On the bright side, the PlayStation Network reached 127 million monthly users, an increase of eight million compared to the same period last year. The PS4 and PS5 also sold 7.9 million more software units, reaching 88.2 million for the quarter. Of that total, 8.2 million were first-party titles, a 1.9 million increase from last year.

And despite physical sales for some titles reportedly increasing since PlayStation announced the end of new disc production in January 2028, 78 percent of software sales were still full game digital downloads. That marks a six percent increase year-over-year.

While Sony’s next big first-party title, God of War Laufey, has been delayed out of the 2026 fiscal year window, it still has Grand Theft Auto 6 to look forward to. Despite also launching on Xbox Series X/S, the PS5 has reportedly beaten it in terms of pre-orders (though Xbox says it’s “very happy” with the results).

It’s essentially “set up to mimic a potential victim’s demographic messaging behavior while seeming completely legitimate to an anti-social (AS) user. This can entail mimicking the messaging behavior of minors and presenting that behavior where AS users look for it. The AS account establishes communication with the pseudo account.

“The AS account may be flagged as suspicious, and the system can wait for the AS user to make an initial move on a legitimate account and report it before any undesirable communication takes place. The pseudo account can be controlled by a large language model (LLM) such as a generative pre-trained transformer (GPTT).”

What constitutes “suspicious” activity? Spam, asking for personal information, inappropriate messages, cheating in-game, scams, and even attempting to contact a potential minor. Of course, it doesn’t move to ban them, nor does it punish regular interactions. Those who meet the above conditions, however, will be flagged, and anyone who interacts with them will see a warning.

It’s essentially a moderation system with the benefit that any hazardous accounts won’t know it’s a pseudo account. As far as AI use goes, this certainly ranks as useful. The real question is whether it’s actually put to use, given the number of patents that are registered and never materialize in a commercial sense. As always, time will tell, so stay tuned for more updates.

As far as popular decisions, it could certainly help PlayStation’s cause, especially after it decided to stop producing physical discs for new titles starting in January 2028. Despite acknowledging the significant backlash, CFO Lin Tao said the company would “cautiously move this forward.” Head here for more details.

Then came apathy, as the publisher went about its business as usual, advertising the FlexStrike fighting stick (since delayed to an unknown date), and upcoming titles like Marvel Tōkon: Fighting Souls, Marvel’s Wolverine and even Laufey, which received a release date. There’s even that new trailer for Zack Cregger’s Resident Evil that admittedly looks pretty slick, if not entirely Resident Evil-y.

But there’s a near-constant barrage of comments against the company’s policy, whether on Twitter, YouTube, or whatnot. A demand for physical discs, regardless of whether the games in question, like Wolverine and Laufey, are already confirmed to have physical releases. I haven’t seen every single comment out of the currently 7,000 or so on the latest story trailer for Insomniac’s latest, but amid all the scrolling, I think there were maybe two comments that had nothing to do with physical discs.

Regardless of the side you fall on, it’s a constant barrage showing no signs of slowing down, which has infested just about every new tweet and trailer uploaded on the PlayStation channel. Small third-party indie game? Triple-A blockbuster? Character Guide? Nothing is spared.

Various analysts say that PlayStation anticipated this backlash, to the point that, according to former Sony Santa Monica writer Alanah Pearce, it’s allegedly issued its strictest media guidelines yet. And that information apparently comes from those within PlayStation Studios itself. Sony knew it would get so bad to the point where a response, any response, would not help, and so it chose to remain apathetic. Not even a cliched “Let them eat brioche.” Just silence.

And depending on who you ask, it’s because discontinuing physical games is a foregone conclusion for the company. Chet Faliszek, who wrote Left 4 Dead and Portal, says it bluntly: “You, the consumer, have made a choice, and your choice is for digital. You as the consumer have forced the large corporations’ hand, and you’ve told them ‘Stop with retail.’ You should have started protesting Game Pass, and stop buying Xbox games, and stop buying digital. But you didn’t, because it’s easier.”

That last point is all the more noteworthy because it did in fact stop Xbox from shipping the complete game on its discs. Even recent releases like Halo: Campaign Evolved require downloading the day one patch upon first booting the game before you can even play offline. Far be it from this being a new practice – as we’ve pointed out before, even games like Crimson Desert can’t be played from the disc without a patch.

