Former PlayStation Head Harshly Criticizes the Future of Disc-less Gaming

Shawn Layden criticized Sony's abandonment of physical media, stating that without the ability to resell a game, a player cannot consider it their own property.

In The Expansion Pass podcast, former head of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios Shawn Layden acknowledged the convenience of digital downloads, though he called ignoring disc buyers a serious business mistake. According to him, although physical copies currently account for about 20% of the market, these buyers remain the core of the community and often purchase several editions of the same game for their collection.

Layden's main complaint concerns ownership rights. Abandoning discs turns buying a game into paying for temporary access to a digital file. The former executive formulated the principle as follows: if an item cannot be lent to a friend, put on a shelf, or legally sold on the secondary market, then it was never your property.

Layden also stated that he disagrees with the decision to abandon disc drives regardless of how profitable it appears in corporate calculations.