Wild speculations emerged over the weekend that Sony Interactive Entertainment is gearing up to cease production of PlayStation game discs, after a Japanese report was taken out of context. Although the report itself is in English, it pertains to blank optical disc production specifically in Japan, and has nothing to do with Sony’s gaming business.
PlayStation game discs ‘marked safe’ from cuts
According to Mainichi Japan, Sony’s cutting around 250 jobs from its recordable media business. The usual engagement farmers on X shared the report with misleading text, leading to another round of console wars and a strange panic among fans.
Popular X user Wario64 was one of those who shared the report and got hit with Community Notes, but that understandably didn’t stop the console warriors.
Most game and movie replication isn’t using Sony discs, this impacts predominantly SELF WRITING MEDIA Aka BDR etc Sony always pioneers a tech and then outsources to far cheaper external manufacturing. This is no different.— Jon Doyle @LostInCult (@JonDoyleDesign) June 29, 2024
It certainly doesn’t help that that an all-digital future is a recurring topic in gaming circles.
Recently, veteran U.S. market analyst Mat Piscatella opined that Sony and Nintendo will both eventually embrace a digital future, with Microsoft already heading into one as it’s increasingly moving away from physical releases. Piscatella reckons that by PS7, PlayStation game discs will be a rarity.
Meanwhile, Nintendo is expected to hold the line for at least two more generations.