Hideki Kamiya, one of the big brains behind franchises like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta – as well as the practice of threatening people on Twitter – has a good reason to be worried. Under all the ex-Capcom hero’s bluster, there is a genuine concern for a healthy and well-preserved video game industry, and publishers are becoming increasingly obvious about the fact that they don’t care.
PlayStation has become an expert in launching mood-killing torpedoes, having recently paired its decision to phase physical game discs out in 2028 with the assertion that “reasonable consumers” know they don’t actually own digital games when they buy them. Meanwhile Xbox chews these torpedoes into toothpicks while announcing 3,200 layoffs and getting confronted with Scabby the Rat as its executives enjoy The Elder Scrolls 6. Now, Kamiya is unsurprised we’re seeing the end of physical discs you’re glad to pass to a friend, but he implores IP owners to think of the future.
“I don’t buy a single physical game these days – every single game I buy is 100% digital,” Kamiya tells Video Games Chronicle adding that “I look at that decision [to discontinue PlayStation discs] and think, ‘Yeah, I guess this is where things were heading.'”
The more important question to Kamiya is instead “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.”
He continues, “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.”
Kamiya adds that, “There are already so many of these older classic games that are not playable on modern hardware at all, and 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 that culture of gaming.” Publishers do seem especially keen to kill that culture these days. I think Kamiya’s fears and eager initiatives like Stop Killing Games are the most natural ways to respond.