Is Sony getting cold feet about killing the disc? A new report claims the company sent developers “a bigger survey than they’ve sent almost ever before” — and buried inside was a question asking, in not-so-many words, whether ending physical PlayStation games is actually a good idea.
A Survey Bigger Than Almost Ever Before
The claim comes from YouTube tech channel Moore’s Law is Dead, whose host Tom relayed what his contacts described: “There is a survey Sony sent out to developers — [that’s] what I was told by my contacts — that is a bigger survey than they’ve sent almost ever before, if not ever before. And there was a question in it basically trying to ask in a not direct way: is there any issue with how we sell games physically, or something — asking developers for feedback on killing discs.” Eurogamer, which reported the claim, stresses there’s no other evidence for the survey’s existence and says it has asked Sony about its veracity.
The 2028 Deadline Sony Set for Itself
The backdrop: Sony announced in July that it would start ending PlayStation disc production from early 2028, citing dwindling physical sales and the dominance of digital downloads — what it framed as “consumer preferences.” The company later had to clarify that disc output would drop by 10 percent in 2028, not to 10 percent. Either way, games slated for 2028 — like The Witcher 4 — face an open question about physical editions that CD Projekt Red says it is “powerless” to decide on its own.
Publishers Are Pushing Back — and Talking
If the survey is real, it would fit a pattern of increasingly loud pushback. Industry reaction at Gamescom was reportedly unfavorable, the social media backlash has been visible enough that Sony has reportedly implemented stricter guidelines for staff, and even Hideo Kojima — whose Physint deal with Sony famously ended over a Zoom call — spoke out publicly. One data point the platform holder can’t ignore: Insomniac’s Marvel’s Wolverine reportedly made a fifth of its sales revenue from physical games.
Meanwhile, Nippon Ichi Software CEO and NIS America president Kenzo Saruhashi — whose companies build much of their business on elaborate physical limited editions — told Kotaku at PAX West that he’s already in talks with Sony. “In our discussions with Sony so far, I think that they’re hearing a lot of the feedback from customers,” Saruhashi said, adding that while a “code in a box” format “may be one destination that we arrive at… it’s possible that the discussion may change in the future, so we’ll have to see what happens, what comes of it.”
Walk-Back — or Wishful Thinking?
The most likely outcome, per Kotaku’s read, is a carve-out: Sony may find a path to let certain companies press limited amounts of discs for special editions, like the collector’s boxes NIS America is known for — while the broader phase-out proceeds. Eurogamer agrees a full reversal is wishful thinking, but allows that the pacing of the discontinuation might change. With production not due to wind down until 2028, Sony has more than a year to tinker — and an industry full of partners loudly hoping it does.