Overview
- Sony confirmed on July 1 that it will stop producing physical discs for new PlayStation games starting January 2028, moving new releases to the PlayStation Store and digital retailer codes.
- Preservation group Does It Play? and allied creators have called for a voluntary PSBlackout from August 23 at 7:00 PM local time through August 30 at 7:00 PM local time, asking users to log out, power down consoles, and avoid PlayStation purchases for seven days.
- A Change.org petition called “Don't Kill the Disc” has gathered roughly 345,000 signatures, and organisers’ posts about the blackout have reached hundreds of thousands to over a million views on social platforms.
- Market observers say a one-week boycott faces steep odds because Sony reports about 125 million monthly active users and digital downloads made roughly 78–80% of full-game sales, while Sony’s disc plants are already refitting as physical volumes fall.
- If participation grows the blackout could register as a public-relations problem and draw attention to resale and preservation issues, but analysts warn durable change would likely require sustained buying patterns that support physical retail, second-hand markets, and archival groups.