4CYDE Studios' NEW Game in the Works

As SEGA vs. Capcom's full-fledged launch is tomorrow, today, 4CYDE Studios has launched a website. We know that they have SEGA vs. Capcom in there, but they also have another project in the works. Let's jump right in.

Today, we're gonna talk about the official 4CYDE Studios website. That's right. 4CYDE Studios.

Here is the official header for the official 4CYDE Studios website with the "We create 4 U" slogan.

If you look closer, it shows that there are two games deployed and a number of players that refer to those who signed up so far. But how there are two games in there?

Here are the two games deployed so far. They are SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level and the untitled new game that is in the works.

Let's take a look at the mystery game's hub.

The picture that has the PS4 controller has the words "Coming Soon," indicating the untitled game is not yet revealed.

An untitled new game has some firm information. It is hinted as a fighting game and comes out in 2028 for PC and Mac.

It turns out that the untitled new game will also be Linux and Steam. SEGA vs. Capcom is also coming to the next two platforms.

Ladies and gentlemen, we might be looking at a potential new fighing game being in the works and I am very excited. I have to make this post because they have a new fighting game. SEGA vs. Capcom's full-fledged launch is tomorrow, so get ready for the next level, everyone. If you want to have access to this game and the untitled game and their build releases, you can click the link to the website and create a gamer account there.

https://4cydestudios.com/

Midway Was Great to the Gaming Industry

It has occured to me that Midway Games, the defunct video game company that was behind the iconic franchises. Then the majority of their assets were swept away by Warner Bros. Interactive Elements, including Mortal Kombat. They were great to the gaming industry for years prior to the date when they went defunct. Let's jump right in.

I'm back with a story post. So, Midway Games was an American company in Chicago. However, they weren't always known for producing video games. As Midway Manufacturing in 1958, they were an independent manufacturer of amusement equipment founded by two people, Henry Ross and Marcine Wolverton. They started out as a developer of arcade games and made an alliance with Taito and Namco for distribution. When Bally came along to consolidate with Midway Manufacturing after buying them, Midway Manufacturing was renamed to Bally Midway to produce pinball machines.

Pinball machines were loved by many fans whose forte was amusement. That's where Williams Electronics came in to purchase Bally Midway. So far, pinball has been a most popular amusement back in the old days when arcade games were first invented and as kids, we insert coins into machines. Midway has produced arcade games by Williams and Atari, such as Robotron: 2084, Smash TV, Joust, Defender, Gauntlet and the Rush series. The games in particular became well-liked by many. Williams decided to offer its video game rights to Midway and was given the pinball rights in return. This caused Midway to stop using the Bally Midway label and live a life on their on.

As time went on, Midway knew that they can no longer bear the influence of WMS and Bally since they were working independently. It became a lucid dream for the company to become full-fledged. As a full-fledged company, Midway has teamed up with Acclaim Entertainment, who earned the home console rights to arcade titles by Williams and Midway, but led to a refusal clause. One person went on to say that they were working on arcade games with Williams and Atari. Midway wouldn't agree to Acclaim's decision because of the refusal clause in any of their arcade games. There it was that Acclaim decided to port the first Mortal Kombat to home consoles.

However, the move sparked controversy that it lead to 1992-1993 senate hearings on violent video games held by Joe Lieberman and Herb Kohl and the establishment of the ESRB. It has been a bone of contention surrounding video game violence since the backlash about porting the first Mortal Kombat to home consoles, so whoever did this, paid the price. Acclaim did not own Mortal Kombat. They helped Midway publish it to home consoles. That was before Midway renamed themselves to Midway Manufacturing to Midway Games, Inc. and Williams subsequently spun off the rest of the interest in Midway to its shareholders to make Midway the independent company for the first time in almost 30 years. Midway now has the power to work independently from Williams to have a focus on home video games.

