PlayStation: Former exec slams company's plan to phase out physical discs

The end of an era?

Sony is catching major Ls from its own alumni. Shawn Layden, the former President and CEO of Sony Interactive Entertainment America, just went on The Expansion Pass podcast to drag the company’s decision to stop making physical discs for its consoles by 2028. Real talk, Layden isn't holding back—he called the move a “heavily spreadsheeted decision” focused solely on cutting costs and boosting margins.

Since Sony announced the plan back in July, the community has been spiraling. A "Don't Kill the Disc" petition has already racked up over 385,000 signatures, and some advocacy groups are pushing for an all-out boycott. But so far, the vibes from Sony HQ are totally dismissive; they haven't budged.

The ownership trap

Layden points out the fundamental issue: when you ditch discs, you lose the ability to actually own your games. You’re basically just buying a revocable license, which is, honestly, not a flex. "If you can't sell a thing, that means you don't own a thing," Layden explained. "If you don't own it, what are you buying?"

This isn't just theoretical. Sony recently argued in a California court that no "reasonable consumer" should expect to own the games they buy on the PlayStation Store. They basically admitted in legal filings that you’re just renting access, which is highkey shady for people who drop $70 per title.

Can crypto save your collection?

Naturally, the crypto-native crowd is jumping in, saying NFTs could be the fix for digital ownership. The theory is that if your game was an NFT, you’d have a verifiable, on-chain record of ownership that no company could easily rug-pull.

But before you go dumping your bags into gaming tokens, keep it 100: current NFT tech still relies on centralized servers. If a dev decides to pull the plug, your "asset" might just be a broken link to a dead server. Unless the industry shifts to fully decentralized infrastructure and encrypted metadata, you're still at the mercy of the platform.

Why it matters

Layden notes that while only about 20% of the player base still buys discs, they are the "most faithful" collectors—the ones who buy extra copies just for the shelf. By alienating the core collectors, Sony is risking a massive brand hit, proving that sometimes, optimizing the spreadsheet can seriously backfire.