‘If you don’t own it, what are you buying?’ Former PlayStation boss says dropping discs is ‘a significant brand hit’

Former PlayStation US boss Shawn Layden has shared more thoughts on the company’s decision to stop making discs starting from 2028.

Layden, who was chairman of the company’s worldwide studios group when he left Sony in 2019, was asked on The Expansion Pass podcast to give his views on Sony’s all-digital future.

He replied that while he wasn’t aware of the financial circumstances that may have led to Sony’s decision, he doesn’t think it’s a good idea, because while the majority of players now opt for digital downloads, the ones who buy physical are often the most dedicated collectors.

“Not having been in the room, I don’t know what the what the stressors were around that, and what the spreadsheet said – because I’m sure this is heavily spreadsheeted decision, where the costs are being contained and where the profit is being extracted. I don’t know any of that,” he said.

“I do think that gamers are… yeah, we like the digital download. Peple 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. I just press a button on my controller and I don’t have to move. And the convenience of that is is unquestioned.

“But I do think, particularly in in the gaming realm, maybe 80% of the people download and 20% don’t, or whatever that breakdown is going to be. But that’s a super important 20%.

“I mean, that is largely the most faithful of the faithful. That is, many times, the people who buy two copies of every game, right? One never gets out of the shrink wrap, right? And you play the other one. It’s just like comic book collectors. you always buy two comic books.

“I think the the ability to have the physical disc… you know, we’ve got to remember one of the core drivers of the gamer is this desire to collect, right? ‘I finished Crash Bandicoot, I had 27 of 30 diamonds, oh my God, I have to replay the entire game now because those three diamonds, I’ve missed them somewhere.’

“We are an inquisitive collecting sort of people,  and we like to show off our stuff. So I think for those reasons I don’t agree with that decision.”

Layden then added that the decision to go digital-only also put the debate around game ownership front and centre, and that in situations like that the player will always look at the worst thing that could happen, leading to a hit on Sony’s reputation.

“I think this is probably the more insidious aspect to it, is that it changes the conversation [to] ‘do you own a game or do you have access to a digital asset’, right?

“If you can’t sell a thing, that means you don’t own a thing. And 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. And people, as people tend to do, in their mind they’ll game out the worst case scenario.

“And that’s a whole lot of brand hit and reputation bite that – as I said, I don’t have any visibility on the financials around it – but that’s a significant brand hit, and I hope it made sense to them.”