During Midway's focus on home video games, they became a full-fledged video game company to produce games released on consoles that have 3D graphics. In the case of arcade sports games, Midway was responsible of NFL Blitz, NBA Ballers, MLB Slugfest and NHL Hitz under the Midway Sports name. This is where you might argue and say that NFL Blitz was released on the 5th generation consoles, so what am I talking about? While it is true, the first NFL Blitz was released on the 5th generation consoles. And when we get to the next era of gaming, MLB Slugfest, NHL Hitz, RedCard and NBA Ballers came in to join Blitz.

And as we get to the PS3 and Xbox 360 era, Midway has taken NFL Blitz to the next level with Blitz: The League, which my brother and I played together on the PS3. I pretty much loved it. Unlike its predecessors, the game was rated M due to graphic violence, drug use and explicit use of profanity. None of them are suitable for children under 17. That contributed to its ban in Australia because of drugs depicted as incentives. These factors show that this is definetely NOT a nice game for children because of explicit swearing and graphic violence in it.

Midway also had compilations of their arcade games with the entry of Midway Arcade Treasures for the 6th generation consoles because that's what they thought they did with Williams and Bally. While Mortal Kombat is nuanced, the golden age of the series is from the first Mortal Kombat to the fourth game that introduced a 3D space. This allowed Midway to have a trilogy of games that take place in the 3D space released on the PS2, GameCube and Xbox and introduced switching between three fighting styles and earning color-coded coins. But Midway could not understand that.

In 2006 and 2007, Midway lost a further $77 million and $100 million on sales of $166 million and $157 million. Midway just couldn't figure out what they were doing and even though they teamed up with Warner Bros., they still struggled with maintaining their revenue. And even in the case of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, planned DLC was scrapped due to Midway's financial troubles. This allowed them to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and subsequently sell most of their assets to Warner Bros. Games with the intention of them to purchase the Midway Games trademark.

The key takeaway is that Midway started out as an independent manufacturer for amusement equipment to develop arcade games with several companies and pinball machines. When became a focus to make games for home consoles, Midway shown their perseverance as a great company to the gaming industry.

This is where we get to something really exciting. Midway has been a nostalgic company that lasted and ceased operations on the 7th generation era of gaming. For the PlayStation Plus Premium news, this month's lineup came with a bombshell regarding wanting to play games that are produced by Midway Games.

Psi-Ops: the Mindgate Conspiracy is now available on classics catalog for the PS4 and PS5, so when you visit the game's hub, you'll see the "Warner Bros. Interactive" label, making it the first Midway game to ever come to the catalog. The label had to be shown because Warner Bros. Interactive owned most of Midway's assets and bought the company out. The game was left off in a cliffhanger and a sequel was supposed to resolve it, but despite positive reviews, it never came into fruition due to the Mindgate Conspiracy's poor sales. If Warner Bros. plans to remaster this game to hit fans right in the heart, maybe they can develop the sequel if the remaster is sold well.

So, a precedent has spoken. If a Midway title like Psi-Ops could make it to the classics catalog, then other Midway titles like Rampage, Gauntlet: Dark Legacy, Area 51, Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Midway Arcade Treasures, NFL Blitz and a lot more now have more of a chance since hubs for future Midway titles will carry the Warner Bros. Interactive label. This doesn't apply to PlayStation Plus Premium. This also applies to Nintendo Switch Online's GBA, N64 and GameCube catalogs. Neither of them hadn't got a Midway game yet, but they will have one at some point.

And that is my story about Chicago's video game company and how it became a great company to the game industry with news in regards to the classics catalog having a game by Midway. I did a post that talks about how we experience Mortal Kombat forever because of both Warner Bros. and NetherRealm Studios and the competition between Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter. Here's a link to the post if you're interesting in knowing more.

https://rpggameroom.blogspot.com/2026/05/how-mortal-kombat-changed-series-forever.html

The Gaming Industry Knows Better Than This...

Wow... just wow. I went digging on the internet and I came across something. Someone who has been accused of sexual harassment in the past is continuing to have a leverage in the game industry because somebody has given the dirtbag a second chance. Let's... jump right in!

