Sony returns to social media following the disc controversy (Image: GETTY)
Sony has made a not so triumphant return to social media posting following the recent decision to stop production of physical game discs in 2028. After days without posting anything due to overwhelming fan backlash, Sony released a new tweet promoting the upcoming release of its arcade fighting stick for PS5.
“Switch out lever gates with ease on the FlexStrike wireless fight stick,” reads the latest Sony tweet, which is accompanied by a video exploring the technology powering the fight stick which launches alongside Marvel Tokon: Fighting Souls on August 6.
Sadly, while the new PlayStation FlexStrike wireless fight stick looks like it may be a decent piece of kit, the responses to the social media post weren’t exactly enthusiastic.
Far from commenting on the arcade stick, fans instead criticised Sony for the recent decision to stop manufacturing discs for PlayStation consoles, beginning in 2028.
One high-profile GTA fan account responded with: “You are actively hurting consumers, you don’t give a damn about them. This won’t just go away.”
Another post said: “You’re watching your own legacy burn in real time, and somehow still pretending this is fine.”
There were even some pretty clever pictures posted in response, including one replacing the slogan, ‘Play Has No Limits’ with ‘Greed Has No Limits’.
Others urged Sony to address the elephant in the room, while some simply said, ‘No Disc, No Buy’.
The post already has thousands of replies at the time of writing, the overwhelming majority of which are negative.
Explaining its decision to stop physical game production, Sony said that it was adapting to consumer trends.
“As consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital, physical game disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January 2028,” reads a Sony statement.
“Following this date, new games will be available on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only. This transition has no impact on games that already released, or will be releasing, prior to January 2028 in disc format.
“This is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs. This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today.”
The worry, of course, is that digital games can be removed from libraries and digital stores can close down with little or no notice.
We saw this happen just recently when hundreds of movies were removed from PlayStation devices after licenses expired. This led to people losing content they had previously paid for.
It has rekindled the debate about game ownership and consumer rights, with customers understandably feeling like digital games can be deleted while physical discs are forever.
