games

It’s a preview of the future of video games

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These days there has been a happy coincidence: PlayStation Network and Xbox Live have gone down. Last Friday, PlayStation servers They were out of the game for a few hours and This Monday the same thing happened with Xbox. The result, in both cases, was the same: users who not only could not play online multiplayer, but They also couldn’t play games they had boughtbut they needed online verification to work. And I say that it is a “happy coincidence” because almost a month ago Sony announced that They will stop making games in physical format in January 2028, limiting all purchases to digital games that, remember, not only are not ours, but depend on these servers to function. And the fall of both services practically at the same time is a warning of what is to come. When everything goes digital and is locked down by a server check, if the servers go down you better have an old console on hand if you feel like gaming. A reminder of what is to come That servers fail is not new. It’s something that’s not common, but it’s there and it’s a bummer. So much PlayStation as Xbox They have status pages for the servers and the service, warning if any of the functions (games, applications, profile, friends, etc.) are not working as they should. As I say, we are not facing falls every weekbut it is something that is not so rare and, when it happens, there are games that we will not be able to play and others that we can. If we have the game in physical format (and it’s not a paperweightlike more and more in this industry), we put it in the console and play without problems. But if we have the digital game, that’s when the headaches begin. This is what has happened these days with both consoles: those with a digital library who would like to enjoy that video game they are enjoying would have to choose something else, since digital games check the license before starting and, if there are no servers, there is no verification and, therefore, there is no game. A server outage is much more than an afternoon without playing: it’s a reminder that you have nothing Every time this happens, players ask for compensation for lost playing time and so on. The problems are usually solved within a few hours and nothing happens to us for not playing that game in our free time because we can always get together with another in physical formatbut these almost simultaneous falls, as I say, come at a curious time. Sony announced on July 1 that, starting in January 2028, PlayStation consoles would not receive new games in physical format. This implies that, at least on PlayStation, all games released after that date will be digital, so a server outage would prevent you from playing. It is not known what Xbox is going to do with Project Helix (right now it seems that not even they know very well), but everything indicates that it will follow in Sony’s footsteps with a 100% digital console, and a server outage is much more than an afternoon without playing: it is a reminder that you have nothing. We have said actively and passively that games in digital format do not belong to us because they are a simple license to use (except in specific cases or those of the GoG platform on PC) and There are games on disc that not only do not have the complete content (‘Doom The Dark Ages’, ‘Indiana Jones and the Golden Circle’ or the latest from Ubisoft, for example), but they need online verification to play alone (‘Gran Turismo 7’ or the recently released ‘Halo: Campaign Evolved’). Even if you have these physically, you do not play in a server crash. On the other hand, in a future that aims to be increasingly dependent on streaming gaming, with Nvidia, PlayStation and Xbox very interested in this, a server outage like this also cuts off your immediate access to video games. Xbox has responded through its CTO and that “you don’t play if the servers go down” is not an exaggeration. Scott Van Vlietfrom Xbox, comments that the server outage “caused many scenarios that require a rights check to fail, such as deploying your library and launching the games you own.” Under other conditions, such a drop would have made some noise among players, but it would be one more of those that these services usually suffer. However, the fact that the two platforms go down almost at the same time is that aforementioned reminder that the future that will come sooner rather than later is not the most hopeful for players. In fact, arrives in the middle of a storm by digital rightsthe possession of what we bought and with that murmur of “you will have nothing and you will be happy.” What’s more, the atmosphere is so heated that a publication about a Sony turntable has been filled with comments reminding the company that very well, but that the games are going to be loaded in physical format. In no parallel universe does a announcement tweet For a record player it would have more than 4,000 responses, but in this case, it is a sample of the feelings of many users. November 19th will arrive ‘GTA VI’ only in digital format. Imagine what will happen if the servers go down that day. In Xataka | Between Sony and GTA VI, the coming months have a guaranteed victim in the industry: traditional physical stores

Microsoft wants to preserve Xbox games and has chosen an unexpected path: officially emulate them on Windows

