Father of PlayStation says discs are now a metaphor for ownership

The man who created the PlayStation says game discs are no longer really about plastic. They are about the feeling of ownership.

Ken Kutaragi, known as the Father of PlayStation, told Video Games Chronicle that he understands why fans do not want to give up physical games. Physical discs, he said, have become a metaphor for "owning" games. The interview took place at the Game Republic New Horizons event, as reported by Eurogamer.

His sympathy has limits. Kutaragi said anger over the discontinuation of discs is probably a "mentality issue". He understands the reaction, but he does not think it is economically reasonable to keep printing them.

He pointed to phones. Nobody argues that a networked device like a smartphone needs physical media, he said, because people feel they will keep their content. Sony, he suggested, may be pushing toward an all-digital device, a console with no disc drive that relies on downloads, in a similar way to smartphones. That push has caused friction with game enthusiasts.

"I'm not the CEO at PlayStation any more, but we still have some common [view points]," Kutaragi said.

Kutaragi retired from PlayStation in June 2007. He is currently chief executive of Ascent Robotics and owner of Cyber AI Entertainment.

He also questioned the direction of hardware. Current machines are "super expensive and that's not a healthy situation", he said. If AI and cloud computing, where games run on remote servers rather than the box under the television, are harnessed to their full potential, "we won't need any console".

For fans, this means the debate is about trust as much as technology. Discs sit on a shelf. Downloads sit on an account. Kutaragi's argument is that the industry already made that trade on phones, and consoles are following.

The remarks were first reported by Video Games Chronicle and widely picked up on 19 October 2026.