On Friday, February 7, 2025, some gamers who relied heavily on the PlayStation Network (PSN), PlayStation Store, and PlayStation Portal to enjoy their favorite title were thrown into panic after discovering a service outage.
Sony later acknowledged the issue without giving a timeframe for its resolution, neither did they comment on the reason for the service outage. DownDetector, a website that registers complaints about online services experienced a spike in users lodging complaints about the PSN at 11 pm UK time on Friday.
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The way game licenses are handled on PSN made it difficult for players to access digital copies of their games during the outage. Some players who succeeded in launching some digital titles eventually got a warning telling them that the game would close after 15 minutes due to being unable to verify its license.
Some gamers couldn’t access PSN online service for nearly 24 hours before the issue was rectified on Saturday. The company apologized for the outage and tried to quell the frustration of their subscribers with a gift.
“Network services have fully recovered from an operational issue,” Sony said in a statement. “We apologize for the inconvenience and thank the community for their patience. All PlayStation Plus members will automatically receive an additional 5 days of service.”
To this moment, there is still no explanation for the cause of the PSN outage. While the downtime lasted, PS5 owners were also unable to pair new disc drives. For a long time, advocates of video game conservation have been pushing for legislation to make physical copies of games accessible without the need for Internet access. This brief PSN event further highlights their fears and adds weight to their demands.
PSN and the death of physical copies of games
In recent years, big game publishers have been transitioning from physical copies to digital copies of games because of the benefits they offer. Additionally, they are increasingly launching subscription services—which is the real cash cow that guarantees sustained income.
For the first time in 2013, the sale of digital copies of games in the United States overtook physical copies. Over the years that followed, digital copies continued to eat into the market share of physical copies. In 2018, physical copies only held 17% of the market share in the United States.
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So, why are digital copies more lucrative to publishers—and, perhaps, some gamers too? There are myriad reasons why publishers are indirectly nudging gamers towards a world of exclusive digital game copy distribution. Some of the most important reasons include:
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Shovels down distribution costs
With physical copies, the publisher must factor in the cost of the discs and the logistics involved in getting the games across to the consumer. All these can eat into their profit margin. However, digital copies do not incur all those costs. What the consumer needs is the key that they can use to access the game after purchase.
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Helps tighten control over how games are shared
Distribution of games via digital platforms also means publishers have better control over how games can be shared. No surprise that even some PlayStation games on Steam require players to link their PSN account to play.
For players, in certain parts of the world, digital distribution of games allows them to access some titles on day one of release, a feat that was previously not possible with physical copies. Also, digital copies are usually cheaper compared to physical copies. All these benefits are driving physical copies of games to inevitable death.
Who really owns digital copies of games?
The fact that players couldn’t access titles they purchased with their hard-earned money throughout the duration of the PSN outage re-echoes the question about the true owner of digital game copies.
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In October 2024, Steam updated its policy to inform players they don’t own the games purchased on the platform but rather licensing them. Did that stop players from purchasing their titles on Steam? Absolutely not!
However, the long-term implication of that warning is that if Steam should shut down for any reason today—God forbid—you have lost access to all your collections and can do nothing about it, not even sue anyone.
The PSN outage incident should make any gamer who has built a career around playing and streaming their gameplay think twice about trashing their physical copies. What if digital game services like PSN should go offline and take days or weeks to restore? The career of every one that depends on them would have been put on hold for that long.
While PSN is the focus here, there is no guarantee that other subscription services like Game Pass will not experience the same issues at some point. This is something that you should ponder if your gaming habit goes beyond just entertainment.
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