As online petitions and other means of protests against Sony continue to grow after their recent announcement of stopping all production of discs from January 2028, the EU has stepped in and said that they’re powerless to stop Playstation, as well as any other company, from going with their current direction. Many had hoped that the EU which has multiple records of strict consumer protection, might make Sony course-correct in the near future but Ireland’s EU Commissioner has recently spoken that in these cases, the companies have all the rights to offer their games just the way they see fit.
As stated to the Irish Mirror, European Commissioner for consumer protection, Michael McGrath has stated the following regarding Sony’s decision which can likely lead to the death of all physical media:
“It does come down to commercial and contractual freedoms, and companies are free to offer games and services in the manner that they see fit, provided that consumer rights are fully protected in line with national and EU law,” he said.
“At this time, we did have to consider a European citizens initiative on this question of whether games should continue to be available after a new edition of the game has been brought forward.”
One of the problems of the complete loss of physical media is that it’ll give players far less control over their owned videogames and can essentially remove all sense of ownership and rights which in turn leaves all of that in the hands of the publishers. This also takes away all sense of freedom of playing that gamers have towards their owned copies which is damning in more ways than one, making the industry move one step closer to a centralized, authoritarian model where huge corporations have all the control while the players have almost none.
Sony’s decision to stop production of discs from 2028 is definitely the biggest piece of gaming news this year which would have far reaching ramifications throughout the coming months and years, possibly shaping the entire industry in ways that most gamers wouldn’t prefer.
