As Sony Plans to End Production on Physical PlayStation Discs, Hideki Kamiya Says He is More Concerned About Game Preservation
As the countdown to the end of PlayStation disc production slowly ticks down to January 2028, CLOVERS co-founder Hideki Kamiya, better known as the creator of Okami, Devil May Cry, and Bayonetta, revealed in an interview with VGC that he is more concerned about the future of game preservation.
“That’s the big thing for me, is whether or not the IP holders are going to take responsibility for ensuring that all of these games will continue to be available to future generations in order for them to be played. Whether that’s physically or digitally is less important to me, just so long as these games will be available to people in the future. Because, as you know, there are already so many of these older classic games that are not playable on modern hardware at all,” Hideki Kamiya said in an interview.
“… I hope that the IP holders will recognize that and continue to make those games available to future people, not just from a gameplay perspective, but also from a game culture perspective, and to continue to foster and grow that culture of gaming. So to me it’s less important whether the games are made available physically or digitally, but that they’re made available at all.”
When it comes to Hideki Kamiya’s own buying habits, he says with modern games lately he is “100% digital” but when a special game comes around, he feels he wants to physically hold onto one of them “for the long haul, I always make sure to buy a physical copy of it.” Hideki Kamiya is somewhat of a physical collector himself, as he describes his own dedicated game room in his house that has all his past consoles, including the original Xbox, Dreamcast, etc. alongside shelves of games.
“Sometimes even just walking into that room and browsing through the labels on the side of the games just brings that little flutter to my heart, and I think there is something sad about the idea that might be going away,” Hideki Kamiya added.
