main platforms. I'm not sure this storm can be waited out, folks.

The responses to PlayStation's fight stick post are exactly what you'd expect: a litany of demands for discs interspersed with bizarre memes, riffs on PlayStation taglines ("Play has limits" and "Greed has no limits" and so on), and the general sharpening of pitchforks. My favorite reply is probably the shot of noted anti-corpo hero Cloud (of Final Fantasy 7) sizing up Sony headquarters. The award for best quote tweet goes to Scott Wozniak.

Sony higher-ups undoubtedly anticipated some measure of blowback to this new strategy, and for all we know this response is well within internal expectations and unlikely to rattle, let alone dissuade, leadership as the company's stock actually climbs after the news. Yet it's hard to remember a larger, louder, unified response in this space, and if I trust gamers with anything, it's spite.

We've heard many sensible arguments for the continued support of physical games. Consumer choice, game discovery, knock-on effects from collapsing game stores, hobbyist culture, repeat sales, price protection, new-gamer onboarding, game preservation – the list goes on.

Additionally, as gaming struggles to replace aging players and consoles tread water in a dire hardware market, many have called PlayStation short-sighted for inventing a new way to push even more people toward PC – as physical copies were a rare advantage consoles had over PC gaming – all just to make a little more money off game sales. Gaming is actively facing existential challenges that stretch far beyond the short term, and, historically, pissing everybody off hasn't worked out in any publisher's favor.

Instead of putting its games on PC, Sony apparently wants to escape the reputation that "PlayStation equals the living room" by selling monitors and speakers.

The industry is reeling at the moment from Sony's announcement that it'll be ending new physical discs for PlayStation consoles in 2028. Though the pivot appears quite sudden, barring more extraneous market factors, a new report suggests it's been coming for some time, and the main factory involved is already changing direction.

This comes from ORF Salzburg, an Austrian outlet who spoke to the head of Sony's flagship disc-producing plant in Thalgau about the shifting tide in business. Apparently, some 600,000 discs come out of the facility every single day, 50% of which are for PlayStation devices.

It was once part of a small phalanx of factories, with two based in the United States, but one of those was shuttered in 2011 and the other pivoted toward the auto industry. As of 2022, it's been all based in Thalgau, according to Dietmar Tanzer, the president of Sony DADC, and as translated by The Verge, it's since been treated as the centre of Sony's disced operations.

But since from 2028 onwards, those 300,000 pieces of circular plastic won't be going to PlayStation-related systems, the focus will apparently be on making microlenses, a practice that began coming in toward the end of 2024, The Verge notes. These are made using transparent discs, and per the report, Sony's recently allocated €30 million into the technology for manufacturing them, and there's potential to move into auto-motion too. It's claimed that employees are planned to be retrained extensively in the future, with plans to begin mass production of microlenses potentially as soon as next year.

Alas, the choice to discontinue physical games on PlayStation consoles wasn't made in a hurry, and it appears Sony's not about to give up on a start-of-the-art factory like in Thalgau. I'm relieved to see it doesn't appear jobs are being lost on this front, anyway, which was among my fears when hearing about the shift away from allowing us to buy discs in boxes.

This is a small upside thus far, and the industry's been collectively voicing their concerns and disappointments. The future of game preservation and consumer rights in the medium is in danger of regressing further. At least we'll have good microlenses.

Former PlayStation boss warns Sony won't be able to replicate a key factor to the PS2's success "in the current generation" due to hardware costs.

Sony is ending physical disc production for new PlayStation games in 2028, and the widely controversial decision could affect how Xbox and Nintendo approach physical media, according to the company's ex-boss.

Earlier this week, PlayStation made everyone and their unborn children mad by announcing that it plans to discontinue physical production of new games releasing on PS4, PS5, and inevitable PS6 consoles from January 2026. "Following this date, new games will be available on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only," the company explained.

