In a recent lawsuit against Sony, the firm argued that "reasonable consumers would not be misled" into believing they own digital games that they "purchased" on the PlayStation Store. Folks on the Consumer Rights Wiki have now compiled a humongous list of specific instances in which Sony currently states that users do, in fact, own their digital PS4 and/or PS5 games. The list is currently up to 44 specifically documented statements, but actually notes hundreds of examples where Sony explicitly states that users do, in fact, "own" their games across its various services and pages.

In this case, Sony says that no "reasonable person" would believe that, when they add a game to their cart and click "Purchase" on the PlayStation Store, they are entering a contract that entitles them to ownership of the digital goods in question. Instead, Sony believes it's obvious that what you're paying for is a limited, revocable license for a service that only remains available as long as Sony offers it, which is quite different from ownership in a legal context.

The case isn't exactly about ownership, though; it's really about consumer disclosure and product representation. The plaintiffs aren't arguing that buying a digital game somehow transfers ownership of Sony's underlying intellectual property, but rather that Sony's use of words such as "buy," "purchase," and "own" could reasonably lead consumers to believe that they were acquiring a durable right to use the game, rather than merely obtaining a revocable license. That distinction matters because Sony's defense depends in part on the claim that no reasonable consumer would interpret the transaction that way. At the same time, the plaintiffs have produced a substantial body of evidence showing that Sony itself routinely uses precisely that ownership language when describing the digital games its customers have purchased.

This issue is in particularly sharp relief now that Sony's digital store is confirmed to be the only way to purchase new PlayStation games from next year. The publisher's announcement that it would stop producing game discs in January of 2028 caused quite an uproar among gamers who value physical copies of games as a token of ownership. It's worth noting that most players do purchase games digitally (as much as 85% of PlayStation games, by some reporting), and also that disc production and usage become less practical as the manufacturing of both disc drives and discs slowly winds down.

The gamer outrage isn't really about the end of discs, though. This fury has been simmering for a good while now, as gamers resent perceived anti-consumer practices. The realization that discs are going away simply forced a lot of gamers outside the enthusiast sphere to confront the reality that they do not own their digital purchases and that they can be taken away at any time, just as Sony has already done in the past. This is especially pointed in light of the price increases asked by game publishers in the last few years, where games have gone from a typical ceiling of $60 USD up to $70 and now, more recently, $80 (with Mario Kart World, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and now Grand Theft Auto VI), despite often struggling to provide the same level of satisfaction and enjoyment as older titles.

And so we come back around to the Consumer Rights Wiki and its list of times that Sony has explicitly used ownership language on its website and on its digital storefront. The Wiki catalogs these quotes with both links to live pages as well as archived snapshots and screenshots with the relevant text highlighted. The Consumer Rights Wiki was of course founded by consumer rights advocate and YouTuber Louis Rossmann, but much of the work was done by the community that has sprung up around the site as people rebel against the continuous erosion of their consumer rights, particularly by technology companies that argue against their own responsibility.

It's unfortunately still not clear if this case is actually going to trial yet. Sony is attempting to have the case moved to private arbitration, citing that all four plaintiffs agreed to such when signing up for the PlayStation Network; in that case, Sony will likely pay a small cash award to each plaintiff and the matter will be settled, legally speaking. If the case goes to trial, there's a possibility for real legal precedent to be set by a public ruling, at least in California. For the sake of consumer transparency on the PlayStation Store, let's hope that the court agrees to hear this one.

Sony Japan has officially implemented a new customer harassment policy to address ongoing customer backlash, following the company’s controversial announcement to phase out physical PlayStation game discs by January 2028. In an official publication on September 1, the company outlined prohibited customer behaviors to protect the dignity and safety of its employees and threatened to suspend customer service if the behaviors continued.

“The dignity and safety of our employees must not be threatened by customer harassment, such as words or demands from customers that exceed what is considered reasonable according to social norms,” the publication read. “If any behavior constituting customer harassment is confirmed, we may restrict or suspend customer service in order to protect the safety of our employees.”

Some of the examples of customer harassment detailed in the publication include “persistent and repeated, or prolonged, demands; excessive or unreasonable demands for compensation; abusive language, threats, slander, and other similar behaviors; requests unrelated to products or services; intimidating attitude; discriminatory or sexual conduct; and attacks and demands against individual employees.

The company also listed “forcing someone to prostrate themselves,” visiting company grounds without permission, and excessively asking for apologies as customer harassment, expressing willingness to use legal force if necessary. “We will take a firm stance against such actions and aim to build healthy and sustainable relationships while respecting both our customers and employees,” it said. “If we deem it necessary, we will cooperate with the police, lawyers, etc., and consider taking action, including legal measures and criminal proceedings.”

The new policies appear to be in response to the intense backlash over Sony's decision to end physical disc production by 2028. The decision was met with immediate, widespread backlash from the gaming community, which argued — among other things — that ending physical discs was equivalent to eliminating true ownership. Critics also argued that digital purchases were rentals and placed too much power in the company's hands, which could restrict access at will. Just 6 days after the July 1st announcement, a Change.org petition to stop the move had amassed 200,000 signatures and is now approaching 400,000.

