Sony to Cease Production of Game Discs by 2028

Sony announced its decision to cease production of physical discs for new games starting in 2028. This announcement has sparked significant discontent among the company's fans: the "Don't Kill the Disc" petition has gathered over 385,000 signatures. Shawn Layden, former PlayStation executive, criticized Sony's move, calling it a "calculated decision" and stated that it dealt a "significant reputational blow" to the company. According to him, the decision negatively affected the "most dedicated" players – the part of the community that he estimates makes up about 20% of gamers who still purchase physical discs.

"These are people who buy two copies of each game. One never leaves the packaging, and the other is played," he added on The Expansion Pass podcast. Layden also questions: "What are you buying? If you're buying access, it doesn't sound as appealing." Previously, Sony argued in a California court that a reasonable consumer cannot consider themselves to own digital games purchased from the PlayStation Store. According to the company, the terms of service and license agreement indicate that the user is not the owner of the product and should understand this as a fact.

Part of the crypto community has once again proposed NFTs as a possible solution to the problem: proponents argue that NFTs provide owners with a verifiable record of ownership that could prevent companies like Sony from revoking access to games. However, NFTs still rely on public metadata and centrally hosted files, so users remain dependent on third parties for access to what they technically own. To change this, metadata would need to be encrypted, and content hosted on a fully decentralized infrastructure – something that is often not the case with NFTs.