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The video game industry advances with a speed that does not always leave room to look back. New consoles arrive, stores are renewed and the physical format loses ground, while a part of the old catalog remains linked to systems, accounts and services that do not last forever. Who have tried return to a game from decades ago We know that keeping it does not necessarily mean being able to execute it. That is the point at which preservation stops being just a concern of archives and museums. In that context, Microsoft has chosen an unusual formula to recover part of its history: bring games from the first Xbox to Windows 11 without converting them into remakes or native versions for PC. The American firm assures that this launch marks the beginning of a broader preservation effort, although, as we will see, this is a limited test. There is also another detail that changes the magnitude of the announcement: the technical means by which these games can work on current hardware. Let’s see. For now, the program does not open the entire Xbox historical catalog nor does it allow you to run any old games on Windows. The starting point is not a broad collection, but four specific games with which Microsoft begins to convey a part of history from Xbox to Windows. The company has not yet detailed which titles will arrive next or at what rate the catalog will grow. For now, these are the ones chosen: ‘BLiNX: The Time Sweeper’ ‘Conker: Live and Reloaded’ ‘Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge’ ‘Fuzion Frenzy’ As we say, what comes to Windows are not conventional remasters or adaptations remade game by game. As confirmed by Microsoft to PC GamerXbox uses emulation to reproduce on a modern computer the environment necessary to run software designed for its first console. This solution maintains the original gameplay, but allows improvements to be added such as VSyncup to four times resolution rescaling, anisotropic filtering and enhanced antialiasing. Users can also choose between full screen and windowed modes, as well as configure language and audio. The initiative is not limited to the desktop computer either. Titles can be installed on Windows 11 compatible portable devices, including ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally Xwithout necessarily depending on cloud gaming. Minimum requirements are modest for current hardware: 8 GB of RAM, a Core i3-8100, Ryzen 3 1200 or Ryzen Z2 A, and graphics equivalent to a GTX 950, Radeon RX 550, Intel UHD 770 or Arc A310. From a favorable perspective, the progress is difficult to ignore. Microsoft is prolonging the useful life of works that until now remained linked to Xbox hardware and its backward compatibility system on later consoles, and bringing them closer to players who may never have had those machines. The problem appears when we go from retaining access to retaining a copy. Microsoft has not announced standalone installers or versions without DRM, the system used to control and verify digital licenses. Nor has it detailed what checks these four games will require, how long they will be able to work offline or whether they will still be available for download in, say, ten years. We do know that your access depends on Windows 11, the Xbox app and a license linked to our account. It is an important difference compared to GOG, which allows you to download DRM-free backup installers and save the files to install without using your application. All of this occurs while the industry reduces independent avenues of access to its catalogs. Nintendo closed in March 2023 digital purchases of Wii U and Nintendo 3DS, although for now it maintains the possibility of redownloading the purchased content. Sony, for its part, has announced that he will leave to produce discs for all new PlayStation games from January 2028. These are two different decisions, but both remember that the availability of a digital work ultimately depends on the continuity of a platform and the conditions established by its owner. Images | Xbox In Xataka | Video game preservation has already been mortally wounded with Sony. The next blow comes from an entire country: Germany

PlayStation caused a tsunami killing games in physical format. If you wait for a reverse, the final enemy is mathematics

