2026 has been full of big storylines in gaming, including Sony’s announcement that it will end support for physical PlayStation game discs in 2028 and the trend of consoles getting increasingly expensive. Tim Willits, the chief creative officer at Saber Interactive, caught up with GameSpot at Gamescom this week to discuss these topics and offer up a bizarre-sounding possibility for an “AI box” for games.
He said he was “surprised how upset people were” about Sony ending support for physical game discs. Willits said he hasn’t bought a physical game “in a long time” because he enjoys the convenience of digital games. Willits is not alone, as the share of digital game sales is growing at numerous companies.
At the same time, Sony continues to sell millions of physical game discs annually. Willits said Saber still makes “a lot of money” from physical games, especially in Europe, but the trends are different in North America, he observed.
Willits went on to say he had an interaction with someone recently who asked him to sign a copy of Doom 3, a game he worked on when he was with id Software. “So for me personally, I’ll miss that in the future,” he said.
An AI game box?
Part of what many people enjoy about physical games is collecting the boxes they come in and presenting them on their shelves.
Willits said he thinks someone in the future might create some kind of “AI box” into which players can “upload all your games.”
“So maybe someone will do that,” he said.
Rising console prices
Another major storyline in gaming in 2026 has been how video game consoles today are more expensive than ever. There are numerous reasons for this, including US President Donald Trump’s tariffs, the AI-fueled impact on component and memory prices, and more.
Sony and Microsoft raised prices on PlayStation and Xbox consoles so much that the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles are now $150+ more expensive than they were when they launched in 2020. Nintendo, meanwhile, is hiking the price of the Switch 2 in September.
For his part, Willits said it’s “shocking how expensive” it has become to buy a new console today, adding that it will “be interesting to see” how Sony and Microsoft manage this as they look to release new consoles.
A new report from Ampere Analysis said that if next-gen consoles do, in fact, come in at $1,000 or more, that could have a dramatic, negative effect on the market. To be sure, Sony and Microsoft have yet to detail their plans for new consoles, so there is no word yet on how much they might cost or when they could be release.
In other news, Willits told GameSpot more about the company’s plans to use AI in game development and how the company claims it will never fire anyone and replace them with AI.