Sony's decision to kill PS5 disc production in 2028 has been met with massive criticism since it was first announced, and the company has acknowledged the backlash. In a Q&A session for investors following the posting of its Q1 financial results today--running from April 1 to June 30--Sony revealed more details about its decision to shift toward an all-digital future, and how the announcement had been met with "strong views" from its community of gamers.
"We announced that from January 2028 onwards we will no longer be manufacturing game discs, so one-and-a-half years ahead," Sony CFO Lin Tao said (via an interpreter). "There are various reasons we made this decision, the biggest being that digitalization of content overall has been progressing. That's the big factor. It’s not just for PlayStation, but for all kinds of content; digitalization is progressing. When we think about the future, we put in a lot of thought and time, and we cautiously considered this, and we came to this conclusion and we're going to cautiously move this forward."
Tao added that Sony has since then received "various opinions" from people with "strong views," acknowledging how its consumers have a strong emotional attachment to physical media. "We understand those emotions; we want to consider that. And in the future digital ecosystem, how we engage the gamers is something that we would like to continue to explore," Lin concluded.
Sony's plans to move past physical media have been the subject of a lot of debate over the last couple of weeks. Digital adoption at Sony has surged in the last few years, with 82% of consumers choosing this option. Sony also stands to benefit financially, as it'll get to keep all of the revenue from selling a first-party game and take a cut of the profits from third-party sellers through its online marketplace.
While PlayStation gamers have been vocal--going so far as to voice their displeasure with every single social media post that Sony makes and organizing a rally for August--developers and publishers have also voiced their opinions. Ubisoft boss Yves Guillemot believes that there could be a benefit to gaming being a digital-only hobby, while Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser says that Sony should provide an option for players to have physical copies still--even if digital games offer several benefits.
There might be some hope on the horizon, however, as Sony has suggested that there could still be code-in-a-box releases for games--an option that GTA 6 is using for its physical release in November.
