Call of Duty has finally broken Sony’s cycle of ratio’d tweets. The PlayStation 5 maker promoted ports of Black Ops 1 and 2 coming to the platform this week and snapped its recent losing streak of being dunked on over killing physical games in the process. The reversal shows the potential limits of players shouting “no disc, no buy” online in the face of big blockbusters and overwhelming trends.
“Incoming: Call of Duty: Black Ops and COD: Black Ops II are now available on PS4 and PS5,” the PlayStation X account posted on July 10. It was the first post since the announcement of the end of Sony game discs in 2028 that didn’t get immediately and overwhelmingly roasted by fans. It has 34,000 likes and just 9,000 comments, breaking a recent trend of everything the company posts getting hated on over its plan to end physical games.
It’s made people question whether the loud calls to boycott PlayStation over the move are already losing Steam or weren’t quite as committed as it originally seemed. “Yeah console is done,” wrote user TheCardinalArtsNothing. “Nothing these companies can do is too far for y’all if you people are ACTUALLY buying two SIXTEEN year old video games with NO UPDATES for $40 DOLLARS EACH with a separate purchase of DLC for $30. EACH. $70 PORTS. Y’all are farmed cattle GG.”
Podcaster BrokenGamezHDR wrote, “Some of the people who claimed no disc no buy have already folded. It aint been A WEEK BRO! LMAOOO.”
It’s very telling that every post since last weeks has been ratioed by the comments and QRT but the moment they shadow dropped Black Ops, it’s the only one with more likes… the casuals definitely vastly out number the core audience https://t.co/UZA3lJ9GtX
— mcquack306 (@mcquack306) July 9, 2026
Ngl it is a little blackpilling seeing a buncha big accounts that were ragging on Sony a week ago tout themselves getting that new Black Ops port
CoD genuinely aint that good to be throwing your own damn principles away
— Orange Kelly (@FatalityMaid) July 9, 2026
Guys… you can’t get excited about black ops on ps5 after you just spent all week trashing PS5…
Stand strong for 2 secs holy crap
(Also it’s $40 per game plus DLC this game is OLD and they’re charging near prem)
— TheColeBrew (@TheColeBrew) July 9, 2026
I hate to say this, but Sony might’ve been correct to call their current physical outrage a load of bluff when most people are getting easily folded by the Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 PS4/5 ports’ shadow drop, literally crashing the whole PlayStation Store
— Shamaboy (@Shamaboy11) July 9, 2026
Adding insult to injury is the fact that the ports of Black Ops 1 and 2 are not particularly special. They’re not remasters, and they have minimal updated features from the versions that released on PS3 over a decade ago. In fact, players have to pay $40 each to access the new versions, even more to access the DLC, and need PS Plus subscriptions to play online. That last part is a particularly big deal since canceling PS Plus subscriptions is precisely what pro-disc stalwarts have been urging one another to do since Sony’s controversial PS6-era plans were first announced.
Not everyone is folding for Black Ops. One post that went viral this week showed a receipt for a player trading in her PlayStation 5 and games to GameStop. “Sold my PS5, officially done supporting PlayStation, Sony as a customer. All Switch 2 and PC from now on,” she posted. Other fans have been sharing images of canceling their PS Plus subscriptions or ordering physical copies of recent games. But other aspects of the boycott effort are also going off the rails.
19 years on Twitter, and this is my first shit storm! I had a good run. https://t.co/lqJgvOmyAh
— Dr. Serkan Toto (@serkantoto) July 10, 2026
“I sympathize with physical media fans, but Sony will not reverse this decision,” Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of Japanese game industry consultancy firm Kantan Games, told IGN this week. “They of course knew what the online reaction would look like, and they now wait for this storm to pass.” He continued, “Sony has over 120 million active PlayStation users. Around 50 million people subscribe to PlayStation Plus. As a thought experiment, let’s say 500,000 cancel in protest, that would be just 1 percent of that business gone—of course not enough to Sony to start rethinking. Digital is just too lucrative.”
This analysis infuriated some people and led them to start spreading conspiracy theories that Toto was secretly a paid consultant for Sony. “We’re now at the QAnon stage of the backlash where some people believe there is a grand conspiracy of analysts working on behalf of Sony, rather than just like, giving their opinion,” Daniel Ahmad, research and insights director at Niko Partners, wrote on X. Gaming content creator Radec also got attacked for being excited to see Black Ops 1 finally playable on PS5. “If a port of 16 year old game is enough for people to already start forgetting about physical debate I don’t see positive future for video games,” responded one person. Many others have pointed out that supporting physical games isn’t the same as thinking digital-only releases should disappear.
Nuance has always been in short supply online. Whether the initial fury aimed at Sony is also starting to dissipate remains to be seen.