Where do I even begin on this one? Before I talk about what happened recently, I want to talk about one thing that I have enjoyed.

The Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls Open Beta became a blast. I even came up with a team that consists of Magik, Star-Lord, Ms. Marvel and Green Goblin and that's gonna be my initial team for when the full game launches. The funny thing about this is that I made Magik the leader of my team because she is a combination of Es from Xblaze and BlazBlue, and Annie from Skullgirls. She is, in fact, featured as a skin for Fortnite along with Luna Snow.

But I'm probably gonna get the PC version. It's not the fact that PlayStation is ending discs for games that release in 2028 in a way to shift to an all-digital format, but not for games that release prior to 2028. PlayStation Plus is a bit more expensive now because of ongoing market conditions and it was also met with backlash. I'm getting the PC version for free online multiplayer. However, the PC version has some gameplay and performance issues during the Open Beta like the stuttering in logos, which can be fixed in the full game.

Then after the Marvel Tokon Open Beta ended, I have came across something that shocked me. This is in regards to the situation about someone who was accused in the past is involved in the development of Avatar Legends: The Fighting Game, an Aquapazza-like fighting game that is developed by Gameplay Group International. You might know that they are the same developers that made Diesel Legacy: The Brazen Age. The PS5 and Steam versions are available to play, but the Switch 2 and Xbox versions are coming later. The Switch 2 version will release later on this year with the Standard Edition only. For the Xbox side of things, it has been delayed to September 3 due to unforseen circumstances.

Avatar Legends became the source of scrutiny earlier this month when Paramount Games confirmed that they found someone who is accused in the past working at Gameplay Group International as an individual contributor. Guess who Paramount found. Mike Zaimont. That is ridiculous. There's no way an accused individual like Mike Zaimont would have a future in the game industry after he destroyed Lab Zero with his refusal to leave the company, right? Well, I decided to go even deeper.

Six years later, Lab Zero Games posted a joint statement saying that Mariel Cartwright, Francesca Esquenazi and Mike Zaimont have agreed to resolve the lawsuit relating to the events at Lab Zero in 2020. The lawsuit was aborted and Mike remains passionate about game development and looks forward to continuing to create new games and contribute to the community through Lab Zero. I just can't wrap my head around this! I thought Mike Zaimont is not supposed to have a future in the game industry! Not especially since he sexually harassed his fellow employees. But how is that even possible?! There is one person who is responsible of this. That person is Christine Christina Seeyle. What did she do?

Back in 2023, three years after Mike was accused of sexual harassment, Seeyle was pressed by PC Gamer about his work on Diesel Legacy. Do you know what Seeyle has done? She approved Mike Zaimont's continued involvement in the game industry and his employment and defended her decision, acknowledging the validity of past allegations and went on to say that he "wanted the opportunity to have the redemptive arc that's in so many stories they love." I just can't believe this... I just can't... Can you spare my G-rated rant and personal backlash because there are a few words to express how shocked I am about this.

During the One More Once stream in 2020, Mike Zaimont has caused the backlash by making a dark and sadistic "I can't breathe" joke following the death of George Floyd. People had uninstalled Skullgirls in making calls to get it off Evo, until he apologized about making a much too soon joke. I understand what he meant by much too soon because he should've waited until the stream is over before making that sadistic joke. Then he sexually harassed the two gamer girls. But I don't want to put a slant on them because sexually harassing those who are not a part of the game industry is something I understand. Then he did that to his fellow employees! That caused his fellow employees to leave Lab Zero and establish Future Club in September. That's how extra stuff were scrapped for Indivisible.

Then Hidden Variable made a statement saying that they are no longer be working with Lab Zero Games and they plan to work with people who left Lab Zero to bring future Skullgirls content for years to come. In fact, Skullgirls stays alive because of the fact that a publisher like Autumn Games is the holder of the Skullgirls IP, which is a safe method. And despite the allegations, Mike Zaimont was involved in the development of the rollback netcode patch for Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core Plus and was suspended from it.

