Michael G. Xof

Alone together

[Black Bond PTV @BlackBondPtv]

🚨😱 DUA LIPA = LA PLUS GRANDE PLAGIAIRE DE LA POP.

Elle est incapable de créer quoi que ce soit d’original

Elle pille, elle copie, elle recycle… et les vrais artistes qui ont créé les mélodies ? Zéro crédit ou quasi.

Toute sa carrière repose sur le vol.

C’est plus de la musique, c’est du pure plagiat industrialisé.

[VGP Video Games Plus @VideoGamesPlus_]

506 days. ⏳

A simple message for @Sony @PlayStation

No disc, no buy💿

Give players the choice. Physical games matter!

[Does it play? @DoesItPlay1]

One more time: EVERYONE will be negatively impacted if we let Sony erase physical media. Not just physical buyers. Digital will get more expensive and you will have no form of ownership anymore. Physical going away doesn't mean the rest gains something. Quite the opposite!

[Albert_RGCO #SavePhysicalGaming ✊🏼💿 @AlbertoRG_82]

@PlayStation Are you kidding me ?

#NoDiscNoBuy ✊💿
#BoycottPlaystation
#PhysicalGamesForever #PhysicalGamesMatter

[Michael G. Xof @Mich_le_Gallu]

@PlayStation

[Does it play? @DoesItPlay1]

Tired of "physical games need downloads anyway" or "discs don't have the game on them"?

Here is the video to stop this nonsense: https://t.co/d2Bid69Ntb

Bookmark it! Share it! Post it everywhere you see misinformation about physical media!

[Does it play? @DoesItPlay1]

Seeing a lot of discussions about whether you should be fighting for physical OR better digital customer rights. It's honestly heartbreaking that even some larger accounts seem to use physical media as a sacrificial lamb to further the fight for digital rights when we should absolutely be doing both. It's not an either-or. We should stand united on all fronts. Customer rights in the digital space are basically non-existent and there desperately needs to be change.

But no legislation, no lawsuit, no government intervention will save certain properties only physical media possesses.
No law will fill presents at Christmas.
No law will make the eyes of kids shine when they unwrap it.
No law will populate fairs and conventions where you trade games and talk to friends or likeminded players.
No law will let you browse shelves.
No law will save retailers when they have nothing to sell anymore.
No law will give you that feeling when looking at your collection.
Stop belittling the fight for physical media. Stand united with your fellow players. In the end, this affects us all.

[Does it play? @DoesItPlay1]

Beast of Reincarnation is out of stock in certain stores. Not the first physical game in recent months that can't meet demand. We saw this for Capcom titles as well. Shows another reason why sales numbers don't tell the full picture when it comes to consumer preference.

[Does it play? @DoesItPlay1]

@PlayStation Also this month, our first action against your attempt to kill physical media and a vital piece of gaming culture. Nobody should accept a future in which games are degraded to rentals while no customer protection law exists. Join the #PSBlackout: https://t.co/AcnvfcFUy3

[RetroGameFuture @RetroGameFutur1]

- "Hello, I would like to buy some milk."
- "We no longer sell milk. We listened to consumers. 80% of beverage sales come from Coca Cola. So, we no longer sell milk."

#NoDiskNoBuy ✊
#PSBlackout August 23 > August 30 ✊
https://t.co/Av4tH650F3

[John Andersen @JohnAndersen21]

If you are dissatisfied with PlayStation halting the production of physical game discs, address your concerns to the SONY GROUP Board of Directors. Put your thoughts into a polite and respectful one-page typed letter to the SONY Group in Japan. See image. Please repost.

[Does it play? @DoesItPlay1]

Ok, we give up now, right?

Seriously, though, don't let a bit of corpo speak during an earnings call keep you from fighting for your rights and for what you love! Sony was never going to just cave after a few weeks of backlash. But they do see us! This is only the beginning!

[Does it play? @DoesItPlay1]

During today's earnings call Sony for the first time in a month reacted to the backlash against their attack on physical media. And it went about the way we expected. Let's analyze it.
(Disclaimer: We are going off of the official English translation in the clip provided. It wasn't that long of a statement, but there might be minor inaccuracies in there.)

First of all, they seem to emphasize that 18 months ahead of time is a respectable period to give notice. No comment on the fact that basically everyone was surprised by their announcement coming this soon, while PS5 is still going strong.

Then they dive into the reasons. They claim there are "various", the biggest one being that "digitalization of contents overall has been progressing". This is a clear shift in language. Initially, they blamed it directly on consumer habits. We've shown how that reasoning doesn't fully hold up when looking at the numbers.

Then they claim that digitalization does not only impact PlayStation, but "all kinds of content". And that is true. It has been on the rise for quite some years now. At the same time, this conveniently ignores any and all counter trends in recent years. It is a statement that makes it sound like their direction is inevitable on a global scale. But their direction is absolute. Their goal is to kill physical media entirely for games, while basically all other major entertainment sectors have at least a strong niche remaining, with various indicators that physical media is actually growing again. The recent Capcom report saw a 133 % rise compared to the same period of last year. The overall spending is up for physical games compared to the previous year (admittedly, aided by the Switch 2 release). Sony's own physical split last quarter is up, both compared to the quarter before and the same period last year. More and more signs point to a stable plateau of physical buyers at the very least.

The call continues and they drop the big one. A few seconds of stuttering followed by, "We put in a lot of thought and time, and we cautiously considered this, and we came to this conclusion, and we are cautiously going to move this forward."

