French politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon calls for player rights as physical games fade out

La France Insoumise leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon has entered the gaming discourse, posting on social media to condemn the industry's shift away from physical media and sharing a petition to protect players' ownership rights. His comments come in direct response to two recent announcements: GTA 6 launching without a disc version in 2026, and Sony confirming it will end physical disc sales for games by 2028.

Mélenchon's statement pulls no punches. "You will pay without ever owning anything. No loan, no resale, no guarantee of keeping what we've paid for," he wrote. He frames videogames not as ordinary merchandise but as cultural assets that should fall under existing consumer protection law. The petition he's backing argues that a fully digital model makes access conditional and time-limited — meaning players pay full price for what is effectively a revocable licence, not ownership. "This is the triumph of total commodification," he wrote, warning that "our cultural heritage" is at stake.

The debate around digital ownership isn't new, but the twin announcements have given it fresh urgency. Game preservation advocates have long warned that when publishers pull the plug on servers or storefronts, purchases simply vanish — something that has already happened with older digital libraries on discontinued platforms. Hideo Kojima has previously spoken about the fragility of digital-only futures for creative work, and consumer rights groups across Europe have pushed for clearer disclosure when a "purchase" is really just a licence. France, with its strong tradition of cultural exception policy — the idea that cultural goods deserve different legal treatment than standard commodities — is arguably fertile ground for this kind of political pushback.

Whether Mélenchon's intervention translates into actual legislative pressure remains to be seen, but the petition is live and the conversation is louder than ever. For players who've watched storefronts close and games disappear from libraries they paid for, the argument that the law needs to catch up with digital reality is hard to dismiss.