July 6, 2026 12:49
Sony announced this week that it will phase out discs by 2028.What do industry people think about this: John L
Sony announced this week that it will phase out discs by 2028.What do industry people think about this:
John Linneman (Digital Foundry): He called what was happening “the end of traditional gaming.”He noted that due to rising console prices, mass layoffs and now the destruction of physical media, the industry is losing its accessibility, and it is becoming very difficult to be enthusiastic about the new generation of consoles.
Jez Corden (Windows Central Editor): He compared the level of toxicity and barrage of negativity towards Sony with the disastrous announcement of the price of the PlayStation 3 (when in 2006 the company asked for an impressive $600 for the console).
Christopher Dring (Editor-in-Chief, The Game Business): He recalled that PlayStation is already facing numerous class action lawsuits due to the monopoly position of the PS Store digital store, and the refusal of discs will only aggravate the accusations of monopoly.
Ian Smith (Head of Video Game History Foundation): He harshly but specifically stated that for connoisseurs, piracy remains the only real way to preserve video games for future generations, since corporations are not interested in preserving history.
Hideo Kojima (genius): He openly admitted that he was very upset and scared by Sony's decision.Gamers immediately remembered his long-standing prophetic warnings.He then stated that while the game is downloaded to your hard drive, the data at least remains on your device. However, abandoning disks is a step towards streaming and cloud services.A private corporation, for political, economic or censorship reasons, will be able to “turn off the tap” at any time, and people will forever lose access to culture.“Eventually, digital data will no longer belong to people.I'll be left with nothing.That's what I'm afraid of."
Independent developers and indie studios: They expressed deep disappointment.For smaller teams, releasing a limited edition game on disc was not only an important part of revenue from fan collectors, but also a prestigious status marker (“my game is on the store shelf”).Now this tool is being taken away from them.
Major publishers (EA, Ubisoft, Activision): They publicly express “regret” to maintain audience loyalty, but behind the scenes they absolutely support this decision.For industry giants, going completely digital has been a long-standing dream.This completely destroys the secondary market (the market for used discs from which publishers don't make a cent) and forces players to buy games solely at the price set by the publisher.
Creators of collector's editions (Atari, iam8bit, etc.): We found ourselves confused.They wonder who would want to buy premium collector's boxes for $150–200 if instead of a beautiful disk there was just a piece of paper with a digital code inside.
Players: In rage, in anger, they organize flash mobs to cancel their PS Plus subscription in the hope that the decision will be reversed. Sony: The topic was dropped and forgotten, but otherwise everything is fine with them, the shares have grown.
For competitors and third-party brands, such news has become a veritable gonzo marketing goldmine.
Domino's Pizza and KFC: They joke that their products will become digital from 2028, and in the case of Dominos, “customers will still be able to hold the pizza box in their hands, but inside instead of food there will be a code to download it.”
Nintendo: The announcement of TES IV: Oblivion Remastered for Nintendo Switch 2 was accompanied by an openly mocking note about the fact that the ENTIRE GAME will be on a cartridge. Microsoft: It’s as if they specifically announced the “Disc-to-Digital” feature, which will allow players to legally transfer their physical discs to a digital library.
GitHub: The administration launched a comic campaign GitHub CD.They suggested that developers burn their public code repositories onto CDs: “Your code physically belongs to you forever.A real physical disc you can hold in your hands—no downloading required.”This is a direct jab at Sony and the concept of “digital slavery”, where users only rent games. Jokes aside, Sony should be releasing a new console at the end of next year starting at $1,000.Without a disk drive and with canceled disks.Something will happen.
🙁 @meownauts #game
John Linneman (Digital Foundry): He called what was happening “the end of traditional gaming.”He noted that due to rising console prices, mass layoffs and now the destruction of physical media, the industry is losing its accessibility, and it is becoming very difficult to be enthusiastic about the new generation of consoles.
Jez Corden (Windows Central Editor): He compared the level of toxicity and barrage of negativity towards Sony with the disastrous announcement of the price of the PlayStation 3 (when in 2006 the company asked for an impressive $600 for the console).
Christopher Dring (Editor-in-Chief, The Game Business): He recalled that PlayStation is already facing numerous class action lawsuits due to the monopoly position of the PS Store digital store, and the refusal of discs will only aggravate the accusations of monopoly.
Ian Smith (Head of Video Game History Foundation): He harshly but specifically stated that for connoisseurs, piracy remains the only real way to preserve video games for future generations, since corporations are not interested in preserving history.
Hideo Kojima (genius): He openly admitted that he was very upset and scared by Sony's decision.Gamers immediately remembered his long-standing prophetic warnings.He then stated that while the game is downloaded to your hard drive, the data at least remains on your device. However, abandoning disks is a step towards streaming and cloud services.A private corporation, for political, economic or censorship reasons, will be able to “turn off the tap” at any time, and people will forever lose access to culture.“Eventually, digital data will no longer belong to people.I'll be left with nothing.That's what I'm afraid of."
Independent developers and indie studios: They expressed deep disappointment.For smaller teams, releasing a limited edition game on disc was not only an important part of revenue from fan collectors, but also a prestigious status marker (“my game is on the store shelf”).Now this tool is being taken away from them.
Major publishers (EA, Ubisoft, Activision): They publicly express “regret” to maintain audience loyalty, but behind the scenes they absolutely support this decision.For industry giants, going completely digital has been a long-standing dream.This completely destroys the secondary market (the market for used discs from which publishers don't make a cent) and forces players to buy games solely at the price set by the publisher.
Creators of collector's editions (Atari, iam8bit, etc.): We found ourselves confused.They wonder who would want to buy premium collector's boxes for $150–200 if instead of a beautiful disk there was just a piece of paper with a digital code inside.
Players: In rage, in anger, they organize flash mobs to cancel their PS Plus subscription in the hope that the decision will be reversed. Sony: The topic was dropped and forgotten, but otherwise everything is fine with them, the shares have grown.
For competitors and third-party brands, such news has become a veritable gonzo marketing goldmine.
Domino's Pizza and KFC: They joke that their products will become digital from 2028, and in the case of Dominos, “customers will still be able to hold the pizza box in their hands, but inside instead of food there will be a code to download it.”
Nintendo: The announcement of TES IV: Oblivion Remastered for Nintendo Switch 2 was accompanied by an openly mocking note about the fact that the ENTIRE GAME will be on a cartridge. Microsoft: It’s as if they specifically announced the “Disc-to-Digital” feature, which will allow players to legally transfer their physical discs to a digital library.
GitHub: The administration launched a comic campaign GitHub CD.They suggested that developers burn their public code repositories onto CDs: “Your code physically belongs to you forever.A real physical disc you can hold in your hands—no downloading required.”This is a direct jab at Sony and the concept of “digital slavery”, where users only rent games. Jokes aside, Sony should be releasing a new console at the end of next year starting at $1,000.Without a disk drive and with canceled disks.Something will happen.
🙁 @meownauts #game