Former PlayStation Worldwide Studios head, Shawn Layden, who led the company across its PS4 golden years, recently chimed in on the "dramatic decision" in an interview with Eurogamer.

Speaking on how PlayStation's disc-less future could impact the other two console makers, Layden essentially says it's not good news: "Certainly this is an industry where if one company, particularly the leader of the industry, makes a decision of this magnitude, that's going to heavily influence what the other ones do."

The Nintendo Switch 2 is a fairly new console that supports physical cartridges, despite a few less-than-ideal Game-Key Card releases. The likelihood of the Big N completely ditching physical games any time soon is pretty low, then.

Meanwhile, Xbox has pretty openly discussed its next-gen plans for Project Helix, a console that can also apparently play your PC games. What shape that takes isn't totally clear, but there haven't been any promises of a built-in disc drive at the time of writing.

Ending support for physical releases isn't a new point of debate for the company, Layden says, since was apparently asked about it "every year for the last 20 years." But he was always hesitant to pull the trigger until he was "comfortable enough to believe that worldwide, broadband throughout is good enough to support that download experience, good enough to reach the majority of customers," he tells Eurogamer. While he was in charge, that reality obviously never came to pass, though he acknowledges that he no longer works for PlayStation and, thus, no longer knows what their internal data says about the matter.

Regardless, Sony's decision has been hugely unpopular. Developers and publishers across the industry spoke out against PlayStation's all-digital future, citing concerns around game preservation and consumer rights.

Despite huge declines over the last two decades, one analyst recently revealed that spending on physical games in the US actually increased over the last 12-month period. Around $1.6 billion was spent on physical video games in the US alone – certainly nothing to scoff at, and the small increase in business indicates that it's not a market that's ready to die by itself.

Game preservation expert says stop killing games if you don't want piracy, because companies like PlayStation and Rockstar "refuse to offer a meaningful alternative"

Between the controversy that Rockstar Games has sparked with its upcoming GTA 6 release (one that sees digital download codes in "physical" copies rather than discs) and Sony ending physical disc production for new PlayStation games in 2028, it's been one heck of a week.

It's not looking good for collectors or general fans of physical media, that's for certain. On the one hand, we've got developers like Rockstar moving away from discs. On the other, there are even bigger companies like Sony announcing that it'll cut the production of new game discs for its consoles altogether in just a couple of years. Then, there's Nintendo with its introduction of game-key cards on the Switch 2 – so, yeah.

This, coupled with all of the Stop Killing Games chatter surrounding the end of live-service titles, has made for much discussion regarding consumer rights – so much so, in fact, that preservation experts like Video Game History Foundation director Frank Cifaldi have chimed in on the matter.

Most recently, he has responded to a person on social media asserting that "piracy is the only extant form of media preservation that exists in games right now."

Cifaldi doesn't exactly disagree there, writing, "As the director of a historical video game preservation institution, and someone who has dedicated his entire adult life to this cause, this is accurate. We have attempted to work with the industry's trade organization to find a legal path forward, but they refuse to offer a meaningful alternative."

As the director of a historical video game preservation institution, and someone who has dedicated his entire adult life to this cause, this is accurate. We have attempted to work with the industry's trade organization to find a legal path forward, but they refuse to offer a meaningful alternative.

— @frankcifaldi.bsky.social (@frankcifaldi.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-07-02T15:26:34.299Z

That certainly makes sense – heck, new games like GTA 6 are only the tip of the iceberg of the problem at hand.

This also lines up with what Cifaldi said yesterday, as Sony announced its plan for physical discs on PlayStation consoles – that downloading GTA 6 with the "hope it'll run in 50 years is not a preservation solution."

He dubbed the entire situation "unfortunate news for those who still prefer buying games on physical media," which, you know, isn't exactly a minor portion of video game consumers. There are quite a few collectors out there, too.

Here's hoping the industry itself takes note of people's reactions – although I doubt it'll be enough to convince companies like Sony to back down on their decision to step away from physical media. Times are changing, after all… I suppose.

