An EU commissioner said the EU doesn't have much legal means to prevent PlayStation from giving up physical discs. Sony plans to stop releasing physical disc versions of games for PlayStation consoles, and this adjustment will officially take effect in January 2028.
Many players are trying to prevent the Japanese company from discontinuing physical discs. There is currently a petition on Change.org opposing PlayStation's cancellation of physical disc sales, which has so far collected hundreds of thousands of signatures. Some players are also calling on lawmakers to push for the introduction of new laws and regulations to prevent Sony's decision to cancel physical discs. However, a recent statement by a politician has once again triggered disappointment among the player community.
According to the "Irish Mirror" report, EU Consumer Protection Commissioner Michael McGrath recently stated his position on Sony's new policy: "Companies have the right to provide games and services in the way they see fit." McGrath also explained, "This essentially falls within the scope of commercial and contractual freedom." Prior to this, the European Commission had rejected the relevant demands of the "Stop Killing Games" movement.
In June 2026, the European Commission announced that it would not adopt the "Stop Killing Games" movement's appeal to introduce regulations to prohibit publishers from suspending games. Now that Sony has canceled its policy of physical discs, it seems to be facing the same situation. The EU is unlikely to step in to prevent the Japanese company from pursuing this controversial decision. Current copyright and intellectual property laws in Europe mean that legislators cannot introduce regulations that directly force publishers to launch, sell or maintain their products in specific ways.
In response to the Stop Killing Games campaign, the European Union has pledged to look into developing a code of conduct to better regulate the process of taking down games. Therefore, PlayStation players may expect that the EU will launch similar measures to improve the ownership protection of digital games. But judging from McGrath's statement, the EU is unlikely to introduce hard laws to prevent Sony's plan to discontinue the production of physical optical discs.
Of course, McGrath isn't the first to bring this kind of bad news to gamers. In early July, game industry analyst Dr. Serkan Toto expressed a similar pessimistic judgment about the future of PlayStation. Toto said Sony is unlikely to reverse its decision to end physical game discs despite the backlash. He pointed out that Sony's user base is very large. Even if thousands of people stop buying games and cancel PS Plus subscriptions, it will not have a fatal impact on Sony and the company will still move forward with this decision.
However, players do not seem to have given up fighting for physical discs. On social media, players launched the #BoycottSony topic, shouting the slogan "No disc, no purchase" and calling on other PlayStation users to boycott this decision. The game industry's reaction to PlayStation's cancellation of physical media has also been mainly negative, with many well-known developers criticizing Sony's related policies. But it remains to be seen how effective these player-initiated movements will be, after all, the current legal environment is clearly not on the side of consumers.