Companies are Hilarious Trolling Sony’s No-Disc Playstation Future
Sony’s confirmation that it is pulling the plug on physical Playstation game discs was always going to get a strong reaction. While Sony would be braced for a wave of backlash, they probably had not considered that their announcement would see several big brands jumping on their social media accounts to announce their own digital revolution.
In one of the funniest corporate pile-ons in recent memory, Sony has been completely trolled for their latest controversial announcement following the removal of over 500 Studio Canal titles from the Playstation library, all of which may have been “purchased” in the past by users, which will no longer be available from September 1. In a statement, the media giant revealed that from January 2028 it will completely stop producing physical disc-based games, with all titles being released as digital only purchases.
Soon after this, pizza chain Domino’s shared their own “announcement” on their X account. The post told customers that in the near future, the company will stop the production of physical pizza’s as a “response to trends in the gaming industry.” Instead, they advised that they will be offering their patrons digital codes so they can enjoy “using the power of imagination” to savor the delicious flavor of their chosen toppings. In a follow up post, they added a stinger that their famous “Domin-oh-hoo-hoo” slogan would be changed to “Domin-oh-hoo-whose-dumb-idea-was-this?” It summed up the sentiment perfectly.
KFC’s Spanish account went even further into the joke, creating a whole video ad which included a riff on the old anti-piracy warning videos that were included on VHS tapes and DVDs. It “announced” that its fried chicken would be available only in “fake PNG format,” consumed through their app, with sauces sold separately as downloadable DLC a month later.
Sony is Not Getting Away Lightly With This Announcement
From a sector closer to Sony’s Playstation audience, gaming chair maker Respawn joined in as well, posting its own mock announcement retiring physical chairs and inviting customers to simply imagine their comfort as the great digital shift continues.
Word even seems to have made it Santa Claus, as the X account Santa Decides shared a 2020 post from their own account that put the company on the “nice” list. The new post appears to revoke the previous one, with the shared memory having “nvm” – or nevermind for those not quite on board with internet abbreviations. No toys for Sony this year, then.
Of course, behind the jokes and backhanded swipes at Sony’s announcement is a genuine concern about how much of our lives are becoming nothing more than a piece of data on a cloud. Online banking, shopping, dating and streaming have become an unavoidable part of life, even though one internet outage or cyber-attack could wipe everything and leave people without access to a large part of their own lives. Now physical media is quickly heading the same way. Last week it was revealed that the long-awaited GTA6 will be released as a digital code in a physical disc packaging, but there will be no disc ever available. Sony’s new announcement has made it clear that this kind of digital only release is now set to become the norm.
Sony Has Gone Back on Its Own Game-Sharing Stance
Although game stores will still be able to sell these items, at least for now, the lack of a disc has left many asking what this means for trade-ins and second-hand stores who have spent the last three decades buying and selling old video games. Will these new digital codes be reusable? It doesn’t sound like something that Sony will be looking to introduce at a time when every digital service wants to stop users sharing passwords with family members and purchase multiple subscription packages.
There is also an irony in Sony’s announcement. Back in 2013, Sony spent the launch of the PS4 mocking Microsoft’s restrictive Xbox One policies with a viral clip showing how to “share” games. How? By simply handing a disc to a friend. More than a decade later, Sony’s discless future has now clearly abandoned that happy ideal to force users to buy a game for themselves and only themselves, and the PS6 ads are going to be interesting when they eventually appear.
Where the digital revolution ends is unclear. For many, the idea of buying a CD or DVD is as obsolete as Playstation’s disc are set to become in the next few years. Who knows, perhaps in five years’ time we will all look back and wonder how we ever lived with all that physical junk. Maybe then we will just be sitting in our empty rooms on imaginary chairs eating a pizza that doesn’t exist playing the latest PS6 game on a console we don’t own.
(featured image: Cinemassacre/YouTube)
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