Gamers are uniting behind one cause: preserving physical copies of games. Sony announced last July that it will stop producing physical discs for all new PlayStation games starting January 2028. After that date, new PS games will only be available digitally, on the PlayStation Store and at retailers.
Sony ends all new PlayStation disc production in January 2028 via Gadget Review
This lit a fire. Filipino Gamers took to social media, and participated in PlayStation boycotts. But here's the thing we want to untangle. Physical media equates to ownership, at least on console. If you take ownership out of the equation, is physical media really worth preserving, or even better than digital?
Don't get us wrong. The MAIN issue gamers are fighting for is OWNERSHIP, and right now that means physical media. May it be the disc you buy from a retailer, the disc you grab for cheap, or the disc that you can resell, that’s what ownership represents in the Philippines.
Gamers Protest with PlayStation Blackout via Reddit
And here's where we're gonna land, so you know where this is going: the disc isn't the point. The disc is just how we get to own things RIGHT NOW. If we could actually own our digital games, like really own them, the disc wouldn't matter at all. That's the whole fight in one sentence.
We've been here before
Before this PlayStation fiasco, Xbox tried something similar and face-planted. Back in 2013, Microsoft revealed the Xbox One with always-online DRM, a once-a-day check-in, and heavy restrictions on used games and lending. The backlash was so brutal, and Sony roasted them so hard at E3, that Microsoft reversed the whole thing within weeks.
Xbox One via GlobalNews
Fast forward to today and Xbox is taking the opposite route from Sony. Xbox revealed a disc-to-digital program that lets you turn a physical game you own into a digital license. Sounds great, except it's turning into its own mess. Publishers have to opt IN, and a bunch of the big ones (Sega, Square Enix, Bandai Namco, and at first Ubisoft) simply didn't, which means franchises like Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and Assassin's Creed throw up a "not participating in digital licensing" error. So no, not every game can be converted.
PC gamers already made peace with this
PC gamers, on the other hand, moved away from physical media a long time ago. Optical drives started vanishing from laptops in the late 2000s (Apple kicked off the trend with the 2008 MacBook Air), and by the mid-2010s they were basically extinct. Try finding a gaming laptop or a pre-built rig with a disc drive today. Good luck.
Steam has been the beloved digital marketplace for PC games for years, and it's doing the exact same thing Sony is getting dragged for. It doesn't sell physical media, not even for Valve's own titles, and it runs on the same premise: you're not buying the game, you're renting a license to play it. Valve even quietly updated its checkout page in 2024 to spell that out.
Gabe Newell via PCGamer
So what happens if Steam closes tomorrow? What happens to those massive libraries you bought at full price, or the ones you got duped into buying on sale and never actually played? Valve says it has a plan. Gabe Newell has claimed for years that if Steam ever shut down, they would push a patch to strip out the DRM so your games keep working. The catch is there's nothing in writing, no contractual guarantee, and they could only unlock the games publishers actually let them unlock. We just kind of took their word for it.
And look, Steam isn't going anywhere anytime soon, it's privately owned and printing money. That's not the scary part. The scary part is that even the beloved good-guy storefront runs on rented licenses, and now everybody else is copying the model.
The disc isn't magic anymore either
As games balloon in file size, because devs keep chasing better and better graphics without fully optimizing for the platforms they ship on, the disc has lost a lot of its old magic. Gone were the days of buying a physical disc, slapping it into your console, and playing, no downloads, no patches, no day-one 100GB updates. GTA6 made that painfully clear: its "physical" edition ships with just a download code in the box, no actual game on the disc.
Marvel's Wolverine Preload is 79.80GB via Reddit
And let's be real with ourselves for a second. Even that disc you "own" on a PS5 or Series X is kinda half an illusion already. You still pop it in, wait for the install, download the patches, and half the time the game barely fits on the disc anyway.
The disc has basically become a key, a token that says "yep, you're allowed to play this," not the game itself. Which is EXACTLY why fighting for the disc alone kind of misses the point. The disc was never the prize. Owning the game was.
We believe digital games are the future, and honestly it's inevitable. Sony's not even hiding why: something like 85% of PlayStation game units sold last year were already digital downloads. The convenience alone wins for most people, no swapping discs, no getting off the couch, your whole library one click away. And those massive updates and DLCs? You'll have to download them eventually, disc or not. PC gamers have already adapted, for the most part. This part really is kind of a no-brainer.
Back to what actually matters
So let's come back to what the disc really represents now: OWNERSHIP. The premise is simple. You buy something, you own it. Even the buttons on the PlayStation Store say BUY and ADD TO CART, the exact language you use when you're purchasing something to keep.
That's the thing we're fighting for. To own the games we pay for. And maybe not really the disc itself. What we actually need is real ownership of our digital games and some way to preserve them, not just a shiny coaster in a case.
Because here's the uncomfortable part: gaming might be the last stronghold we have for ownership at all.
Movies and music already fell. You don't really own albums or films the way you used to, it's almost all streaming now. Sure, some artists still press vinyl and some films still get a Blu-ray run, but it's niche compared to how many people still buy games on disc. There's no more Video City. No more Odyssey music bar. No more physical disc aisles in the department store where you'd flip through movies and music.
BUT gaming still has Datablitz, Game One, and shops you can still find in almost every mall in the Philippines. The shelves aren't empty yet.
Datablitz Store via Datablitz
So can we still do something?
Maybe. Maybe history repeats itself and the backlash pushes Sony to walk it back the way Xbox did in 2013. Or maybe it's too late and we're already standing at the precipice, the point of no return.
#SupportPhysical Post of Filipino creator Daddy Player One
For now, here's what you can actually do. Keep fighting. Post about it, yes. But if this fight really matters to you, go buy your physical games while you still can. It's the only vote the platforms have ever really counted, even if what we're really after is not the disc, but the right to own what we pay for.
Own it while you still can.
