Protests Against PlayStation Killing Discs Won’t Matter, Analyst Claims

An analyst has weighed in on Sony’s decision to stop selling games on physical discs from 2028, and they’ve come to a well-founded conclusion that is bound to upset millions of global fans.

The news that physical discs are becoming a thing of the past has caused outrage online. Plenty of people have cancelled their PlayStation Plus subscriptions in protest, and hundreds of thousands have even signed a “Don’t Kill The Disc‘ online petition.

According to the analyst, however, the likelihood is that this movement is a wasted effort.

Sony Is Waiting ‘For This Storm To Pass’

Speaking with IGN, Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of Japanese games industry consultancy Kantan Games, shared his thoughts on the ongoing backlash, arguing that Sony is extremely unlikely to reverse its stance on physical media.

While Toto says he sympathises with fans who prefer physical games, he believes “Sony will not reverse this decision,” regardless of online protests or PlayStation Plus cancellations. Although he isn’t involved in Sony’s decision-making, he argues the company’s financial incentives make a U-turn highly improbable.

Sony currently has more than 120 million active PlayStation users, with around 50 million PlayStation Plus subscribers. Even if 500,000 players cancelled their subscriptions in protest—a significant figure by any measure—that would still represent just 1% of Sony’s active player base.

According to Toto, that level of backlash simply wouldn’t outweigh the financial benefits of pushing players towards digital purchases, which remain far more profitable than physical sales.

In a report published in 2020, Toto broke down the economics behind physical and digital game sales. While the exact figures fluctuate and aren’t publicly disclosed by Sony, he estimated the company keeps around 65% of the revenue from first-party physical game sales after retailer cuts of roughly 30%. Digital purchases, by comparison, allow Sony to retain virtually all of the revenue.

The same trend extends to third-party releases. Sony is estimated to take around a 30% cut from digital sales, roughly double the fees associated with physical copies.

Taken together, Toto believes the financial upside of steering players towards the PlayStation Store far outweighs the losses Sony could face from subscription cancellations, even if those cancellations were to reach several hundred thousand or even approach a million users.

It’s a damning revelation, and one we might not want to hear, but sadly, it’s the truth of the matter.

What is your take on the matter? Are you still going to try and protest the change? Share your thoughts in the official Insider Gaming Discord Server.

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