Nintendo probably won't ditch physical games just because PlayStation is, analyst predicts: "Nintendo is going to be Nintendo, for better and/or worse."

Recent comments from Sony executives affirm PlayStation is eagerly exploring applications of AI, including the use of "synthetic assets" in game development.

A translated Q&A from the company's recent games and network services meeting includes joint remarks from Sony president and CEO Hideaki Nishino, studio business CEO Hermen Hulst, and senior vice president of finance and corporate development Lynn Azar.

In the meeting's opening presentation, Nishino says, "We also see AI as an important foundational technology supporting our strategy. AI is already helping us across various fields by improving development efficiency, enhancing the player experience, improving content discovery, and enabling creators to build richer content."

Nishino adds that, "With our global player base, deep library of IP, and integrated ecosystem, AI is an exciting long-term opportunity for us."

Nishino notably doesn't specify generative AI, which many game developers have pushed back on, but Sony does discuss how AI may be used in game development. Some of its messaging echoes previous chatter of expediting or removing tedium from game production, but it also looks at more operational applications across the business.

One questioner asks, "As new content emerges in the age of AI, how do you plan to differentiate your platform?"

Sony's joint response is wide-reaching. "With the introduction of AI, we are now able to analyze data at scale much more quickly, and we are seeing strong progress in advancing data utilization," it begins. For example, given the "enormous" volume of PlayStation Store transactions and the risk of "very significant" financial impact from fraud, Sony says "AI engines are being used to assess transaction reliability with a high degree of sophistication, contributing to the prevention of fraud."

Quick to stress that "as a creative entertainment company, we prioritize our creators," Sony says AI can enhance that creative work by "by removing repetitive tasks and enabling faster iteration and higher-quality outputs."

This includes the use of "synthetic assets, including synthetic voices, as early placeholders." Indeed, artificial voices have been used as placeholders in some games for quite some time, and the likes of Arc Raiders even shipped with many artificial voices. Today, the risks of AI-generated placeholder assets, especially art, slipping into the final version of a game and causing a stink among players have increased.

Former Dragon Age narrative lead David Gaider discussed this exact risk in scathing comments on generative AI. "All you'd need is one lazy developer or one temp asset that's been forgotten or was placed by someone who's since left the team and you'd have an issue on your hands," Gaider says.

Sony says these synthetic assets are "less about cost efficiency and more about improving quality and development speed, which we see as highly valuable." Of course, since game development costs are largely a function of labor over time, saving time via AI is unavoidably tied to cost efficiency.

Sony also squarely focuses on how games may benefit from AI. "For many years, AI has been deeply embedded in our development processes, and we are increasingly seeing its impact on more immersive in-game experiences, where characters and worlds are enhanced by AI capabilities," the company explains. It's unclear how far back Sony is looking, or how much of this sentiment stems from the fact that AI – as a broader technology and a means of, say, directing NPCs – was woven into games long before the term AI gained new meaning in the ChatGPT decade.

This rhetoric seems to veer closer to that of Ubisoft, which has made much of player-facing gen AI, including visions for more dynamic and responsive companions and other non-player characters. We've also seen some developers question the feasibility and fun of this application of gen AI, with concerns percolating that this approach will just result in poorly defined writing that tries to do everything.

"At the same time, we are experimenting at a more fundamental level with smaller, AI-first initiatives, while remaining realistic about near-term efficiency gains," Sony concludes, seemingly blunting the sensationalism seen in some circles of AI discussion. "These efforts position us to stay at the forefront as AI continues to evolve, both in development processes and in shaping future player experiences."

Instead of putting its games on PC, Sony apparently wants to escape the reputation that "PlayStation equals the living room" by selling monitors and speakers.

As Bethesda Game Studios plans for the Switch 2 release of The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered, it reassures fans that the RPG remake will indeed be "available on a physical game card" – an assertion that catches the eye, to say the least.

