PlayStation internal leak signals potential u-turn on physical disc stance in first sign of hope

PlayStation may be reassessing its decision to cull physical media, as revealed by a leaked internal survey.

Following its reveal earlier this year of an impending physical media cull, PlayStation was supposedly met with major internal backlash.

Reports at the time, however, claimed that studios and partners were prohibited from speaking out on the issue.

It’s now come to light that PlayStation may finally be questioning its decision to stop producing physical copies of new titles released from January 2028 onwards.

While the company isn’t yet revealing as much to angered consumers, it has supposedly begun considering the views of those aforementioned studios and partners.

According to leaker Moore’s Law Is Dead, Sony has issued a survey to partners requesting feedback on the topic.

“There is a survey Sony sent out to developers that is, what I was told by my contacts, a bigger survey than they’ve sent almost ever before,” Moore’s Law Is Dead said on his YouTube channel.

“There was a question in it trying to ask in a not-direct way. ‘Is there an issue with not selling games physically?,’ asking developers for feedback on killing discs.”

He continued, “Wolverine is still selling plenty of physical copies, and Sony is starting to ask devs if they are worried about killing physical [media], suggesting that if they got a bunch of feedback, maybe they would consider some sort of mea culpa.”

It goes without saying that angered gamers are hoping for a full backtrack, and it’s far too early to say whether that could possibly be on the cards eventually.

Even still, this is the first sign of hope. Here’s to wishing that PlayStation’s staff and partners are as against the decision as the PlayStation user base is.

Moore’s Law Is Dead’s claim has to be taken with a pinch of salt, of course.

While he has correctly leaked information about PlayStation before, he doesn’t have a perfect track record.

The best thing PlayStation users can do is continue to let their voices be heard - and to this day, every PlayStation social media post continues to be flooded with backlash that shows no signs of quelling.

What will PlayStation’s cull of physical discs look like for consumers?

It’s been a bumpy year for gaming, with PlayStation and Xbox taking it in turns to shoot themselves in the foot with bad decision after bad decision.

PlayStation, naturally, caused outrage earlier this year with its reveal of a physical media cull from January 2028 onwards.

Physical supplies of existing games are expected to continue to be supported, albeit with a reduction in production of around 10 percent.

For new titles though, they will only be available digitally or as a ‘code in a box’ - and that applies to both first and third-party games as, unlike Xbox, PlayStation does not allow third-party access to its disc-printing technology.

One major concern surrounding this move is that the PlayStation Store could monopolise the market, driving up prices.

It’s currently often cheaper to buy physical games and that option would be removed; nor would gamers be able to sell or buy unwanted games on secondhand marketplaces.

There’s also preservation to think about. You only own a license for digital purchases that can be revoked at any time without compensation.

Long-term, there’s no way that you can safely keep a digital library.

The noise surrounding this topic refuses to go away, and PlayStation will have to weigh up how that’s going to affect the reception of its next-generation.