A new petition demanding that Sony keeps releasing physical PlayStation games is gaining serious traction. Sony recently made the shock announcement that, beginning in January 2028, it would stop producing physical discs for its PlayStation consoles. Effectively, this means that basically all new PS5 games released after that point will be digital-only, and that the eventual PlayStation 6 will be an all-digital machine as well.
As one might imagine, this announcement has not sat well with fans. Even though the vast majority of video game sales are digital nowadays, physical media is still important to many, for the sake of game preservation if nothing else. People have voiced their disapproval of Sony’s decision online, but it’s unclear if the company will reverse course. In a more organized effort to get Sony to walk back its plan to end production of physical PlayStation discs, a petition has been made that has amassed over 12,000 verified signatures in less than 24 hours.
It’s Officially the End of an Era for PlayStation
PlayStation’s latest announcements signal the end of the physical era for games, as the industry continues to adjust to a new reality.
Petition Asks Sony to Keep Making PlayStation Discs
The Change.org petition was organized by Jade Pearce and has 12,838 verified signatures at the time of this writing, but the number keeps going up with nearly every refresh. The petition makes reference to PlayStation’s famous E3 2013 dunk on Xbox when it championed the ability of PS4 users to share physical games with each other. Things have clearly changed, and unfortunately, companies tend to ignore petitions like this, even when they are wildly successful.
Click on the game with the higher OpenCritic rating.
That being said, Sony has walked back controversial decisions in the past. As some may recall, Sony previously announced plans to close the PlayStation Store on PS3, which would have made various rare PS1 games suddenly prohibitively expensive for anyone interested in playing them. There was enough uproar that Sony delayed its plans to shut down the PS3 PlayStation Store. New plans to shut down the PS3 PlayStation Store were announced alongside the plan to stop producing physical discs, but fan efforts did at least delay the inevitable.
The upcoming Grand Theft Auto 6 is going to be a code in a box, with no disc version available at all. This is despite the fact that Sony isn’t ending PlayStation disc production for another two years.
It remains to be seen if something similar will happen with this petition, but fans shouldn’t hold their breath. The PlayStation 6 console is likely well into development with no plans for physical media, and so it’s highly unlikely that Sony will change its mind. However, it will be interesting to see how consumers react. There is a second Change.org petition about this issue that has nearly 3,000 signatures so far, and if consumers are truly as upset about the situation as they say they are, maybe they will vote with their wallets.
Analysts predict that the PS6 will be ridiculously expensive thanks to ongoing component costs, and so the next generation of consoles is going to be an odd one, to say the least. Time will tell if hardcore PlayStation fans are willing to embrace a super-expensive console without any physical media.