The company doesn't appear to be backing down. After a class action lawsuit related to Sony’s decision to kill physical discs, the company moved to force the case into out-of-court arbitration, arguing that “reasonable consumers would not be misled into believing they own digital games.” The plaintiffs allege that Sony misleads consumers by using "Buy" buttons for digital PlayStation games without clearly disclosing that buyers are only purchasing a temporary, revocable license rather than actual, permanent ownership of the game.

Several other related lawsuits are ongoing. Regardless, Sony has said it will "cautiously move forward" with its decision despite “strong views” from players. The company hopes its new customer harassment policy will curb some of the backlash individual employees are currently facing. The policies also align with Japan's recent law that mandates companies to take measures to prevent customer harassment towards their workers.

The developers of the Sony PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3 have told their social media followers that it is now possible to play games straight from discs. As announced on Twitter/X, the emulator’s latest refinement works only with certain internal and external Blu-ray drives. Happily for retro gamers, there’s a lengthy compatibility list of drives featuring many models and brands, and the same drives are also compatible with dumping your media to fixed storage.

Above you can see the RPCS3 devs are pretty happy with the slick new “plug and play” refinements that are available to users of the latest version of the emulator. “You can now play your PS3 games on PC... DIRECTLY FROM THE DISC DRIVE!” boast the open source emulator programmers. “PLUG AND PLAY! Owning your games as physical media allows you to play games released as far back as 20 years ago without relying on any servers!” The RPCS3 team thanks digant73 and Megamouse, specifically, for contributions making this feat possible.

Indeed, this is another step forward in making a slick emulator that works in a surprisingly frictionless fashion. Though the Tweet mentions PC, specifically, extended disc drive play support is also available on Linux, FreeBSD, and macOS. You just need to check that drive compatibility list. Moreover, all users can enjoy “optimized install times for package installations from the disc drive.” It has also been confirmed that PS4 and PS5 console users with Linux installs can launch PS3 games directly from disc using RPCS3.

Here’s a quick tip for folks who have an obscure Blu-ray drive that isn’t in the list. If you want to confirm compatibility with the drive, just put a PS3 disc in it. If you can browse its files, it's compatible; if nothing shows up, then it's not.

With pricing for the best SSDs now sky-high, being able to test-run new (old) games before dumping them to fixed storage could be a boon. It might also be good for auditioning a batch of discs you have recently bought, to see which ones are keepers.

A Sony PlayStation 3 console modder has shared images and details of their ‘PS3 Pro v3’ design. On the PS3 subreddit, Fun-Equivalent-7785 showcases this project, which includes a heavily customized 3D-printed top case, dual Noctua fans, and liberal use of tin foil. While you may love or hate the new aesthetic, the results seem impressive, with the PS3 overclocked like a champ and running very cool and quiet.

Yes, this is at least the third PS3 Pro mod from Fun-Equivalent-7785, but all projects benefit from refinement. PC builders will be familiar with the dread of unwrapping their motherboards and seeing the revision number is v1.0.0, contrasting with the pleasure of seeing v1.0.3. Moving swiftly back on topic, you can look and read about the first version of this PS3 Pro project here, and there’s also a video about the PS3 Pro v2.

In some comments following the original post, Fun-Equivalent-7785 provides more technical details about the PS Pro v3 mod. They claim that the processors aren’t delidded, nor undervolted. Instead, they have installed “server heatsinks” on Sony’s custom PS3 processors. In front of these, one can clearly see two chunky Noctua fans, presumably pushing much air through the heatsink fins. Tinfoil has been used to shape the ducting. The Noctua fans are somewhat wider than the heatsinks, and overall it is “super silent.”

One screenshot shows an overlay from the ‘PS3 Pro v3’ running. Specifically, we can see the CPU is 40 degrees Celsius, the Reality Synthesizer (AKA the RSX, a GPU) is 42 degrees Celsius, while the fans are only rotating at 24% max RPM. This is while the RSX is overclocked to 750 MHz core and 1,000 MHz memory. A stock PS3 would achieve around 500 MHz core and 650 MHz memory.

Those uprated numbers result in broadly improved performance in PS3 gaming. “Almost every game has a boost in FPS,” crows Fun-Equivalent-7785. The results seem pretty worthwhile, especially if you like the look of this design from Fun-Equivalent-7785.

While it is an interesting project that might inspire you to do something similar with your old PS3, there are some aspects to modding like this that you have to consider. This particular project isn’t a ‘product’ so you can’t just buy a kit to copy it. There aren't yet 3D printer resource files shared on GitHub or similar. We are also not aware of any other shared resources to make it easy for other modders to replicate the PS3 Pro v3 project.

Lastly, please remember, before you risk your precious PS3 under the knife, there can be risks to modding. For example, there are many opportunities to inflict accidental physical damage to electronics when undertaking DIY projects like this. Moreover, overclocking may shorten the lifespan of your console's components, and applying unofficial firmware has the potential to soft- or hard-brick your system.

