Despite a petition with over 230,000 signatures, calls for a boycott, and a flood of comments on social media, Sony appears unyielding in its decision to stop producing physical discs in January 2028.
The Japanese company has effectively decided not to respond to the criticism and attacks. Several analysts therefore believe that PlayStation will not reverse course. This is the view of Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of Kantan Games, a consulting firm specializing in the Japanese video game industry. In his opinion, even if half a million PlayStation Plus subscribers were to cancel their subscriptions, it wouldn’t make much of a difference.
“I sympathise with physical media fans, but Sony will not reverse this decision. [Sony] of course knew what the online reaction would look like, and they now wait for this storm to pass.
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% of that business gone — of course not enough to Sony to start rethinking. Digital is just too lucrative.”
When a first-party game is sold in physical format, Sony receives 65% of the retail price, the retailer gets a 30% cut, and manufacturing costs account for the remaining 5%. With digital sales, the equation is much simpler, since PlayStation receives 100% of the amount paid by the customer for a game developed by its own studios. Finally, for a third-party title, Sony takes 30% of a sale made through the PlayStation Store, compared to a 15% licensing fee for physical copies.
