Frank Cifaldi, the founder and director of the Video Game History Foundation, says game preservationists still do not have a meaningful legal route for saving digital-only games, sharpening one of the biggest concerns around PlayStation's move away from discs.
Sony announced this week that physical disc production for new PlayStation games will end in January 2028. New games released after that point will be sold through PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only, while games already released on disc or planned for disc before the cutoff are not affected.
The decision does not make Cifaldi's argument new, but it makes the problem much harder to ignore. If future console games only exist as digital licenses tied to platform storefronts, archivists cannot simply put a boxed copy on a shelf and expect it to remain useful years later.
Cifaldi says legal preservation routes are still missing
Cifaldi was responding to a Bluesky post arguing that piracy is currently the only form of media preservation that exists for games. In his reply, he said the claim was accurate from the perspective of a preservation institution.
"As the director of a historical video game preservation institution, and someone who has dedicated his entire adult life to this cause, this is accurate. We have attempted to work with the industry's trade organization to find a legal path forward, but they refuse to offer a meaningful alternative."
A separate Video Game History Foundation statement, also posted on Bluesky and quoted by PC Gamer, tied the issue directly to Sony's disc announcement and the company's older-storefront plans. The foundation said museums and archives have been preparing for a future where shelving discs is not enough, but questioned what the industry expects institutions to do when platform holders eliminate physical media and older digital stores.
Sony also announced that PlayStation Store on PS3 will begin closing in select markets in 2026, with broader PS3 and PS Vita closures planned for July 2027. The company says players will still be able to download previously purchased content "for the foreseeable future," but new purchases will end once each store closes.
The disc cutoff turns an old archive problem into a current PlayStation issue
Game preservation has always had legal and technical friction. Old discs and cartridges can fail, source code can disappear and online services can make some games difficult to keep functional after official support ends. Digital-only games add another layer because access depends on storefront accounts, licenses, DRM and platform infrastructure.
That is why PlayStation's 2028 disc cutoff is about more than collector preference. Sony says the move reflects player habits and the broader shift toward digital media, but preservation groups are warning that the industry has not built an equivalent archive path for games that never receive a physical release.
The Entertainment Software Association has already been a flashpoint in that debate. In California, the group recently called private game servers piracy while opposing preservation-focused remedies in the Protect Our Games Act discussion. Cifaldi's criticism lands in the same lane: without an approved way to preserve locked-down digital games, archivists are left choosing between legal risk and historical loss.
Sony has not announced a preservation program tied to the 2028 disc production cutoff. Its official language focuses on new sales formats, retail availability for digital products and continued support for games that already released or will release on disc before the deadline.