Three years later, do you know what happened? Christine Christina Seeyle given that blasted dirtbag a second chance in the game industry for redemption and defended her decision to do so! No wonder he is involved and employed in the development of Avatar Legends! How dare she use a redemption stick on a person who was accused of sexual harassment in the past! She should know that those who are accused of sexual harassment and destroyed the company SHOULD NOT be given a second chance at the game industry, period! This is bull! I can't believe this! That woman defended her decision to give a garbage person a second chance in the industry, like we're gonna forget about the part where he sexually harassed his fellow employees at Lab Zero? This is some messed up garbage fest right there!

You can compare and contrast the part where Mike Zaimont sexually harassed his fellow employees and the part where Joey Cuellar, former Evo president, was exposed a pedophile after the part in Mikey's story shown that he paid young boys tokens to take off their clothes and jump in water hazard pools in the miniature golf joint and Mikey $20 to show his... donkey in the restroom. Hearing Mikey's allegations made players and supporters to withdraw from Evo Online in solidarity with those who has spoken out against abuse, like MANE6, NetherRealm Studios, Capcom and Bandai Namco. But that was a couple months before Mike Zaimont sexually harassed his fellow employees. In fact, pedophiles are way worse than those who conducted sexual harassment towards their fellow employees since pedophiles don't deserve a second chance that they are more dangerous. Oh yeah! Joey Cuellar is way worse than Mike Zaimont! 

I can't believe Seeyle defended her decision to give an accused individual like Mike Zaimont a second chance despite allegations of sexual harassment! It was a horrible move to make! I just don't understand why Seeyle given the sexual harasser a second chance in the game industry. This is the unforseen circumstances Gameplay Group International was referring to. People are returning this game and the game's Xbox release had to be delayed just hours before release because they found out that Mike Zaimont, of all people, is involved in the development of Avatar Legends. They are not playing this game on his behalf. Not even me. No, no, no!

Seriously, how could she defend her decision to give that blockhead, of all people, a second chance in the game industry despite being pressed by PC Gamer? I know he didn't abuse minors like Joey Cuellar did, but still. Where is her freaking honor? I mean, there are a lot of people who are never ousted from the industry like Isaiah Turner, Tom Cannon, Seth Killian and any of the other treasure trove of virtuous individuals that never sexually harassed anyone, but she turned around and employed that dirtbag like Mike Zaimont to work on Diesel Legacy?

I gotta calm down because that part I came across made me mad. I am basically passionate about this situation. Seeyle is responsible of giving Michael Zaimont a second chance and defending her decision. People are returning this game and/or not playing it on his behalf. I don't care if Joey Cuellar is way worse than him. Does is sting that we found out that Seeyle has used a redemption stick on Mike Zaimont, of all people? Yeah, yeah, just a little bit. However, I do have a scintilla of interest in getting Avatar Legends. It's three reasons.

One is because of being an Aquapazza-like fighting game. I played Aquapazza before. It was a really niche game for the PS3 with characters from the Aquaplus visual novels and I loved it. Avatar Legends became an Aquapazza-like fighting game in terms of gameplay and selecting playable and assist characters.

The second reason is an opportunity to play this game on the behalf of people who are never accused. Since this game is making a first appearance on Evo France like Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls is, they will be playing it there, but not on Mike's behalf.

The third reason is to add this game and Marvel Tokon to my livestreaming arsenal with Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds and 2XKO. I am investing in an Ethernet cord to fight lag and have a stable online experience so that I can play my matches well in these games without experiencing any lag with the exception of the lag from the ISP.

See, I realized why I kept on experiencing the error screen in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. I was using Wi-Fi. Investing in an Ethernet cord remedies that and that's gonna be my new standard going forward, especially if its made to provide a stable experience until Wifi 8 comes out to provide stability as a wired conection. I didn't sign up for the Avatar Legends Closed Beta, but I did sign up for the Marvel Tokon Betas. The Open Beta was a blast that I even get to have my team of Magik, Ms. Marvel, Star-Lord and Green Goblin.

