Sony may be quietly reconsidering how firm its stance on ending physical PlayStation discs really is. According to leaker Tom of Moore's Law Is Dead, speaking on the Broken Silicon podcast, Sony recently sent developers what he describes as one of the largest surveys the company has ever distributed, and hidden inside it was a question hinting at whether studios see "an issue with how we sell games physically."
Tom argues the survey's existence and unusual scale suggest Sony may be checking whether enough resistance exists to justify some form of walk-back, even if only to some extent. He also hypothesised that the company could be weighing a "mea culpa" if developer feedback comes back strongly enough. However, he was careful to frame that as his own guess rather than anything official.
Marvel's Wolverine makes the theory even more interesting. The game reportedly moved around 1.9 million copies in its first three days, with roughly 23% of its $130 million launch revenue generated directly from disc sales. That's a significant chunk of revenue for a format Sony is already dead set on retiring, and it's not just limited to the company's latest exclusive. Data shows six of seven major first-party Sony titles sold between 32% and 47% of copies through physical retail.
For now, Sony's commitment hasn't changed. CFO Lin Tao said as recently as this summer that the company would "cautiously move forward" with the January 2028 cutoff despite recognizing the backlash, and games released before that date will still get disc reprints. It is clear Sony is at least listening to the noise, and it remains to be seen whether this survey amounts to anything more than routine feedback-gathering.
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Sony confirmed back in July that new PlayStation games would go digital-only starting January 2028, drawing severe backlash ever since, including a petition with over 200,000 signatures. Despite the backlash, the company even placed warning stickers on PS5 boxes, alerting buyers that the cutoff is inevitable and seemingly signalling that no amount of protest will change Sony's mind.
