Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden has spoken out against Sony’s divisive decision to kill off physical game releases beginning in 2028. Despite announcing back in July that it would soon begin moving into an all-digital future, PlayStation fans still haven’t gotten over Sony’s abandonment of physical games. And while many have continued to push back against the brand in the hopes that Sony will reverse course on this move, fans have now found an ally in the company’s ex-head of PlayStation.
Speaking to The Expansion Pass podcast, Layden opened up a bit about his own thoughts on what Sony is doing with physical games. Layden said that, based on his own experience at PlayStation, this decision is one that was made almost entirely due to “spreadsheets” and other data that Sony leadership was seeing on its end. And while he acknowledged that the majority of users are downloading games rather than purchasing them, Layden asserted that Sony is at risk of damaging its relationship with its most hardcore PlayStation users that have been loyal to the brand for a very long time.
“The convenience of [digital games] is unquestioned,” Layden said. “But I do think, particularly in the gaming realm, maybe 80% of the people download, and 20% don’t, whatever that breakdown is going to be. But that’s a super important 20%. I mean, that is largely the most faithful of the faithful. That is, many times, the people who buy two copies of every game, one never gets out of the shrink wrap, and you play the other one.”
“One of the core desires of the gamer is this desire to collect,” he continued. “We are an inquisitive, collecting sort of people, and we like to show off our stuff. For those reasons, I don’t agree with that decision.”
Layden went on to also mention that Sony’s push to go all-digital also raises questions about ownership. Since users can’t sell what they might purchase digitally in the PlayStation ecosystem, it means that they don’t truly own it. This is a hurdle that has been presented for all companies when it comes to digital marketplaces, as many users have expressed frustration that they simply own a license for a game rather than the game itself.
Despite continued pressure from millions of fans and PlayStation users around the globe, Sony has shown no indication so far that it’s going to end up undoing its choice to kill off physical games. This means that 2027 will end up being the final year in which games are released on disc for PS5, with the eventual PS6 generation likely being entirely digital. Although Sony could still choose to go back on what it has decided, this seems less feasible with each passing week.
