"The irony is hard to miss."

Image credit: Eurogamer

You may scoff at how little real-world change petitions typically produce, but you can't deny that this particular campaign has a lot of user support behind it. The Don't Kill the Disc Change.org petition, which was launched in the wake of Sony's bombshell decision to end physical disc manufacturing in January 2028, has amassed over 170,000 signatures at the time of writing.

Sony's shocking decision brings an end to all physical media on PlayStation, including for games not published by Sony Interactive Entertainment. All releases from that point on will be confined to digital formats, including code-in-the-box style options at retail.

The wide-reaching ramifications for the industry at large are part of the petition's core thesis, which calls out Sony's 2013 Official PlayStation Used Game Instructional Video as mocking something the company would become just 13 years later.

Image credit: Petition.org

"At E3 2013, Sony won over a generation of players by promising that when you buy a PlayStation game, you can trade it in, sell it, lend it to a friend, or 'keep it forever,' and famously mocked the competition for trying to restrict exactly that," argues the petition. "13 years later, Sony is the one taking it away."

The petition, which was started by small Canadian retailer PNP Games, also calls out all the other negative effects of taking away physical media such as eroding consumer ownership, enabling far less choice in the marketplace, as well as how damaging it can be to game preservation.

The petition's goal is simple: pressure Sony to keep physical disc production beyond 2028, "so the next generation can own the games they play, not just rent them".

"If we do not speak up now, the disc disappears, and the choice goes with it," it goes on. "When the market leader ends the disc, the rest of the industry follows".

Image credit: Insomniac / Adobe Stock

Sony has not officially acknowledged the petition or responded to the overwhelmingly negative reaction its announcement has caused. For nearly a week, the official PlayStation account on X has not posted anything, with today's FlexStrike fight stick post being the first since that day.

Sony stands to gain far more control over the market should physical discs be eliminated, according to a number of the industry experts we spoke to, who explained what motivated Sony to make that decision in the first place.

Indeed, as Eurogamer's editor-in-chief Chris Tapsell points out, Sony's stated reasoning is that it's merely following consumer trends, essentially shifting the blame to its users.

The Don't Kill the Disc petition may not amount to any real change, but it could just make it that much harder for Sony to bury its head in the sand.

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