Kantan Games CEO Says ‘Sony Will Not Reverse’ Its Decision To Scrap Game Discs, As ‘Digital Is Just Too Lucrative’

Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of video games consultancy firm Kantan Games, has revealed during a chat with IGN that we shouldn’t expect Sony to reverse their decision to case production on physical game discs, noting the digital market is simply too lucrative.

While sympathising with players who are disappointed that PlayStation is going digital-only from January 2028 — although games released prior to that date can still receive disc releases, Sony has since clarified — Toto said that the format holder was braced for the negative reaction and is simply waiting out the storm.

I sympathise with physical media fans, but Sony will not reverse this decision. [Sony] of course knew what the online reaction would look like, and they now wait for this storm to pass. Around 50 million people subscribe to PlayStation Plus. As a thought experiment, let’s say 500,000 cancel in protest, that would be just 1% of that business gone — of course not enough to Sony to start rethinking. Digital is just too lucrative.

In wake of Sony’s announcement, analyst firm Ampere stated that it’s basically all but guaranteed that the PS6 will launch in 2028 as a result of the company’s digital push. Previously, it had been heavily reported that Sony’s next-generation system would arrive in late 2027. Shawn Layden, the ex-chairman of Sony’s Worldwide Studios, commented on the news by stating he “doesn’t necessarily agree with it,” but suggested that it’s “too prohibitively expensive to stamp out discs.”

Response to Sony’s plans have unsurprisingly been very negative online, so much so that the CEO of a Canadian retailer has started up a petition to reconsider the decision – it’s recently amassed over 200,000 signatures.

[Source – IGN]