Legendary game creator Hideo Kojima has expressed his concern over the end of physical games, as the industry shifts towards an all-digital future.
During a recent panel in Italy, Kojima Productions founder Hideo Kojima discussed the video game industry’s shift away from physical media, expressing disappointment over a future where players may no longer truly own the games they purchase. He talked about PlayStation’s decision to phase out software by January, 2028, saying that the prospect is especially disheartening for those who grew up collecting physical games.
According to Kojima, the transition will change the relationship between players and the media they purchase. “For someone like me, who grew up with physical media, this makes me very, very sad,” he said. He has been buying CDs, Blu-rays, and other physical media while they are still available in order to preserve his personal collection.
The legendary game creator explained that the current model, where players download games to a console’s storage, still allows users to keep a local copy of their purchases even without a physical disc. However, he believes the next step will be an entirely streaming-based ecosystem, where games reside exclusively on company servers and users are granted only temporary access. At that point, he said that consumers will no longer truly own the software they pay for. Instead, access will depend entirely on platform holders and service providers, much like today’s video streaming platforms.
Kojima also raised concerns about the long-term preservation of games and other digital media. If the content is hosted exclusively by private companies, players risk losing access due to commercial decisions, licensing changes, or even political circumstances.”The fact that the data isn’t in my possession but instead belongs to a private company means there will always be the risk that, for commercial reasons or even political reasons, that company could block access to it,” he said. “If that happens, I won’t be able to watch that movie anymore, and I won’t be able to play that game anymore.”
The legendary game creator believes the same trend is likely to affect the film industry as well, drawing comparisons between digital game distribution and streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. In his view, while subscription and cloud-based services offer convenience, they come at the cost of ownership and long-term access.
