Don't Kill the Disc: Tell Sony to Keep Physical PlayStation Games
The Issue
On July 1, 2026, Sony announced it will end production of physical discs for all new PlayStation games starting January 2028. New games will be sold digitally, or as a box containing only a download code, with no disc inside. Days earlier, Grand Theft Auto VI confirmed it will launch with no disc at all. When the market leader ends the disc, the rest of the industry follows.
The irony is hard to miss. At E3 2013, Sony won over a generation of players by promising that when you buy a PlayStation game, you can trade it in, sell it, lend it to a friend, or "keep it forever," and famously mocked the competition for trying to restrict exactly that. Thirteen years later, Sony is the one taking it away.
A disc is a real game you own. You can lend it, trade it, resell it, gift it, collect it, or pass it down to your kids. A box with only a download code is not the same thing. It is a digital license in plastic packaging. You do not own it. You are renting access that can be revoked, and people have already had purchased movies deleted from their libraries and games pulled from sale weeks after launch.
This is also about jobs. Physical games support an entire industry that an all-digital future quietly erases: retailers, distributors, manufacturers, warehousing and logistics, the pre-owned and trade-in market, and the collector and preservation community. That is thousands of jobs and countless small businesses. Ending physical media removes consumer choice, weakens local economies, and hands a few platform holders total control over how, and whether, you can access the games you buy.
We are not against digital. We are against digital being the only option. A large and passionate community still wants a real, physical game they own outright, and Sony is about to take that choice away.
Sign to tell Sony to keep disc-based games alive beyond 2028, so the next generation can own the games they play, not just rent them. If we do not speak up now, the disc disappears, and the choice goes with it.
Organized on behalf of the wider physical game industry, the retailers, distributors, manufacturers, and collectors whose livelihoods and passion depend on physical media.
17,500
The Issue
On July 1, 2026, Sony announced it will end production of physical discs for all new PlayStation games starting January 2028. New games will be sold digitally, or as a box containing only a download code, with no disc inside. Days earlier, Grand Theft Auto VI confirmed it will launch with no disc at all. When the market leader ends the disc, the rest of the industry follows.
The irony is hard to miss. At E3 2013, Sony won over a generation of players by promising that when you buy a PlayStation game, you can trade it in, sell it, lend it to a friend, or "keep it forever," and famously mocked the competition for trying to restrict exactly that. Thirteen years later, Sony is the one taking it away.
A disc is a real game you own. You can lend it, trade it, resell it, gift it, collect it, or pass it down to your kids. A box with only a download code is not the same thing. It is a digital license in plastic packaging. You do not own it. You are renting access that can be revoked, and people have already had purchased movies deleted from their libraries and games pulled from sale weeks after launch.
This is also about jobs. Physical games support an entire industry that an all-digital future quietly erases: retailers, distributors, manufacturers, warehousing and logistics, the pre-owned and trade-in market, and the collector and preservation community. That is thousands of jobs and countless small businesses. Ending physical media removes consumer choice, weakens local economies, and hands a few platform holders total control over how, and whether, you can access the games you buy.
We are not against digital. We are against digital being the only option. A large and passionate community still wants a real, physical game they own outright, and Sony is about to take that choice away.
Sign to tell Sony to keep disc-based games alive beyond 2028, so the next generation can own the games they play, not just rent them. If we do not speak up now, the disc disappears, and the choice goes with it.
Organized on behalf of the wider physical game industry, the retailers, distributors, manufacturers, and collectors whose livelihoods and passion depend on physical media.
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Petition created on July 1, 2026