Hideo Kojima was at a film festival in Italy this weekend, and instead of talking about movies, he ended up mourning the PlayStation disc.
"I grew up with physical media, so I find it really sad," Kojima said of Sony's decision (Kotaku). And he went further, warning that under streaming and subscription models you don't own anything, you just have "the right to turn the tap" for a monthly fee. If the data stops being distributed, "you won't be able to watch or play the movies and games you like."
The man still buys Blu-rays and CDs, and he's been sounding this alarm since at least 2021. When the industry's most famous auteur is stockpiling physical media, maybe the collectors weren't being paranoid after all...
Sony announced on July 1st that disc production for new PlayStation games ends in January 2028, and the PS3 and Vita storefronts begin closing market by market this August.
The backlash was instant and everywhere: Sony's announcement post has blown past 100 million views, more than 15 petitions are live (the largest, from Canadian retailer PNP Games, crossed 35,000 signatures), and the story made it all the way to CNN segments and corporate trolling from Domino's UK and GitHub, which jokingly offered CD-ROMs of your code!
The quotes cut deeper than the memes. PNP Games CEO Jade Pearce: "A disc is a real game you own. You can lend it, trade it, resell it, gift it, collect it, or pass it down to your kids." Trevor Noah pointed out that secondhand discs are the only way plenty of gamers can afford to play at all. French politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon summed up the fear in one line: "Tomorrow, you will pay without ever owning anything."
Then GOG, the anti-DRM storefront, restated its whole reason for existing: "The future of gaming shouldn't come at the expense of ownership." And fans dug up Sony's own 2013 used-game instructional video, the one where they mocked Microsoft's DRM plans by simply handing a game to a friend. That ad did NOT age well!
As for WHY now, former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden told Eurogamer that Sony debated this for years and that this time it's probably "a straight spreadsheet decision."
Analyst Daniel Ahmad was blunter, telling GameSpot the move is "all about profitability and control": no manufacturing costs, no used market, and every sale routed through PSN. According to GameSpot, digital accounted for roughly 80% of game sales in 2025.
Sony's own follow-up framing dropped the pretense entirely: the PS6 era is about building a "true digital platform business."
And yet, Sony seems to have already blinked. Eurogamer reports the company has assured developers they'll still be able to re-order existing disc games after 2027. Add the fact that Sony still rations its attachable disc drives to one per order because demand is that high, and the picture gets muddier: the audience buying hardware to play discs is being told the discs are going away.
I'm a physical guy at heart, and I think this fight matters. Without a disc on the shelf, ownership means nothing... we're all just renting. A digital "purchase" is a license that lives and dies with a storefront, and the PS3 and Vita store closures rolling out THIS SUMMER are the proof playing out in real time.
But I'll be honest with you. I buy most of my games and movies digitally now. Not having to find shelf space for every new release, grabbing a game at midnight without leaving the couch... the convenience is real, and it's changed how I buy games and movies over the years.
Digital is winning because most of us, me included, kept choosing it. Sony just read the sales charts.
Now, with all of that being said, I still like to pick up physical collector's editions and Blu-ray 3D discs, and others that are for special occasions or when I'm feeling nostalgic (Gears of War anyone?)… Heck, I still buy hardcover books and physical comic books!
That's why the inevitability argument doesn't let Sony off the hook for me. Digital becoming the default was always going to happen. What stings is removing the OPTION.
Aeternum Game Studios has pledged physical releases through early 2028, retailers like Tesura Games are openly condemning the decision, and in the best twist of the week, Microsoft is putting Halo on a PS5 disc while promising "tangible items to add to your collection."
Parts of this industry clearly still believe the disc has a job to do. Sony made the choice for all of us anyway, and that's the part I can't get behind.
Keep in mind, we just watched this same movie with GTA 6's disc-less physical edition, and Rockstar felt enough heat to respond publicly.
One petition won't reverse a spreadsheet decision. A pattern of them, across every launch between now and January 2028, might at least buy the disc exception some room to grow.
So let me ask you guys - when's the last time you bought a disc? Would you pay extra to keep the option alive? Sound off in the comments below!
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