Sony’s decision to end physical game production by 2028 is facing backlash from the community, with one group announcing a concrete protest. DoesItPlay, a community dedicated to video game preservation, has called for a one-week boycott of PlayStation, asking players to turn off their consoles or log out of the PlayStation Network from August 23 to 30. According to its Bluesky post, the community, along with other creators, is calling for a one-week #PSBlackout starting tomorrow, asking for “No logins, no play sessions, no purchases on any of Sony’s platforms.”

Unfortunately, many say this move likely won't make much of an impact. That’s because the last week of August is “ordinary,” with no major events or PlayStation-related launches. In fact, it’s also the same week as Gamescom, so many hardcore gamers would likely be away and at the convention anyway. Some comments on DoesItPlay’s post suggest more drastic measures, like a mass cancellation of PSN subscriptions for three months or even mass refunds of pre-selling digital games, arguing that a boycott or blackout with an expiry date is meaningless, as Sony will simply wait it out.

Other users are showing their displeasure with the move towards digital-only releases in more drastic ways. One example of this is Cyberleek, who leaked gameplay clips and the entire map of Leonidas a week before GTA VI’s extended look trailer is set to come out on Netflix. Take-Two is already taking steps to find out who was behind the leaks, but only after it became apparent that the hacker apparently has a full working build of the much-anticipated game. While the leaker did not mention anything about Sony’s plan to go fully digital, Cyberleek opposed the decision to offer pre-selling digital copies of GTA VI and threatened to keep releasing leaks until the publisher issues a public apology and “a concrete commitment to be better.”

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.

— @doesitplay.org (@doesitplay.org.bsky.social) 2026-08-23T02:04:05.199Z

The gaming industry has been slowly moving away from physical media and toward fully digital releases, especially with the prevalence of the Steam and Epic storefronts. However, what many do not realize is that “buying” games from most of these services does not equate to ownership—something Steam had to clarify on its checkout page in 2024.

The only major distributor that currently offers complete ownership is GOG, which says, “A purchase of a digital content on GOG grants you its Offline Installers, which cannot be taken away from you.” Subscriptions like PC Game Pass have also started offering short-term convenience for gamers, especially those who only want to play something for a while and don’t mind losing access to the game after they’ve already completed or grown tired of it.

Companies like Sony are likely reacting to market preferences for digital games, which is probably why it doubled down on its decision to axe physical game discs. One way consumers can force these tech companies to keep physical distribution alive is by putting their money where their mouth is and start purchasing game discs from retailers instead of downloading them from online storefronts.

The PlayStation 5 emulation scene has been a wonder to witness, with rapid progress matching the community's ambition. The latest development on this frontier is SharpEmu, an open-source PS5 emulator, successfully running on the Steam Deck with Astro's Playroom even booting to show the PlayStation Studios loading screen. The framerate doesn't go past 1 FPS, but the fact that it's even running is very impressive.

We scoured the internet for more information on this but couldn't find anything. This seems to be the first and only case of someone getting a PS5 game to load on a Steam Deck without streaming involved. The video above shows the Steam Deck in its desktop mode inside SteamOS, which is based on Linux. Performance fluctuates between 0.5 FPS and 1 FPS according to the overlay in the corner, and the audio is just as choppy.

SharpEmu can smoothly run lightweight 2D titles like Dead Cells and Dreaming Sarah on more capable hardware, but the team's focus is not on compatibility. KytyPS5 is far more advanced in terms of the games people have been able to boot on it, including 3D titles like Demon's Souls. However, Kyty is limited to Windows while SharpEmu has native support for Linux and Mac, and there's even an unofficial Android fork.

We tried this version on a OnePlus 12 and were able to get Dreaming Sarah to show an initial splash screen with the developer's logo. After that, though, the screen turns black, and nothing happens, despite the FPS counter constantly hovering around 60 FPS. A few questionably optimistic users on Reddit have even suggested running SharpEmu on Android through Winlator, so that GTA VI can be played on Android once it launches.

Just like the Steam Deck, even the fact that the game launches on Android is a mighty feat and a testament to the sheer ambition of this community. SharpEmu is only meant for x86 devices; it runs on Apple Silicon Macs through the Rosetta 2 translation layer, and on Windows-on-Arm devices through Microsoft's Prism translation layer. But since it's written in C# from scratch, evidently, the code can be recompiled for Android.

With the ongoing component crisis making even consoles more expensive to purchase, and the death of physical media right around the corner, emulation is once again being touted as a cornerstone of preservation. With a roadmap to playing GTA VI on PC without waiting a few years for a port no doubt in the back of everyone's minds.

Sony lets gamers access their PlayStation consoles remotely through a couple of different tools. The Remote Play app lets gamers stream titles from their consoles to their phones, tablets, and PCs. The PlayStation Portal handheld has an extra trick. It can stream PS5 games both locally from a gamer's own console or directly from the PlayStation Plus Premium service's cloud gaming library.

Third-party apps like Chiaki have already brought PS Remote Play functionality over to Linux, but the new Asobi Remote Play app promises to make that functionality available directly from Steam. It also boasts an exclusive feature that can turn your Steam Deck into a virtual PS Portal, allowing you to play cloud games from the PlayStation Plus Premium library. The app is in a pre-release play test right now, but its capabilities are intriguing.

