Sony’s decision to move away from physical PlayStation games continues to attract criticism. Former PlayStation executive Shawn Layden has now returned to the subject, and this time his concerns go far beyond collectors losing boxes on their shelves.
Layden believes the move raises a much bigger question: when players buy a digital game, do they actually own it?
Sony announced earlier this year that physical disc production for new PlayStation games will end in January 2028. New releases after that point will instead be sold digitally.
While digital games have become the preferred option for many players, Layden believes Sony risks alienating some of its most dedicated customers.
Shawn Layden questions digital game ownership
During an appearance on The Expansion Pass podcast, Layden acknowledged that digital games are convenient. Players can purchase a game, download it and start playing without having to visit a store or even swap a disc.
However, convenience comes with a major downside.
With a physical game, players have an actual product that can be kept, lent to someone else or sold. Digital games generally remain tied to an account and cannot simply be resold when the owner no longer wants them.
That distinction is at the heart of Layden’s argument.
“If you can’t sell a thing, that means you don’t own a thing.”
Layden questioned what consumers are actually buying if they don’t own the product in the traditional sense.
Digital purchases provide access to a game, but that access remains connected to the platform and its ecosystem.
Physical players may be a minority, but an important one
Layden also pushed back against the idea that physical games no longer matter simply because digital sales dominate the market.
He used an example in which 80% of players buy digitally while the remaining 20% prefer physical copies. Those figures weren’t presented as an official breakdown, but his point was that the smaller physical audience can include some of PlayStation’s most loyal customers.
Collectors may buy special editions, SteelBooks and sometimes even multiple copies of the same game.
For these players, the physical product is part of gaming itself.
A collection sitting on a shelf cannot simply be replaced by a list of titles attached to an online account.
Sony could take a reputation hit
Layden admitted that he doesn’t know the financial reasoning behind Sony’s decision.
Producing, distributing and selling physical games costs money, while digital distribution removes several of those expenses. Sony will undoubtedly have examined those numbers before deciding to phase out discs for new releases.
But Layden believes financial savings aren’t the only thing a company should consider.
Decisions can make perfect sense on a spreadsheet while still damaging how customers view a brand.
He described Sony’s decision as potentially causing a significant hit to PlayStation’s reputation, particularly among its most dedicated physical collectors.
PlayStation discs aren’t disappearing overnight
There is an important distinction surrounding Sony’s 2028 plans.
Sony isn’t suddenly making every existing PlayStation disc unusable. Games released physically before the January 2028 cutoff aren’t affected by the change, and existing titles can continue to receive physical reorders.
Instead, the major change concerns new games launching from January 2028 onward.
Unless Sony changes its plans, those games won’t receive traditional PlayStation disc releases.
That means the second-hand market will still exist for older PlayStation games, but future releases will increasingly sit outside it.
The ownership debate isn’t going away
The gaming industry has steadily moved toward digital distribution for years. For many players, the convenience is difficult to argue against.
However, Layden’s comments highlight an issue that convenience cannot completely solve.
A physical game can sit on a shelf for decades. It can be sold, traded, lent to a friend or passed on to somebody else. A digital purchase doesn’t offer that same level of control.
Sony may see ending new physical releases as the logical next step for PlayStation.
For players who still believe buying a game should mean actually owning it, however, January 2028 could mark a much bigger change than simply removing discs from store shelves.
