Sony Has 'Zero Understanding for Customer Needs,' Says Gaming Preservation Group

Sony's gradual departure from physical discs for the PlayStation 5 continues to cause frustration. A preservation organization specializing in game archiving has now publicly accused Sony of lacking an understanding of what players actually want. The core of the criticism: if discs are phased out, games should ideally become cheaper – instead, prices remain the same or even increase.

What the Criticism is Specifically About

For many players, physical media serves more than just a nostalgic purpose. A disc can be lent, resold, and remains playable even if a publisher shuts down servers or a store eventually closes. This is precisely the core concern of preservation organizations: digital licenses can be revoked at any time or remain tied to accounts, while physical copies serve as a long-term archive. If discs are completely removed, for many games, the last reliable option to permanently own and replay them later also disappears.

A Pattern Throughout the Industry

Sony is not an isolated case in this regard. Just a few days ago, the announcement of GTA 6 as a purely digital release at a hefty price of $80 sparked similar debates – as we previously reported, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick defended against this very accusation. From our perspective, this indicates a larger industry trend: publishers save on production and distribution costs by eliminating physical media, but rarely pass these savings on to customers. For collectors and preservationists, this is doubly bitter because with every purely digital release, a piece of gaming history potentially becomes irrevocably tied to a platform.

Whether Sony will react to public pressure remains to be seen. So far, there has been no official announcement to reconsider the pricing policy in the wake of the disc phase-out.

Source: PC Gamer

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