The point is... *sigh* those who are alleged of sexual harassment and killed the studio should not be redeemed. When I said that if a player like... I don't know... Hikari could win back to back Evo titles in a row, then anything was possible, I didn't mean Mike Zaimont should be showing his face in the game industry again, which he shouldn't. Not after he killed Indivisible with his refusal to leave Lab Zero that made everyone left to form Future Club.

NEW SEGA vs. Capcom Info Revealed!

The very first livestream for SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level went live and we have gotten a lot of info in regards to the passion project, including what has made me very excited. *drinks water* Let's jump right in.

I'm here with a new SEGA vs. Capcom post that has some great news for us SEGA and Capcom fans. Yesterday, I have watched the gameplay livestream and the info they given us during the livestream made me very hyped. Before I get to them, there is one thing that I need to explain.

Who is 4CYDE Studios? They are a small team behind the fangame. Currently, there are two people consisting of Madxruler and Fare'n'Hite, with Fare'n'Hite being the composer and Madxruler being the developer. There are two for now, but they will have more people to join. The more people, the better.

Now we can dive into the main meat of the post. First off, the characters department. A lot of characters have been confirmed to have a guaranteed playable debut. But I want to talk about which characters that interest me. First off, NiGHTS. The team has confirmed that NiGHTS is guaranteed to be in the roster. This brought me to say that NiGHTS would be amazing. He became a guest character in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds. Our dream jester never appeared in a fighting game, so NiGHTS coming to SEGA vs. Capcom is an impressive deal to me that they don't have a shortage of characters to confirm.

Not only NiGHTS is confirmed to be a playable character because Ulala from Space Channel 5 is also confirmed to be playable right off the bat. Ulala would be dope as heck in SEGA vs. Capcom. What is cool is that since she is into music, landing a hit on her opponent can make music. I believe that delivering Ulala to SEGA vs. Capcom would literally be the best thing that 4Cyde Studios can do. Yes, I can hear people say, "Who will be an Ulala-like in 2XKO?" I'll get to that later.

Fare'n'Hite is the composer of the passion project. He straight up confirmed that there will be character themes for each character. However, they are gonna be in Season 2 as stage themes will come out in Season 1. This is something that has me very excited. Marvel vs. Capcom 1 and 3 have character themes and so will SEGA vs. Capcom. This brings me to ask this question. How will character themes work in SEGA vs. Capcom: The Next Level? There are three ways.

1. Through the setting that switches between stage and character themes. When set to character themes, it plays the character's theme for the character on the either side and the character theme for the character that comes in after the death of their teammate.
2. Taking the chapter from 2XKO's playbook. The stage theme plays during the first round and the character theme plays in subsequent rounds after a character KOs the last standing opponent, but plays the stage theme on subsequent rounds after a timeout.
3. Choosing a song.

This is important to remember that this can go only one way.

And finally, Special Partners. A while back, they confirmed that Special Partners will be brought to SEGA vs. Capcom at some point. They are NPCs that have assists and will be similar to the ones in Marvel vs. Capcom 1, and not just Marvel vs. Capcom 1, but also Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax and the Kameo system in Mortal Kombat 1.

See, 4Cyde Studios has a bevy, I mean, a bevy of characters just straight up confirmed to be in SEGA vs. Capcom for quite some time now and it's working. Zero, Jon Talbain, Ristar and even B.D. Joe have been confirmed, with favorites like NiGHTS, Ulala, Shadow the Hedgehog and Falcon from Power Stone to be coming to the game in the future. I have countless testimonies telling me that people would like to see Crash Bandicoot get added as a guest star, but that will never be the case. But I do know that since they have a bevy of characters confirmed, I would like to see Hugh and Diana from Pragmata get added to the roster. But as sort of a Ferra/Torr-like to make Diana sit on Hugh in game, not as separate characters.

