Physical media may not have an infinite lifespan, but to say the risk of physical media "decaying" is the "the same if not greater" than a digital server being closed is laughable.  The physical media (books, comics, football cards, toys, board games, etc.) that I have collected throughout my life can be passed on to relatives to enjoy long after I'm gone.  I still have working carts and consoles from the 2nd Generation of video games (Atari 2600, Intellivision, and Colecovision) which are 40+ years old at this point.  I wouldn't call that the "same if not greater" risk when compared to losing all of your games if they happened to be digitally tied to a system that might fail at some point after the storefront has closed.

You are not understanding.  How many NEW PS3's are still out there? none. When PS4 shuts down its service there is no accessing those games period. They need to connect to Sony's servers to use them. PS4 did the same thing Xbox One got so much heat with online check-ins. Sony just lied saying they don't do that. So people who collect like me and like Physical games plus have our LRG games. Doesn't matter. Stop standing up for a multibillion-dollar company that does not have their customers best interest in mind.

Isn’t this a problem with physical games also? If you’re console dies you can’t play those games unless they are backward compatible.0

im not standing up for anything I just think this is a non issue. The people still buying games on the PlayStation store for ps3, psp, and vita probably make up a very small percentage of PlayStation users. 

it’s like phones as time goes on older models loose access to buying and accessing content on their store and they’d have to buy a new device for that. Unfortunately with PlayStation there isn’t a backwards compatibility feature for PS3 but that’s a whole other discussion.

Buy a new PS3 and log into what?  The store will be closed.  There will not be a place to redownload the already purchased game from.

I think they're referring to the pS4/PS5 store hosting PS3 games.

If that’s the case then yeah that’s terrible. But I’m under the assumption that the store will be closed for purchases and that you should still be able to log in and download what you already own since PSN will still be intact.

That's anecdotal evidence. What you are reporting is the exception, not the rule.

Virtually all recorded CDs, DVDs, magnetic tapes, and cassettes will be gone after 40+ years since their average lifespan is just a fraction of that. Even the ROM modules inside older cartridges will have a hard time lasting that long because even though they are hardware encoded and can't be electronically changed, the transistors themselves can and will eventually fail, no matter how much care you put into it.

Most PS1 disks are rotting already. In 15 - 20 years, a lot of Switch cartridges will no longer be functional. And so on.

A bit much my dude. CDs and DVDs can go up to about a 100 years. As well as tapes, which are known to have exceptionally long lifespans... but it all depends on use, wear and such. So it is up to an individual to how long something can last. And if you ask me, 100 years is a long time and i'll be dead before any of my games are I reckon.

Also, transistors and such can always be replaced. They can still make the electronic parts you need to fix your cartridges (and put the rom back on the cart pretty much). Cartridges from decades ago still work as well, but again, it depends on use. Lastly, the 15 to 20 year number for Switch cartridges is based on nothing. 

If this true I expect the online multiplayer to go next year. Something I don't get is why these have to get shut down. Is the upkeep cost really that much? The number of people using these old systems will be declining every year so unless I'm missing something the upkeep cost should go down overtime. Also this has sparked a physical vs digital debate but the real issue isn't digital, it's DRM. That's what makes stuff be lost forever in situations like this. If something isn't locked down and the files are freely available then preservation can happen with digital stuff so when it comes to preservation a big help would be games no longer being exclusive to store fronts with DRM. Thankfully Emulation can preserve games only on systems with DRM though ideally at least some of them will get ported to modern platforms.

Physical copy master race!