Sony will end its production of physical discs for PlayStation games starting in 2028. Many people are reasonably concerned about this for very valid reasons: there are concerns about digital ownership, the decimation of the used games market, concerns that this could cause some people to stop buying games altogether, or simply frustration over not being able to hold a disc in your hand. I want to be clear that I think all of these concerns are important and valid, and I think it’s a terrible decision on Sony’s part. But today I also want to complain about a trivial side effect that I keep thinking about: Sony getting rid of discs means there will be no more new Disc Butts. What is a disc stop? I’m so glad you asked. A Disc Butt is when the image on a video game disc is perfectly aligned in such a way that you can press two fingers together against the back of the disc and make it look like the character on the front of the disc has a bare butt. The most famous example of this is Bloodborne, of course, as shown here: © Kotaku But Overwatch did something similar: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA BUTTS #Blizzard #Overwatch #Tracer pic.twitter.com/lCKoKJ4sOI — Stacey Jenkins 💀⚰️ (@HereLiesStacey) May 25, 2016 And other games like Far Cry: Primal and Uncharted 4 have offered, uh, alternative opportunities to play with fingers and pucks. If you already own these discs, your ability to create fun little butts and stuff with those existing discs won’t go away. But we’ll never get any new ones after 2028 for PlayStation games, and possibly not for Xbox games either, if the rumors are true. “But Reb,” you say, “surely the companies have learned their lesson and would never produce a record again that allowed a Disc Butt anyway.” At all. Companies never learn lessons. I’m sure that if the albums were allowed to continue, someone would put a character in a compromising position on an album again, and we’d have to make this joke over and over again. But after 2028, it will all be over. No matter how much we yell at Sony for it. I know this is nowhere near the biggest problem with the end of physical gaming. Personally, I’m pretty upset that this means I’ll never be able to actually own any of my new PlayStation games after 2027, and I’ve written before about how much I already miss video game bargain boxes. But it sucks to lose the ability to hold something in your hands and manipulate it, to draw it and share it with a friend, and to have your little brother scratch it and otherwise ruin it. You could argue that some of those things are inconveniences best gotten rid of, and I feel like I’m turning into a nebulous old man (in my 30s) annoyed by that, but I just liked it when things were real, you know? Plus, butts are fun! I’m sad that new Disc Butts won’t be made. Bloodborne will have to keep me company forever.
