In my many years as a game journalist, I have never seen public opinion so overwhelmingly against PlayStation. This is not to say that everyone is inherently biased towards Sony - it's usually Xbox that gets scolded, after all, it always does stupid things like destroying its logo. However, it is not surprising that Sony announced that it will stop the production of physical discs starting in 2028 and also close many digital stores, which triggered heated discussions across the Internet. If the next-generation console market is left to Sony alone, it will set an extremely dangerous precedent.
The current situation is exactly like Sony’s version of the Xbox One rollover incident. Only this time, Sony has no chance of turning back. Factory production lines are already being renovated, and employees are also receiving job transfer training; with its absolute dominance in the home console market, PlayStation is fully confident to implement these changes that harm consumer rights on a large scale. So, what’s the solution? Xbox’s precedent has proven that the only way to get industry giants to listen is to vote with your wallet. For many people, this means never buying a PS6 in the future. The most direct action right now is to cancel the PS Plus subscription.
"Everyone please repost, you can't just let Sony go!" This post by X platform user Pyo has received over 150,000 views (according to Insider Gaming). "If you want PlayStation to truly hear your voice, cancel your PS Plus subscription!"
This protest is not unique. Similar posts can be seen everywhere on X and Reddit, with users posting screenshots of their unsubscriptions and calling on others to do the same. Pyo even put together a step-by-step tutorial detailing how to turn off auto-renewal and terminate your subscription, saying: “If you don’t speak out today, you will lose ownership tomorrow!”
Opponents will say that all-digitalization is the general trend, as evidenced by the continued decline in physical game sales. But even if physical version sales only account for 20% of total sales, it means that nearly 20 million PS5 users have been deprived of their preferred game carrier. Not to mention the second-hand game market - console giants like PlayStation are undoubtedly worried about the second-hand market, because players can save money by buying and selling second-hand games, but they completely bypass the profit-making process of manufacturers.
Digital ecology is not unfeasible. The PC platform has been dominated by digital versions for decades, but its open architecture allows multiple stores to compete, and has also given rise to platforms such as GOG that focus on DRM-free and game preservation. For better or worse, this openness also allows emulators and private archive groups to protect the history of the game industry—they crack and archive game software to ensure that the works can still be played even if they are taken off the shelves and the store is closed. Imagine that in the future, PS6 becomes a purely digital console, and Sony, like it did with PS3, feels that the store is not worth operating anymore. If it is closed, an entire generation of games will disappear. This situation is difficult to happen on the PC platform. After all, PC has decades of accumulated game stock. The digital mode of the console is completely different from the PC, which is why so many people are opposed to PlayStation moving towards a purely digital future.
There is a high probability that the large-scale cancellation of PS Plus subscriptions will not force Sony to change course, but the giant that has dominated Xbox for two consecutive generations of consoles is now being defected by a large number of players, which just illustrates the importance of physical media and game preservation. It was already difficult for Sony to convince players to spend more than a thousand dollars to buy a console and another seventy to eighty dollars to buy games; now that it has stopped producing game discs, it will only become even more difficult to win back the hearts of players.