Hi, {{first_name | friend}}! Welcome back to Worth the Watch! Does anybody else remember when Netflix was a movie rental service that would ship DVDs to your home? Those were the days… *sighs in defeat*. There’s something deeply satisfying about cracking open a movie box, pinching the disc to avoid scratching it, and carefully placing it in your DVD player. The whole process is intentional, and as a result, it feels more rewarding than throwing on whichever show or movie pops up on the home page of your streaming service.

Since I’m already up here on my soapbox, I might as well keep it rolling, no? Today’s edition of Worth the Watch is all about physical media and why it’s suddenly cool again. Plus, my top 5 movies that are absolutely worth owning physical copies of—inspired by the recent Sony fiasco… Let me explain.

A couple of weeks ago, PlayStation (owned by Sony) quietly delivered this message to users who previously purchased digital versions of their favorite movies and shows:

—PlayStation

As you can imagine, PlayStation users were furious. The movies and shows that they paid for with their hard-earned money to own are about to vanish from their library. All because of the end of a licensing agreement between Sony and StudioCanal, a major film and TV distributor. Oh, and did I mention that nobody is getting a refund?

To add insult to injury, just a few days later, PlayStation announced they will be ending physical disc production in 2028. That means that all new games after January 2028 will be digital downloads, rather than games you physically own. This announcement was poorly received by basically everyone.

To me, neither of these announcements were surprising. I saw the writing on the wall when Best Buy stopped selling physical movies and TV shows back in 2024. This is, unfortunately, the direction the entire entertainment industry is headed. As the dystopian yet very real quote goes,

—World Economic Forum

No matter how you spin it, the industry's shift toward an exclusively digital future comes with real consequences. It’s bad for consumers because a digital purchase is nothing more than a glorified rental agreement. And it’s bad for media preservation because if every new movie, show, and game exists only as a digital product, there is nothing stopping companies like Sony from wiping them from existence on a whim. That’s why I’m thrilled to see a resurgence of physical media happening across the internet!

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