On July 1, Sony announced the impending end of both physical PlayStation games and, in a demonstration of just one risk of a digital-only future, the shutdown of the PS3 and PS Vita storefronts. In its first social media post since this one-two bombshell, PlayStation discusses its fight stick controller.
The 10,000 Twitter replies this post has received in 30 minutes are not about the fight stick controller.
Increasingly, it appears that, just as PlayStation was previously bullied out of closing the PS3 and PS Vita stores in 2021, Sony has underestimated the scope and intensity of backlash resulting from its decision to end support for physical games.
Sony's July 1 announcement post has, according to Twitter view and comment metrics, outperformed both of the GTA 6 trailers shared by Rockstar Games. Rare close-ups of the most-anticipated game in history sparked less discussion than the death of discs on one of gaming's main platforms. I'm not sure this storm can be waited out, folks.
The responses to PlayStation's fight stick post are exactly what you'd expect: a litany of demands for discs interspersed with bizarre memes, riffs on PlayStation taglines ("Play has limits" and "Greed has no limits" and so on), and the general sharpening of pitchforks. My favorite reply is probably the shot of noted anti-corpo hero Cloud (of Final Fantasy 7) sizing up Sony headquarters. The award for best quote tweet goes to Scott Wozniak.
Sony higher-ups undoubtedly anticipated some measure of blowback to this new strategy, and for all we know this response is well within internal expectations and unlikely to rattle, let alone dissuade, leadership as the company's stock actually climbs after the news. Yet it's hard to remember a larger, louder, unified response in this space, and if I trust gamers with anything, it's spite.
We've heard many sensible arguments for the continued support of physical games. Consumer choice, game discovery, knock-on effects from collapsing game stores, hobbyist culture, repeat sales, price protection, new-gamer onboarding, game preservation – the list goes on.
Additionally, as gaming struggles to replace aging players and consoles tread water in a dire hardware market, many have called PlayStation short-sighted for inventing a new way to push even more people toward PC – as physical copies were a rare advantage consoles had over PC gaming – all just to make a little more money off game sales. Gaming is actively facing existential challenges that stretch far beyond the short term, and, historically, pissing everybody off hasn't worked out in any publisher's favor.
