Ep. 396 - PlayStation Pours One Out for Discs & The Rules for Breaking the Rules

Ep. 396 - PlayStation Pours One Out for Discs & The Rules for Breaking the Rules

July 20, 2026 · 40 min · Episode 438

About this episode

The episode discusses the implications of PlayStation's move to discontinue disc support and shares personal gaming experiences and parenting insights.

Physical media is officially on the clock: PlayStation has announced it will stop supporting discs (January 2028), and we have thoughts. Paying extra for a disc drive that's about to be a paperweight, digital games that never got cheaper, movie libraries deleted overnight, the used market vanishing — we break down what a disc-free future means for gaming dads, whether Xbox follows suit, and why Nintendo cartridges might end up the last physical format our kids can inherit. Meanwhile, Jeff's first-ever playthrough of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time levels up — off the phone and onto a proper (borrowed-from-the-kids) 3DS, after an hour-long road trip with his teenager to snag a used copy that felt like lining up for a midnight launch. Motion-control archery, a time-travel puzzle at the bottom of a well, and a genuinely terrifying Ganondorf. And fresh off six months in Colombia, Trevor has a parenting confession: what do you tell your kids after they watch you play "nope, only English" with a police officer at a traffic checkpoint? A very dad conversation about shades of truth, bending rules the smart way, and why granola bar thieves should learn to hide the wrappers. Plus kids…

People in this episode

Hosts: Trevor Alexander, Jeff Smalley

Topics covered

Keywords

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo

Books & works: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Places: Colombia, Canada

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