PlayStation has been in hot water over the past few days, not hot enough to reverse its decision to destroy the physical gaming market, but hot enough to stop it from posting on social media. From physical retailers to pizza chain Dominos, every corner of the Internet contains information about companies.
While protests aren't often universally shared among gamers, the controversy has led to management, with even high-profile PlayStation figures like former Sony boss Shawn Layden coming out and saying they don't agree with the changes.
Shawn Layden is also against PlayStation going physical.
“I had no idea that was going to happen,” Layden told Eurogamer. “I don't necessarily agree, but I'm not in the business anymore. I think it probably costs too much to stamp the discs.”
“If you look at decisions to discontinue products, features, models, etc., they are often just spreadsheets. [decision]. How do disc sales compare to digital sales? And I'm old enough to remember when digital sales were like 10%. I'm old enough to remember when digital sales were 0% because there was no digital market! And that number has increased over time.”
Of course, Layden is approaching the problem with a more rational approach, considering his relationship with PlayStation and his own little stake in the battle.
This probably means that not everyone at PlayStation is on board at the moment, and it's unlikely the company will reverse its decision, but it's likely they've been wanting to give up on a physical release for some time at this point, so if things start to go sideways, pressure could end up being put on the company. If one thing is true, complaining online usually works.
- brand
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sony
- original release date
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November 12, 2020
- Original MSRP (USD)
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$499, €499, £449, ¥49,980 (standard) // $399, €399, £359, ¥39,980 (digital),
- operating system
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Orbis OS
- processor
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Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2
- solve
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720p – 8K
