Sony Interactive Entertainment implemented extremely strict communication guidelines for its employees in response to criticism generated by the announcement that PlayStation will stop releasing games on physical media starting in 2028.
Sony Interactive Entertainment implemented extremely strict communication guidelines for its employees in response to criticism generated by the announcement that PlayStation will stop releasing games on physical media starting in 2028.
Alanah Pearce, a former employee of Santa Monica Studio, reported that the company was aware that the abrupt shift to a purely digital model would provoke a negative reaction. For this reason, Sony instructed its teams to refrain from making any comments on the topic, classifying these rules as the most restrictive ever seen on social media.
This information was shared by former employees, including Pearce, who has a YouTube channel with over 680 thousand subscribers. Although Sony already had a history of controlling the disclosure of new projects, the current degree of containment would be unprecedented. The internal justification for such a measure was to prevent misinterpreted statements from amplifying public disapproval.
The screenwriter of God of War: Laufey also confirmed that Sony management anticipated that the news would not be well received, leading to the adoption of these more drastic communication policies. Since the announcement, part of the PlayStation community has demanded a more transparent dialogue from the company, especially considering the uncertainties about the impact of abandoning physical media on the long-term gaming market.
The decision to discontinue discs is based on internal data from Sony itself, which points to a change in consumer behavior, indicating a greater preference for the digital format. However, this move represents a commercial realignment. According to Pearce, the company's main disc manufacturing unit, located in Thalgau, Austria—which previously pressed approximately 600 thousand units daily—is undergoing a major restructuring.
This production center is receiving an investment of 30 million euros (equivalent to about R$ 174 million) to modernize its assembly line and redirect equipment for the manufacturing of optical microlenses, a vital component for artificial intelligence data centers. This strategic pivot was positively received by the financial market, resulting in a 7% increase in Sony's shares immediately after the announcement. Despite this, sources from the website PushSquare indicate that the Austrian infrastructure will preserve technical capacity to produce limited volumes of physical media, suggesting that while traditional retail distribution ends, special editions or on-demand runs may occasionally appear.
The transition to a fully digital environment has already generated litigation. In addition to the end of physical media, the company also announced the closure of the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita virtual stores, which implies the loss of access to hundreds of old titles next year. With future console generations tied to the PlayStation Store, the brand faces accusations of promoting a monopoly in the video game sector.
Pearce detailed that Sony is facing significant antitrust lawsuits. A Dutch non-governmental organization initiated a lawsuit seeking 400 million euros (more than R$ 2.4 billion), alleging that eliminating discs harms competition and the used market, forcing consumers to use only the official store. Similar disputes are occurring in the United States and the United Kingdom, where a class action suit demands 2 billion pounds (approximately R$ 14.3 billion) from the company for the same reason. Dissatisfaction extends to retailers, who recently organized a petition asking Sony to keep games on physical media, although a retreat by the Japanese giant seems unlikely at present.
The discontinuation of disc game sales on PlayStation is scheduled for January 2028. However, this transition signals a broader shift in game consumption, questioning whether the end is limited only to the platform's physical format or encompasses all disk sales.
Competition, such as from XBOX, which announced layoffs and intensified its focus on XBOX GAME PASS, suggests that PlayStation's main rival may discreetly adopt a model based exclusively on digital games.
Sony, following a trend initiated in 2007 in the computer environment with STEAM, enters this purely digital domain twenty years after the start of this evolution. According to the author, acquiring a digital game is equivalent to buying any application on a mobile device.
Historically, purchasing a game implied the acquisition of a tangible asset. The disc or cartridge was the player's property, allowing for lending, resale, accumulation, or long-term storage. With the migration to digital distribution, this premise has changed. On most platforms, the consumer acquires only a license of use, tied to their account and governed by the company's terms.
This new dynamic allows the game in the digital library to be removed at any time, regardless of the reason. An example of this was seen on the PlayStation Store, where 550 films from the distributor StudioCanal were removed under the pretext of the licensing contract ending, resulting in losses for users who did not receive a refund.
For collectors, the value of the game transcends the physical object; it represents a piece of video game history. By becoming merely a license, the collection ceases to take up shelf space and instead appears in a list on a server whose availability is not guaranteed to the collector.
In addition to collectors, the used game market will be negatively affected. Both the retailer, which lost revenue from reselling used products, and the consumer, who will no longer have access to desired titles at a lower cost outside of launch, will be harmed.
Video games constitute one of the central cultural expressions of the 21st century, and their preservation is vital so that future generations can study and experience them. In a fully digital environment, this responsibility increasingly falls on publishers and platforms, which determine the period of availability for a title for purchase or download.
Unlike media such as books, music, and films, games require specific hardware maintenance to be played and suffer from the need for multiple updates across new generations. Therefore, the mere existence of a disc does not guarantee the preservation of the game, since the disc only functions as a key to the actual content, which resides in the cloud and has much more advanced versions.
While the physical medium fosters competition among various retailers, who offer their own promotions and sales, the digital market centralizes sales in stores controlled by the platforms themselves. This concentration reduces distribution channels, increasing the influence of manufacturers, developers, and owners of these stores over the prices charged.
In this single-sale model, retailers lose participation in the sales process. Control of the sales channel and fees remain exclusively with the platform, while the product's value and its discounts are defined by the developers and publishers. This ensures that a larger portion of the final value goes to those who created the game, in addition to granting total control over the minimum and maximum selling price.
In the context of countries like Brazil, where the physical medium still offers an economic alternative, a notable difference arises. Digital stores allow for the localization of values for different nations. While a simple conversion might indicate a price, platforms like STEAM, XBOX, and SWITCH enable prices adjusted to the local reality, allowing a $50 game to cost 100 reais in Brazil. This functionality is not yet active on the PlayStation Store but is expected by 2028, following the practice of competitors.
The rise of services like PS Plus and Game Pass has transformed game consumption. Many players have begun preferring immediate access to vast catalogs over building a library based on the individual ownership of each title. However, despite the convenience of having thousands of games available, the user effectively owns none of the titles. Additionally, developers receive a minimal fraction of the game's real value, which is often calculated based on an assumed value for downloads.
In summary, the end of physical media represents more than the extinction of discs; it symbolizes the exchange of ownership for access. In 2028, even if we continue to say that we 'buy' games, the fundamental question will be: when did buying stop meaning ownership?
