Sony Has Really Lost The Plot
July has been a very odd start for gamers in 2026. August, September, and October in particular is looking ‘stacked’ in terms of video games release, so July was in a sense, a ‘silence’ before an exciting storm. Little did gamers know that Sony was about to drop a bombshell that would stir up a storm that no one foresaw.
I am of course, talking about the recent announcement that Sony struck at the heart of gamers with a one-two punch. The first punch is the closure of the PS3 and PSVita online store, meaning whatever digital purchases made must be downloaded or they will be inaccessible — practically ‘gone’ forever, and any thing you may want from the shop, you must purchase and also download or you will never be able to acquire them. Any PS3 or PSVita games or DLC you may want, you will need to hope your local retailer has physical copies of. Which leads to the second punch and what would be the killing blow — the announcement that 2028 would mark the year where Playstation would cease production of physical discs for games.
As someone who started playing video games with a Nintendo 64 — I was exposed to physical copies of games for decades. I still have several cartridges of my N64 games, discs of my PS1, PS2, and even Gamecube games, all the way up until my Nintendo Switch. I may play mostly on PC, but even then, I still have the boxes/disc cases for some PC games like World of Warcraft, FF14, Witcher 3, and Mafia 3. Understandably, most PC gamers are used to digital storefronts and owning mostly digital copies of games — so why then would the same people be riled up by this decision of Sony to go full digital with games? Simplest answer — Sony is not Steam/Valve. Valve is not perfect, but for the longest time, they have made great effort to be on the side of gamers and their customers, whereas Sony over the course of several years have made it clear that they care more about what their investors and higherups want than what their own consumers want. Be it from their obsession with live service games at the compromise of their single-player projects to region-locking games release on PC, PSN Accounts being compromised, and neglecting hundreds of countries by not providing a PSN service in their region, Sony would find it difficult to convince customers to trust them in general.
The biggest reason that Sony for sure will refuse to admit or straight up deny as mere speculation from the community is control. Be it from your local video game store, toy store, tech retailer, it is healthy and ethical for a market’s customers and consumers to have multiple places to buy games. Nintendo is notorious for not putting their games up for sale as often as other stores and even local retailers, and having the price of their games be fixed even 10 years after a game’s release. In other storefronts, games that are older generally decrease in price. During holiday seasons, outside of Steam’s seasonal sales, your local stores might have discounts that console online stores normally do not have. This freedom and bountiful choice of places to get games is a right that we have enjoyed for years, and Sony wants to put an end to that.
Many storefronts have what is called ‘regional pricing’. Depending on a countries currency and economic climate, a game is generally much cheaper or in the rare occasion more expensive in a country that in the US — which is usually the basis/benchmark of a game’s price. So a 60 USD game may cost 40–50 USD instead in another country’s local currency, because what 60 USD can buy in the US is different from what 60 USD can buy in another country, for better or for worse. How? Well in the US, 60 USD might buy maybe a day’s worth of food or groceries, and that’s stretching the budget. In another country, 60 USD can buy nearly a week’s worth. In this sense, 60 USD is seen as a luxury in another country — a luxury used to by necessities, and games in a conventional view should not feel like a constraint vs buying necessities. Buying a game should feel like a ‘light buy’ as much as it is to buy a toy, a book, a movie ticket, etc. When all of your games for your Playstation are only acquirable from Sony’s own storefront — Sony themselves have full control and most of the time, Sony IS the publisher for these first party titles.
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Dynamic pricing is a new system that silently was being applied in the US/EU countries for some accounts. The simplest form of Dynamic Pricing is this — if a PSN account generally has a robust library of games and regularly purchases games especially on the day or week of its release, Dynamic pricing will leave the price at the highest possible SRP (standard retail price). If another account however buys maybe one or two 40–70 USD games a month and maybe only on discount, Dynamic Pricing will adjust prices so it’s more affordable. This is not the same as regional pricing and on paper, it discourages people from buying so many games on day 1 of its release if they want to ‘budget’ their spending.
An important thing to note why people are up in arms and making sure their voices are being heard and not ignored, is because they have witnessed changes in the industry go unchallenged. Be it Nintendo starting the trend of games starting at 70–80 USD, and many companies pushing for live-service titles, this new ‘trend’ that Playstation is trying to champion is the final straw that are making people panic, desperate, and extremely defensive. Gamers have been giving companies several ‘inches’ of their trends barely challenged, and now Playstation is demanding more, which is why the pushback is far more extreme than any other trend that gamers have tried to challenge in the past. From stopping predatory micro-transactions to demanding more games be playable single-player without requiring an online connection, some ‘fights’ gamers have started did succeed, but some failed. When Stellar Blade and Helldivers 2 were the victims of Sony’s unreasonable region locking on Steam, player outcry forced them to release not just these two games to most if not all regions, they also made the likes of God of War : Ragnarok, Ghost of Tsushima, The Last of us Part 2 also available.
