Previous reports had indicated that, leading up to January 2028, when Sony plans to stop producing PlayStation discs, the company’s Thalgau plant will only produce 10 percent of its previous volume. A new report courtesy of Game (by Pad and Pixel) has indicated that this was a misunderstanding of what Sony DADC (the disc-making division for Sony) chief, Dietmar Tanzer, had said in July.
Clearing things up, Sony DADC has confirmed in a statement that its disc-making operations will only see a 10 percent decline. It will not drop its production down to only 10 percent of what it used to be. “To clarify and avoid any misleading information: in that statement, Dietmar anticipated an overall product volume decline by 10 percent, not a decline down to 10 percent,” explained a Sony DADC spokesperson.
Neither the spokesperson nor Tanzer has revealed any details about production targets for the following year. However, the spokesperson did reaffirm that Sony will continue to order reorders of discs for games that were released before the January 2028 deadline.
In the meantime, former Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios head, Shawn Layden, offered some insight on the disc-making process and how it affects Sony and Microsoft in different ways. He confirmed that, while Sony produces its own discs, Microsoft licenses the production of Xbox discs to a host of “Authorized Replicators”. Layden called this a major hurdle for Sony when it comes to the future of physical media. “And unless they decide or determine a way to license that to some of these bespoke disc manufacturers, there’s no way to make it happen,” he said.
Layden went on to talk about the nature of physical media, especially among collectors, and pointed to the music and book industries for examples of how digital media, while still popular, has had to make way for people who enjoy collecting vinyl records and hardcopies of books. He also spoke about how collecting things tends to be a major aspect of playing video games in general, so wanting to collect games in physical form would be a natural part of the hobby.
“No one ever saw the comeback of cassette tape,” he said. “And vinyl didn’t so much come back. The flame went down, the fire’s dying, but the ember was always there, and it just kind of came back, much like the book business. We thought we’d all be on Kindles right now. I believe that physical media is crucial and important. One of the things that makes us gamers, one of the core game mechanics, going back to the beginning of time, is collecting stuff.
“Did you get all the diamonds in Crash Bandicoot? Did you get all the stars in Mario? And we like to collect our games. And we have a game shelf. And we put all our boxes up there. And if you’re super hardcore, when you buy a game, you buy two copies, right? One stays in the shrink wrap, and you play the other one. What happens to that important cultural part of the gaming world? You know, we buy the steelbook and the three-disc Final Fantasy set and the figurine and, you know, you can’t download any of that. What happens to that?”
Speaking further about the potential impact of Sony’s decision to end PlayStation disc production, Layden also pointed out the fact that, while it might make financial sense for the company to cut costs in this way, executives might not be keeping an eye on how these decisions are also affecting Sony’s brand value.
“OK, we can do this and save this much money, or we can invest this to look at that outcome, or we can do this and have this happen over there, or move this team to Sri Lanka. But each one of those, someone also has to have a ledger there saying, ‘OK, what is the brand impact from that move?’
“If we do that, dollars and cents work out. I get it. That’s just math. But what’s the brand impact? Are people going to say, ‘Good move, you guys?’ Or are they going to say, ‘We hate you guys. Quit doing that.’ And sometimes they say, ‘We hate you.’ Then you take a note and say, OK, how much of that can we live with? How much ‘we hate you’ is OK? And when does it go over the line? I see a lot of companies making decisions which, objectively speaking, I don’t know what the dollar end of that was for you, Mr. Company, but your brand value just dropped 30 percent. So I hope it was worth it.”
