{"id":965114,"date":"2026-07-28T18:42:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T18:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/965114\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T18:42:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T18:42:14","slug":"expedition-33-director-says-end-of-physical-discs-is-super-sad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/965114\/","title":{"rendered":"Expedition 33 Director Says End Of Physical Discs Is ‘Super Sad’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this month, PlayStation announced that it would end production of physical video game discs in a few years<\/a>. This led to a lot of shouting, calls to boycott the company,<\/a> and more. And the devs behind last year\u2019s hit game Clair Obscur: Expedition 33<\/a> recently explained that while they understand the \u201cbusiness\u201d reasons for the decision, it is still \u201ca shame\u201d that discs are going away.<\/p>\n

In a new interview with Automaton,<\/a> as part of a larger post-mortem event, some devs from Clair Obscur studio Sandfall talked about last year\u2019s indie (?) super hit<\/a>. But the team was also asked about the recent news that PlayStation was ending physical disc production of new video games starting in 2028. For them, it\u2019s sad news as they find physical games to be \u201cspecial\u201d and important to players.<\/p>\n

\u201cPersonally, I find it super sad because I really like video game stores,\u201d said creative director Guillaume Broche. \u201cAnd even if nowadays, I play mainly on PC myself, we have a lot of people on the team who play on PS5 and love to collect physical discs. I think it\u2019s part of the beauty of art too\u2014that it\u2019s something tangible that you can touch. I completely appreciate that people want to have their rows of DVDs and games and just feel that they own them. So I think it\u2019s a shame.\u201d<\/p>\n

Broche added that while it makes sense \u201cbusiness-wise,\u201d in terms of the \u201cartistry of video games, it\u2019s a sad decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandfall co-founder and CTO Tom Guillermin shared an interesting story regarding\u00a0Expedition 33\u2018s own physical edition. Before the release of the game, there were discussions about not doing a physical release. Physical releases add more complications to the process of making and selling a video game, and cutting it can save a lot of money. But for Sandfall, it sounds like it was never a real option. Guillermin said that \u201cphysical was something special\u201d for the studio, and that the team wanted players to be able to \u201chold [the game] in their hands.\u201d<\/p>\n

I like to go outside, buy a game, and come back home with it <\/p>\n

\u201cSo even though it made things harder and meant less money per unit,\u201d said Guillermin, \u201cit was important for us to provide players who want to have the physical game in their hands with an option. Because that\u2019s what we value as players too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The devs also shared that walking into a store and seeing physical copies of their game made it feel \u201creal.\u201d And that was true of other games, not just their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnowing that may not be possible again makes me a bit sad,\u201d said lead character and concept artist Alan Reynaud. \u201cAnd maybe it\u2019s the child in me, but I like to go outside, buy a game, and come back home with it. It\u2019s a nice feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/b>I think the same principle can apply to manga. It\u2019s nice to read on your phone and stuff, but having a real book is just a different feeling. And I don\u2019t think we could imagine a world where manga is just scanned and stored on your computer. It would be sad to not have it in your library. I think the same applies for games. Sure, it makes more sense business-wise, but you lose the spirit of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sandfall team isn\u2019t alone in their love of physical media and their concerns for what it could mean for the future. But it seems extremely unlikely that Sony changes its plans at this point, especially when you consider how few physical games are sold<\/a> compared to digital. The all-digital future is coming<\/a>, and unfortunately it doesn\u2019t seem like Sony or Xbox<\/a> are ready for it. You can read more of Automaton\u2018s interview with the Expedition 33 team here.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this month, PlayStation announced that it would end production of physical video game discs in a few…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":965115,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[8954,331022,15610,387817,158,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-965114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-clair-obscur-expedition-33","tag-physical-games","tag-ps5","tag-sandfall","tag-technology","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116999078014104531","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/965115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}