Sony has been asked about its decision to kill off physical media in PlayStation’s latest earnings call. The company, which announced that it will be ending the production and sale of discs and so on for PlayStation games in early 2028 earlier this month, reaffirmed its stance on the matter, but notes that it understands why people have such strong feelings about the situation.
“There are various reasons we made this decision, the biggest being that the digitalization of content overall has been progressing, that’s the big factor,” Sony chief financial officer Lin Tao said through during a Q&A related to the earnings call on 31st July (thanks, Kotaku) “It’s not just for PlayStation, but for all kinds of content, digitalization is progressing.”
“And so when we think about the future – and we put in a lot of thought and time, and we cautiously considered this – and we came to this conclusion, and we’re going to cautiously move this forward,” she continued. “And to this decision, we have received various opinions and people have strong views, and we understand that the community has put forth those views to us. Games are loved by many people. It’s a form of entertainment that’s loved by people, and it’s connected to people’s fond memories in many cases. And so we understand those emotions. We want to consider that. And in the future digital ecosystem, how do we engage the gamers is something that we would like to continue to explore.”
Safe to say, then, that Sony is not backing down. The move to end physical media has proved incredibly unpopular with players, inspiring one group of fans to organise a PS5 ‘blackout’ in protest of the move, whilst another group of fans is promoting a petition to try and get Sony to change its mind. All that organising for nothing, it seems.
The backlash against Sony has moved beyond simply its gaming properties: practically every social media post the wider company posts is now met by frustrated players keen to share their disapproval. Some comments, as you can imagine, are more civil than others.
Sony has repeatedly cited consumer trends as the reason for the migration to this ‘all-digital future’, something repeated once again in today’s statement (see: “the digitalization of content overall has been progressing, that’s the big factor”). In what I can only describe as a bit of very bad timing, the PlayStation Network went down for a long period last week, in some cases locking players out of games that they already own. Little examples of the flaws of an ‘all-digital future’ feel particularly pointed right now, as Sony faces increased scrutiny from players accusing the publisher of anti-consumer tactics as it stands to gain an increased level of control over the market.
You can take this latest statement as a strong message, then: Sony is not backing down on this matter.