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It’s been just over a week since Sony, PlayStation, will announce the death of the physical format for its consoles. Starting in January 2028, no physical games will be released for PlayStation consoles. This is a hard blow for the video game as an art, for preservation and for the consumer, since there are few more anti-consumer measures that make us players depend on a physical format that does not belong to us. The reaction of these players has not been good and there are those who point to a possible retreat on the part of PlayStation. There is a problem: there is no nail to hold on to other than that of hope. It makes… sense. From the company’s point of view, the move to 100% digital format is perfect. If you have ever wondered these days what drives them to anger so many players and turn part of their own community against it, it is because, although it may not seem like it, commercially it makes a lot of sense. Yes, the digital market is enormous and bigger than the physical one, but when statistics are published and it is said that only 20% (approximately) of the market is physical, it is because the digital part includes digital games, games that do not have a physical version, DLC and microtransactions. The ‘FIFA’ envelopes, for example, come into play in those statistics. That is the argument, but when you seek to eliminate the physical, you seek to control all the gains. You don’t have to make records, you don’t have to transport records, you don’t have to pay stores to sell those records. That margin that you didn’t earn before, with the digital game you start to control. You also get rid of second-hand and lending games, something that companies have been pursuing for years. Math. And, facing a new generation of consoles that everything indicates will be more expensive than the current one (for example, the price increases for both PS5 as of Xbox Series Xbut also machines like Steam Deck and the more than 1,000 euros from Steam Machine), there Sony may fear that there are users who do not want, or cannot, pay 1,000 euros for a new console. If there are fewer players who buy hardware, there will also be fewer who buy software, but what they are looking for is to maximize profits per user. As? Controlling prices. An example: on PS5 I buy all the games published by Sony in physical form and for 80 euros. Of those 80 euros, remove 30 that go to those expenses associated with the physical format and the stores themselves. Sony sees 50 euros. With PS6I would buy the same games digitally for 80 euros and Sony would not have any of the expenses associated with either the physical format or payments to stores. Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier addresses this very well in this video and I was making up the numbers in the previous example, but he points out that, for a $70 first party game, Sony sees about $45. For a $70 first party digital game, Sony sees $70. If we talk about a third party game (Electronic Arts, Ubisoft or whoever publishes for Sony) that is physical, of the 70 dollars, whoever makes the game takes about 35, the store that sells it about 20-25 and Sony takes about 10-15. If that third party game is digital, whoever makes the game gets about 49 and Sony gets about 21. It’s a win-win for both. Maximize profits. Hideaki Nishino himself, CEO of PlayStation, has made it clear that the company must prioritize performance per client compared to the gross sales volume. They want more average income per user, in short, a model less dependent on selling hardware and more focused on extracting more value from each user. This is where the games themselves come into play, but also microtransactions and subscriptions. Leave the forum. After days without publishing anything on networks like Bluesky, although they have continued to make announcements on their official blog, Sony remembered the password and announced what no one was expecting: an arcade stick for fighting games. It makes sense because they have a fighting game right around the corner, the ‘Marvel Tokon‘, but the players took that announcement even more harshly. As a follower of all the fuss, it is almost better that they announced a command in their first communication. The reason? Had they taught the game they would have taught, the amount of negative comments that game would have received would be to study it and, for example, if the first thing is a video of the game of ‘wolverine‘, all the rage these days at PlayStation’s inaction would have been poured out on the game and on a developer studio that does not deserve that treatment. ¿Kicked back? There is, as I said at the beginning, the hope of some users that so much negativity will affect the company’s decision and they will back down. Obviously, no one outside of Sony can know what will happen, but I am not so sure that the company will back down from this decision. The main reason is that something like this is not taken lightly and reports are already appearing indicating that it is something very studied and they knew perfectly well how part of the community was going to do it. What’s more, there are already reports that indicate that the company’s main Blu-Ray factory, located in Austria, is already beginning the training of some employees who will go on to dedicate themselves to another type of production. bitter hope. If there is one thing to hold on to, it is that, at the same time that PlayStation announced the death of physical games for its consoles, it also set a date for the closure of the PS3 and PS Vita digital stores (wow timinghuh?), and it wasn’t the first time. In March 2021 we already broke … Read more

After taking the plunge into games in physical format, Sony’s large disc factory is preparing for another future: optical microlenses

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On July 1, PlayStation gave the death blow to physical games. Starting in January 2028, there will be no new games in this format for PlayStation consoles, marking the most aggressive initiative against this format that we have seen since Xbox’s moves in 2013 and Nintendo’s Game Key Card with Nintendo Switch 2. Let the physical format die It is an anti-consumer measure whose announcement comes just when Sony itself demonstrated, removing more than 500 films of your digital store, that users we do not own the digital products that we buy We only buy permission from companies to be able to use it for an indefinite period of time that ends when these companies decide that this is how it should be. These days in networks there was a big question: faced with such a drastic measure, Would Sony back down? Well, everything indicates that it is not because in Austria there is the only Sony disc factory, the one from which the majority of games come out in physical format for PlayStation and one in which its employees would already be receiving training to dedicate themselves to other things. And those things are optical microlenses. The great PlayStation game factory is recycled The proof that PlayStation’s decision does not only affect PlayStation’s own games is in the game box. If you look at almost any PS3, PS4, or PS5 game cover, will specify “made in Austria”. This is because in Austria, specifically in Thalgauis located (now the only one after the conversions and closures of American and Japanese plants) main Sony record factory. Sony’s own games come out of it, but also those of the rest of the companies that manufacture for PlayStation. It is estimated that Thalgau produces 600,000 discs every day, half of them for PlayStation, but as things are about to change, employees are already preparing. According to the Austrian media ORF Salzburgthe 300 employees of the plant found out about the decision on the same July 1 in which Sony announced the end of physical games for PlayStation, but contrary to what we might think, there will be no layoffs but a restructuring. They point out that Sony has invested 30 million euros in equipment to convert the factory into an optical microlens factory and employees are already receiving training for this. According to the report, the idea is that Sony will begin mass production of these microlenses next year. Your application? There are several, and in the age of AI, they can be used as equipment to connect racks, but from the department Sony Micro Optics they point out that an application of microoptics can be for the automotive sector. “Micro-optics is the miniaturization of optical systems and elements that serve to focus and direct light in the smallest possible space. For example, a car turn signal that is projected onto the asphalt.” And this is important because, as we say, since last Wednesday there have been voices that suggest that, with a year and a half left until 2028, Sony may rethink things and turn back. The problem with that thinking is that This is not a decision to be made lightly.and this immediate restructuring of their large record factory shows that the Japanese have been thinking about change for some time. No matter how many signature platforms are in place, it seems that the decision is irrevocable. And also a sample of what happens when you have no competition, since Xbox is neither here nor expected in this area of ​​living room consoles after the failure of their last two machines. And more now with the internal situation they have. Image | sony In Xataka | There are more and more physical video games that are paperweights. It is a tremendous problem for video games as art.