If this game gets a lot of hype and love it deserves, maybe we can put this game at a future Evo Vegas event like how it was featured at Combo Breaker last year as a part of the Mystery Game Tournament. Not as a main game, but as a part of the side tournament since SEGA vs. Capcom is a fanmade fighting game.

This oddities you saw in the gameplay livestream like the outdated screens that take place at BETA 2.75 will not be present in the final build as the livestream took place in a very early build. That's why Beat was not in there. But what things that will be in the final build are the new in-game UI and new soundtracks that will release upon the launch of Season 1, including the new character select theme that I found actually more catchier than the other one that it sets the mood for the SEGA and Capcom universes. If the game comes out on my 32nd birthday, it's gonna be a birthday present for me. I have a birthday livestream planned and coming soon.

Do you know what I want in SEGA vs. Capcom? Duo Play. Duo Play is essentially a feature in 2XKO that involves playing as a duo by both players on the same team. Teammates have their own character to pick. It pretty much lives up to being played best as a duo. Duo Play in SEGA vs. Capcom sounds like an impressive feature to me. We do have a 4-player game mode, Cross Fever, but we can change that to being 1-4 players to apply to wanting Duo Play implemented in SEGA vs. Capcom in most game modes, including online modes.

Now let's talk about the only interesting thing. That is an Ulala-like in 2XKO. Like, we know that Lux, Samira, Kennen and Sett will be Ingrid, Dante, Sonic and Axel Stone-likes in 2XKO, so there is one character in League of Legends that could potentially be an Ulala-like in 2XKO since Ulala is straight up confirmed. And that is Sona. She is, in fact, a musician character. There is a lot more to talk about here that I won't fit into this post.

As I said before, a post that contains a list of 25 wanted characters for planned new 2XKO characters of 2027-2030 is in the works. I'm working on making wanted posters for future characters, so if the post is up, you can click the link below.

-Post coming soon-

And since SEGA vs. Capcom in its full-fledged glory is getting closer to releasing this month, it will definetely tide us over for Luxanna Crownguard's brilliant entrance in 2XKO and that's something we can look forward to. And not just Lux, but Samira as well. And during full release, this game can learn from the things 2XKO has done. If you're interested in learning more about Lux and Samira's launch in 2XKO and its nuances and the things that SEGA vs. Capcom can learn from 2XKO, here are the links to the posts below.

https://rpggameroom.blogspot.com/2026/07/2xko-2026-characters-theory-update-4.html

https://rpggameroom.blogspot.com/2026/01/what-sega-vs-capcom-can-learn-from-2xko.html

PlayStation is Going All-Digital

We have some breaking news that PlayStation is undergoing a shift to all digital starting in 2028, meaning that new games that release beyond the date will be all digital while games that were released prior to the date will still carry physical discs. This is not a joke or a rumor. PlayStation is officially ditching discs and going all digital. Let's... jump right in?

I'm back a new post that left me quite shocked. Today, gaming has been having a lot of challenges, especially most recently with the gaming industry. With the PS6 and Xbox Helix on their way, everyone is petitioning for these systems to be priced reasonably. And there is a piece of news that shocked us.

PlayStation has announced that starting in 2028, they are going to cease production on physical discs and focus on releasing new games beyond the point digitally. This comes from the market shift and players making an approach on doing digital purchases, indicating that physical copies will have digital codes inside the cases. Then they went silent for six days and made a post again about the FlexStrike wireless stick, ignoring widespread backlash. This news was met with mixed reactions, with those hailing it as the end of an era for gaming and those that are lazy to put in discs hailed it as an agreeable decision that they prefer to buy them digitally since they can't break digital and those outraged to put #NoDiscNoBuy on their posts.

Why they are doing this is because the PS6 will not have a disc drive at launch. But they will have a separate disc drive to play previous gen games on disc, the ones that release prior to 2028. People are willing to treasure their physical games forever since PlayStation is doing away with disc production starting in 2028. One person believed that putting game discs on a shelf is not the future of gaming. They read the Arabic writing on the wall and said it's time to stop disc production and go all digital, so a Change.org petition was created to urge PlayStation to change their minds and continue producing discs for the foreseeable future.

