A PlayStation developer has offered an explanation for why Sony isn’t responding to the widespread complaints about going digital-only.
It’s been a few weeks now, since Sony announced it will no longer be releasing physical PlayStation games, after 2027, and the online backlash has refused to simmer down.
Angry comments continue to flood any and every social media post and YouTube upload from the official PlayStation channels and yet Sony has refused to even acknowledge any of the backlash.
Some may interpret the silence as Sony being taken aback and running scared but according to someone with knowledge of the company’s workings, Sony fully expected people would get mad and is simply telling employees not to talk about it publicly.
This comes from a recent YouTube video by Alanah Pearce, a video game writer who worked at developer Santa Monica Studio, having been involved with the upcoming God Of War Laufey – which coincidentally enough will be one of Sony’s last exclusives to get a physical release.
Pearce states that people employed at PlayStation’s studios have told her they are under ‘the strictest social media guidelines’; something she has some familiarity with, as she was told by Sony what she could say publicly when God Of War Laufey was announced.
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She doesn’t provide any exact examples, only saying ‘Sony does somewhat regularly tell employees what they can or can’t say about certain things,’ but it basically sounds like the topic of Sony’s physical game plans is off-limits within the company, no doubt to ensure it’s presenting a united front on the matter.
Pearce adds that while people should continue to express their frustration and complain, she very much doubts any amount of backlash or petitions will force Sony’s hand: ‘Sony already knew everyone would be p***ed off – they knew this.
‘… In this instance, it’s apparently the strictest the employees I spoke to have ever seen regarding public communications. They would only have done this if they knew it was going to be an enormous PR issue. This is no surprise to them.’
We don’t doubt that some developers within Sony are probably upset with the company’s decision too, especially when plenty of other developers have expressed their disappointment.
This includes Hideo Kojima and Yoko Taro, with Disgaea creator Sohei Niikawa going as far as to suggest that Sony may as well not bother making new consoles if it’s not going to release physical games any more.
As Pearce says, though, Sony is extremely unlikely to ever backtrack on this. The company already has its primary disc manufacturer switching priorities, which shows that its abandoning of physical media has been a long time coming.
And while the backlash is large, it’s not large enough. The most well-known online petition has 337,985 signatures at the time of writing. That’s a lot, but not enough to move the needle when the vast majority of PlayStation games sales nowadays come from digital sales.
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