Others, like former Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser (in an interview with IGN), have been more neutral, not personally caring about physical games, but believing that “if people want that, I think companies should provide it.”

One good example of this is the limited physical edition for Mortal Shell 2. It sold out on PS5, exceeding publisher PlayStack’s expectations. Even if this isn’t as widely available as a standard physical release, surely it proves that even limited editions have a market, and that Sony shouldn’t abandon discs entirely.

Alas, the powers that be probably aren’t looking at such niche scenarios. It’s also likely not looking at sites like DoesItPlay.org, which keeps track of physical releases and whether they’re completely playable offline. On the PS5 side, a whopping 66 percent of titles don’t require a download at all for the optimal experience, while an additional 17 percent maintain the core experience, even if it would benefit from a day one patch. Granted, this doesn’t encompass every single PS5 title in existence, but 790 entries is no small number either. And you can probably forget about PlayStation considering the used games market, reportedly valued at about $7.5 billion last year, especially with how the industry has been combating it for decades at this point.

So what is it looking at? Probably the latest data from Circana, which pointed out how video game spending on physical discs in the United States has been on steady decline – going from a whopping $11.9 billion in 2009 to $1.6 billion so far this year. Believe it or not, the latter actually increased by three percent in the last 12 months ending May 2026 – quite some time before Sony made its announcement.

“Yes, physical currently matters far more in some places than it does in others, and digital isn’t a great option in some places,” says Circana’s Mat Piscatella. “The console manufacturers know all that.” Another interesting set of figures – during the week ending July 11th in the US, only two PlayStation titles sold more than 10,000 physical copies. In this year so far, only seven titles have sold over 100,000 physical units. And if they managed those figures, imagine the millions who bought them digitally.

All this, coupled with its apparent social media strategy, is enough to make you think that PlayStation doesn’t care. Do the benefits outweigh any potential negatives? Is an all-digital future really the way to go? It doesn’t matter because what’s done is done, yada yada, so on and so forth. Or is it?

No matter what direction the industry has been trending, PlayStation’s vision isn’t without flaws. Look no further than the recent PlayStation Network outage, which affected everything from the PlayStation Store to games that required multiplayer. Do the majority of players care that the root cause of these issues is Amazon Web Services’ servers? Or are they more concerned that they can’t experience the Marvel Tōkon open beta for hours on end?

I’ll leave you to decide the answer. But what happens in an all-digital future where such outages become more commonplace? Hell, what about later this year when Grand Theft Auto 6 launches? Given that it’s inherently digital, even if you buy the physical version, what happens if Rockstar maintains its pre-order momentum and, at a minimum, 37 million players try to pre-load the game a week before launch? Even if things are stabilized by launch, who’s to say the online infrastructure will hold up for the potential tens of millions more players in the first week?

At this point, you could look at it as neither side willing to budge, but I think PlayStation has already moved on. Like a breakup that only it knew about and which happened years before fans finally felt the effects. And as corny as it sounds, the fact that it knew there would be such significant backlash and carries – regardless of whether it goes away today, tomorrow, next week, next year or never – is a sign of the times.

Maybe it really won’t matter to the majority when the PlayStation 6 is announced and costs almost $1000 because the graphics are so pretty, and it runs Grand Theft Auto 6 in native 8K at 120 FPS. It may not even matter to that same subset of people when Intergalactic gets its first gameplay deep dive and looks fantastic, irony of a far future with physical music discs notwithstanding.

Because as far as PlayStation is concerned, as long as millions upon millions continue buying games on the store, purchasing consoles and subscribing to Plus, everything is fine, even as the garden’s walls close ever tighter.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

If you’re on the PlayStation Network, you’re still going to be able to play games, access the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog and Store, Trophies, and everything you get if you play solo. However, you’ll have to complete verifying your age before you get to hop back onto voice chat or message other players. Insider Gaming reports on the latest announcement, per an email from Sony, with the company stating its goal is “safe, age-appropriate experiences for players and families while respecting their privacy.”

There isn’t a date on when the new requirement kicks in, but it will apply globally. We’ll be sure to chime in as soon as there’s an announcement about it going live worldwide.

It’s otherwise been quite the busy month for PlayStation, although this one’s a tad more serious than that exciting launch of The Playerbase. After April 16th came and went, we’ve yet to hear when the next State of Play will occur, but with Insomniac Games promising more details on Marvel’s Wolverine this Spring, it may still be sometime before June.

