- 0-20%: Unlikely – Lacks credible sources
- 21-40%: Questionable – Some concerns remain
- 41-60%: Plausible – Reasonable evidence
- 61-80%: Probable – Strong evidence
- 81-100%: Highly Likely – Multiple reliable sources
Sony‘s announcement that it would stop manufacturing discs for PlayStation consoles starting in January 2028 certainly sparked a huge controversy for the Japanese corporation, with fan petitions and boycott campaigns organized by angry consumers in short order. However, the fact that they had already begun retooling their factories away from PlayStation disc manufacturing did not bode well for those still hoping for a turnaround.
Still, it might not be over yet, at least according to leaker Moore’s Law Is Dead. In a livestream that went live this week, MLID claimed that, according to his contacts, game developers have received a lengthy survey from Sony, in which the Japanese corporation seemingly seeks their feedback on its disc-killing strategy.
[…] I also leaked, in the recent livestream, that there is a survey Sony sent out to developers. That’s what I was told by my contacts: a bigger survey than they’ve sent almost ever before, if not ever before. And there was a question in it asking, basically trying to ask in a not-direct way, ‘Is there an issue with how we sell games physically?’—or something like that—asking developers for feedback on killing discs.
So I will say it is all these things are just kind of floating around, but I thought it could be a one story. You’ve got Yoshida pretty much [taking] a direct shot at Herman Hulst all of a sudden, where he was being very diplomatic a month ago. You’ve got Wolverine still selling plenty of physical copies. And you’ve also got Sony starting to ask devs if they are worried about killing physical, suggesting they realize that if they got a bunch of feedback, maybe they would consider some sort of mea culpa on it. We’ll see.
MLID is referring here to a photo posted by Shuhei Yoshida on his own X account, featuring himself and former PlayStation colleague Adam Boyes. It is a reenactment of the famous scene where the two exchanged a physical copy, right after Xbox’s Don Mattrick had tried to sell a digital future where game resales would be much harder with the Xbox One console. That was a massive PR win for Sony and convinced many Xbox 360 users to switch to PlayStation 4.
However, this time, when Boyes and Yoshida met in front of PlayStation’s TGS 2026 booth and staged the scene once again, they exchanged nothing. Many fans took that as a veiled criticism from the ex-PlayStation employees, although it should be noted that Yoshida had already backed the discless future in a previous statement.
MLID is right about Marvel’s Wolverine, though: 23% of the revenue made by the game in the first three days on the market came from retail sales. Whether Sony is really considering reversing its stance on physical discs remains to be seen, though. As they say: hope for the best, expect the worst
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief.
In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech’s gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews.
Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications.
His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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