Sony ditching discs sparks ownership debate — GOG, iam8bit, and others push back

Sony's announcement that it will stop supporting physical PlayStation discs in January 2028 has triggered a wave of responses from companies that have built their identity around physical media and player ownership. GOG, iam8bit, and indie developer Aeternum Game Studios are among those pushing back — each framing the move as a threat to preservation, consumer choice, and the basic idea of actually owning what you buy.

GOG joint-CEO Krzysztof Papliński put it plainly: "Every shift away from physical media makes the conversation around game ownership and preservation even more important." He added that players should have "full confidence that the games they buy will remain accessible regardless of changes to platforms, storefronts, or business models" — and pointed to GOG's DRM-free model, with offline installers, as the practical answer to that concern. GOG also posted on X that "even if a game vanishes from the GOG storefront, it never leaves your library," a direct jab at how console ecosystems handle purchases. Physical collectibles label iam8bit, which works with studios like Blizzard, Remedy, Capcom, Annapurna, and Xbox on physical releases and vinyl soundtracks, called itself "profoundly disappointed" and signed off with "Long live physical media." Aeternum Game Studios went further, pledging to release physical editions of every game it makes before the January 2028 deadline.

The broader concern these companies are circling is a structural one: when you buy a game on PlayStation, Xbox, or Nintendo, you're licensing it within a closed ecosystem tied to your account and hardware. You can't resell it, share it freely, or detach it from the platform. Sony's disc exit sharpens that reality — and it's not just PlayStation. Reports suggest Microsoft's next console, Project Helix, may also ship without a disc drive, and Nintendo could move away from game cards too. The PlayStation ecosystem has already shown what can happen when digital ownership gets complicated: hundreds of Studio Canal films were scheduled for removal from PlayStation libraries despite users having paid for them.

With physical game sales declining industry-wide — a trend Sony explicitly cited as part of its reasoning — the 2028 deadline looks less like a sudden decision and more like the end of a long slide. Whether the pushback from preservation-minded companies and communities translates into any meaningful industry shift remains to be seen, but the debate around what "owning" a game actually means is now louder than it's been in years.