Hideo Kojima mourns loss of PlayStation game discs, warns of streaming-only future

One of gaming's most dedicated visionaries laments the loss of physical PlayStation discs at a recent event in Italy.

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Hideo Kojima, whose body is made mostly of movies, recently attended the Il Cinema in Piazza Film Festival in Italy, and publicly discussed his thoughts on the loss of physical game discs. It's an end of an era for all gamers and developers alike, yet Kojima in particular has a strong affinity and love for physical media--he's always sharing pictures of some new CD, DVD, or Blu-ray disc he just bought on his Twitter account.

At the film festival, Kojima says that he's woeful for the loss while also warning the audience about the dangers of a digital-only future, especially when it comes to subscriptions. This is interesting because Kojima's next game, OD, is believed to be one of the first cloud-native games that's been made for the nascent delivery method.

The following translations were made by Twitter user Genki, who busily shares video game-related news and content and remains a vital source for Japanese media translations.

"Since production is ending in 2028, this is about video games, but I grew up with physical media, so I find it really sad. Currently, I've been buying up a lot of Blu-rays, such as various movies, and CDs too," Kojima said. The proof of his words can be found readily available on his Twitter feed.

Kojima then goes on to highlight how games are stored natively and still accessed via dedicated software saved onto the device itself. But for streaming, the data isn't local, and gamers are at the mercy of the servers.

"The situation is different for games [than movies], as they are downloaded to the hard drive, that means the game data remains on your own hardware. However, if things shift to streaming in the future, that won't be the case anymore."

It brings to mind a thought: Is Kojima torn about OD's delivery method? A cloud-native game set in the new Social Scream System could help advance the technology even further, especially if OD ends up being a "killer app" for the medium.

"With streaming subscription services, like Netflix or Amazon, there is a server somewhere, and you essentially just have the right to turn the tap, and when you do, the data flows out."

"That's how movies work on these platforms, right? You don't download the data, you access it directly through a subscription. And the consequence of that is that you don't actually possess the data yourself.

The auteur is wary of companies who hold the data for streaming because the media can be altered, or even withheld, at will. And if something happens to the company, that media can just sit in rightsholder purgatory indefinitely. One of the biggest whiplash-inducing aspects of this business model is how companies can also revoke access to content that you actually purchased; Sony is doing this right now with Studio Canal content.

"There are companies that own these servers and let you 'turn the tap' for a monthly fee. However, with nations, politics and various ways of thinking, one naturally has to consider the possibility that if there is a change, the data inside will stop being distributed. And if that happens you won't be able to watch or play the movies and games you like.

"That is what is frightening. So, what is happening to video games in 2028, might also happen to movies. I'd like everyone to keep that in mind."

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Kojima has proven to be one of the most prescient humans in entertainment today, having predicted something similar to the COVID-19 pandemic in the original Death Stranding.