After weeks of silence, Sony has finally responded to PlayStation players angry about its decision to end PS5 physical disc production in 2028. During a recent investor meeting, a PlayStation executive said the company is moving forward with its plan despite complaints from players. Sony is also not worried about physical collectors moving to PC.
It’s now been a month since Sony announced it is ending physical disc production for both PS5 and PS6 in 2028. Despite the controversial decision sparking massive backlash and calls for boycotts online, PlayStation remained silent for weeks and refused to acknowledge it. However, Sony finally broke its silence and responded to players at a recent investor meeting.
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During a July 31 Q&A session with shareholders, Sony CFO Lin Tao addressed the physical disc backlash. Her response? PlayStation is moving forward with its plan to end physical discs anyway and doesn’t believe the backlash will impact sales.
“Sony stated that, so far, it has not seen any negative impact on sales following the announcement (and does not expect this to change when it takes effect). The company believes the future is digital for virtually all forms of media; they reiterated that they will proceed ‘cautiously’ with their plans.”
Sony’s CFO then said that PlayStation is still assessing how to “address” feedback from players who are unhappy with the decision. “The company said it is still figuring out how to respond to the feedback.”
Considering many Sony players are organizing a worldwide boycott of all PlayStation products from August 23 to August 30, the company might want to figure that out sooner rather than later. However it doesn’t believe the negative feedback will impact sales
Sony Explains Why It Announced the End of Physical Discs So Early
Another interesting takeaway from the investor meeting is that Sony revealed why it decided to announce the end of physical discs this far ahead of the PS6. In another response, Lin Tao explained that Sony wanted to give retailers time to prepare for its move toward a completely digital-only platform.
“They confirmed the announcement [to end disc production] was made early to communicate with retailers. Sony is working with them to do codes in packages. This subject has already been discussed with North American retailers, and now the same will happen in other regions.”
This suggests that Sony plans to replace at least some physical games with download codes sold inside retail packages. While these products would remain available in stores, players would no longer receive a physical disc that they could lend, resell, or preserve.
Sony Isn’t Worried About Physical Players Moving to PC
Finally, Sony argued that it isn’t worried about losing physical disc players to PC because consoles are significantly “cheaper.”Ouch. For now, Sony appears committed to ending PlayStation physical disc production in 2028, despite the growing backlash. Although the company says it is still considering how to address feedback, its latest comments make it clear that reversing the decision is not currently part of the plan.
With players now organizing boycotts and voicing concerns about game ownership, preservation, and resale, the controversy is unlikely to disappear anytime soon. Sony may not expect the backlash to hurt PlayStation sales, but the real test will come when its digital-only plans take effect in 2028.