In case you're out of the loop, fans of physical media have had a heck of a week. Yesterday, Sony announced that it's ending physical disc production for new games on PlayStation consoles in 2028, stating "general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs" – and, boy, did that cause a stir.

Unsurprisingly, folks aren't thrilled… and it's not too difficult to see why. The move away from discs and cartridges has been a hot topic. Bethesda, however, isn't dipping out of producing physical copies of its games just yet – and it's reassuring players that Oblivion Remastered on Switch 2 is no exception in that regard.

A new post from the company (which, mind you, went live mere hours after Sony announced its plan to axe physical disc production for PlayStation) reads that "The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion Remastered Deluxe Edition is available on a physical game card."

You know, "for those seeking to add to their collection!" The attached video shows the cartridge itself being waved around front and center, just to get the message across. That's totally just a conveniently timed coincidence and most definitely not a jab at Sony… right? Well, it's not like Bethesda names any names here or anything – but it does appear the community finds the timing amusing.

"This after Sony announces that they'll end disc production in 2028," as one fan's reply puts it. Another jests, "Alright, Bethesda. You got my attention!"

Honestly, I'm glad – joke or not – that Bethesda is still letting fans choose between going digital or physical. It's not as though Sony is the only big name to make moves away from the latter, anyway, with Nintendo having sparked similar controversy with its introduction of game-key cards on the Switch 2 last year.

That wasn't a complete wipe of physical copies for Nintendo's console, however, but it shows that times are certainly changing.

As someone who enjoys collecting games myself, I do hope more companies follow suit here and let consumers choose whether or not they want digital or physical releases. Choice is the key here, I'd say – and stripping that away is the core of the contention.

"Pretend we kept patching Oblivion. What would we have done if we kept supporting it?" – Todd Howard explains the "thought exercise" Bethesda went through for its remaster.

A former Microsoft gaming executive and Blizzard Entertainment's ex-president, Mike Ybarra, has reacted to the news of PlayStation's all-digital, disc-less future with some notes for console makers.

Sony Interactive Entertainment yesterday announced that physical production for new PlayStation games will end in January, 2028, effectively meaning games released after that point will no longer be printed on discs for the PS5, PS5 Pro, and inevitable PS6. A huge blow to game preservation and consumer rights, to say the least.

Former industry leader Mike Ybarra reckons platform holders have a lot of work to do before they're ready to ditch physical games and force gamers into an entirely digital future, based on a lengthy post to social media. "Sad to see this happening across the entire gaming industry. I guess it was going to happen at some point, but I didn't think it would be this soon," he tweets.

Top of the list? "You need to establish a digital promise for consumers. We can't live in a world of fear if our games will work in the future or not. You owe everyone a clear vision for our 'digital locker' that gives us confidence our games are actually our games. You don't get to just turn the games off (I get [multiplayer] games are different from [single-player] games, etc.)."

Reactions to PlayStation's decision have been heated, which might be putting it lightly, and a big worry is that games can simply be scrubbed offline or revoked for people who have spent real, hard-earned cash on them. Digital consumer rights in most countries haven't totally caught up yet, so nothing's legally stopping Xbox or PlayStation from going down this route.

"You need to innovate game sharing," Ybarra continues. "Lending my game to my friend should be as easy as handing him/her a disc. It's possible to do, I've lived it and looked into it before. As players, we should be able to share our games. You can have restrictions on it but fundamentally this should 'just work' 75%+ of the time. A 'friends and family' of 3, 6, 9, or whatever number is a solution others have in place. Mirror it and make it industry standard."

The former Blizzard boss then pitches a pretty radical idea that would let people "have an open marketplace" on consoles to resell their digital games to other players "for store credit or cash" – with the platform holders taking a cut of that money. "Game developers will not like this," Ybarra acknowledges, "but being consumer friendly has to go both ways here. A used game marketplace is a must have in my view."