They are not really giving any insights here. It is a "trust me, bro" in business speak. At the same time, if we take these words at face value, it means they are aware of the consequences, but do it anyway.

Endangering retailers across the globe by removing one of the biggest entertainment brands from the portfolio? Fuck them.
Removing a choice for consumers who were loyal to the PlayStation brand? Fuck them.
Stripping developers of an additional revenue stream and the chance to immortalize their art? Fuck them.
Forcing all remaining customers into an ecosystem without customer protection legislation? Fuck them too.

What thoughts did they put in exactly?

The only word that might give hope is "cautiously". But even that could be read in two ways. Either they are more cautious not to spark more backlash, but they want to continue regardless. Or they are actually waking up to the fact that this might cause more harm to them than they initially anticipated.

They follow up with "to this decision we have received various opinions and people have strong views" and how games are loved and connected to memories. The speaker claims that they "understand those emotions". Really?
Why are they calling it emotions when there is a long list of legitimate criticism entirely rooted in facts, though? Because they don't want to acknowledge the facts. Sony tries to paint the backlash as emotional without substance. As completely unfounded in anything tangible.

After this bit, they immediately continue to starting damage control for the future and start talking about the "future digital ecosystem". Again, in a manner that makes it sound without an alternative. "How do we engage the gamers, is something we would like to continue to explore", they say. What is that supposed to mean, you ask? It's entirely talking about how they can continue to boil the frog. This part of the statement was not revolving around giving customers anything. Our best guess is that it is the attempt to indirectly address the monopoly criticism, and that there is no customer protection in an all-digital future, and that customers will be entirely at the mercy of the platform with zero control over purchased goods.

With this statement the clip concludes. The overall tone remained. Cold, distant, no real explanations, no apologies for the past weeks either.

But they did get a message. It had some impact. They ran damage control here. 100 % confidence would look different. But they won't correct course for now.

It is up to us to continue. If anything, we need to step it up now. #PSBlackout is just one of those steps. Many more need to be taken. This needs a collective effort from all gamers, regardless of how you like to play your games.

https://t.co/4mZbdZKhrk

[Does it play? @DoesItPlay1]

Sony wants to abandon fans? Let's give them a small taste of their own medicine!

Together with other creators we call for a 1 week #PSBlackout in August. No logins, no play sessions, no purchases on any of Sony's platforms.

[Anonymous @YourAnonOne]

https://t.co/u7oT6DZsuJ

[VGP Video Games Plus @VideoGamesPlus_]

524 days. ⏳

Physical books never went away.
Vinyl made a comeback.
Physical movies are still being released.
CDs are still available.

Every major entertainment industry understands that choice matters.

Gaming shouldn't be the first to abandon it.

@Sony @PlayStation, keep physical games alive. 💿

[VGP Video Games Plus @VideoGamesPlus_]

526 days. ⏳

VGP can't stop. Won't stop. 💿

While others walk away from physical gaming, we're doubling down.

More reprints. More restocks. More closeouts. More opportunities to put physical games back into the hands of gamers.

Our buyers are working harder than ever because we believe physical games are worth fighting for.

@Sony @PlayStation, you make your choices. We'll keep making ours.

After nearly 40 years, VGP isn't going anywhere. 💪🎮

[Does it play? @DoesItPlay1]

Funny thing. Every post of the petition against Sony has a few comments claiming it won't do anything. Yet even blue checkmarks close to the industry are constantly trying to sabotage its perception.

Sign and spread anyway. It's a Marathon, not a sprint: https://t.co/ZJGO46mfuU

[Prixna @Prixna]

@JVCom On signe la pétition bientot 350 000 signatures https://t.co/zmeDOQWPh8

[Does it play? @DoesItPlay1]

We've seen Alanah Pearce' comment about Sony putting out a gagging order on its employees. And it is very telling for what is going on!

First, we can say that it checks out with what we have heard from behind the scenes. Initially there were a lot of discussions about Sony's attack on physical media. Then, several days after the announcement the chats just went quiet over night. Nobody even reacted to the topic or things remotely connected to it anymore. Like they were all struck by a giant censorship hammer.

In our opinion, this clearly shows several things.

One, Sony desperately wants to control the narrative. They anticipated the backlash. They fear the backlash.

Subsequently, two, this proves that they don't have a leg to stand on. Their justification for the move to kill physical media and push everyone into an all-digital dystopia is not based on reality. The reason they gave is bogus. We already talked about this before when we looked at the numbers and explained that the bigger picture is much more than "consumer trends".

But the most important thing is, three, that they know killing physical media will literally hurt everyone in and around the games industry in some way. EVERBODY has a good reason to be angry and concerned. Retailers have already spoken up. Developers have already spoken up (not only because the backlash harms their marketing, but because it harms motivation, discoverability and an additional stream of revenue), preservationists have spoken up, media has spoken up, gamers have spoken up.

The only thing that carries Sony is a large part of the audience that hasn't gotten the message yet. But more and more do. Once a critical mass of casual gamers understand that Sony will exploit them even more for profit in the future, that this decision will come with severe downsides even for those who didn't care before, it can turn the tide.

This message control wouldn't be necessary, if their decision would be for the better. In that case, they could easily justify it in public. But they do the opposite. That's all you need to know to continue the backlash and make as many people as you can aware of the consequences.