{"id":393335,"date":"2026-07-10T12:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T12:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/393335\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T12:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T12:36:07","slug":"california-must-fight-for-video-game-rights-in-playstation-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/393335\/","title":{"rendered":"California must fight for video game rights in PlayStation era"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Visitors<\/p>\n

Visitors walk in front of the booth for Sony’s PlayStation during the preview day for the annual Tokyo Game Show at Makuhari Messe in Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture on September 25, 2025. The video game company announced in July they will discontinue physical discs releases by January 2028.<\/p>\n

KAZUHIRO NOGI<\/p>\n

AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

From the time I was six years old to now, at 32, my soul still ignites when I open one of my many game cases and hear the pop as I pull the disk from the spindle and place it into one of my video game consoles.<\/p>\n

There is nothing quite like playing a video game \u2014 the anticipation as the console whirs to life, the tactile sensation of the disc in my hand, and the ritual of waiting patiently until I see the best words in all of gaming: press start, the universal invitation to begin an adventure. These are more than habits; they are a source of comfort, nostalgia and connection to my own story as a gamer.<\/p>\n

The joy from that moment, which fills me and countless others, is rooted in the physical disc. Unlike digital downloads, physical media means discs or cartridges you can actually hold, sell, lend or keep on your shelf. But that experience is rapidly disappearing, fading with every ill-advised decision from the industry\u2019s biggest companies.<\/p>\n

Sony PlayStation, which stands alongside Nintendo and Xbox as one of the three behemoth companies, has recently announced it will discontinue physical disc releases<\/a> for all new games starting in January 2028. Instead, new games will stream through the internet to the user\u2019s control box, making the disc as a vital keeper of information obsolete.<\/p>\n

The video game industry is making it clear: Games needing discs are becoming a thing of the past. But as the landscape shifts, the need to preserve access, ownership and gaming culture has never been more important.<\/p>\n

Physical media is the bedrock of gaming<\/p>\n

For Travis Boune, owner of 1-Up Retro Games in Midtown Sacramento, physical games aren\u2019t just inventory; they\u2019re an archive. \u201cWhen you look in the case, it\u2019s things people still want to play, but it\u2019s also frozen in time,\u201d he says. \u201cAll this stuff is still accessible, but we\u2019ve preserved it through decades.\u201d In his shop, shelves of cartridges and discs double as a timeline of gaming history \u2014 something no digital storefront can promise to keep alive forever.<\/p>\n

The first game that he ever got was Link\u2019s Awakening, which he would play on his green Game Boy. He still has the copy he got as a kid, though the Game Boy didn\u2019t make it, as it was a casualty of his frustration with not getting past levels.<\/p>\n

Boune doesn\u2019t worry that his own shop is in immediate danger \u2014 he specializes in retro games and physical media that already exist. But he thinks major retailers like GameStop, which depend on selling games for current consoles, could have a much harder time in an all-digital future. If there are no discs to stock, he argues, there\u2019s little incentive for those stores to carry the next PlayStation or Xbox at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not really an incentive for a retailer to carry the PlayStation 6 if there\u2019s not going to be media they\u2019re selling with it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Boune\u2019s concerns aren\u2019t just speculation \u2014 they\u2019re the reality of an industry shifting to digital-only, where access can be taken away with a few clicks. That\u2019s why one lawmaker is stepping in.<\/p>\n

Protecting players as games go digital<\/p>\n

California\u2019s Assembly Bill 1921, also known as the Protect Our Games Act,<\/a> aims to ensure gamers aren\u2019t left empty-handed when companies pull the plug.<\/p>\n

The bill, authored by Assemblymember Chris Ward, D-San Diego, requires a company to warn players at least 60 days in advance if it plans to shut down the online services that a game run on a disk needs to fully function. That notice must clearly spell out what features are disappearing and whether there are any new impacts on users.<\/p>\n

But it doesn\u2019t stop at just a heads-up. Once those services go offline, the company has to offer players at least one real solution: a way to keep playing the game offline, the tools or information needed to host a private or community server (so players can keep playing together online, even after official support ends), or a full refund if none of that is possible. And once support ends, companies can\u2019t keep selling versions of the game that no longer work.<\/p>\n

As California\u2019s millions of gamers face this new era, it\u2019s critical to adapt and ensure they maintain a stake in the industry. That\u2019s exactly why I support AB 1921. The Protect Our Games Act balances the realities of an evolving market with the need to protect players\u2019 investments. While physical media once provided a sense of ownership and control, AB 1921 offers practical solutions for digital games, ensuring players aren\u2019t left behind as technology advances.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Visitors walk in front of the booth for Sony’s PlayStation during the preview day for the annual Tokyo…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":["post-393335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}