Former PlayStation executive Shawn Layden has publicly questioned Sony’s plan to eliminate physical discs from its consoles by 2028, raising familiar concerns about player ownership in an increasingly digital gaming landscape. Speaking on last week’s episode of The Expansion Pass podcast, the former head of worldwide studios at Sony Interactive Entertainment offered a candid critique of a move that has already drawn significant backlash since it was first announced.
Layden, who stepped away from his executive role years ago and was not involved in the decision-making process, did not dismiss digital downloads outright. He acknowledged the convenience factor that has driven adoption across the industry, but he argued that abandoning physical media entirely represents a strategic misstep that could erode consumer trust at exactly the moment Sony needs it most.
The Convenience Myth and the “Faithful” Minority
In his remarks, Layden pushed back against the common framing that digital downloads simply represent progress. He noted that much of the industry’s marketing suggested downloading a game was dramatically easier than visiting a store — an argument he found somewhat reductive.
“People said, ‘Oh, downloading a game is easier than going to the store!’ No, no, downloading a game is easier than going across my living room to put a disc in the machine. I don’t even have to do that.”
Shawn Layden
Even so, Layden insisted that convenience alone should not justify scrapping physical media. He pointed to what he described as a small but critically important segment of the player base — roughly one in five gamers who remain devoted to collecting and owning games in tangible form.
“I do think, particularly in the gaming realm, maybe 80% of the people download and 20% don’t… but that’s a super important 20%. That is largely the most faithful of the faithful. Many times, those are the people who buy two copies of every game, one never gets out of the shrink wrap, and you play the other one.”
Shawn Layden
The Ownership Question at the Center of the Debate
Beyond collecting habits, Layden zeroed in on a more fundamental issue that has haunted digital distribution for over a decade: what it actually means to “own” a game. On PC, players have navigated this reality for years through platforms like Steam, though options such as GOG still allow buyers to download titles without DRM and archive them on their own media.
PlayStation, by contrast, offers no equivalent path. That distinction makes the ownership question far more consequential for console gamers, and Layden captured it succinctly in his closing remarks.
“It changes the conversation from ‘do you own a game’ to ‘do you have access to a digital asset.’ If you can’t sell a thing, it means you don’t own a thing. If you don’t own it, then what are you buying? If you’re buying access that doesn’t quite sound as sexy, to be honest.”
Shawn Layden
The loss of the tangible disc strips away much of the illusion that digital purchases confer true ownership. From there, it is a short leap for consumers to worry about Sony pulling access to movies — and by extension, their games — once they have paid for them. Layden acknowledged this fear directly, noting that players naturally “game out the worst case scenario,” which could result in significant damage to brand loyalty.
The concern is hardly unfounded. A previous decision to revoke access to previously purchased titles was a huge hit to Sony’s reputation, and it remains to be seen whether the cost savings from halting disc production will outweigh the ill will such moves generate among devoted fans.
A Company Pressing Ahead With Unpopular Moves
Layden’s comments arrive as Sony continues to pursue initiatives that have not always landed well with its audience. Earlier this month, the company filed a pair of patents that would use AI to create vibe-coded patches to fix your PS5, alongside another proposal to place an NFC card reader in your controller. Together, these filings suggest a roadmap leaning heavily on software-driven services and new hardware integrations.
The discless transition itself is still years away, giving Sony time to address the concerns Layden raised. But with the company seemingly intent on pushing forward regardless of pushback, the coming months will reveal whether it intends to win back skeptics or simply bet that digital convenience outweighs the value of ownership.
Only time will tell whether the money Sony saves by not producing discs proves worth the reputation hit — and whether players will still feel they own their games in a discless future. For those following the debate, updates can be tracked through @Jackiecobra.
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