Post by @ajroach42@retro.social

Y'all I can't even begin to express the depths of my disgust for every media institution that serves only as the mouthpiece for the powerful.

Any headline about Sony's end of physical media that doesn't include "and people are upset" or "and everyone should stop buying sony products", and especially those that accept sony's framing ... That's a publication I can't trust anymore.

It was the same with the headphone jack. Any publication that reported on the removal of the headphone jack from phones without pointing out that it was a blatant attempt at extortion and control is a publication I can't trust.

(You can extrapolate this out to other economic and political spaces)

Andrew (making toys)

@ajroach42@retro.social 1 hour ago

Sony is removing physical discs to kill the third party video game store, and to exert more control over game preservation via DRM, and to further consolidate and control the ability to lend/re-sell games.

It's blatant anti-consumer behavior.

Apple killed the headphone jack when they bought beats, to force all apple users to buy their new "hi-fi" blutooth headphones. In the process. They tried to kill a universal, century old format. They tried to planned obsolescence one of the only genuinely universal formats we've ever had.

Andrew (making toys)

@ajroach42@retro.social 1 hour ago

(Apple failed. My laptop still has a headphone jack. My current phone does not, and the one I ordered to replace it also doesn't. I was willing to make that sacrifice because they have full physical keyboards. I chose my battle.

But consumer phones with headphone jacks are making a return, because the demand is still very present.

Sony will fail too. Either because consumer demand will force them to start shipping physical games again (or, more likely) consumer demand will cause them to abandon the playstation platform entirely.

Then we get to have this fight with Valve, where we've already ceded so much ground.)

Otter-Matic

@OtterMatic@woof.group 1 hour ago

Andrew (making toys)

@ajroach42@retro.social 54 minutes ago

@OtterMatic will we?

Will you?

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Andrew (making toys)

@ajroach42@retro.social 1 hour ago

(The valve/PC fight is different though. Because those machines are significantly less lockable. PC games are much easier to archive than a playstation download, and much less likely to be *remote wiped* from your system.)

Andrew (making toys)

@ajroach42@retro.social 1 hour ago

This article, for example, isn't bad: https://www.wired.com/story/sony-playstation-puts-a-nail-in-physical-medias-coffin/

It's measured. It says some of the right things.

But that headline is dogshit.

WIRED

Sony’s PlayStation Puts a Nail in Physical Media’s Coffin

Is PlayStation about to make the same mistake Microsoft made with Xbox One?

3 more replies