As long as you have a PlayStation Plus Premium subscription, you can stream select PS5 titles directly from Sony's servers inside Asobi, even if you don't have a PS5 console. This hasn't been possible on any device other than the PS Portal until now. Only the titles Sony has approved are available for cloud streaming on PS Portal, and that same restriction will apply within Asobi.

That said, hundreds of games are already available through this subscription, so you likely won't run into any trouble finding something to play if you want to try the PlayStation library without committing to a PS5.

The Asobi team has just released the app for SteamOS (and, by extension, Linux), which means you can install it on a Steam Deck or Steam Machine and essentially turn your existing Steam Deck into a Portal, saving you from buying a $250 device just to enjoy PlayStation games without a console.

Asobi is not associated with Sony in any way, so there's no guarantees for future compatibility or even a stable experience, but the developer does promise 1080p 30FPS streaming with the app's free tier. The premium tier bumps that up to 1080p 60 FPS with HDR and 4K upscaling support, as well as manual bitrate selection, controller haptics, and lower latency.

All of these premium features are currently free on the Steam playtest, which is also why pricing for the premium tier hasn't been announced yet. Some users already part of the testing are reporting issues, which is to be expected for pre-release software.

But if the team can iron out the kinks, and assuming that Sony doesn't block whatever method Asobi is using to mimic the PlayStation Portal for cloud game streaming access, this app could become the most accessible way to play PlayStation games on the Steam Deck (apart from native PC ports, of course).

Despite widespread public backlash, Sony has reaffirmed its plan to transition PlayStation to an all-digital platform during the company's FY26 Q1 earnings call. The company is moving forward with ending the production of physical game discs in January 2028. After this date, the company will no longer manufacture physical media for new game releases. This decision gives PlayStation fans and retailers a little over a year and a half to prepare for the change.

When asked about Sony's decision to end production of physical game discs during the Q&A session, Lin Tao, Executive Officer and CFO for Sony, replied that:

"On this point, we announced that January 2028 onwards, we will no longer be manufacturing game discs. One and a half years ahead. We made this announcement at this time. There are various reasons we made this decision."

Tao further explains the rationale behind the digital paradigm shift, a move that was met with negative criticism from PlayStation fans and parts of the industry.

"The biggest being that the digitalization of content overall has been progressing. That’s the big factor. It’s not just for PlayStation, but for all kinds of contents; digitalization is progressing. When we think about the future, 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. We understand that the community has put forth those views to us.

Games are loved by many people. It’s a form of entertainment that’s loved by people; it’s connected to people’s fond memories in many cases. We understand those emotions. We want to consider that."

According to Sony's financial results for FY26 Q1, which covers the period from April to June, the company raked in $1.2 billion in digital game revenue. In stark contrast, physical game sales brought in only $128 million for Sony, meaning digital revenue was more than 9X higher than physical sales. The growth in digital sales and the disparity with physical sales shows why Sony is eager to go all in on digital.

Sony was asked directly about the impact of discontinuing physical discs. In response, Ishii, a Corporate Communications executive at the company, provided the following statement:

"Well, up until 2028, well, at this point in time, well, we are not seeing any impact on our business as of now. Going forward, about the content sales, I think a large part is already digitized.

Therefore, as a result of the discontinuation of a disc, we don’t see that there will be any negative impact on our business. However, as I already said, the users, the players, have attachments, and we have to think about how to respond to that feedback."

Phasing out game discs will undoubtedly have a significant financial impact on gamers. Physical game discs not only provide ownership, but they also come with the benefit of resale. Gamers can recoup some of what they paid for it once they are finished playing. The extinction of game discs represents the loss of the ability to share physical games with friends and family. The PlayStation platform does not support sharing digital games, unlike services like Valve’s Steam Families or Nintendo’s Virtual Game Cards.

Game discs enable gamers on a tight budget to purchase second-hand copies of games at great prices at their local game stores or online marketplaces. For instance, used copies of The Last of Us Part I, which came out four years ago, go for as little as $25, while the digital version remains priced at around $69.99 on the PlayStation Store. Even during major promotional events like Days of Play or Black Friday, digital discounts have rarely brought prices below $29.99. Second-hand physical copies are simply a more affordable choice for many players.

Without game discs, PlayStation console owners will have to rely more on internal storage, and when that depletes, they will have to expand the storage with the best PS5 SSDs. The issue is that SSDs are ludicrously expensive right now due to the storage shortage, which could last way beyond January 2028.

The discontinuation of physical discs does not just affect consumers but also retailers. However, Sony expects limited business impact in that aspect since the digital transition has somewhat started a long time ago. Tao elaborated, "For the last 30 years, we have been selling PlayStation, and the retail partners have always been important to us. With the completion of the disc production, we communicated this at an early stage so that we have enough time to be able to listen to various partners’ voices.”