incremental games. And it makes perfect sense

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The video game is an interactive medium. Even genres like walking simulators have some of the best mechanics in the industry (there are moments of ‘What Remains of Edith Finch‘ either ‘Mixtape‘ which are impressive), but there are a type of games that are made so that we play as little as possible. They are the ‘idle games‘, games designed to be played alone or with as little attention as possible from the player. Within the same genre there is a twist: incremental games in which there is a certain strategy to achieve that objective of jplay less and less and get bigger rewards. They have a lot of pull. And also all the sense in the world. The psychology of games made so you don’t play First of all, we must make some concepts clear. Incremental games are titles designed so that the numbers within the game do not stop growing. Progressively, we get larger numbers, more resources or more power. At the beginning, we must pay some attention, but the goal is to achieve optimize the game so that we don’t even have to look at the screen. ‘Idle Slayer’ is an example of this type of game: the character advances alone and we only have to pay attention at certain moments to optimize the achievement of those resources, but the doll advances whether we look or not. If we pay attention, resources will increase faster, but it is not totally necessary either. More than Marathon in the last 24 hours Then there are the incremental games. These are already more active and require us to pay attention by clicking on the screen or making frequent decisions. The goal is the same: to reach a point where there are even systems that click for us, prioritizing automation. The most normal thing is that genres intersect because, really, they are not separated. ‘Idle Slayer’, ‘Cookie Clicker‘ (which may be the most famous) or ‘AdVenture Capitalist’ are clickers at first and end up becoming ‘idle’ games in which the goal is the same: automation of everything. Are they big sellers? Well, they are not at the level of large productions or the most played games at all times on Steam, but they do tend to have communities of around 500 or 1,000 people at any time. They are good ‘distractions’ to have there on a second monitor while we do other things, with the satisfaction of seeing how the numbers on the screen go up little by little. In short: we invest, we make decisions with what we earn and the idea is to automate. And the most interesting thing about incremental games is, precisely, the psychology behind them. In some studies that have been made about this type of games (two very good ones are “Play to wait” and “Busy doing nothing? What players do in idle games“) details what tools they have to hook us and encourage us to “play”. The keys that stand out are: Continuous progress: Even though the actions are simple, we see rewards and have a constant sense of progress. Reinforcement and anticipation: Waiting is not empty, since when we get a reward, we are already planning the next one. Motivation cycle: we wait, we collect the prize, we reinvest to achieve improvements. Planning: The fun is not in the immediate reward, but in what we will get in the future when those investments bear fruit. And the low cognitive load: we can resume them at any time and they are suitable for short sessions. Those are the main characteristics why these games are liked, but then there are the psychological levers that they activate, those “brain tickles” that make us want to continue playing. What comes into play here is the reward system with that feeling of “the next improvement is coming, so I’m going to take five more minutes”, but also elements such as the accumulation effect that comes into play when we see multipliers that give the feeling of personal effectiveness and, above all, that we don’t have to pay attention. Known as “delegation of action”, the player outsources that work to the system and the pleasure when playing comes precisely because the numbers get bigger and bigger without us having to make an effort, so we have a certain satisfaction in feeling that the world moves forward without our surveillance, but that it is generating rewards for us. You may think that it is empty dopamine, but the satisfaction and attraction of the genre is also marked because there is a certain planning on our part. With what we have achieved, we buy some improvements and not others because this way we will get the rewards we are looking for. In turn, that satisfaction does not come only from the rewardbut rather that we feel that we have made the right decision to obtain said reward. Although I have sometimes had times of being “hooked” on some of these games, they are not really my type. As a curiosity, yes, they are fine, but in the end those mechanisms and the dopamine they generate do not make much of an impact. I like the reward of a ‘type game’ better.Devil‘ either ‘Destiny‘ which, in the end, is based on the same thing, but with a much clearer and more direct interaction on my part. Except ‘Rusty’s Retirement’, that game is spectacular and I really liked it, Now, I completely understand why these incremental games are so successful. In Xataka | Independent analysts agree: “The Steam Machine is an expensive curiosity, not a gaming device for the masses”

