Hideo Kojima Is ‘Really Sad’ About Sony’s Decision To Stop Physical Game Disc Production

Legendary video game developer Hideo Kojima has reacted to Sony’s decision to cease production of physical game discs on PlayStation, revealing to an audience at Italy’s Il Cinema in Piazza Film Festival that he’s saddened by the news.

Since production is ending in 2028, this is about video games, but I grew up with physical media, so I find it really sad. Currently, I’ve been buying up a lot of Blu-rays, such as various movies, and CDs too.

The situation is different for games [than movies], as they are downloaded to the hard drive, that means the game data remains on your own hardware. However, if things shift to streaming in the future, that won’t be the case anymore. With streaming subscription services, like Netflix or Amazon, there is a server somewhere, and you essentially just have the right to turn the tap, and when you do, the data flows out.

That’s how movies work on these platforms, right? You don’t download the data, you access it directly through a subscription. And the consequence of that is that you don’t actually possess the data yourself.

There are companies that own these servers and let you ‘turn the tap’ for a monthly fee. However, with nations, politics and various ways of thinking, one naturally has to consider the possibility that if there is a change, the data inside will stop being distributed. And if that happens you won’t be able to watch or play the movies and games you like.

That is what is frightening. So, what is happening to video games in 2028, might also happen to movies. I’d like everyone to keep that in mind.

According to a message from Sony to developers viewed by GameFile, the format holder is going to allow developers to continue ordering physical copies of titles released prior to January 2028, even after it goes digital-only. Nonetheless, Sony’s decision to scrap game discs for PlayStation has been met with overwhelmingly negative response online, with a number of gaming companies such as iam8bit expressing their disappointment at the move.

Elsewhere, analyst firm Ampere has stated that Sony’s decision to go digital-only pretty much guarantees that the PS6 will not be released before 2028. Up until that point, it had widely been reported that the new system would launch around late 2027.

[Source – Genki_JPN on X via VGC]