The last few weeks in the gaming space have been riddled with complaints regarding Sony’s impending move to rid the world of new PlayStation discs, opting for a digital-exclusive push going into 2028. It has given rise to petitions, boycotts, and ferocity across social media on a global scale, and it’s not getting better any time soon, because Sony is not about to backtrack.
It’s a harsh debate that has split the community down the middle, with vocal personalities fighting on each side of the fence. Recently, a former Valve writer with credits on the likes of Portal, Half-Life, and Left 4 Dead recorded a video lambasting those who are bagging on Sony’s decision, suggesting that it’s the consumer who made this bed they now need to lie in.
‘You Aren’t Going Into Retail and Buying Them’
Chet Faliszek uploaded a YouTube video recently talking about the Sony boycott and scandal that has seen tens of thousands of negative sentiments (if not more) surface on social media. When Sony announced the imminent end of new PlayStation discs, it turned the gaming space up on its head, and people are still coming to terms with their disc-less future.
Speaking frankly, Faliszek explained that we’re all at fault:
You, the consumer, have made a choice, and your choice is for digital.
Right now, today, the games we’re talking about are available at retail. Today. The used games are available at retail today, and you aren’t going into retail and buying them.
Gamestop only has 18% of their entire revenue as games, new and used… 18% of a company called Gamestop that used to do nothing but sell games.
(Thanks to GamesRadar for the spot)
Faliszek went on to reflect on a recent financial update from Sony, which clearly indicated that in Q4 FY25, 85% of software sales were digital, bringing the year to 78% digital. He stressed that Sony has ‘no benefit’ in trying to trick the consumer by fudging the figures, so that argument doesn’t make sense.
It shows that you’re not actually looking at it, right? You’re not saying that you created this problem for Sony and Gamestop. You, the consumer.
Full game software digital download ratio, 85%.
You think everyone is lying to you. You think they’re somehow benefitting from this. No, they’re reacting to your purchases. They had a system set up and you said, ‘No, we don’t like this. What we like is buying it digitally. We want it instantly.’
He then went into the area he knows best, talking about Valve and Steam, stating that these sales figures aren’t included in reports, which means they’re effectively under-reporting digital sales, given that Steam is a digital-exclusive platform.
Faliszek blamed the consumer again: ‘You as the consumer have forced the large corporations’ hands and you’ve told them, ‘Stop with retail.’ Right? Sony has to make a system that’s not going to come out for two years, and then it’s going to live for ten or fifteen years after that.’
Here’s the full video:
In Faliszek’s words, ‘That’s just the way it goes.’ He said that consumers have used the ‘power of their purse’ and it has reflected in the overwhelming majority of gamers buying digital. It’s not an anti-consumer stance, he said, but it’s gamers becoming part of the problem by feeding into the growth of digital.
Which is true.
His hot takes persisted:
You should have started protesting Game Pass and stopped buying XBOX games and stopped buying digital, but you didn’t, because it was easier.
Where do you stand on this debate? Are you for or against the shutting down of physical PlayStation games? Let us know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
More from Grant Taylor-Hill
Exactly over 85% buy digital and worse more people are on Steam than PS5 but boomers can’t get that through their dumb entitled fake activist heads. Even worse most people under 30 are not buying games they probably play the same things Fortnite, Roblox, Minecraft, Genshin, etc.
85% includes ALL the titles where physical wasn’t an option because they needed to drastically inflate their number to prove their point.
Please, can they stop saying to the users what we want? Or what we have choosed? Obviously this person, which is one of the responsables of killing physical PC games making me stop playing in PC from then, is going to be against users in this. And of course, using the fake numbers given by SONY. However, EVEN if they would be right, what they are saying is that if an option is minority then it is correct to destroy it. Just let us have options! Posibilities. But of course, as VALVE knows, that is not the tirant way of work, who only wants to have monopolies.
Digital gaming enthusiasts cannot escape facts and reality. Most consumers are not purchasing $70 digital games. Between rising production budgets and $70 digital games the logical course continue toward ruin for studios and platform holders.
This industry will greatly regret a future without physical product. Less than $20 digital games may survive. But can digital gaming survive at $70+ per title ?
“Sony isn’t lying to you, they don’t get any benefit in that!”
LoL Well seeing as they are the only console platform that doesn’t sell their digital games anywhere else except their own online store… that is why it is a major problem. Their will be literally zero competition for Sony, that is the the benefit.
How is that not very apparent? They are literally being sued in the EU right now for that very reason.
If I went to buy a Digital Xbox game, I can find it at one of 25+ websites that sell Digital Xbox game codes, and since they are competing, you can ALWAYS find digital Xbox games codes for much cheaper than PlayStation digital codes.
Go to “deals.gg” and look up any game, there is a tab for each platform… go see how many games you can buy digitally on PlayStation, not from the PlayStation store…
that shit right there is why it is complete BS for Sony to just go quiet after dropping this bomb on its fans.
Seeing as they are going to be making way more money per each digital game bought… why wouldn’t they lower the price of games… $50 digital games would surely shut everyone up. They should have digital games cheaper since the very beginning, but I get that the physical stores would have been screwed so they didn’t. But now with no stores… they need to lower digital game prices.