Tao continued, “In North America, this has already happened, but without discs. In the package, there’s a code. That’s how they sell in North America. About the retailers, there are regional characteristics. For each regional partner, we try to have thorough dialogues so that we can end up in a win-win situation. Now, the differentiation from PC. We don’t feel that the disc is the factor to differentiate from the PC."

Gamers are actively voicing their opposition to Sony’s move away from physical media. DoesItPlay, a community dedicated to game preservation, has organized a large-scale boycott dubbed #PSBlackout, urging PlayStation users worldwide to turn off their consoles for an entire week, from August 23 to August 30. The X post has amassed over 1.8 million views and 7,500 shares, but it is uncertain how many users will participate. In addition to this digital protest, a Change.org petition with more than 350,000 signatures is asking for Sony to reconsider its decision to end physical game production.

Sony has been winding down its physical media production over the years (for example, physical boxes with a download code), so it was just really a matter of time before the PlayStation ecosystem adapted to the changes. Unfortunately, the die is cast, and there are rumors that Sony has already started repurposing its factories for other endeavors. There is little to no hope that Sony will reverse its decision to discontinue physical game discs.

The state of PlayStation 5 emulation has been rapidly evolving, partially in response to Grand Theft Auto 6's release later this year. The latest milestone is the first 3D games being playable at very respectable framerates of around 30 frames per second.

The two emulators at the forefront of all this are KytyPS5 and SharpEmu, the former of which is intensely focused on expanding compatibility. KytyPS5 was already able to boot 3D titles and go until their loading screens, with at least two smaller games actually rendering graphics. Now, the same emulator can run two 3D games at around 30 FPS, though there are some glitches.

The first game is XIII, the 2020 remake of the 2003 classic, and it's "playable" at up to 30 FPS with real-time gameplay that accepts player input. We put playable in quotation marks because there are very obvious visual glitches that manifest in the environment not rendering correctly. The textures seem to be broken in multiple scenes, though they don't entirely kill the immersion. XIII is a relatively lightweight game but its cell-shaded aesthetic might be adding to emulation complexity.

The same person who tested XIII also tested Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Wrath of the Mutants and managed to run it at just under 25 FPS with real-time gameplay. The game crashes on the first launch, but once initialized, it's stable and does not seem to have any bugs or glitches like XIII. The framerate looks visibly choppy but is undeniably impressive, on a technical level. Kyty can run other 3D PS5 games as well, but not nearly at this level of performance.

KytyPS5 is advancing at a faster pace than SharpEmu, and that's true for the most part, but not out of stagnation. The team behind SharpEmu is busy tackling a different challenge: accuracy and infrastructure setup rather than game-specific compatibility, per its GitHub repo. In other words, it means fixing low-level issues that are preventing games like Astro Bot from currently reaching the gameplay state.

Both emulators are now part of an unexpected emulation race. With GTA 6 just a few months away and GTA 5 already booting in Kyty, it clearly has the better support for now, and its demos are very promising. SharpEmu's work will undoubtedly help the emulation scene at large, along with RPCSX and other independent developers. The craziest part is that you can try all of this at home for free, and just by doing that you're already contributing to the scene.

RPCS3, a multi-platform open-source PlayStation 3 emulator and debugger, has revealed that 2,681 of the total 3,559 PS3 titles are now compatible with its software, meaning a huge majority of games can now be played on Windows, Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD. The developers of the app said on X that RPCS3 is continually being worked on and that they’re targeting full preservation of the entire PS3 library. This is an important development for PlayStation 3 owners and enthusiasts, especially as Sony said that it will stop making physical game discs by 2028 and shut down the PlayStation Store for PS3 and PS Vita a year before that.

Ensuring that over 2,600 games are compatible with your emulation is no mean feat, especially for a project that’s mostly supported by Patreon and volunteers. The team has already achieved more than 75% compatibility with the entire PS3 library, with less than a thousand titles needing to be worked on. Of this, 816 are now playable but encounter serious glitches or performance problems, 60 reach the game’s main menu but fail to load past that, while only two titles initialize but are stuck on a black screen. If you want to check if you can now play your favorite PS3 title on your PC, you can go to the RPCS3 compatibility page and type in the name of the game.

This is a huge win for the game preservation community, as this would ensure that you can continue playing your PS3 game library even if your console no longer works. The beautiful thing about RPCS3 is that it works with a lot of different hardware — aside from support for Windows, Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD, it’s also compatible with both x86 and arm64, so you can install it on some of the best handheld gaming PCs to play your PS3 games on the go.

Emulation is quite controversial among game publishers and developers, and many companies have historically taken steps against those who make these apps. However, the courts have said that emulation isn’t necessarily illegal, as long as the people who use them only play games that they’ve already paid for. In fact, the Patreon page of RPCS3 was once hit by a DMCA takedown request from Atlus, the maker of Persona 5, arguing that “no version of the P5 game should be playable on this platform; and [the RPCS3] developers are infringing on our IP by making such games playable.”

While it ultimately failed in its request, it showed how some companies think that their games should only be played on the platform that they designed it for. They argue that emulators might introduce performance issues, meaning players will not get the optimal experience when playing their games. However, RPCS3 has proven that emulators could deliver a similar (or even better) performance than the PS3, with newer versions getting a 5% to 7% boost in FPS numbers compared to previous builds and even hitting more than 1500 FPS on the Minecraft title screen.

