“No one should ever play it in this state”

The discussion surrounding the future of physical media has never been more prominent among gamers. Nintendo’s new approach with the Switch 2, which has opened the door for publishers to adopt game-key card, and Sony’s announcement that physical media will no longer be manufactured starting in 2028 have both led many players to wonder what the future holds for physical games. As we have previously reported, however, Nintendo doesn’t appear to be abandoning physical media anytime soon.

Beyond simply being a collectible, Kazutaka Kodaka, CEO of Too Kyo Games and best known for his work on the Danganronpa series, offered a different perspective on the situation, explaining why physical releases remain important to the company and highlighting some of the challenges that come with them.

During a roundtable at the SKY31 Convention in Seoul (thanks to Inven Global), several veteran developers, including Katsuhiro Harada, director of Tekken, Pawel Sasko, associate director of Cyberpunk, and Shuhei Yoshida, former president of Sony Interactive Entertainment, discussed various aspects of game development.

Kodaka touched on physical releases, explaining that a large portion of Too Kyo Games’ sales in Japan comes from physical copies and that they remain the company’s primary focus.

The problem, however, is that producing a physical release requires developers to submit a master version of the game much earlier than they would for a digital-only launch. The game needs to be manufactured on discs and, in theory, should be playable independently of an internet connection. According to Kodaka, the company has instead started working under the assumption that everyone will have an internet connection.

“Honestly, we approach it with the mindset of finalizing the master via patches” Kodaka said. “Collector’s editions in North America or Europe take an enormous amount of time to pack with figures, so the master submission deadline is absurdly early. To be frank, we sometimes submit builds where we think, ‘No one should ever play it in this state.’ We barely pass platform certification requirements and release it while believing no one plays games without an internet connection these days.”

Yoshida responded by saying that, “in practice, you launch while praying no one plays that build and everyone downloads the day-one patch instead.”

Kodaka then joked: “I’m not sure if I should be making such risky confessions in a venue like this.”

Thanks Kotaku and InvenGlobal for the news today. While the future of physical media may be concerning to many players, Nintendo has shown that it has no plans to abandon physical releases anytime soon. If you missed it, we previously covered the company’s plans in more detail here.