He then asks console makers to make digital libraries more public, like achievements are, and to communicate what this all-digital future looks like more clearly. "All of this is possible. Make your platform the best place to play."

Downloading GTA 6 with the "hope it'll run in 50 years is not a preservation solution," Video Game History Foundation says as PlayStation kills discs.

This morning, Sony announced that physical PlayStation game discs will cease production in 2028 and, well… I'm not surprised, I'm just disappointed. I've been a physical game collector for years, but the writing's been on the wall pretty much since the start of the PS4 generation. The advantages of digital distribution are too numerous to count – if you're a game publisher. But for those of us out here actually buying and playing games, the consequences are vast and severe even for players who prefer the digital format.

The existence of digital distribution has been a net positive for gaming, since it's allowed small and mid-sized developers to create games and sell them to a wide audience they never would've been able to reach before. Without digital game sales, the likes of Stardew Valley, Hades, and Terraria simply would not exist. But while I'm happy to support indie developers by buying their digital games, if I'm faced with a choice between paying $70 (or, at this point, $80) for a physical game or a digital one, I'm going for the physical option every time.

Preserving the past

Despite the fact that some (not all, not even most, but some) discs are essentially unlock keys that contain very little game data, they are still physical objects that hold value in the real world. I can lend these discs to friends, or sell them on eBay, or use them to revisit favorite old titles instead of rebuying the latest remaster – all things that, presumably, publishers like Sony would prefer us not to do.

The vast majority of current game discs, which do contain fully playable game installs, are essential to ensuring the games of today remain available in the future. Sony is proving this true even now as it promises (for real this time) to shut down the PS3 and Vita stores. The same thing has already happened with Wii, Wii U, 3DS, and Xbox 360 online stores, and while users admirably still have the ability to redownload purchased games on those platforms, if you want to go back and play a digital-only release you might have missed out on in that era, your only option is piracy.

The secondhand NES that I got as a kid in the '90s still works, albeit with a bit of repair work. The same goes for all of my old games, with many hundreds of other titles still available to buy secondhand. When I spent $700 on a PS5 Pro, my expectation was that it, too, would continue to work for another 30 or 40 years, and that I'd be able to play its library of thousands of games whenever I got around to them. But what good is the promise of that investment when the PS6 comes around and every single game I purchase is tied to a server that Sony could choose to shut down at any time?

Protecting the future

With the end of physical games, PlayStation now controls its entire ecosystem, just as the company once ridiculed Xbox for trying to do in 2013. The company can now ensure it gets a cut of every single game sold on its platforms, with no threat of players spending their money on cheaper used titles. And without a genuine market for new and used retail games to determine what people actually want to pay, we're about to enter a new Wild West for pricing.

This future is all the more concerning given the "dynamic" pricing that Sony is already experimenting with on the PlayStation Store. With a retail game, everyone sees the same, clearly marked retail price. In an all-digital ecosystem, that clarity is gone, replaced by an individual price for each user, with little clarity about who's getting which price and why.

This threat is not purely theoretical. It's called surveillance pricing, where online retailers use your personal data to set prices according to whatever they think you're willing to pay. In most cases, competing retailers carry similar products so that if, say, Instacart decides to gouge you on grocery prices, you can at least use a different service or head to a local store.

PC games have, of course, effectively been digital only for years without running these sorts of scams, but PC is an open platform. If Steam were to suddenly take a dramatic turn for the worse, alternatives like GOG, Humble, or even the dreaded Epic Games Store could start to pick up the slack. Sites like IsThereAnyDeal already keep PC stores honest with comparative pricing history going back years.

But as of January 2028, the PlayStation Store will be the only place you can buy new PlayStation games, barring whatever mysterious format these now discless games show up at retail in. I've got my fingers crossed that Sony decides not to, you know, be evil, but my willingness to trust corporate altruism is pretty low these days. The end of physical discs benefits no one but Sony and, perhaps, the increasingly small handful of AAA publishers.