Unfortunately, the outrage affected several titles with online events or ongoing betas. Destiny 2’s latest dungeon, Sundered Doctrine, saw its World First race hampered due to the outage. The same also applied to Capcom’s latest open beta for Monster Hunter Wilds. At least there’s another weekend to look forward to from February 13th to 16th.

Sony hasn’t revealed the nature of this issue or what caused it but stay tuned for updates. On the bright side, the company has removed mandatory PSN account linking for some of its titles on Steam. Instead, it’s now offering benefits for those who opt for the same, like additional outfits in The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, and more.

Network services have fully recovered from an operational issue. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank the community for their patience. All PlayStation Plus members will automatically receive an additional 5 days of service.

— Ask PlayStation (@AskPlayStation) February 9, 2025

The list on SteamDB coincides with areas where Sony hasn’t yet begun supporting PlayStation Network. It matches that of the region locking seen in Helldivers 2, which saw a similar move and a wave of controversy when it enforced a PSN account requirement.

It is notable, however, that Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition has no multiplayer component, and enforcing the need for a PSN account is a strange move. However, the most recent change log for God of War Ragnarök indicates that Sony might be getting ready to introduce region locking through a mandatory account.

For context, Helldivers 2 was de-listed from more than 170 countries back in May 2024. This came about due to Sony wanting to enforce PSN account linking for the multiplayer title, but also not supporting the existence of PSN in these countries. Before the region-locking happened, however, there was plenty of backlash from players before Sony backtracked.

Despite this, however, Helldivers 2 has gone on to do quite well, selling more than 15 million copies as of November last year. The game has since seen constant updates fixing issues, re-balancing gear and adding new content, including the Illuminate.

As for the PC release of Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition, you can check out our review, as well as our graphical comparison between the PC and PS5 release. The PC release did well enough to push it into the US best-selling charts when it came out last year.

The practice began controversially with Arrowhead’s Helldivers 2, and though Sony eventually went back on this, it became mandatory for Ghost of Tsushima’s online Legends mode on PC. Titles like God of War Ragnarok and Until Dawn remake also required linking a PSN account, despite being single-player experiences.

Even if it was given with other PlayStation exclusives on PC, Lost Soul Aside seemingly points towards other PC titles under the China Hero Project having similar requirements. We’ll have to wait for further details, of course.

Lost Soul Aside launches in 2025 for PS5 and PC. Check out some more extensive gameplay here.

Full game software sales on PS4 and PS5 reached 53.6 million, down from the previous fiscal year’s 56.5 million. Out of this figure, six million units were first-party titles, a slight decrease from last year’s 6.6 million despite the lack of major launches. Digital downloads comprised 80 percent of those figures, compared to 70 percent year-over-year.

On the bright side, PlayStation Network’s monthly active user count rose significantly from 108 million last fiscal year to 116 million this year. Overall operating income for Games and Network Services is up from $335 million to $443 million, while sales for the quarter rose 12 percent compared to the same quarter last year.

Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut includes the base game, Iki Island expansion and co-op mode Legends. It also marks the debut of PlayStation Network integration and Trophies on PC. Unfortunately, following the PSN-linking controversy with Helldivers 2, Sony has restricted the game’s purchase in multiple countries.

Linking with a PlayStation Network account is required for playing Legends (but not the campaign) and enabling cross-play. However, the latter is currently in the beta stage – you can invite players via PSN and group with them, but PC players can’t randomly matchmake with those on PS4 and PS5. Sucker Punch and Nixxes haven’t indicated how long the beta will last, so stay tuned for updates.

It also revealed that while Ghost of Tsushima Legends will be available for PC players, cross-play is launching into beta. That means you won’t “automatically” match with those other platforms, but you can invite PSN friends (linking Steam with PSN is required for accessing Legends). Cross-play will receive further adjustments in the “weeks following launch.”

Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut is also confirmed to be verified on Steam Deck and other handheld gaming PCs. The “Unsupported” tag is due to Legends requiring Windows for PSN, but single-player, including the Iki Island expansion, is supported. Head here for more details on PC requirements and PlayStation Network features.

Ghost of Tsushima Director’s Cut is also available for PS4 and PS5. Check out our review here.