Hideo Kojima slams Sony's disc decision: "You don't really own it"
Sony confirmed earlier this week that it will stop producing physical disc editions of PlayStation games starting January 2028. Physical sales now account for just 3% of PlayStation revenue, according to the PlayStation Blog, and the company frames the move as following where consumers have already gone. But for anyone who has ever lost access to a game they paid for, the announcement cuts deeper than a format preference.
The pushback
The loudest voice so far belongs to Hideo Kojima — creator of Metal Gear, Death Stranding, and the upcoming OD — who has one of gaming's closest working relationships with PlayStation. That proximity makes his response notable. Speaking publicly after the announcement, Kojima didn't hold back.
> "I'm very sad about this. I grew up with physical media, so I find this really unfortunate. Right now I'm buying a lot of Blu-ray discs — films, CDs."
He went further than sentiment, per Gamereactor. Kojima argued that buying digital content gives you no permanent guarantee of access — films and music already disappear from platforms, get geo-blocked, or become unavailable when licensing agreements expire. Games, he implied, are next.
The ownership problem
This isn't abstract. A 2021 tweet from Kojima warning about exactly this scenario has resurfaced and gone viral since Sony's announcement — a rare case of a creator being proved right years in advance. The real-world examples back him up: Konami's P.T. was delisted and became undownloadable even for people who'd already claimed it. Ubisoft shut down The Crew's servers entirely, leaving paying customers with nothing.
California's AB 2426, which took effect in 2025, now requires digital game storefronts to label purchases as licenses rather than ownership — an acknowledgment from lawmakers that the distinction matters. Sony's disc exit makes that label feel even more relevant.
A 16,000-signature "Don't Kill the Disc" petition and an 86% pro-physical result in a Digital Foundry poll show the sentiment is widespread. But as Kojima himself noted, consumer frustration has rarely been enough to reverse this kind of corporate shift. Fewer and fewer publishers are willing to fund physical runs — and once the infrastructure is gone, it tends to stay gone.
