A Change.org petition urging Sony to reverse its decision to stop producing physical PlayStation discs has surpassed 213,000 signatures, as backlash against the company’s plans for a digital-only future continues to intensify.
Sony announced last week that it will cease production of physical game discs for PlayStation consoles starting in January 2028. After that point, new PS5 games will be digital-only, and the eventual PlayStation 6 is expected to be an all-digital console. The company will continue producing discs for existing titles, but new releases will not receive physical editions.
The petition, called “Don’t Kill the Disc: Tell Sony to Keep Physical PlayStation Games,” was organized by independent retailer Jade Pearce of PNP Games. It sits at the top of Change.org’s trending page for the week, having gathered more signatures than any other petition on the platform over the past seven days.
The broader backlash
The petition is only one front of a wider consumer revolt. Sony’s social media accounts went silent for nearly a week following the announcement. When the company eventually resumed posting, the replies were flooded with over 65,000 comments criticizing the decision. Independent retailers, game preservation advocates, and collectors have all voiced strong opposition.
The disc phase-out comes alongside Sony’s decision to permanently delete over 550 purchased movies from users’ libraries, compounding consumer trust concerns. The PS3 and PS Vita digital storefronts are also being shut down.
Game preservation advocates argue that a digital-only future makes it harder to keep classic games playable. When servers shut down, digital purchases can become inaccessible. Physical discs, while not immune to degradation, have proven to be a more durable preservation medium over decades.
Industry context
The move follows broader industry trends that are already reducing physical game availability. Grand Theft Auto VI, for example, will ship as a code-in-a-box with no disc included. Digital sales now represent the vast majority of video game revenue, and console makers have been moving toward disc-less hardware for years.
However, the scale and speed of Sony’s transition, combined with the simultaneous movie-library deletions, has generated a level of public anger that observers say is unusual even for the notoriously critical gaming community. Whether the petition and backlash will force Sony to reverse or modify its plans remains unclear.
Sources: Push Square (July 8); Game Rant (July 2026)