This backlash-worthy news is tantamount with the physical copies of GTA VI just having a code that gives players access to the game. After Rockstar has announced a cover art for the game that fits well with the fictional setting of Leonida where GTA VI will take place at, pre-orders went live and the physical copies' lack of discs is gonna be a disaster for retailers that are planning to boycott the game until Rockstar starts printing discs for physical copies. This doesn't just apply to AAA titles, but indies as well. This just tells me that Sony is absolutely tone-deaf, acting like children while sticking their fingers in their ears and screaming, "I'm not listening!" as the petition has hit over 150,000 signatures.

The only bad thing about PlayStation undergoing a shift to going all-digital is that it's gonna be a total nightmare for retailers since digital purchases offer revocable licenses, not ownership. Ending support for discs comes with something even worse than that. Our accounts will be deleted after three years of inactivity. This is the stupidest and the most retarded agreement Sony has ever enforced. The fact that PlayStation ending disc support in 2028 and deleting our accounts after three years of inactivity should be a crime against humanity and nature of gaming themselves. Xbox and Nintendo never do this. The stupid decisions Sony had made; they became backlash-worthy. It was worse than when Pokemon in their possession were wiped out from Pokemon Home after people pivoted to the Switch 2.

Another problem with Sony's disc-free future is that PS5 games that are in an external storage device can't be played, but PS4 games in an external storage device can be played. This is Sony's attempt to have a monopoly over the gaming market with their greed. If Sony keeps ignoring to the fierce backlash, if players are going to buy games digitally, they are seriously switching over to Steam since digital purchases on Steam provide ownership rather than revocable licenses and Steam games are also playable through the external hard drive. When they made an announcement to end physical media on 2028, they went silent. Then they made a post about the FlexStrike wireless stick, ignoring backlash, like it's gonna pass.

Now, this is not the first time something like this has happened in the department of backlash-worthy events among the gaming community. Cards Unbound was implemented to Paladins in the OB64 update, free Hextech Chests were removed in League of Legends, content and art have been censored in Skullgirls 2nd Encore, aggression was encouraged in Tekken 8 at the beginning of Season 2, predatory microtransactions were implemented in Skate. and Crazy Taxi: World Tour was AI-generated. This has been a continuous point of contention. These events angered the gaming community and caused them to make calls to boycott these games and companies until they fix things to relieve backlash. Trust me, if you keep track of and live through the era of backlash-worthy events, both inside and outside gaming, you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

In other news, not only PlayStation is ending physical media. They announced that they will also be closing the PlayStation Store on PS3 and PS Vita in select markets this year and the rest of the markets next year as they focus their support on modern consoles since the PS3 is deemed a retro console like the Xbox 360 and the Wii despite it being a tough nut to crack because of the notorious Cell processor that prevented modern consoles from ever having full backwards compatibility. But who needs full backwards compatibility when we have emulation? After the dates, games you bought in the PS Store will remain playable while physical PS3 games will still work.

This seals the deal. I agree with the backlash against Sony's decision to stop producing discs for games that release in 2028. If Sony doesn't listen to the backlash and reverse their decision by 2028, I'll be taking my digital purchases on Steam. But I don't want to put a slant to indies or retro games because indies have less space and are less-memory intensive and I get to revisit my games I played during my childhood. I like to make myself clear that when I buy games digitally, I own them, not being granted a revocable license.

And Sony, if you're going all-digital, please don't take away our ownership rights at least. Digital purchases should at least provide ownership licenses like physical purchases do, not revocable licenses. Heck, might as well do the same thing Xbox is doing, having a disc-to-digital feature. They're keeping discs relevant and not phasing them out. Please listen to the mass backlash or you'll be facing a major boycott from players that are shifting to Steam until you do.