Sony gives update on all-digital PlayStation plan, and it's not good news for disc fans

Earlier in July, Sony announced a major shift to how the future of PlayStation games will be distributed, with physical discs slated to be discontinued entirely for the platform. Despite a massive fan and industry backlash about the decision, Sony has now confirmed that it will continue to move forward with the plan.

Sony finally made a comment about this today during a Q&A session after sharing this fiscal year's Q1 financial results, where the point of ending disc-based gaming on its platforms was inevitably brought up by an investor.

Responding to the matter, Sony Chief Financial Officer Lin Tao said, via a live interpreter, that digitalization is progressing across all forms of media and that "we cautiously considered this, and we came to this conclusion, and we're going to cautiously move this forward."

As expected, there was a massive backlash from PlayStation gamers about the disc-killing decision earlier in the month. A Change.org petition named "Don't Kill the Disc" has already reached over 350,000 signatures, while any new trailer or social media post by PlayStation studios was being bombarded with comments and replies showing their displeasure about the move. Even a one-week blackout protest on PlayStation platforms is also being planned by a group.

The company executives and official accounts were oddly quiet during this period. That is until today, where Tao finally addressed the issue to say Sony is not backing down.

"Games are loved by many people, it's a form of entertainment that's loved by people, and it's connected to people's fond memories in many cases, and so we understand those emotions," added Tao. "We want to consider that, and in the future digital ecosystem how do we engage the gamers is something that we would like to continue to explore."

Sony also revealed today that 82% of PlayStation games, DLC, and microtransactions it has sold this year from April through June were done via digital means, climbing from last year's 78%. With rising numbers like this, it's unlikely the company will budge from its position.

Physical game disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles is being discontinued entirely in January 2028, giving publishers and developers some time to prepare.