Sony probably knew its decision to stop producing physical PlayStation games in 2028 would annoy people. What it maybe didn’t expect was half the internet deciding to pile on with the sort of enthusiasm usually reserved for a live-service game announcing six new currencies despite not even having launched yet.
Earlier this week, Sony confirmed that from January 2028, it will no longer produce physical discs for new PlayStation games. In other words, the future of PlayStation is looking very digital indeed, and while Sony has not formally announced the PS6 yet, the writing on the wall is glowing in bright neon letters: don’t expect a built-in disc drive for PS6. The rumours are also saying Xbox’s next console will follow, but there’s hope there because Xbox is also reported to be working on scheme to digitise your discs.
Naturally, players were not thrilled with PlayStation’s announcement, regarding it with the same level of warmth I regard a salad bar – none. Physical collectors, used-game buyers, preservationists and people who simply like actually owning the thing they paid for all had plenty to say. But it wasn’t just players taking shots at Sony. Brands, companies and social media accounts quickly joined in, and some of them were genuinely pretty funny.
The clear winner so far is Domino’s Pizza UK, which replied to PlayStation’s announcement by saying the decision “makes about as much sense as us changing to digital pizzas.”
Domino’s then doubled down with a fake corporate announcement of its own, declaring that it would stop producing physical pizzas from April 1, 2027, replacing them with digital pizza codes that customers could enjoy “using the power of imagination.” Honestly, if Ubisoft hasn’t already put someone in a room to work out how to sell this, I’d be shocked.
KFC España also got involved, announcing that it would stop offering food in “physical format,” with products instead available through its app in fake PNG form. It then kept the joke going with talk of sauce DLC and pre-orders, because apparently even fried chicken is now more aware of gaming industry trends than half the companies making the games.
GameSir, the controller company, took things a step further by pretending it would stop selling physical controllers and move to digital ones instead, powered by “quantum entanglement and pure imagination.” Which, to be fair, still sounds more reliable than some third-party Bluetooth controllers I’ve used which always seem to drop connection on fucking Rainbow Road halfway around a corner.
Proton, best known for its privacy-focused services, decided to flip the joke around by saying it would be turning its digital products into physical ones. The company joked about replacing email with encrypted letters, replacing password managers with someone following you around and remembering your passwords, and replacing VPNs by physically flying you to different countries.
GameStop also jumped in with a slightly more pointed reminder of what physical games still offer. The retailer posted about a customer trading in an Xbox 360 collection for more than $1,000 in store credit before walking out with PS5 games. It’s not exactly subtle, but then again, neither is Sony effectively telling everyone that the used-games market is living on borrowed time.
Evercade also had a cheeky response, posting a “Physical Game Sharing Instructional Video.” That is, of course, a very obvious nod to Sony’s own legendary 2013 video explaining how to share PS4 games by simply handing a disc to another person. At the time, Sony used that video to dunk on Microsoft’s Xbox One policies which were designed to stop game trading and resale. Thirteen years later, well, the irony has aged beautifully.
Other brands piled in too. The Esports Awards joked that it would no longer hand out physical trophies, while RESPAWN pretended to move from physical gaming chairs to digital chair codes. Malwarebytes even got involved by joking about making cybersecurity “physical,” including sending someone in an “M” suit to keep customers safe from viruses.
But beneath all the jokes, there is a real concern here. GameFly, iam8bit and Fangamer all responded more seriously, defending physical media and pointing out the importance of preservation, ownership and consumer choice.
GameFly’s response was especially blunt, saying it still believes physical products matter and that it will continue renting games and movies until someone pries the discs from its “soft, moisturized hands.”
iam8bit said it was “profoundly disappointed” by Sony’s decision and argued that physical games remain important for collectors, preservation and long-term access.
Fangamer struck a similar tone, saying there is still something special about holding a game in your hands and owning something tangible.
Curiously, one of the most obvious names in the conversation has been quiet so far. Limited Run Games, whose entire business is built around physical editions of games that might otherwise never see a disc or cartridge, does not appear to have issued a public statement at the time of writing.
The jokes are funny because the idea of “digital pizza” or “digital chairs” is obviously ridiculous. But the reason the jokes land is because a lot of people feel Sony’s decision is ridiculous too.
Digital games are convenient. There is no denying that. Plenty of people already buy most, if not all, of their games digitally. But convenience is not the same thing as ownership. A digital-only future gives companies more control over pricing, access, availability, lending, resale and preservation. It turns games into something you are allowed to access, rather than something you truly own.
Sony may not have announced the PS6 yet, but by killing new physical PlayStation discs in 2028, it may have already told us one of the most important things about it. The next PlayStation is almost certainly going to be built for a world where discs are optional at best, and completely irrelevant at worst.
For Sony, that might make perfect business sense.
For everyone else, it makes about as much sense as a digital pizza.
WGB 