Key Highlights:
- More than 355,000 people have signed a petition asking Sony to continue producing physical PlayStation games after 2027.
- Sony CFO Lin Tao acknowledged the opposition but confirmed the company will “cautiously move forward” with its plans.
- PlayStation’s latest figures show that 82% of PS4 and PS5 full-game sales were digital during the quarter ending 30 June 2026.
A petition opposing Sony’s decision to end physical PlayStation game production has passed 355,000 verified signatures, days after the company confirmed that it has no plans to reverse course.
The Change.org campaign, titled Don’t Kill the Disc: Tell Sony to Keep Physical PlayStation Games, had reached 355,736 signatures at the time of writing on 2 August. More than 1,100 people had signed during the same day, although that figure will continue changing as the campaign grows.
Canadian retailer PNP Games launched the petition on 1 July, the same day Sony announced that physical disc production for all new PlayStation games will end in January 2028. Existing games and titles scheduled to release before the cutoff are not affected.
After January 2028, new PlayStation games will instead be sold through the PlayStation Store or by retailers in digital formats. Some boxed products may still contain download codes, but Sony will no longer manufacture playable discs for new releases.
The petition argues that removing discs will reduce consumer choice and affect game lending, reselling, collecting and preservation. It also raises concerns for retailers, distributors, warehouses and businesses supported by the physical games market.
Sony initially offered no public response to the campaign or the wider backlash. That changed during the company’s first-quarter earnings presentation on 31 July, when CFO Lin Tao was questioned about the decision.
Tao said Sony had spent considerable time examining the move before announcing it approximately 18 months ahead of implementation. She identified the wider digitalisation of media as the most important factor behind the decision and said Sony would “cautiously move this forward”.
The wording acknowledges that Sony is aware of the opposition, but it does not suggest that the January 2028 deadline is under review.
Sony reportedly told investors that consumers hold strong views and emotional attachments to physical media. However, the company does not currently expect the change to harm its business or its relationships with retail partners.
PlayStation’s latest financial data explains part of that confidence.
Digital downloads represented 82% of all full PS4 and PS5 game units sold during the three months ending 30 June 2026. Physical software generated ¥20.5 billion in quarterly revenue, compared with ¥192 billion from digital full-game software and ¥293.2 billion from add-on content.
Those categories are not perfectly interchangeable. Sony’s physical figure includes first-party disc sales to retailers, royalties from third-party discs and games bundled with consoles, while the digital figure covers full games sold through the PlayStation Store. Nevertheless, the difference shows how much larger PlayStation’s digital business has become.
Physical software revenue also fell from ¥22.7 billion during the equivalent quarter last year to ¥20.5 billion, a decline of approximately 9.7%. Digital full-game revenue fell slightly as well, from ¥199.5 billion to ¥192 billion, but remained more than nine times higher than physical software revenue.
That evidence supports Sony’s commercial reasoning, but it does not resolve the objections raised by players.
A digital purchase generally cannot be resold, traded or lent in the same way as a disc. It also places pricing, access and distribution under the control of the platform holder and publisher. Those differences explain why campaigners describe the debate as one about ownership and consumer choice rather than opposition to digital games themselves.
The campaign has now developed beyond the petition. A separate #PSBlackout protest is scheduled to run from 7pm local time on 23 August until the same time on 30 August. Organisers are asking participants to avoid playing on PlayStation consoles, signing into PlayStation services or spending money through the platform during that week.
Whether the petition or blackout will influence Sony remains uncertain. Passing 355,000 signatures demonstrates substantial opposition, but Sony’s first formal response has reinforced rather than softened its position.
The company announced the decision early, acknowledged the reaction and then repeated that the transition would continue.
Unless Sony changes course before January 2028, the PS5 generation will be the last period in which every new PlayStation game can potentially receive a conventional disc release.