Before gamers could even recover, people discovered ANOTHER bombshell from Sony Playstation. A new policy regarding PSN accounts has surfaced. If you do not use your PSN account for 36 months (3 years), ALL of its data including purchases such as games, DLCs, add-ons will be deleted. You read that right. I haven’t used my Nintendo 3DSXL since I got my Switch, yet I can still enjoy Fire Emblem : Awakening because the moment I bought and downloaded the game — it’s mine. I don’t need to be connected on the internet to ‘verify’ that I own the game. Playstation currently does not do this to an extent, but if they can remove hundreds of movies from the libraries of accounts that have already purchased AND bought these movies, what’s to stop them from doing the same for games, DLCs, and addons purchased from their store? Most digital purchases nowadays revolve around purchasing a ‘license’ to play the game, not exactly ‘owning’ it. This is why internet access is important because the console requires to verify your license before granting you full access to the game. If that license is compromised in any way, be it due to PSN being hacked or compromised, or internet verification not working, at worst, you are locked out of the game until the verification is successful. By 2028, it can be far worse — they may straight up remove your game from your library and not grant any refund or compensation of any sort.
Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2077 constantly reminds V, the main character, why he wages war on corporations. He has seen corporations harm people, environments, organizations all to fill their pockets with money. As if it’s not enough, they now want to wrest control from others so they can dictate and influence things in their favor. The monologue in-game has become a rallying cry for gamers who have decided to constantly remind Sony Playstation that they absolutely are against the decision of Sony to go full digital and abandoning physical copy of games by 2028. No matter how many times a community note on a post on Twitter from Sony Playstation gets removed, the gaming community at large rises to post another one. It’s very clear that Playstation is posting stuff like a new fight stick, an upcoming game, and other promotional stuff to hopefully hide or silence the noise around their recent announcement, but thankfully, it’s not working. Gamers are stubborn enough to die to Tree Sentinel in the starting area of Elden Ring, Limgrave over a hundred or thousand times just to kill it, even though it’s an optional boss that is not ‘forced’ on the player. With this stubbornness is patience for gamers to deal with Sony Playstation’s attempts to ignore their cries and complaints, and for now, the fight continues until Sony Playstation makes a statement that will satisfy gamers. Even Microsoft Xbox’s mass layoffs in comparison has gone partially under the radar, because Sony’s latest announcement has generated far more attention and noise in comparison. This doesn’t make the situation of yet another mass layoff any much better or less of a problem, but it does highlight where attention is being focused on at the moment.
In the past, Sony has folded to the demands and outcry of the playerbase. Look no further from what happened to Helldivers 2, and several games that were region locked on PC like Stellar Blade, God of War : Ragnarok, Ghost of Tsushima, and many more. Only time will tell if they will fold again, but gamers would work hard to win this one. If gamers do, they will send a message to other companies as well. Right now, companies can see first-hand what happens when a decision this serious is made, and hopefully, they take it seriously and learn instead of being complacent and confident that their brand is ‘too big to fail’.
Speaking of too big to fail, the streak continues when Jason Schrier shared new information regarding Sony’s current direction with Playstation, because the community around video game companies tends to have more backbone than these companies nowadays it seems. Quick note, Jason Schrier is a reliable and reputable source, as he has covered and shared accurate information like Sony Playstation halting indefinitely the release of PC ports of first-party single player titles such as Wolverine and Ghost of Yotei. I personally believe like how leadership in Playstation changes, this stance will change, but for now, this will be the case. From numerous reports that Jason Schrier has gathered, Sony considers the digital player base large enough that they can do without those who primarily buy physical. Moving forward, retailers will only hold CD boxes or covers with just a digital code inside. With the current format and deal they have with retailers, retailers take 30% of the cut of sales, much like how Steam does with their games there. With a digital format, especially when purchases are made in PS Online Store, Sony Playstation keeps 100% of the sales. Sony is convinced as well that players will eventually adapt the digital purchase format, and that players will continue supporting Playstation even without the option to purchase physical copies. They also determined that it’s not necessary to maintain direct communication to its playerbase and fanbase about this decision as they believe in the strength of the brand of Sony Playstation and the loyalty of their community.
The last time a company thought that they were too big to fail and that their brand is so strong, it was when Square Enix made FF14. Despite all the warning signs, the former head of the game said something around the lines of “We are Square Enix. People will always buy what we sell.” FF14 was a major flop, and when Naoki Yoshida (Yoshi-P) gave them an ultimatum to save the project by starting from scratch, he said : “The cost of fixing this game is nothing compared to the cost of losing the trust of our players and fans and tarnishing your reputation.” The rest of course, is history, as FFXIV now stands at the peak of MMORPGs alongside World of Warcraft and still stands strong until now under Yoshi-P’s direction and leadership. Since A Realm Reborn, Yoshi-P has always valued player feedback and made decisions centered around player feedback. Sony Playstation in this current climate is Square Enix back when FFXIV first launched. All over social media, you can see the pushback and resistance of gamers to be treated and seen this way — in a way that we are blind sheep that will follow Sony Playstation. Only time will tell how this will resolve, but one thing for sure, Sony Playstation has sent a message to its community, and the community in turn, also has a stern message to send to Sony Playstation.
