It’s been 48 hours since Sony revealed that it’s killing off PlayStation game discs by 2028. It’s a policy shift that many felt was inevitable but is also coming sooner than expected, and the uproar over the move isn’t dying down. Who knows if any amount of online backlash will get Sony to change its mind, as it’s occasionally done in the past. What is clear is that the death of the game disc has broken containment in a way few gaming news stories ever do. Other companies are mocking the announcement, some are even outright trolling Sony, and angry fans are lining up behind petitions desperately hoping they can still delay the death of physical games by at least a few more years.
Sony’s original post on X announcing its plans has now been viewed over 100 million times and includes a community note pointing out that digital purchases don’t let you actually own anything. Angry fans have proceeded to bully the company across all of its social media accounts, including for unrelated stuff like movie news and streaming announcements. While Sony has remained completely quiet across its channels since the death of PlayStation game discs was revealed, everyone else has been debating it non-stop. Even comedian and ex-Daily Show host Trevor Noah weighed in.
I completely understand where you’re coming from, but for a lot of gamers physical discs are the only way they could afford to play games because they could get them secondhand. You can also give games to your younger siblings Which is a great way to introduce them to the games… https://t.co/R6mlb1I0KG
— Trevor Noah (@Trevornoah) July 2, 2026
“I completely understand where you’re coming from, but for a lot of gamers physical discs are the only way they could afford to play games because they could get them secondhand. You can also give games to your younger siblings Which is a great way to introduce them to the games you were playing,” he posted. “Most importantly though, as we saw from PlayStation this past week, if the media we buy is only digital, it can be taken away from us at a moment’s notice with no recourse. Imagine that, one day your entire library of games could be deleted overnight because technically you don’t own it.” The very next post on his timeline was a retweet of Hideo Kojima saying, “Eventually, even digital data will no longer be owned by individuals on their own initiative.”
Some smaller game companies have pledged to support physical games as long as possible. “Making physical editions a reality for all our titles is now an absolute priority,” wrote Aeternum Game Studios. “We pledge to work urgently to bring every game we create–and those already on the way–tangibly to your shelves before that fateful early 2028 deadline.” Another small publisher wrote, “At Tesura Games, we strongly condemn the decision to end physical media on PlayStation by 2028. We will join forces with our colleagues around the world to try to prevent this disastrous decision and make them see that taking away options and rights from players is not the way to move forward with our beloved industry Tesura Games.”
Companies outside of gaming have taken to turning the whole affair into a meme. “In response to trends in the gaming industry, as of 1st April 2027 Domino’s UK will cease production of physical pizzas and shift to production of digital pizzas only,” the food chain posted on X. “New and existing customers will be able to download our entire catalog of premium chair codes,” wrote chair maker Respawn. “Imaginary comfort, assembly not required.”
We heard you. And we agree.
In light of recent developments in physical media, GitHub is proud to announce that you can now obtain your public repo on CD-ROM.
Keep it. Lend it to friends. Pass it on to your children.
Your code is physically yours, forever. Until you lose it,… pic.twitter.com/p1qxqjmnfa
— GitHub (@github) July 2, 2026
Some have even taken to outright trolling Sony over the decision. “We heard you,” joked code-base company GitHub, which is owned by Sony’s competitor, Microsoft. “And we agree. In light of recent developments in physical media, GitHub is proud to announce that you can now obtain your public repo on CD-ROM. Keep it. Lend it to friends. Pass it on to your children. Your code is physically yours, forever. Until you lose it, let’s be real.” It even links to an actual form you can fill out to request your code repository in disc form.
Several Change.org petitions calling for Sony to reverse course have also popped up over the last two days. The largest was authored by Canadian video game retailer PNP Games and so far has over 35,000 signatures. “A disc is a real game you own,” wrote the store’s CEO, Jade Pearce. “You can lend it, trade it, resell it, gift it, collect it, or pass it down to your kids. A box with only a download code is not the same thing. It is a digital license in plastic packaging. You do not own it. You are renting access that can be revoked, and people have already had purchased movies deleted from their libraries and games pulled from sale weeks after launch.”
Don’t expect us to be rational about the end of physical video games pic.twitter.com/uT7MBLsnV0
— Kit & Krysta ➡️ Gamescom (@KitandKrysta) July 1, 2026
Politicians are also getting in on the action. France’s left-wing presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon reacted to the news this week, calling for an apparent legislative review of the issue. “Tomorrow, you will pay without ever owning anything,” he wrote. “No loan, no resale, no guarantee of keeping what we’ve paid for. Video games are not mere merchandise; they are cultural assets, and the law in force must apply to them.” Even CNN wants to know what’s going on. The cable news network recently brought on the Washington Post’s Gene Park to break down the outrage.
There has been plenty of debate about whether the shift to all-digital is inevitable or premature. Those looking to rationalize Sony’s calculus point to how the overwhelming majority of games played every year now are digital versions. People angry about the loss of physical media, however, point out that the remaining physical sales, while small as a proportion of overall revenue, still make up tens of millions of individual discs that make it into players’ hands every year (70 million globally in 2025 alone). And as YouTuber and ex-Nintendo marketer Kit Ellis pointed out, the death of physical games is about more than just market logic.
“This just sucks and you can give me all of your big brain, Harvard MBA reasons for this but as fans of video games you can’t expect us to just accept those reasons and if I know and have seen anything it’s that physical games are one of those things that people are irrationally, emotionally driven about and I think that’s wonderful,” he said in a recent video. “And if I think about why that is I think it’s because physical games have been at the heart of a lot of the magic moments we’ve had as video game fans whether that’s going to a store to pick up a game we’ve been really excited for, maybe a midnight launch, going over to a friend’s house and bringing a game over knowing we’re going to be playing it together. These are the things that give us reasons to play games in the first place.”