Get these upcoming PS5 games on discs while you still can.

As Sony announces it's doing away with new disc releases in 2028, people are recalling the big song and dance the company made about physical games and game sharing to dunk on the Xbox One back when the PS4 was announced.

Back in 2013, Xbox made headlines thanks to its DRM policies, which was the beginning of the tailspin the console has been in ever since, and a way for Sony to capitalize on it, giving the PS4 the starting momentum it needed after a weaker PS3 generation to become one of the most successful consoles of all time.

Former president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, Jack Tretton, got on stage at E3 2013 off the back of Xbox's disastrous showing and announced, "PS4 won't impose any new restrictions on the use of PS4 game discs," and was cut off by mass applause. He highlighted many ways a PS4 disc can be used, capping off with the fact that you can "keep it forever."

Jack Trenton on stage at Sony's E3 2013 press conference says PS4 discs will let players keep their games forever to roaring applause in the room.

— @ethangach.bsky.social (@ethangach.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-07-01T15:53:47.784Z

Following that same E3 presentation, Sony released the "Official PlayStation Used Game Instructional Video" which featured former president of SIE Worldwide Studios Shuhei Yoshida and ex-vice president of third-party relations Adam Boyes simply handing a game over to each other. A move that has been remembered to this day, only now it'll be remembered with a heap of irony.

And here we are. One console generation later, and Sony is now in the mood to kill off its physical game production forever, which means you'll be stuck to digital purchases – which Sony has recently proven it can just wipe off your account (with movies, at least – thanks, Kotaku). It's also a signal that the PS6 could have a terrible approach to backwards compatibility if you're unable to use PS5 discs with it, with the chance of the next console having a disc drive now seeming significantly less likely.

PlayStation Store on PS3 and Vita to shut down 5 years after Sony first decided against it – starting as soon as next month in some regions.

It's the end of an era – Sony has announced that it's officially closing down the PlayStation Store on PS3 and Vita… five years after it first decided that was a bad idea.

Announcing it in a blog post today, Sid Shumen, senior director of Sony Interactive Entertainment's content communications, writes: "After nearly two decades of supporting the PS3 console generation, we wanted to let you know we will be closing the PlayStation Store on PS3, as well as on PS Vita."

Getting déjà vu? You might remember that we've been here before. Sony announced this was going to happen back in 2021, before it quickly U-turned on the decision and kept the stores running. Now, though, we're running out of luck.

For some regions, the closure is as early as next month. For Mexico, Honduras, and Nicaragua, "PlayStation Store on PS3 will close starting August 2026," it's stated. Then, for "additional Latin American and Middle Eastern countries," the PS3 store will close in late 2026. Finally, "in all other countries, PlayStation Store on PS3 and PS Vita will close in July 2027."

"We know this news may be disappointing to PS3 and PS Vita players who hold a special place in their hearts for this generation of gaming. PS3 and PS Vita represent an important era in our PlayStation history, so this was not an easy decision for us to make," the post reads.

"As we continue to expand the PlayStation experience on newer devices that most of our users are playing on today, we need to focus more resources on delivering the best gaming experiences on these platforms as we look ahead towards the future."

But why now?

Sony explains: "As the PlayStation Store continues to evolve to support modern commerce systems, including updated payment processing standards, PS3 and PS Vita are no longer able to support these updates at the level required."

At the very least, while you won't be able to make new purchases, you will still be able to redownload any previously purchased content.

It's reminiscent of Nintendo's decision to close the Wii U and 3DS eShops in 2023 – a huge blow to fans, and also potentially a devastating loss for game preservation as it becomes harder and harder to access older releases.

PlayStation is ending physical disc production for new games in 2028 as Sony says "general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs."

It's official – Sony has just announced that, in a couple of years, it'll no longer support the production of physical discs for new games on consoles like the PlayStation 5 and PS5 Pro.

