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The story
Santa Monica Studio announced on X (formerly Twitter) that “God of War Laufey will be released on disc” — only for the announcement to be retracted shortly after. It then came out on 5ch that the actual physical edition doesn’t contain a Blu-ray disc at all, just a piece of paper with a download code inside the box. This sparked sarcastic jabs at the developer’s defense that “we never said Blu-ray disc,” along with growing concern over Sony’s move away from physical packaging. The debate also spilled over into arguments about the protagonist’s character design.
Santa Monica says Laufey will get a disc version
We can confirm God of War Laufey will be available on disc.
↓ Canceled
Source: x.com / Original post here
What people said
↓
Santa Monica: "Just kidding!"
They're fully quitting discs in 2025, so by 2027 pretty much every new game will have dropped physical packaging
Too bad, can't run a smear campaign on this one
>PS5 game, main title (digital version)
That's the contents of the Digital Deluxe Edition
The Digital Deluxe Edition only ever existed as a download version though
They never said 'Blu-ray disc'
Okay, that got a laugh out of me
Tales of… the demo disc… that disc-shaped paper… (a nod to a past Tales of series demo-disc mishap)
Well, it's Sony, so whatever I guess
The "I'm not buying it anyway, so who cares" mindset
Meanwhile the Japanese blog's comments are dead silent, lol
Nobody cares about western games anyway
Same goes for third-party stuff — if this happens with Persona 6 or Kingdom Hearts 4, people will just say 'guess I'll get the Switch 2 version then'
That's just how it'll go
It'd be Sony's entire gaming business that gets reconsidered
Those two are looking shaky as well lol
…someone posted that FF7R is still in negotiations
If it's already like this in February, by next spring the PlayStation section might just be gone from stores lol
???: "Oh, sorry lol, we already shut the factory down, so is a flimsy piece of paper okay?"
Re: #42
Ah, so it's this note referenced in #1 then
*1 The Standard Edition of the physical release is provided via download code. Requires an internet connection and a PlayStation account.
"God of War Laufey" Pre-order Bonus (*1)
That footnote is about the bonus, not the disc
That hair that's constantly flowing in the wind bugs me
Looks like a mom from an old American TV drama lol
She just looks like some cringe middle-aged lady in a costume that doesn't suit her
Zero appeal, seriously — now I get why there aren't more games with a middle-aged woman as the lead
No bust, no buy
Well, a piece of paper is meaningless anyway, not that I know who'd even buy it lol
If they want to keep any kind of relationship with retailers alive, a flimsy piece of paper is the only option left lol
Even though it's only valid for 170 days lol
Wasn't the protagonist supposed to be a bald white guy?
Now he's turned into some middle-aged dude who looks like Alfie
I don't want to play as such a bland, forgettable character
Apparently the bald guy's wife is the protagonist this time
She's Kratos's wife and the leader of the rebel army
Oh, so this one's a woman
She's completely flat-chested
I thought it was a man
Thanks a lot, Sweet Baby Inc. (a consultancy some gamers blame for certain character design choices)
Lost to PS5 again~ lol
Wait, is something even coming out next year? 🤔
Might be true for PS5, yeah
Background and Key Points of the Discussion
In recent years, Sony has increasingly adopted a format for PS5 physical editions in which no actual disc is included — just a download code — and this “God of War Laufey” case appears to be another instance of that trend. As pointed out in the thread, this isn’t unique to this title; it’s part of a broader industry-wide shift away from physical distribution, driven by disc production costs and shrinking factory output. Two points became the main focus of debate: first, the sequence of events in which Santa Monica initially announced a “disc version” only to retract it, and second, unease over whether something can even be called “physical” when the box contains nothing but a download code. Concerns were also raised about the fate of other upcoming titles, such as Persona 6 and the Final Fantasy VII Remake series, reflecting broader anxiety about the future of packaged game sales. Separately, the back-and-forth over the protagonist’s character design was a debate specific to this title, distinct from the disc-cancellation issue itself.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Geha)) thread “GOW Laufey’s disc version canceled…code in box.”
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