Featured Image Credit: Insomniac Games
PlayStation's plans to kill off physical releases have received significant backlash from the gaming world, with over 170,000 people signing a petition to reverse the change despite moves from Sony that suggest the decision is final.
It's not been a great few weeks for the gaming world amid console price hikes caused by AI hardware demands, as well as recent developer job losses in the thousands.
Still, nothing has quite caused as much commotion amongst players as Sony's decision to stop producing all physical PlayStation games after January 2028.
This not only effectively confirms that the PlayStation 6 won’t feature a built-in disc drive, but it also removes a key way that many gamers bought and played new and old releases alike.
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Importantly, it threatens game preservation in the process.
While some unpopular announcements are forgotten about in a comparatively short amount of time – like the backlash to the Ultimate Edition of GTA 6 shut down by revenue speculated to be over $1 billion after just an hour of sales – this decision from PlayStation appears to have ignited significant and potentially lasting anger throughout the fan base.
As reported by Dexerto, a petition shared on Change.org by PNP Games CEO Jade Pearce has earned over 176,000 signatures in just seven days, with 'Don't Kill the Disc' being the demand that's ringing throughout everyone's ears.
"We are not against digital. We are against digital being the only option," Pearce writes in the petition's description, adding that "a large and passionate community still wants a real, physical game they own outright, and Sony is about to take that choice away."
Once this plan has been put into place by Sony, games will no longer be able to be bought or sold second-hand.
This removes the primary way that gamers with less financial flexibility could afford to play the newest releases.
Beyond this, it nixes player choice and forces people into paying prices that only Sony and the developers can set within the PlayStation store, as that's currently the only way that you can buy games digitally.
Following the petition's rapid progress (earning over 130,000 signatures in four days), Pearce has called for continued support, declaring: "More than 130,000 people have said the same thing: we want to own the games we pay for. That is no longer a petition. It's a movement, and you built it."
The update also added that "the bigger and louder we get, the harder this is for Sony and the wider industry to wave away. So we're not slowing down. Next stop: 250,000."
What has come to light is news regarding Sony's primary disc production factory in Thalgau, Austria, as it has already started to move away from physical media production and retrain its staff to produce optical microlenses instead.
This signals that Sony is unwilling to budge in its decision, especially as it has likely informed the design and production of the PS6 and the PlayStation brand going forward.
Support for this petition could encourage other major console leaders to reconsider, even with Xbox reportedly planning to implement a similar move, but gamers have certainly let the big companies know what they think.
