On second thought, it might not be a good sign. It could also be a bad sign.

If SNY really and truly are ditching physical media altogether, then something else important to take into consideration, as you said, is that these gamers tend to be hardcore, if not the most hardcore, and spend or have spent over decades, a ridiculous amount of money within the PS ecosystem.

This very well may indicate that SNY has chosen to ditch these whales and focus more so on the casual masses. The CEO selling so much stock during this period could be for that reason instead, and not what I initially suggested. The CEO would know that once this became clear, the hardcore whales will very likely feel betrayed and abandon PS6, or SNY outright, causing PS to take a financial hit. At least until PS6 launches anyway, assuming the casuals eat it up and buy in. If the stock is likely going to drop because of that in the somewhat near future (and/or for additional reasons), then best to sell now, especially since this move would be a little risky as to the future outcome not being a necessary lock.

This would lead me to believe, if correct, that the rumored $1000 PS6 isn't launching, ever. If SNY isn't going to cater to the hardcore physical crowd any longer, then why bother catering to the hardcore hardware crowd? If you're ditching the whales, then...

Instead, SNY could in this case, only launch the handheld, and probably a 'PS6 Lite', which they would call the PS6. Unless they've been working overtime on a new cheap console design in the background, that hasn't leaked yet, I'd assume that also means the PS6 and handheld would share a lot of the same internal hardware.

Not only would this save on upfront costs, since the handheld internals would be cheaper vs the $1000 PS6, but SNY should be able to get an even better parts deal due to mass manufacturing for basically one piece of hardware (handheld + PS6 Lite) and not two different pieces (handheld + $1000 PS6). SNY would also be able to make way more APU's since the handheld APU is much much smaller than the $1000 PS6 APU, so no hardware shortages or scalping to worry about. It would, once again, keep the hardware very simple to make games for by only having one internal hardware config to dev for.

If the PS6 Lite and handheld were around PS5 performance, even with some bells and whistles, then it's going to be a (very) difficult sell to the hardcore audience. What do you do if you can't get them to transfer from PS5 (Pro) to PS6 in that case? One option is just ditch them and focus on being as efficient as possible for the casuals. Which would allow you to make moves like drop physical media because the casuals really couldn't care less for the most part. While this would lose PS many big spenders, it would overall grow profits by being so much more efficient up front. If SNY was really lucky, they end up in a sort of casual Wii generation where they actually grow their audience and make even more money.

While possible, SNY could even go with just the PS6 handheld, that boosts in the dock, just like a Nin Switch, and not even bother with the PS6 Lite type console. That makes everything even simpler, more efficient, and maybe even allows them to subsidize even more for an even cheaper entry cost to 10th gen. It would also make a much better excuse for why they ditched physical discs (though would still leave the question as to why no disc drive (attachment) in the dock or why no game carts).

I'm not convinced about my initial thought or this more recent one, but both make sense depending on what SNY is planning on doing going forward. Maybe both are right and that one outcome is plan 'A' while the other outcome is plan 'B'. Then again, maybe both are way off.

Greed from the consumer perspective no doubt.

From a business perspective, these days especially, it's seen as a loss. Concord, Marathon, etc, all lost money that should've been made as profit. Just because profits still increased overall, some leadership will see that as lesser profits than what should've been made. With a certain type of leadership, that's seen as inexcusable and must be made up for.

Console gaming is quickly becoming less about the experience for a good buck and more about increasing profits by whatever means necessary.

Console gaming is on life support now. Xbox is dead. PS is committing suicide on January 1st 2028.Remove all the key cards from the Switch 2 library and it's at N64 levels of library sadness.

This is the end of console gaming. It has been raided, plundered, and hollowed out by capitalism.

PC gaming is pretty sad too but at least there's a handful of GoG, Steam, and itch.io releases that don't have DRM and just give you the game files.

Tbf. 100% of GOG are DRM-free. That’s the storefronts whole business model. I’ve got at least a couple hundred GOG games backed up in several different locations over the years lol. And thankfully they’ve been getting more and more newer games at release in recent times.

But yeah, Steam and the like, they exist, but you’ll need to find some site that keeps up with which games are DRM-free.

Push comes to shove, there’s ALWAYS going to be some part of the community that’ll crack a new game at launch lol. The PC community can be a salty bunch.

Yeah I don't mean a literal handful. I was using hyperbole. I know everything in GoG is DRM free. Just pointing out that compared to every game available on PC the DRM games are a teeny tiny minority. 

They did,not to investors afc but to the higher up suits, showed with their skewed digital vs physical numbers that most wont care,sure they might not,and time will tell.

This trajectory for gaming was unavoidable as soon as the PS1 was a success.
If video games were Nintendo/Sega land up until now, we might have gone a bit longer before getting digital forced on us.

But there are deeper political problems that are the root cause of companies thinking they can get away with stuff like this.

Yep, greed combined with a lack of sufficient regulation, oversight, and competition, combined with an insane obsession with endless growth, which is by definition impossible on a finite planet.

It just boggles my mind that a company like sony, that cemented gaming as we know,wel knew it doesnt see ANY cultural value in physical games anymore.

They are not getting forces into this,they earn MORE than they have ever done,heck they could release a statement saying physical games will become more expensive,but no.

Yesterday i checked out a few of my japanese ps2 imports and kinda found out(yea maybe bit to late haha) that not only the boxarts but also the manual and even the dics label where almost a piece of art compared to western versions.

Physical games are a piece of gaming (art) culture.

Money and greed truly does destroy everything.

And the part that makes me sad is that prob they will get away with it and most gamers will just keep buying and buying rewarding companies to become more and more anti consumer.

https://www.gamesradar.com/entertainment/anime-shows/sonys-attack-on-physical-goods-spreads-to-crunchyroll-as-it-adds-a-usd14-subscription-requirement-just-to-access-its-store/

Aaand now you can't buy Anime from CR unless you pay the two highest end subscription fees.