This morning, five days after Sony announced that it would stop producing physical disks for all of its PlayStation consoles, which is also the same day I canceled my PlayStation Plus membership, I signed Jade Pearce’s ‘Don’t Kill the Disc’ petition on Change.Org.
In just five days, the petition has already managed to rack up over 170,000 signatures at the time of writing, and no doubt that number is going to increase by the minute.
Some Personal History
I’d also shied away from the “gamer” label until recently. As a child, we were not well off. At school, my peers would often brag and boast about the newest games. Some would even sneak their Game Boys and Game Gears (old-school handheld devices… yes, I’m showing my age) into school to play, to great fanfare. For years, what we did have at home was a “Pac-Man” arcade machine and an Atari console. Eventually, my younger brothers were allowed to get a Nintendo, and we would play together. I got a thrill out of hilariously failing at “Super Mario Brothers” and then “Sonic the Hedgehog” when they moved onto the Sega Megadrive. Eventually, I felt a great sense of pride when I completed “Duck Tales,” —my first ever game completion. At the time, home was violent. It was shades of black and grey, punctuated with loud thunder-sounding claps, piercing screams and the slamming of doors—our household consoles offered a layer of escapism we would not have otherwise had access to.
Years later, when my first child turned 8 or 9, I bought her a second-hand PS One. By then, I believe the PS2 or PS3 was already out, and, admittedly, I spent hours playing “The Sims: Urbz,” but that was the beginning of her own gaming journey. Over the years, I’d indulge in an assortment of mobile games. Farming games like “Hay Day”, “Farmville” and a variety of simulation games. In moments of chaos, harvesting my virtual crops and filling the villagers’ orders brought me a stillness of mind I failed to obtain from anywhere else. My daughter, who is at this time a supreme gamer and even built her own PC, put me on to a simulation game named “Dreamlight Valley” about two years ago, and that was it. I now own a Switch, a PS5, a VR headset and am a proud cozy gamer.
I say all of that to say that gaming is more than just a fleeting hobby for some. It’s childhood memories, a haven and for some, a lifelong passion. You only have to search “PlayStation” on X to see the army of gamers up in arms over the decision, armed with the battle cry “If buying isn’t owning, then piracy isn’t stealing.” And given that digital copies are often priced similarly to physical copies, how will the gaming community benefit at all from PlayStation’s new policy?
So what is all the fuss about?
Sony announced the change July 1, saying consumer preferences had shifted toward digital releases. The post has since received more than 145 million views and 90,000 replies, many of them condemning the company’s attempt to make digital distribution the only option.
For players like me, it would eliminate several basic rights that have traditionally come with buying a video game. Simply put, without physical discs, PlayStation customers would no longer be able to resell, trade, lend or permanently preserve new games. Instead, every purchase would depend on Sony’s digital storefront, licensing agreements and continued access to a PlayStation account.
Physical games give consumers control after the original purchase. A disc can be sold to another player, shared with a friend, or purchased used at a lower price; retailers can also compete with Sony by discounting physical copies. But a digital-only system removes those options. Sony would control where PlayStation games are sold, how much they cost and whether customers can continue downloading them. Players could not turn to a used-game store or another retailer when Sony’s digital prices remained high. To add insult to injury, under Sony’s updated terms, PlayStation accounts may be flagged as inactive if the user does not sign in for three years, meaning Sony can delete your PlayStation Network account, including all of your digital purchases. Sony says that they will then send a warning to the email address associated with the account, giving the user six months to log in or request that the account remain open, but that if no action is taken, the account may be permanently deleted, resulting in the irreversible loss of digital games, downloadable content, subscriptions and in-game purchases tied to the profile. Digital purchases also do not guarantee permanent access, and what is the point of buying something that you’ll never truly own?
And Sony’s greed extends beyond just the gaming industry.
Recently, the company announced that users would lose access to more than 500 StudioCanal titles they had purchased because of licensing agreements. Again, titles consumers had purchased. A physical copy cannot be removed from a customer’s library remotely.
Game developer Hideo Kojima, who created the “Metal Gear” franchise and has worked closely with Sony, said he was saddened by the end of PlayStation discs. Speaking at Italy’s Il Cinema in Piazza festival, Kojima warned that digital-only distribution could leave people unable to access content they had paid for, which has basically already happened. Even major companies have weighed in. Gaming chair manufacturer Respawn said it would begin producing “digital chairs only.” KFC España joked that customers would soon receive fried chicken as downloadable PNG files.
The PlayStation X account, which typically posts daily, has not published anything since the July 1 announcement. The post has also repeatedly received community notes from X users, expressing their ire and forewarning of the ills of corporate monopolies that strip consumers of basic rights. PlayStation has continued to delete them, all the way, refusing to address the furor. As a result, Instagram and YouTube comment sections are flooded with consumers threatening to abandon the brand for good if it does not walk back this decision.
Sony really truly does not give a flying fuck about their fans. They really looked around and looked at their fans and said
— MBG (@xMBGx) July 7, 2026
"What are you gonna do? Leave? Where are you gonna go?"
PlayStation’s playbook appeared to be to sit and wait it out until a post today (July 7), which is getting the reception we all expected—tens of thousands of negative comments in less than a couple of hours. And perhaps, there would have been a time when their initial strategy would have worked. However, in 2026, we are already fighting multiple fronts. We are fighting for our jobs. Fighting for healthcare. Fighting for our farmers. Fighting for school meals. Fighting for our basic rights. Fighting desperately to combat the whitewashing and straight-up erasure of our history. Fighting for our lives, literally.
We are tired.
Can’t a girl just shut off from a stressful workday and a houseful of kids, with a cozy game and console she purchased (likely decked out to the nines) without the looming threat of being stripped of that, too? Evidently not.
I guess play really does have limits.