Sony has told you why it stops selling games in physical format. The real reason, of course, is the same as always: money

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Sony has announced that in January 2028 will stop manufacturing physical discs for PlayStation. Among the brief reasons given for making this decision is adapting to the player’s preferences, and following the trends that rule the industry: digital games sell more than physical ones, therefore, this is the choice of the players, which must be adhered to. However, what you have to look at there to find Sony’s true motives is “best sellers.” And specifically, we have to ask ourselves what economic benefit Sony extracts from these sales. The clear accounts. You just have to take note of the profit percentages that Sony makes with each game sold to understand the operation. According to the analysis of consultant Serkan Toto, Kantan GamesSony receives around 54% more for each digital copy of its own game than for the same physical copy. At a price of 70 dollars, a digital game leaves you the full 70 dollars, because there is no external store that takes commission (of course, from there you have to extract development, marketing and corporate costs, if the game is from an external studio). The same title on disc, after deducting the distributor’s margin (about 30%) and the manufacturing cost (about 5%), is left with a profit of about $45.50. Although the calculation is approximate and countless external actors must be taken into account (especially third parties), the comparison makes clear the maxim that is guiding these decisions: the fewer intermediaries, the greater the profit margin per unit. Less physical. Added to this is that the physical aspect already weighs little in the company’s overall income statement. According to a corporate report of the company itselfphysical software represented only 3% of its revenue in 2024. All these decisions must also be contextualized: at a time when Your Playstation 6 can cost a thousand euros sales price and that the current component crisis promises not only to continue, but directly double next yearcutting that 3% can save millions. Kill the second hand. There is another figure that should be taken into account: resale. Every second-hand record that changes ownership is a sale from which Sony does not see a euro. An Alinea Analytics analyst said that “what this is all about is profitability and control for PlayStation”, two very juicy terms in this new situation because a digital code, apart from all the savings in intermediaries that we said above, is linked to a personal account that cannot be resold or lent. Every second-hand product that Sony was unable to sell now becomes a new purchase at full price, or is not produced at all. This second-hand market is not exactly marginal, and is now being seen to disappear. GameStop saw a 14% drop in its quarterly revenue last March, and explicitly attributed to the shift towards digital. The analysis firm Circana estimates that spending on new physical games in the United States has fallen to 1.6 billion dollars in the last year, compared to a maximum of 11.5 billion in 2009. In other words, we have had an almost uninterrupted decline for seventeen years. It’s the market, friend. Sony has taken the most aggressive step, but the direction had already been set from different parts of the sector for some time. A week before Sony’s announcement, Rockstar confirmed that The physical edition of ‘GTA VI’ will not have a disc version. Both Xbox and Playstation have sold versions of their latest consoles without a disc reader. It is an inescapable trend, which began on PC and in stores that have ended up becoming massive options, such as Steam, and which reveals that a corporation will always prefer, rather than a one-time sale, that we are subscribed (literally or figuratively) to a constant purchase, to a service that never ends. Therefore, saying that the player has chosen digital for convenience is, at the very least, a liquid truth. As he told newsletter ‘Friday in Kiribati’we must not get carried away by that discourse: we have not chosen the preeminence of the digital, it has been imposed on us: “it seems that during the last decade no one has designed consoles without a reader, exclusive discounts for digital versions, subscription catalogs, stores integrated (and hyperpresent) in the designs of the systems, games that, despite having the disc, need to connect to the internet (…) nor have they invested obscene amounts of money in convincing us that getting up from the couch to change a disc was a thing. of the past.” Image | Photo of Alexey Savchenko in Unsplash

Sony won the most important generation by humiliating Xbox with physical games. 13 years later he killed them

