Analyst says Sony going all-in on digital is like the death of PC dis…

In case you haven't heard, Sony recently announced that it will stop producing physical game discs come 2028—a move PC Gamer's Wes Fenlon argued continues a trend of consoles turning into little more than worse PCs. But Daniel Ahmad, a videogame market analyst and director of research and insights at Niko Partners, argued in a post on X that we've all done this song and dance before (thanks, Gamesradar).

"[It's] like Apple removing the CD Drive from its laptops starting in 2008," Ahmad said in the post. "There were definitely a high number of complaints at the time, but not a single person is complaining about it today. You couldn't find many people complaining in the early 2010s either."

He does add one apt caveat to this comparison, saying "this time a new laptop will cost $5,000 and my old one with a disc drive works just fine." Ahmad argued that this was an inevitable outcome for Sony: "If not PS6, then PS7." Digital sales of full games have come to make up the overwhelming majority of sales for both Playstation and Xbox, therefore "the truth is that the console ecosystem is nearly entirely digital at this point." esporist.org

But he also points out this isn't just a "market-driven" change, but a "platform-led push by Sony" to squeeze out more money per user⁠—something the company's leadership has said is a major priority moving forward. Sony makes more on a digital game sale on the console's bespoke marketplace (in other words, a closed ecosystem further emphasized by the company's move away from PC ports) than it does on a retail game sale.

As console prices continue to balloon in the wake of the RAMpocalypse, the company is looking for extra ways to "focus on hardcore gamers who are willing to spend more than ever" even if it means alienating players who refuse to make the switch to digital gaming.

As for whether the backlash could change Sony's course, Ahmad isn't sure: "I'd say it's unlikely, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do end up clarifying certain aspects … Regardless of whether we're talking about bringing physical back, or embracing digital, the conversation needs to shift to consumer rights and what a license should enable. Stop Killing Games was one part of it, but gifting, family sharing, refunds, and other aspects are just as important."

I still use an external CD drive on my PC with some frequency, and it's hard to imagine the Playstation 6 coming with an attachable alternative (like the PS5's digital-only version has) now that Sony is leaving physical game discs behind. But this move has also been precipitated by the degradation of physical games' value: We all probably remember the first time we opened a box to only find a download code, or waited a good long while for an install process that was way too big to be a day one patch.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is here, but looking back at the OG 2013 game, the remake's creative director thinks that it only "became a classic" once players learned to love protagonist Edward Kenway.

Speaking in the latest issue of Retro Gamer, Paul Fu – who also served as a game designer on the original Black Flag – notes that while there's a lot to love in Ubisoft's pirate adventure, back at launch, not everyone was completely in love with quite how piratey it is. Namely, some felt that "Edward didn't really feel like an assassin."

Fu explains: "People really like the pirate fantasy and the characters, Blackbeard especially. I also remember what they didn't like early on was that Edward didn't really feel like an assassin."

Obviously, this wasn't a sentiment that stuck around forever. "I think people quickly came around in the next few years, and soon enough it became a classic," as Fu says. "I remember being really proud of the Montreal team for having the foresight to make an anti-hero."

He's certainly right about it becoming a classic – there's a reason why we rank it so highly on our list of the best Assassin's Creed games. With that said, it'll probably take a while before we can properly assess whether or not folks think its remake has been able to surpass it.

In our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review, we gave the remake three and a half stars out of five, praising its pirate atmosphere and excellent voice acting. However, games editor Oscar Taylor-Kent writes: "It splashes between wanting to be faithful, and wanting to make adjustments, not quite able to find an elegant middleground between the two. Combined with bugs and other annoyances, this isn't the bold, confident swing its predecessor was, but still a fun outing."

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced "is on track to be a much-needed hit for Ubisoft," says analyst, selling 5 times the Steam copies Assassin's Creed Shadows did pre-release.

From the archives: This feature was originally published in PC Gamer #302 (UK, March 2017). You can still subscribe to PC Gamer to get new issues of the magazine (in print!) every month.

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My playthrough of the first game was more disaster than Dishonored. At the time, I didn’t quite grasp that slitting every throat I met in those early Dunwall levels would send me spiraling toward the dreaded High Chaos ending, never to return.

As the hours rolled on and the increasing swell of rats began to gnaw on Corvo’s bootstraps, I thought that maybe, just maybe, I might be able to redress the balance by going full stealth, stifling the screams of my foes without shuffling them off their mortal coil.

Alas, Arkane’s Chaos system was more severe than I’d anticipated. The rats continued to scoff their way through the mounds of decaying flesh strewn about the city, and poor Emily might as well have been crowned Queen of the Dunwall rodents by the end, her citizens having long since been digested in a million tiny rat stomachs.

No wonder Corvo felt so sluggish when he possessed them—his hosts had been binging on the Great Dunwall Rot-off. Fortunately, Arkane evidently managed to get the exterminators in before the events of Dishonored 2, and I finally got my chance to do things right.

In a fit of madness, I decided to embark on a perfect, no-kill, no-detection run—a tall order for someone whose last attempt at stealth ended up elbowing half of Prague to death in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided.

40 hours later, I finally succeeded, but not without having doused my trigger finger in several vats of anti-itch cream first. Indeed, there were several moments during the Clockwork Mansion mission where I almost gave in.

After five hours of quick-saves and hasty restarts (yes, five), I could have happily shot Kirin Jindosh in the face during our eventual confrontation, but the opportunity to strap him to his own electric chair and reduce him to a babbling idiot felt like better revenge.

Even the Grand Designs team would struggle to piece his house back together, let alone someone who can’t even spell their own name anymore.

Little did I know that Jindosh would have one last laugh, as just a couple of chapters later I encountered his infamous Jindosh Lock, a sealed door that you can only open by solving a riddle. I could have squeezed some hints out of the local neighbourhood gang lords, but I was determined to solve it peacefully. So I sat there, staring at it. I don’t know how much time passed, but even my monitor got bored waiting, going into sleep mode long before I cracked the combination.

Paper case

Damn you, Jindosh, I thought. This scrambled brainpan isn’t going to get the best of me. So I put my keyboard aside, grabbed a pen and reached for my dusty gaming notebook, something I haven’t touched since scrawling my way through The Witness earlier in the year. I tore out several scraps of paper and made cards for every last variable, shifting them around until, at last, my brain whirred into life.

Admittedly, it was immensely satisfying solving Jindosh’s last remaining masterwork, but it did make me wonder whether I should have been so merciful just a few hours before. I won’t spoil the solution here, but I will say you should definitely start with the alcohol (both literally and figuratively). It helps. A lot.