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The story
Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced it will end disc production for new PlayStation console games as of January 2028. In response, former PlayStation Worldwide Studios chairman Shawn Layden raised the question on a podcast: “If you truly don’t own it, what are players even buying?” On 5ch’s gaming hardware board, posters clashed between frustration that digital copies are effectively just licenses—carrying the risk that ownership could simply vanish—and voices accepting it as an inevitable sign of the times. Some suggested Nintendo’s game-key-card system as an alternative, while others cited past examples like the Vita’s discontinuation.
Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) recently announced that it will end disc production for new PlayStation console games as of January 2028. The announcement has sparked backlash from many players over concerns about game preservation and ownership. Amid this, former PlayStation Worldwide Studios chairman Shawn Layden has openly questioned whether this decision shows disregard for the platform’s most loyal core gamers.
Layden recently appeared on the podcast “The Expansion Pass,” where he acknowledged that digital downloads have genuinely made buying and playing games more convenient.
“Players really do… yeah, we love downloads. Everyone says, ‘Downloading is more convenient than going to the store to buy a game!’ But that’s not quite right. Downloading is only really more convenient because it’s easier than walking across the living room and putting a disc into the console.”
Source: toy-people.com / Original article here
What people said
It's like a politician who left office becoming a TV pundit and just saying whatever they want.
Maybe he just couldn't say it publicly before?
Even if he was thinking "PlayStation's gone crazy! I don't want to do this! Is SONY's upper management even okay?" — his position meant he couldn't say that outside the company.
Don't get why you'd complain when it still works lol
Once things move to the PS6 and there's no disc drive, PS5 physical-disc owners will lose even their backward-compatibility rights once the hardware changes.
You should actually look at reality before firing off a reply on autopilot, or all you're conveying is how cringe you sound.
Wii U discs don't even work on the Switch though
This, exactly.
If you had a physical copy, you'd never have to worry about that.
It's all PlayStation's fault for killing discs.
Even with a physical copy, if the servers shut down you can't apply patches anyway
Shutting down the 3DS and Wii that quickly was way too soon.
Nintendo still puts out a full lineup of its own branded software, so owner satisfaction is on a completely different level.
The really scary one is Sony — with the Vita, first-party support dried up in barely two years and they acted like the hardware never existed.
Do you know how many years SIE's first-party mobile games lasted before getting shut down?
You can still re-download both of those even now
They don't fit the times anymore and they add unnecessary cost.
There's no way they're still including a BD drive at this point.
I wish they'd switch to a key-card system so it works on both handheld and home consoles.
Impressive that it lasted 21 years
So if you say something clever you get handed a disc?
Oh
So Nintendo's the one trying to standardize the whole key-card concept too, huh.
Figures — Nintendo really is the ruler of the gaming industry.
For anyone who doesn't resell their games, it's nothing but downsides
Weird person: physical is evil! It should be abolished!
There you go.
Nobody's actually saying the latter — they're just saying physical going away is simply the way the times are moving
It's a religion after all.
Whatever Lord Sony does must be correct, right?
That doesn't benefit anybody
Because it comes bundled with in-game currency.
When you sell something like that for real money, the maker is obligated to hold funds in reserve to prevent fraud.
But if you set an expiration of around six months, buyers knowingly accept it'll stop working soon, so no reserve is needed.
Knowledge I picked up from the "Tomato" incident with the BanG Dream DS game (a prepaid in-game currency controversy).
Sony's literally saying they'll keep working to maintain their relationship with retailers, yet here you are attacking physical media — you can't even understand what your master is saying
That's a classic cult thing too — regardless of what the guru actually intends, the followers just keep radicalizing and spiraling out of control on their own
↓
Capcom's new release: physical and digital sales split about 50/50
There you go.
Applying the "90% digital" stat — which lumps new and old releases together — directly to a brand-new title is just dumb.
If launch momentum is that sluggish, word of mouth drops too, which affects the online population as well.
So why are they trying to sell this for the same price?
That's exactly the point people should be pushing back on 😡
That's really just a story about physical having a smaller profit margin though
If they want to steer people toward the more profitable digital option, they need to put in the effort — things like a returns policy, or a lending system.
Speaking of which, Nintendo does seem to be showing signs of exploring a lending system.
Figures, from the ruler of the gaming industry.
Oh right, Microsoft was trying something like that too.
There was one more company doing that too, wasn't there — wonder what happened to them.
That's exactly why there's no expiration
Background and Key Points of This Topic
What SIE announced was the “end of disc production for new games,” not the abolition of packaged (physical) versions themselves — a distinction that was repeatedly conflated throughout the thread. The core of former PlayStation executive Shawn Layden’s point is that digital versions aren’t truly a “purchase” but effectively a license to use, meaning consumers bear the risk of losing access if a service shuts down or licensing policy changes. In the thread, Nintendo’s game-key-card system (a card that carries only the license data) came up as a possible alternative, though posters also pointed out the separate challenge of storage capacity limits. Comments conflating “ending discs” with “abolishing physical packaging entirely” muddled the discussion, and in some cases the clash between digital and physical camps escalated into personal attacks.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Gaming)) thread “Former PS Exec Questions PS5 Disc Discontinuation: “If You Truly Can’t Own It, What Are Players Even Buying?”“.
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