Shawn Layden says PlayStation dropping discs risks player trust
Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden says Sony risks player trust by walking away from game discs from 2028.
Layden told The Expansion Pass podcast he does not agree with the digital-only plan. The interview was published on YouTube on 1 October 2026, with new coverage of his comments published on 6 October 2026 by Video Games Chronicle.
He was blunt. A disc can be kept, lent or resold. A download cannot.
Layden was chairman of Sony's worldwide studios group when he left the company in 2019. He spent 32 years at Sony, according to Eurogamer, a run that covered the rise of the original PlayStation through to the PlayStation 4 era.
His objection centres on ownership. Buying a physical disc gives the buyer a copy to keep and sell on. Buying digital normally buys a licence, which is permission to play held on an account and tied to store rules.
Layden put it simply. If you cannot sell a thing, you do not own that thing. If you do not own it, he asked, what are you buying.
He said the shift changes the conversation from owning a game to having access to a digital asset. Players then start to think through the worst case. What happens if an account is closed, a store changes its terms, or a game is removed from sale.
For that reason, Layden called the decision a significant brand hit. He said it puts reputation at risk, because players will game out that worst-case scenario for themselves.
He also stressed the limits of his view. He said he was not in the room for the decision and did not know the financial pressures or spreadsheet behind it. He had earlier called the all-digital plan "a fairly dramatic decision", as reported by Push Square.
The full podcast conversation ranged more widely across Xbox, PlayStation, artificial intelligence and the cost of big-budget games, listed on YouTube.
What makes this stand out is the messenger. Layden once led the studios that made PlayStation's biggest exclusives. Now he is speaking as a former insider, and as a player advocate on resale and long-term access.
