PPR 170

How’s everyone holding up? You know, with uhhh, all the recent news pouring in from Sony regarding their upcoming departure from physical media and Microsoft’s uhhh, well, departure from reality after slaughtering over 1,600 jobs, with more to cut  on the way, in the same week they shared the goal to service over a billion players…

Shit sucks, yeah, but there’s still hope to take stock in, like the steadily growing unionization across various game development and media jobs in the industry, and the rapid progression that indie games are making across the video game marketplace, large and small—there really are things to still take joy in! Aside from that, George, Ed, and new friend and guest on this week’s episode, Jake of the Press B to Cancel Podcast, also share their own coping mechanisms to the current state of games, like the never-ending journey to tackle their giant libraries of video games, and the thousands of more retro games they have yet to play thanks to the new translation and emulation efforts being fostered by the gaming enthusiast community at large!

So, aside from the news, the panel for this episode of Press Pause Radio have also played an ass-load of games that they want to talk about, like Star Fox (2026), Star Fox 64, Magic: The Gathering-Foundations, 007 First Light, Forza Horizons 6, The Adventure of Little Ralph, Pokémon GO Fest 2026, Mina the Hollower, Mega Man 2, Veritas Tales: Witch of the Dark Castle, and much more!

So gird your bits and grab your favorite guilty pleasure as Press Pause Radio leads you on a 2-hour-ish journey built with some hope, cope, and a little (or a lot) of edibles to champion you on this hot summer day!

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Play Has Limits: What The End of Physical Media Really Means

Deep down, most of us knew that game companies would eventually double down on their attempts to do away with physical media. Still, seeing such an announcement like the one PlayStation made and knowing what awaits us doesn't make it any easier.

It feels like we've heard the same pro-digital, anti-physical pitches from major video game companies since the early 2010s. PlayStation's boldest announcement on the topic came early Wednesday, when it announced that it plans to completely halt the release of physical video games by 2028. In doing so, the company cites the all-too-famous "response in shifting trends" scapegoat that seeks to appease any would-be business daddy suitors who continue to drive us all closer to an AI-riddled, slop-infested digital rights apocalypse.

The short-short version given to readers on PlayStation's official blog? We all wanted this. Did we, though?

It is true that more recent Sony sales records point toward an abundance of digital sales rather than physical, though the numbers don't differentiate between AAA games, indie titles, or whether something just merely didn't have the option of a physical release to begin with. There are circumstances that either warrant digital-only releases entirely or in which a developer simply cannot afford to publish physical copies like a larger studio can (hence how options such as Fangamer, Limited Run, and Lost In Cult came to be).

Regardless of the circumstances, shuffling through the thousands of comments on the PlayStation announcement blog returns clarity to reality: people still largely hate this move. Meanwhile, scrolling through the otherwise bot-infested trenches of social media paints a similar picture, with droves of folks sharing everything from justifiably critical memes about the ill-conceived move to posting photos of their own collections, possibly in hopes of giving Sony executives some sort of consumer rights jumpscare.

So where we go from here is honestly anyone's guess. It doesn't look great, though, as we continue to have our consumer rights stripped away via the digital marketplace hellscape (the "own nothing, be happy" mantra, as one politician coined in recent years). Between the prices of retro games climbing since the pandemic years and companies sticking with subscriber-based model preferences, actually holding onto what we've got has never felt so good.

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PPR 154

New year, same tardy nonsense—we recorded a few weeks ago, but life and technical issues got in the way of the production process, and for that, we sincerely apologize to y’all.

Before we get into the Golden Zonkies’ class of 2024, however, we wanted to have an old-school “PPR-ass PPR” round robin on a featured topic, and what better subject than the art and science behind video game box art?

Join George, Ed, and Andrew as they discuss the history, culture, and legacy of box art, such as the ever-changing motifs of design and the artists who famously brought them to life on shelves like George Opperman, Greg Martin, Bob Wakelin, Yoshitaka Amano, Tom DuBois, Ken Sugimori, Yoji Shinkawa, and more. Hell, have you ever thought about what the box of your favorite video game may have looked like in a different country? Raccoon Mario soaring against a yellow backdrop may be a Mount Rushmore type of pastiche here, but in Japan, the giant ensemble piece of characters against a teal palate is what tickles the nostalgia bone in that corner of the world, and that’s so weirdly fascinating don’t you think?

Every year that passes is another year closer to a fully digital media landscape, and while that can have huge ramifications on the preservation of software, something as innocuous as box art can sometimes be the little dumb thing that makes physical media truly that much more special. We hope you enjoy the latest episode of Press Pause Radio—and don’t forget to check out the next one, because we’ll be doing the Golden Zonkies for 2024 next!

Mail us at our new email Mailbag@presspauseradio.com, leave a voicemail at 469-PPR-TALK, and be sure to stop by at our Forums if you haven’t already registered and post your thoughts about the show. Finally, make sure to rate and subscribe to us on iTunes and YouTube, follow us on our Twitch page and Twitter, and finally take part in our Facebook and Steam group!

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