The trend of moving away from physical discs in favor of digital codes has been a hot topic for the past couple of years, to say the least. Games like GTA 6 immediately spring to mind, and it's certainly not the only title to ship out codes in boxes rather than, you know, actual discs. In fact, discs might soon end up being a thing of the past entirely.

In a new blog post, Sony explains that they will be for PlayStation consoles anyway – much to many players' dismay, I'm sure.

"As consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital, physical game disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January 2028," says Sid Shumen, senior director of SIE's content communications.

"Following this date, new games will be available on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only." The post does however clarify, "This transition has no impact on games that already released, or will be releasing, prior to January 2028 in disc format" – although I'm not sure that softens the blow here by much.

Sony states that it will "continue to prioritize our resources to drive innovation in how players can access games and provide choices as to where players prefer to purchase new games, whether that's at retailers or PlayStation Store," concluding, "We remain committed to delivering a world-class gaming experience to our fans and we thank you for your continued support."

There's no telling how the community will react just yet, but I have a feeling a lot of folks won't exactly be thrilled. Heck, many of us still collect physical media – including games, of course – and Sony isn't the first to let those of us who do down in this sense.

Nintendo sparked similar controversy with its introduction of game-key cards on the Switch 2 last year – and that wasn't even a 100% wipe of physical copies like Sony's is going to be in a couple of years on PlayStation consoles.

Regardless of how we feel, though, times are definitely changing.

I'd suggest anyone who isn't looking forward to the 2028 change from Sony snag whatever physical releases they can for now... backlogs be damned.

Multiple retailers drop GTA 6 after physical version is confirmed to be a code in a box.

With GTA 6's physical edition now confirmed to be nothing more than a code in a box, you'd be forgiven for fearing that every AAA game is set to follow suit. Well, it seems Marvel's Wolverine is at least safe from that particular mark of shame. In the wake of a new wave of concerns from game collectors, developer Insomniac Games has confirmed, thankfully, that the physical version is a real one.

"The physical version will include a disc in box," Insomniac says on Twitter, making its stance perfectly clear in response to a question from one concerned fan. In fairness, first-party, Sony-published PS5 games have shown no signs of ditching discs just yet, but here in 2026 you can never be perfectly certain.

GTA 6 (like Mario Kart World before it) has also seemingly opened the gates for $80 games, but that's another path Wolverine won't be following. In response to another player begging the studio not to charge more than $70 for Wolverine, Insomniac simply tweeted a link to the game's PlayStation Store page – where it is, of course, listed for $69.99. You can pay $80 if you really want the Deluxe Edition, though.

Rockstar's next game was likely always going to sell boatloads regardless of price, and it seems unlikely that what's effectively a digital-only launch will slow down GTA 6's momentum at all. Physical game sales are actually slightly up in 2026, but disc-buying hold-outs are still a far, far smaller audience than the one GTA 6 is courting.

Multiple retailers drop GTA 6 after physical version is confirmed to be a code in a box.

Josh Sawyer, best known for his work on RPG gems like Fallout: New Vegas and Pillars of Eternity, says Sucker Punch Productions and Sony Interactive Entertainment created some of the greatest armor sets he's seen in video games.

To be precise, the developer and publisher did so in Ghost of Tsushima and its more recent sequel, Ghost of Yotei.

Speaking in a new Q&A on YouTube, Sawyer admits as much, first explaining that artists gain far more freedom during development when they don't have to "worry about every single part of the body" separately or "follow very strict rules for where every part of armor is broken up."

Not only does it look great, though, but it's technically more practical as well. "The stat bonuses are all built into one suit of armor, and the themes can be just built right around that," Sawyer describes. "All the stats just grow in a very straightforward way."

He does go on to share the appeal of other systems, in which armor sets are "divided" differently and allow the players, rather than the artists, "a lot more freedom," too, though.

Honestly, I feel as though varying armor systems fit well in their respective games – much like Ghost of Tsushima and Yotei's do. It's part of the core identity that titles, especially RPGs, carry with them… and there's no one right way to do it.