For years, the PS5 emulation scene has remained dormant, with updates few and far between as most projects become abandonware. However, Sony's recent decision to stop physical disc production and the impending release of GTA VI later this year have created an unprecedented demand in the market. All of a sudden, an influx of PS5 emulators has popped up online, and they're swiftly hitting development milestones, including actually being able to boot recent PS5 titles.

The most prominent name in the news cycle is SharpEmu, which serves as a PS5 emulator for Windows. It's written entirely in C# and works more like a translation layer since modern consoles and PC share the same x86 underlying architecture. SharpEmu allows the PC to execute CPU instructions natively while translating OS-specific API calls and graphics.

Since it's aiming for accuracy, only some 2D titles such as Dreaming Sarah are running on SharpEmu with solid performance and no hiccups. As far as 3D titles go, that's a different story since it's significantly harder to emulate those. At first, the PS5 remake of Demon's Souls successfully booted, but it didn't go past the startup screen. Then, in a major development, Discord user RShantila was able to boot Astro Bot, which is a PlayStation exclusive from 2024, on SharpEmu.

Getting such a recent game to run is extremely promising and shows that PS5 emulation is currently outpacing PS4 emulation at the same point in its life cycle. And SharpEmu is just one project among what's starting to seem like a sea of hopes and dreams.

The other emulator gaining traction is KytyPS5, which started as a cross-platform PS4 and PS5 emulator in 2021 but was abandoned in 2022. Fast forward four years and developer Nmzik has revived the project, creating their own fork that focuses only on PlayStation 5. According to reports online, within just a few weeks, KytyPS5 can boot commercial PS5 games running in Unreal Engine 4/5, Unity, and other custom engines.

KytyPS5 was able to boot and run Silent Hill: The Short Message till the menu screen. Remember, 3D games were previously limited to just their boot screens, so this is yet another major accomplishment. However, earlier today, the project's GitHub page was updated to show two new 3D games actually running with their graphics being properly rendered, shattering all expectations set thus far.

These two games are PowerWash Simulator and Pac-Man World, both of which are playable with functional gameplay, though we don't have any idea about performance or stability. Even more impressively, and perhaps more on-topic, the KytyPS5 version 0.0.3 successfully booted the commercial PS5 version of Grand Theft Auto V far enough to display the loading screens, main splash art, and actually navigate the in-game display settings.

KytyPS5 has also recently received updates to its shader compiler for better graphics, better memory management that leads to faster load times, and better audio support as well. The emulator works on Windows for now, but a Linux version is also planned for the future.

Finally, we need to mention RPCSX, which isn't exactly an emulator but rather just a research project dedicated to better understanding both PS4 and PS5 software. The devs are still working on being able to boot games from the user interface, but in a race like this, you need every hand on deck, and the team behind RPCS3 is one of the most experienced in the field.

The PS5 emulation scene has suddenly exploded, and the pace of these developments is astonishing. At this trajectory, it won't be unreasonable to expect GTA V to actually run on SharpEmu or KytyPS5 by next month. That being said, emulation is a marathon that takes a long time to perfect, so it's almost guaranteed that the official PC version of GTA VI will be out long before the emulated version becomes playable.

A Change.org petition urging Sony to keep making physical PlayStation games has passed 172,000 signatures, six days after the company announced that it intends to stop producing discs for new games in January 2028. The petition, started by Jade Pearce, CEO of Canadian retailer PNP Games, climbed from around 12,000 signatures on its first day to more than 172,000 by the morning of July 7. Sony hasn’t responded, and the factory that prints its discs has already started moving some staff and equipment onto a different product.

Pearce launched the campaign the same day as Sony's announcement, and it gathered 40,000 names within 48 hours. The petition contends that a boxed download code is a revocable license rather than owned property, references Sony's recent removal of purchased movies from customer accounts, and lists the used-game trade among the jobs at risk. "We are not against digital," Pearce writes. "We are against digital being the only option."

Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad estimated that Sony sold more than 70 million physical discs in 2025, even with digital purchases sitting at roughly 80% of full-game sales. Sony's PlayStation social accounts have stayed dormant since July 1.

Sony DADC's plant in Thalgau, Austria, produces about 600,000 discs a day, roughly half of them PlayStation titles, and has begun shifting some workers onto optical microlens production, DADC CEO Dietmar Tanzer told Austrian broadcaster ORF Salzburg. The company has put €30 million ($34 million) into new equipment, according to Engadget, expects disc output to fall to about 10% of current volume by 2028, and plans to retrain roughly 300 staff rather than lay them off.

Optical microlenses steer and concentrate light across very small distances and appear in camera modules, AR and VR headsets, fiber-optic gear, and automotive lighting. Markus Streibl, head of micro optics at Sony DADC, said mass production could begin as early as 2027.