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Sony has just taken a stab at video games in physical format. Those discs that allowed PlayStation to build its empire with CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray on consoles like PS1, PS2 and PS3now they have a death date. Starting January 2028, there will be no more physical games for PlayStation consoles. The reactions have not been long in coming, with all industry players pointing out the impact of this decision. We will not own games because they are licenses, worry from small publishers, death to second hand and abandoning games and all because of a decision that makes industrial sense: absolute control by Sony in the distribution of games, their price and the margin they leave in their store. But since the newspaper archive is very bloody, it didn’t take long for those who, like myself yesterday, to remember a certain moment from E3 2013 to appear: the same moment in which PlayStation 4 won the competition Xbox One with three very simple decisions, but they disrupted Microsoft’s plans. Because it was at that same moment that PlayStation won the generation. And as the Xbox boss confessed some time later, they lost the worst generation that could be lost in the field of consoles. The battlefield? Physical games, the same ones that today have an expiration date. When you lose the worst generation you can lose June 2013, E3 plenary session. The great video game fair was preparing for a generational event. Both Sono and Microsoft had teased some features of the PS4 and Xbox One respectively in advance, but on June 10, the Xbox One would show off games and pricing, and on the same day but a few hours later, Sony would do the same for the PS4. What no one expected was what was about to happen. Xbox One already had controversies behind it due to the fact that the machine had been presented more as an entertainment system (with an emphasis on watching television on it) than as a console. Besides, in a gross communication failureit was also noted that the discs needed online verification every few hours for Microsoft to verify that the game was yours. This meant that if you didn’t have Internet, you might not be able to play your games, and the division’s boss himself sent out the message. “If you don’t have Internet access, we have a product for you. It’s called Xbox 360”. When you present your new machine, it is not elegant to say that if someone doesn’t want it, they have the old one because the easiest thing that can happen is that they end up looking at the competition. And the competition… tightened. After the mess with the verification of physical copies on Xbox One, Sony attacked. During his conference, starting at the hour and 57 minute mark, Jack Tretton, who was COO of Sony Computer Entertainment, spent a few minutes stating that they believed in the physical format, in sharing and reselling your games on disc and in doing whatever you wanted with them. Of course, there would be no ‘online check’ to verify the discs either. He won a lot of applause with the speech that you can see here: That moment, added to the fact that PS4 was going to cost 100 euros less than the confusing Xbox One, marked the generation, but there was more blood. On the same day of the presentation, PlayStation recorded a video in which two of its heavyweights did a complete tutorial of what the process of leaving games between PS4 users was going to be like. It is one of the most iconic moments of these fairs and one of the last moments I remember in which one company went so hard against another in this console thing: The previous generation, the PS3 and Xbox 360, ended with the two machines selling a very similar number of units, but the PS4 and Xbox One began with the Sony machine sweeping sales. Xbox retracted its policiesbut it was late and when Phil Spencer took the reins of the division and started making moves (lower the price, remove mandatory Kinect, etc.), it was… well, that’s it: late. Xbox One sold so little that Microsoft made the decision to stop providing data on consoles sold. When that happens, things go wrong because everyone likes to stick out their chests when the wind is in their favor, and a few years later, Spencer himself commented that they lost the generation they shouldn’t lose. “We lost the worst generation you could lose, the one where everyone built their digital games library” – Phil Spencer Among their arguments, one made all the sense in the world: the PS4 and Xbox One was the generation of change, of the change from physical to digital, of the change from a model of consoles that were a blank canvas to one in which people wanted to continue playing their games from past generations. And, above all, the generation in which it was more important than ever to provide continuity to that digital ecosystem. Spencer summarized with the phrase “we lost the worst generation that could be lost, the one in which everyone built their library of digital games.” As I say, it makes perfect sense because if you went from an Xbox 360 to a new console, it didn’t matter to you because there was no backward compatibility (it was added later in the case of Xbox). You had to start from scratch, and the same if you went from PS3 to PS4. Therefore, Xbox 360 users who were not happy with the new policies were able to switch to PS4 without fear of losing anything because there was nothing to lose. However, as On PS4 and Xbox One the digital ecosystem began to developusers began to buy more and more games in that format. If you had a PS4 with an account in which you had invested money in dozens of games, it was … Read more

Sony has just set a date for the end of video games in physical format. At the same time it announces the closure of digital stores