Itching to play something fun yourself? Browse through our roundup of the best RPGs out there, or check out a few of the most exciting new games coming this year and beyond.

It seems like it's been an eternity since PlayStation and Xbox were both moving toward multiplatform releases for big first-party titles. As Xbox seemingly returns to the idea of good old-fashioned console exclusives, reporting from Bloomberg suggests PlayStation is doing the same on PC, opting for first-party releases that stay on PS5 permanently instead of coming to other platforms after a period of timed exclusivity. Now, we have comment from PlayStation CEO Hideaki Nishino that seems to add further weight to that reporting.

In the latest issue of Japanese magazine Famitsu, spotted and machine-translated by Resetera user Red Kong XIX, Nishino responds to reports that PlayStation is stepping away from releasing first-party single-player games on non-PlayStation platforms.

As we've come to expect from CEOs of massive companies, his words are vague, and there's an inherent fuzziness to machine-translated quotes, but the implication reads pretty clear to me and mirrors Bloomberg's reporting: first-party single-player games will be PS5 exclusives, while live-service games will continue to be multiplatform. Still, it sounds like Sony will consider each release on a case-by-case basis.

The machine translation reads:

"We've always determined platform selection based on the characteristics of each title. If releasing a title on PC would maximize the gaming experience, we'll continue to consider that option. Our current main policy is that, for single-player games developed in-house, we will further refine the value of the gaming experience that PlayStation can offer.

"At the same time, we believe it is important for live-service games to reach a wider audience through online multiplayer, so we continue to view releases on both PS5 and PC as the standard. Regardless of the platform, we will make decisions based on the principle of delivering the best possible gaming experience that maximizes each title's unique features."

Commenting on Nishino's remarks today, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier adds, "there's no 'case by case' here" and PlayStation Studios' single-player swings will all be PlayStation exclusives.

Sony never embraced multiplatform releases to the same degree as Xbox, which ported major first-party Xbox games like Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and others to PS5 before the foundational leadership shakeup in February 2026 that saw longtime Xbox boss Phil Spencer and president Sarah Bond leave the company.

PlayStation warmed up to PC with ports of big games like Horizon, The Last of Us, and Marvel's Spider-Man, but straight-up Xbox versions of PlayStation games never became commonplace, and it sounds like even PC is being reconsidered now, at least when it comes to the sort of big-budget, narrative-driven titles the PlayStation brand is synonymous with.

Releasing PlayStation games day one on PC isn't "a good strategy" for its AAA titles, former Sony head says, but he hasn't seen proof its abandoning the platform altogether.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 seemed to have been put to bed as developer Insomniac switched its focus to the upcoming Marvel's Wolverine, but apparently there's at least one more surprise in store. Alongside the release of today's Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer, Insomniac revealed that Spidey's new look is coming to the game in a free update on PS5 and PC.

"Get a fresh start in Marvel's Spider-Man 2," the studio exclaims in a tweet. "Swing across skylines in Peter Parker's 'Fresh Start' suit inspired by the upcoming film, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, in theatres July 31! The suit will be available in-game via update July 28 on PS5 and PC at no additional cost!" You can get a very brief look at the new suit at the end of the trailer below.

The game already features an array of suits paying tribute to Spider-Man's varied appearances across different media, including designs inspired by both the Sam Raimi films and the modern MCU movies. But this update is particularly notable simply because it's the first major change to the game in over a year.

In fact, the last update of any kind for Spider-Man 2 appears to have been a May 2025 hotfix for the PC version. That version, of course, launched some time after the PS5 original, and brought with it the sad news that no story DLC was planned for the game, despite some seemingly obvious teases for it in one of the side stories.

With that in mind, it's notable that Spider-Man 2 is getting what's likely its final update in time for the upcoming film. Any excuse to go swinging through digital NYC again is a good one in my mind.

These are the best Marvel games of all time.