YouTuber Nostalgia Nerd urges gamers to preserve physical media

In the wake of Sony announcing it will stop releasing PlayStation games on discs, a YouTuber is urging people to take extra care in preserving their physical media.

Peter Leigh, from Norwich, is known as Nostalgia Nerd on the social media platform. He said video gamers would miss the connection of owning a disc but that the format would make a comeback.

Sony announced that newly released games would only be available via digital download from January 2028.

“People think physical media is going to last forever, but it doesn’t,” Leigh said. “Discs tend to rot after a while if you don’t store them properly. It’s going to start to decay… or else you might as well get something digital instead.”

Leigh talks about software and technology, games, toys and magazines from the 1970s, 80s and 90s on his YouTube channel, which has had over 100million views.

He said it is important for people to look after any type of physical media to keep it in good condition.