Former Sony Interactive Entertainment America CEO Shawn Layden has given an official statement on PlayStation‘s decision to discontinue physical discs, hinting that the brand could avoid it if it copied Xbox. Layden, who previously served as the head of PlayStation Worldwide Studios, had made more neutral comments regarding the matter in the past. However, his recent comments seem to signal opposition to PlayStation’s discless future.
Back in July, just days after Sony’s initial announcement, Shawn Layden commented on PlayStation’s no-disc policy, saying, “If you look at any decision to discontinue a product or a feature… largely it’s a straight spreadsheet decision.” He also added, “At some point it just becomes obvious that we can’t keep this whole thing running just for this very small slice of opportunity.” Now, he thinks the whole disc problem is actually solvable.
Sony Should Copy Xbox, Former PlayStation Boss Suggests
Speaking to the Game newsletter, Shawn Layden described the situation PlayStation is in as “depressing, but solvable.” He suggested that the only way Sony could overcome potential hurdles in disc production is by resorting to trusted third-party manufacturers. Sony famously controls almost the entire production process for its physical PlayStation disc releases, while some companies like Xbox work with certified partners that can help with cost-effective manufacturing. Layden suggests that Sony could indeed continue releasing physical discs beyond 2028 if it did not insist on keeping production strictly under its proprietary technologies.
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Another topic that Layden has touched on is ownership rights in an all-digital future for PlayStation. He questioned the idea by saying, “If you can’t resell [the game you have purchased], do you really own it?” The former PlayStation boss also said that not all decisions a company like Sony makes should be solely statistics-oriented. He said, “I see a lot of companies making decisions which, objectively speaking, I don’t know what the dollar end of that was for you, Mr. Company, but your brand value just dropped 30 percent. So I hope it was worth it.”
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Image via Sony -
Image via Sony -
Image via Sony
In recent months, PlayStation has doubled down on its decision to kill discs. Sony’s Chief Financial Officer Lin Tao said that physical media isn’t the primary factor driving PlayStation console sales. She suggested that the brand will continue to grow through three primary means: “curated content, a stable gaming environment, and greater affordability than high-end gaming PCs.” So, it seems unlikely that the Japanese video game company will consider outsourcing disc production in the future to keep physical media alive, as Shawn Layden has suggested.
Despite Sony’s firm stance, the online backlash against its move has not slowed down. The most recent PlayStation State of Play was overtaken by protesters who kept commenting things like “No Disco, No Buy,” which has become the motto of physical game defenders. And that is only one example of fans’ attempts to stop SIE from proceeding with its decision. It remains to be seen how the company will handle the ongoing criticism and whether it will indeed come up with a replacement for disc-based PlayStation games in the future.
