Bloober Team, the studio behind the Silent Hill 2 remake, wants to keep shipping physical retail versions of its games “for as long as possible,” CEO Piotr Babieno said in a new interview with GamesRadar. The commitment lands while several major publishers are stepping back from discs, most notably Sony, which has said it will stop producing PlayStation game discs in 2028.
Babieno framed the stance as a matter of how players actually experience games. “We have reached a moment where you can’t really do much more” with visual and audio fidelity, he said, adding that resolution and lighting gains rarely make a game more engaging. He also pointed to hardware reality: most players, he said, are on machines five to seven years old or older, and are not less interested in games because of it.
The commitment does not ignore the business case. Babieno acknowledged that digital distribution is “much easier, much cheaper, and will be more profitable for everyone.” But he argued that collecting games builds “an emotional connection between the game and me, between the studio which produced the game and me” — a link he does not want to lose with fans.
A horror game built for handheld
Babieno made the remarks while discussing Onyx: The Dark Grip, a 2.5D supernatural horror game from Bloober Team and its Broken Mirror Games publishing arm. Announced as a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, the game is built entirely for the console’s handheld mode. Babieno described the approach as “putting horror back in your hands,” framing touch as a sense that games have largely left unused.
Broken Mirror executive director Tymon Smektala, who joined from Dying Light studio Techland, said he and Babieno share a background as collectors. He described collecting as part of what gaming means to him, adding that he will support physical releases “as long as it will be possible, and as long as the big decision makers will allow us to have that.”
Bloober’s Silent Hill 2 remake launched in 2024 for PC and PlayStation 5 and included a physical disc release. Whether future Bloober games can keep that option depends on platform holders: once Sony ends disc production in 2028, the studio’s stated preference will be tested against the logistics of a disc-less market.
Sources
- Reporting source: IGN
- Original interview: GamesRadar
