Today, Sony announced that it was ending production of physical PlayStation discs and shutting down the PS3 and Vita stores. I think that's something of a nightmare from a consumer perspective, but what does it mean for proper historians and preservationists? It's less damaging than you might think, actually, because they've been preparing for this eventuality for some time. The problem is that the game industry still won't budge on legislative effort to make preserving digital games legal.
"This is unfortunate news for those who still prefer buying games on physical media," Video Game History Foundation director Frank Cifaldi says in a statement on social media, "and is certainly a hit to consumer rights, the resale market, and game creators whose businesses rely on the physical market. But from the perspective of professional preservationists, this doesn't have as much of an impact as you might expect."
