Last night’s Phantom Blade Zero State of Play from Sony made the rather bold decision to leave chat on. And if you’ve been paying attention to absolutely any PlayStation-related social media activity of late, you’ll know what happened next: an absolute bombardment of “no disc no buy” comments drowning out absolutely everything else.
Choosing to leave chat open for this particular State of Play was a curious move from Sony, given how the forthcoming action-RPG from Chinese team S-Game has already courted controversy when it was revealed its pre-orders are entirely digital, with no disc-based version being touted. That led to much speculation that the October 29, 2026 game may be releasing without a physical version at all, leaping to the front of the pack ahead of Sony’s plan to eliminate discs entirely by 2028. And given there’s nothing PlayStation-related of late that isn’t inundated with furious remarks from those fighting for physical media, you can be sure they were out in force throughout the presentation.
TheGamersJoint on X captured a snippet of footage that gives you an idea of the incessant rage that was pouring down the page to the right of the livestreamed version of the video on YouTube.
playstation have the chat enabled for the phantom blade zero live showcase and oh my fucking god bro, they actually don’t care 💀💀💀 pic.twitter.com/NeISEoLHZE
— Cynical (@thegamersjoint) August 18, 2026
Unsurprisingly, Sony hasn’t opted to leave “Top chat replay” on as an option for the archived version of the video, but of course commenters have since stepped in to fill that void.
“Phantom Disc Zero,” reads one of the most popular replies added to the video, followed by hundreds more, with barely any mentioning anything else about the game, although it’s still nothing compared to the 10,000 disc-furious comments that have accumulated on a recent Wolverine trailer.
Sony absolutely isn’t budging on the subject, but it’s a horrible look when every tweet, video or stream is only accompanied by angry, insulting comments on one specific subject, rarely related to the product or game being promoted.
It’s tempting to write off these respondents, given the reality that now only 15 percent of PlayStation games are ever bought on disc. However, what often goes forgotten is that the 15-percent stat represents the United States, and doesn’t reflect the game-buying habits of players in many other countries. According to a recently published report from Germany, Germans still buy 58 percent of their games on physical discs. In France, disc buyers are also still in the majority at 55 percent. Even Sony’s homeland of Japan sat at 51-percent physical when it came to Resident Evil Requiem. Meanwhile in the UK, reports suggest 40 to 45 percent of games are still sold on real, plastic discs. The end of discs is going to disproportionately affect many countries, and there’s a good chance these people are letting their voices be heard!
Sony won’t change its mind. The PS6 is clearly going to be digital-only, because going that way is massively advantageous to the company. It’s far cheaper to sell digital games but it takes away rights from purchasers, and it demolishes the resale market from which publishers receive nothing. At least people are making sure Sony’s experience sucks.