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The main players in the video game industry have been looking for years to find out how to migrate from physical Blu-Ray to digital format and they already have the answer: Sony has just set the date for the death of the physical format in video games. In a brief releasethe Japanese company has announced that January 2028 will be the turning point and that all the games that come out later for its consoles will arrive only in digital format. Curiously, at the same time that they dropped that bomb, the Japanese they threw another: the closure of the PlayStation Store for PS3 and PS Vita. Definitely not the best news to start July if you are a video game lover (and you like to own what you pay for). We go in parts because it has chicha. The end of physical games on PlayStation consoles “As consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift from physical to digital discs, production of physical game discs for all new games released on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued beginning in January 2028. After this date, new games will be available on the PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only.” Thus begins the statement from a company that continues to claim that this is a “natural direction” to adapt to consumer trends. They argue that “the overall preference for digital media significantly outweighs physical discs” and comment that they are doing gamers a favor because this decision will “allow us to align more closely with how the majority of our community prefers to access and play games today.” This news comes just a few days after we learned that a generational game like ‘GTA VI’ will not have a physical edition (at least at launch) and follows the trend of Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo that, in recent years, have invested heavily in the move to digital. There are consoles without a reader, a PS5 Pro whose reader was sold separately or a Nintendo that has launched Game Key Cards. It is undeniable that the convenience of the digital format was winning the battle. Recent estimates have put this on the table in major markets such as the United States, but the physical format has something that the digital format cannot offer: belonging. Because digital games (except those from stores like GOG) do not belong to whoever pays for them. They are user licenses, which means that today we can pay 80 euros for one, but if tomorrow whoever decides that that license is no longer valid, they can delete it. Even if you had it installed on the machine (tell that to ‘The Crew’ users). Some physical games were also paperweights that required an additional download, but the only way to own a video game was to buy a physical version that came complete on disk. With this movement, Sony gives an important blow to the possession of the product for which you have paid, but it completely destroys the second hand that is so important to access that cultural product called a video game. Sony won the PS4 generation with, among other things, that argument: the loan of video games and the free circulation of discs. And not that long ago. Because Sony announcing that it will stop “printing” discs is just that, a brutal blow to video games in physical format. Sony, along with Panasonic, was the main manufacturer of Blu-Ray discs, the one with the production chain and to which the rest of the companies have to send their games to capture them on the disc. And in the statement the company does not say: “we are going to stop manufacturing discs of our games”, but rather the “production of physical discs that will end in January 2028 for new games released on PlayStation consoles”, in general. In development…

We know that the inhabitants of a Roman site in Aragon loved wine and games. A mystery remains: why they vanished

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When we think of ancient Rome, the first image that comes to mind is that of patricians in togas, the Colosseum, legionnaires and heroes gathered in the Senate. That however is only one part of the Empire. The “Rome of marble”, as the archaeologist Ángel A. Jordán recently summarized it in an interview with The Newspaper. Another, equally important and much less known, is the “Rome of clay”, that formed by people who lived far from the metropolis and dedicated their days to working, drinking and playing, went hungry, loved and mourned their dead. That last Rome is the one that Jordan and his companions are discovering little by little in Barker Heada deposit of Five Villasprovince of Zaragoza. In a place in Aragon… It may not be the best-known site in Spain, but Barker Head has proven to be a box of surprises for archaeologists interested in the history of Aragon. Located in the pre-Pyrenean foothills, near Sofuentes, its land was occupied for centuries and played a key role in the road which Augustus ordered to be built and toured the area. Hence since 2016 Researchers have carried out several campaigns to peer into the secrets of a population that, it is estimated, covered 19 hectares and extended from the late bronze age until late antiquity, between the centuries VI and IX AD., a period that has left a good handful of vestiges. Last year, for example, was announced the discovery of a Roman road. Why is it news? Because after eight campaigns, a new excavation has just been launched at the site. He revealed it a few days ago The Aragon Newspaperwho in the process chatted with the project director, Angel A. Jordanabout the objective that the team has set for this year: to clarify why the population declined, something difficult to understand with the data they have collected so far. “It is a city that a priori has water because it is located in a place where there are many springs, it is a privileged area with very good agricultural land… It is a great mystery why the city stopped being inhabited. In the 7th century it no longer exists,” details the expert The chronicle of Cabeza Ladrero can therefore extend from the IX or VIII BC until late in our era, although it is believed that it reached its period of splendor during the Roman era. One unknown, two theories. Although the excavations will (hopefully) clarify the mystery, Jordán and his team already start with some theories on the table. One is that the settlement succumbed to external attacks. “Last year the excavation began to give us curious elements. Small remains are appearing that indicate the presence of fire, ashes are appearing in different parts of the street and that makes us think that it could have been abandoned due to some violent event,” admits in The Newspaper. “Taking into account that the city does not reach the 7th century and that there are signs of destruction, we could still be facing some type of attack, especially from the Bagaudas, rebel groups that acted in the Ebro valley during the 5th and 6th centuries and that looted several cities in the region,” apostille the expert The other suspect. The second hypothesis is that it was the disease that killed the locals. As remember Jordanit is known that in the 6th century there was “a brutal epidemic of the Black Death” that had devastating consequences. “It is estimated that in many parts of the empire up to 25% died,” says the director of the archaeological project before remembering that there is evidence of another phenomenon: a transfer of population to The Bañalesa Roman settlement located not far from Cabeza Ladrero and which became a prosperous town. The “Rome of clay”. Beyond its geopolitical relevance, its role in the road system or the details of its chronicle, there is another reason why Cabeza Ladrero is so special: it offers us a window into the “Rome of clay”which completes the image of “marble Rome” that cinema usually conveys and has formed the cliché of the empire. After all, at the Aragonese site archaeologists have found much more than vials and ancient milestones. Pitchers and board games. During their excavations, researchers have found jugs that tell us about his love of drinking and several tokens that, experts believe, could have been part of an ancient board game. “They were people who lived, got drunk and robbed each other; but they also loved and we have been able to see that very well in the necropolis,” Jordan says in The Newspaper. “Indeed, they played because they had to have fun and, if not, they were bored out of their minds. They organized tournaments and the kids had their toys.” Images | Wikipedia 1 and 2 Via | The Aragon Newspaper In Xataka | Under an institute, Rome has found something impressive: a perfectly preserved “domus” from the 2nd century

