After Sony announced its planned shift to fully digital PlayStation releases from January 2028, supporters of physical games have moved beyond angry comments and launched a petition. “Don’t Kill the Disc: Tell Sony to Keep Physical PlayStation Games” has already passed 44,000 signatures in only a few hours.

The community is mobilising. Sony’s decision to halt disc production for all PlayStation games starting in January 2028 has sparked reactions from gamers, industry professionals and even a French presidential candidate. One of the latest responses to the controversy comes directly from users, who have organised a petition to send a very clear message to Sony: do not kill physical media.

More specifically, Jade Pearce, CEO of the PNP Games chain, started the Change.org petition titled Don’t Kill the Disc: Tell Sony to Keep Physical PlayStation Games to demand that the Japanese company reverse its decision regarding physical releases. “A disc is a real game that you own. You can lend it, trade it, resell it, give it away, collect it, or give it to your children,” the petition states. “A box with a download code is not the same. It’s a digital licence in a plastic package. You are not the actual owner. You are renting access that can be revoked, and there have already been cases where purchased movies have been removed from users’ libraries or games have been pulled from sale just weeks after their release.”

The request does not stop there, as it also points out that physical media has become a vital source of income for a large part of the industry. “Physical games support an entire industry that a fully digital future would silently wipe out: retailers, distributors, manufacturers, warehousing and logistics services, the second-hand and trading market, as well as the collector and preservation community,” Pearce’s explanation continues. “That’s thousands of jobs and countless small businesses. Eliminating physical media removes options for the customer, weakens local economies, and gives a few platform owners absolute control over how, and if, you can access the games you buy.”

“We’re not against digital. We’re against digital being the only option,” the initiative clarifies. “A large and passionate community still wants a physical, real-world game that they own completely, and Sony is about to eliminate that choice.”

The petition was launched only a few hours earlier and has continued to grow since then, thanks to widespread sharing by users concerned about what the disappearance of physical media could mean for the video game industry. At the time of writing, the initiative had already gathered more than 44,000 signatures, and all indications suggested that the number would continue to rise in the following days.

Change.org does not have a spotless record, and petitions on the platform rarely force direct change. The community is nevertheless looking back to cases such as the PC release of Dark Souls, which Bandai Namco said was confirmed in part thanks to a petition that collected nearly 100,000 signatures. And, of course, there is always the action that affects major companies most directly: players can use their wallets to make clear that they reject the disappearance of physical media.

Source: 3DJuegos