The fan backlash to Sony killing its own physical market on PlayStation consoles, following its announcement in January 2028 to stop producing PlayStation discs, is not going away anytime soon. The company has been noticeably silent since the debate heated up online, but for the first time, the company has somewhat acknowledged the backlash during its Q1 2026 earnings Q&A session, where Sony CFO Lin Tao said the company is cautiously moving toward a digital-only future for PlayStation consoles
“We announced that from January 2028 onwards we will no longer be manufacturing game discs, so [we announced it] one and a half years ahead. There are various reasons we made this decision, the biggest being that digitalisation of contents overall has been progressing, that’s the big factor. It’s not just for PlayStation, but for all kinds of content, digitalisation is progressing. And so, 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 said during a Q&A session via Sony’s interpreter).
With less than 18 months until Sony’s plan to discontinue the physical market for its PlayStation consoles, hopefully there is still time to make even more noise for the company to change course.
Since the announcement of Sony’s decision to stop production of PlayStation discs, a “Don’t Kill the Disc” change.org petition has gathered over 352,000 signatures and more recently “Does it Play” alongside other creators are organizing a week long “PlayStation Blackout” protest where those organizing the event are asking PlayStation fans looking to take part to not log in, play or purchase on their PlayStation consoles from August 23rd to the 30th, according to Kotaku.