The PlayStation 6 is reportedly in development without a built-in disc drive, which would leave Sony's hardware team to reintegrate one if the company changed course. Sony's standalone PS5 disc drive has carried a one-per-order purchase cap since at least March last year, predating the disc announcement, and leaked PS6 specifications described in earlier reports frame any drive as an optional backward-compatibility accessory. Grand Theft Auto 6, easily the biggest game of the decade so far, will ship on PlayStation as a boxed download code with no playable disc, ahead of the 2028 cutoff.

Sony has told publishers they can still book disc runs for games released in 2027 or earlier, so existing physical libraries will keep working on supported consoles. Whether the fact that the petition is now pushing 200,000 signatures will compel Sony to move or abandon the January 2028 date is unclear; Sony delayed its 2021 shutdown of the PS3 and PS Vita stores after similar backlash, though that closure is now scheduled again alongside the disc decision.

Sony's one-per-order purchase limit on the PS5 Disc Drive, widely cited this week as a response to panic buying after the company said it will end physical disc production for new PlayStation games in January 2028, has been on PlayStation Direct since at least March 2025. Archived captures of the product page cited by HotHardware carry the same wording, "Due to high demand, there is a limit of 1 per order," more than a year before Sony's announcement. Meanwhile, the largest petition against the disc cutoff sat beyond 74,000 signatures on the morning of July 4th, closing in on its 75,000 goal.

Sony did add something to the product page this week: a bolded notice stating that from January 2028, newly released PlayStation games will be sold on the PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital format only, and that discs for games released before that date will continue to play on supported consoles. We checked the live U.S. listing today and found both the new notice and the long-standing order limit, along with a line warning that household limits may apply.

The detachable drive, $79.99 at retail, is the only way to play physical games or Blu-ray movies on the PS5 Digital Edition and PS5 Pro, neither of which comes with one. eBay listings for the accessory reached $100 to $130 this week, according to HotHardware, which also noted that Best Buy stocks the drive at retail price with no order limit. Sony hasn't said whether it intends to keep manufacturing the drive after the disc cutoff, or how long the PlayStation Direct restriction will remain in place.

A Change.org petition organized by Jade Pearce, CEO of Canadian game retailer PNP Games, gathered more than 74,000 signatures in three days, and Push Square counted at least 15 separate petitions urging Sony to reverse course. The backlash has already spread beyond petitions, with various companies poking fun at Sony's decision, including GitHub, which announced that it'll begin offering CD-ROM copies of public repositories as a jab at the decision.

Regardless, Sony's disc manufacturing plans appear to be set in stone. PlayStation output accounts for roughly half of the volume at Sony DADC's plant in Thalgau, Austria, with new game disc orders making up around 20% of that share, CEO Dietmar Tanzer told Austrian broadcaster ORF in comments reported by Wccftech. The site's roughly 300 workers are being retrained to produce optical microlenses, with mass production of the new line set to begin in early 2027, a year before the disc cutoff takes effect.

Yesterday, Sony revealed that the PlayStation Store will be shutting down for PS3 and PS Vita consoles in July 2027. The irony seemed to be lost on the company, pairing up a disc-killing announcement for the future of PlayStation with news that literally serves as proof of why that's a bad idea. Regardless of the rationale, digital archivists are now kicking into gear to preserve PS3 game data with whatever time they have left, and it seems like RPCS3 is leading the awareness campaign.

RPCS3 is a huge name in the emulation scene. These guys are responsible for the most prominent PS3 emulator out there right now, having recently made a breakthrough in performance for all tiers of hardware. RPCS3 is open source, so naturally the project gravitates towards a preservationist culture where everything must be protected for future generations to come.

Emulators are only as good as the software available to run on them, so these efforts are inextricably tied together. The RPCS3 team suggests using no-intro.org, which is a database that tracks everything that needs to be saved. It doesn't directly host any ROMs; rather, it hosts metadata such as cryptographic signatures (hashes like CRC32, MD5, SHA-1), exact file sizes, serial numbers, and revision histories.

It serves as a ledger for the community, so it knows what has already been verified and backed up, and what still needs to be found before it's permanently removed from storefronts. RPCS3 is actually built around no-intro.org since it features automated integrity checks for PSN content. It can check your dumped .pkg file and tell you whether it's corrupt and precisely what's missing if it is.

For instance, to troubleshoot a niche, digital-only PS3 game that doesn't emulate well on RPCS3, the team would need to look at the original, optimized copy of the game first to understand how it should work. Since the game isn't popular, there's a high chance no one ever bothered to dump it — no-intro.org actively tries to prevent this from happening thanks to its contributors knowing exactly what to archive.

Once PSN goes down for PS3 next year, we will be at risk of losing a goldmine of content that was never preserved in its physical form. With the state of the gaming and hardware industry in general, there hasn't been a warning call like this in ages that has reminded people just how illusory an all-digital future could be.

Hardware is so expensive right now that even researchers from Google are suggesting cloud gaming as the way forward, or that leasing silicon would be more viable than buying it. PlayStation stopping disc production in 2028, with Xbox rumored to follow, means that it won't be long before ownership becomes an ephemeral concept cloaked by debates on efficiency and convenience, all while the actual art itself becomes lost media.