Someone has created a PS1 programming environment with Claude. And he has started programming games

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Manny has been wanting this software to exist for 20 years. Security engineer by day, indie developer by night, he grew up with a PlayStation and never stopped thinking about making games for it. When he finally got around to trying, the barrier wasn’t the complexity of the hardware: it was that the tools available were in C++ and getting them started was too difficult. Their solution was the most radical possible: build the tools from scratch. Have your own emulator. The result is called PSoXide. According to describes Manny himselfis a complete development stack for PS1 written entirely in Rust: emulator, SDK, engine, level editor and pipeline disk. And Claude is built into the emulator as part of the architecture. “This would have been completely impossible without the LLMs,” says Manny, and it is not an exaggeration: PSoXide is a highly complex project, which would have required a team behind it, but which he has been able to emulate on his own thanks to AI. How it works. The emulator implements the complete machine: the R3000A CPU, the GPU, the GTE, the CD-ROM, the DMA, the SPU, the timers and the MDEC. As detailed in the Project READMEManny built a suite of tests with more than 65 ROMs, and then made a test CD to run it on a real PS1 and be able to check if the emulator was imitating the original machine one hundred percent. The SDK, in short, is very complete: it communicates directly with the hardware instead of going through the console’s BIOS for performance reasons. And it has dedicated modules for GPU, GTE, controllers, SPU audio with ADPCM, CD-ROM and ISO9660. And memory cards, of course. Without Claude it can’t be done. Manny says the part he’s most excited about about the editor is that it “wires the emulator directly to Claude”: there’s an MCP server that exposes about 25 endpoints of debugso the model can inspect the state of the CPU, VRAM, and registers as they work. “Debugging a PS1 game by simply asking Claude to inspect the hardware is like a wet dream,” he says. When something goes wrong in a game’s behavior, Manny can ask Claude to directly read the logs from the emulated hardware and diagnose what’s going on. That design is a direct consequence of how the project uses AI: PSoXide was developed “with substantial assistance from AI, with a human leading the architecture, the debugging and hardware verification.” That is, and this is also important and makes clear certain preconceptions about how AI can replace programmers: he directs, AI executes. Being “a software engineer in the pre-AI era means that in the long term I can guide the models in a way that the code remains stable and expandable.” Manny: Origins. According to your profile on itch.ioManny started programming with the PICO-8, whose limitations (small resolution, small cartridges) taught him what restriction can do for creativity. Then he built BONNIE-32its own console in Rust, with software renderer and integrated tools. In parallel, in February 2026, it published an experimental alpha version of a port of ‘Zelda: Ocarina of Time’…for PS1. He made it playable, with 3D movement and a camera controllable with the sticks, and conceived it as a learning tool for real hardware. The catalogue. The first game published on PSoXide is the ‘Celeste Classic Collection PSX‘: Maddy Thorson and Noel Berry’s two PICO-8 games ‘Celeste Classic’ and ‘Celeste 2: Lani’s Trek’, rewritten in Rust on the PSoXide SDK. Be careful, we are not looking at a PICO-8 emulator running on the PS1, but rather native code: an executable of approximately 468 KB, graphics with 4 bits per pixel textures, real-time synthesized audio with 8 voices… This beauty runs at 60 frames per second and is downloaded on itch.io at a free price. And after that, a much more ambitious project: Manny is working with a 3D artist on an original game for PS1, a souls-like with three-dimensional graphics for the console. Or as Manny says, “aimed at something you really care about, AI doesn’t replace your creativity, it unlocks it.” In Xataka | Claude Code is being the big favorite among programmers. So much so that he already signs 4% of everything that is uploaded to GitHub

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