Well, it's official: Sony has just announced that it will stop production of PlayStation game discs starting in January 2028. After January 2028, no more game discs will be produced, and games will only be available through the PlayStation Store and "at retailers in digital formats only." It's a move that anyone could have guessed was coming but which is nonetheless frustrating to many fans, as it essentially rings the death knell for physical media in cutting-edge gaming.

I say "anyone could have guessed" because you'd have to have your head in the sand to ignore all the factors pointing this way. The biggest of such factors is arguably the reality that Blu-ray drive production has sharply wound down outside of game consoles. But there's also the fact that the vast majority of games purchased today are already purchased digitally; in Q4 2025, 85% of PlayStation games were purchased digitally, and if you zoom out to look at the entire US video game market, the PC and mobile markets are already effectively 100% digital.

That's what Sony is talking about when it says it's making the change "in response to shifting trends in consumer preference." Still, the majority isn't everyone, and there are absolutely die-hard gamers out there who demand physical copies because a digital license isn't ownership. All you need to look at to understand this stark reality is the incident just three days ago where PlayStation announced that it is removing over 500 movies from customers' accounts in the UK and Europe because of an expired licensing agreement.

Defenders of the move will point to the aforementioned 100% digital nature of PC gaming as a counterpoint against the pushback to the death of physical media. But there's a key difference, and that's that PC gaming is done on PCs, opening up tools like backups and private servers for game preservation. This is possible on consoles too, of course, but it's a lot more work.

In January 2028, when the move takes effect, the PlayStation 5 will have just passed its seventh birthday; obviously, the PlayStation 6 will have either just launched or be on the horizon, depending on whose leaks you believe. Those same leaks have claimed that the PlayStation 6 would have the option for a detachable or optional disc drive, and that might still be true, but if so, it would exist exclusively for backward compatibility reasons. If that ends up being the case, we will have to applaud Sony for taking care of its customers that way; it would have been just as easy to leave PS4 and PS5 owners with large physical libraries in the lurch, with no way to play their old games on the new machine. Of course, if those rumors of an optional drive turn out to be false, "leaving players in the lurch" is exactly what Sony will be doing.

It's impossible to deny that there is a certain satisfaction in cracking open a plastic case, pulling out a physical disc, and inserting it into the console to select your game. It's also undeniable that it's really nice to be able to scroll a list of all my games and then click on any of them and be playing in seconds. The cold truth is that digital game downloads are more convenient and easier to manage for everyone at every step of the process, and so this move was coming eventually, no matter what.

However, it is darkly ironic that Sony announced this news in the very same tweet where it announced that it's shutting down the PlayStation Store on the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita systems. After the first attempt at this was walked back in 2021 after community outcry, the company has decided five years later that it simply has to cut off support because the old storefronts supposedly can't be updated to support "modern commerce systems," including contemporary global payment processing security standards. There's no technical reason that's true, of course; the reality is simply that Sony doesn't want to continue supporting these nearly 20-year-old machines anymore.

That's wholly understandable, but at the same time, it really does provide the perfect backdrop for the death of discs, as later PlayStation consoles can't play PS3 games, neither disc nor digital. That means that, when the PlayStation Store for PS3 finally dies in July 2027, there will be no official way to acquire and play those games... besides used discs, of course. As for PlayStation 6, that stands to be one of the first consoles to never have a used game market, a momentous end of an era.

Sony has unceremoniously informed its PlayStation customers in the United Kingdom that 551 movies from StudioCanal will be removed from their accounts on September 1, 2026. If you bought any of the films included in this list, you'll no longer be able to access them. There is no workaround, no method to offload them to another device; just absolute, emotionless deletion that doesn't even offer refunds.

The lineup includes some truly legendary movies such as Terminator 2, Apocalypse Now, Mulholland Drive, Moonlight, and Dawn Till Dusk — essentially every film that StudioCanal distributed in the UK. Sony cites licensing agreements between it and the French company as the reason behind the sudden removal. The announcement doesn't include any other details beyond the list of the affected films.

Sony began selling movies and shows on the PlayStation Store in 2008. During the PS3 era, you could actually transfer the content to view on other devices, but that feature was removed on the PS4. In 2021, after the PS5 had launched, Sony stopped selling films and TV series entirely on PSN, which meant that it likely wouldn't renew contractual agreements with studios and distributors going forward.

The only exception to this rule was in 2023, when Sony began a similar deletion spree of Discovery Network shows but signed a new licensing deal to keep them on the platform. It remains to be seen whether public backlash can usher in a similar response for StudioCanal movies this time. You might not have heard its name before, but the studio is responsible for bringing countless popular movies to the UK.

For now, this is yet another distressing reminder of the digital precedent corporations have set for us. You no longer truly own any digital content you purchase; rather, it's just being licensed to you indefinitely. And you agree to this precedent "willingly" when you accept all those terms and conditions that veil ownership rights under fine print.

The moment the provider decides it's not viable to maintain said content, you're at risk of losing access to something you already paid for. It's like a subscription service with extra steps — as if people aren't growing wary enough of those already — except it was never advertised like that.