A former Sony Santa Monica Studio writer says PlayStation imposed its strictest-ever social media rules on staff around the company's decision to end physical game disc production — a move she says means Sony expected the uproar that followed.

Alanah Pearce, who worked at the Sony-owned studio behind the God of War series until 2024, made the remarks in a YouTube video titled "Everyone is missing the point." She said current employees at PlayStation's first-party studios told her the guidelines issued for the physical media announcement were the most restrictive they had ever seen regarding public communications (Eurogamer).

Pearce argued that Sony would only have imposed such tight rules if it knew the announcement would be a significant public relations problem. The backlash, in her words, was no surprise to the company.

Sony does regularly tell employees what they can and cannot say about certain topics, Pearce noted. She said she was under similar guidelines when working on God of War, and that Sony sent her specific instructions on what she could say the day that game was announced to the public.

The video was originally surfaced by Insider Gaming, which reported that Sony enforced its strictest social media rules on employees following the disc production decision. Push Square separately reported that Sony had imposed "strictest ever" social media guidelines on staff in response to the controversy (Push Square).

The underlying announcement came on 1 July 2026, when Sony published a post on the official PlayStation Blog stating that physical disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles would end in January 2028. The company described the change as "in response to shifting trends in consumer preference" and said new games would be released at retailers "in digital formats only" (PlayStation Blog).

The policy applies to all games releasing on PlayStation, not just those published by Sony's own Interactive Entertainment arm. Third-party titles are included as well. Retail options like code-in-the-box — where a store sells a case containing a download code rather than a functional disc — remain available.

On the same day as the disc announcement, Sony also published a separate blog post titled "An update on PlayStation Store for PS3 and PS Vita," addressing digital storefront changes for its older hardware generations.

For players who have built collections around physical discs, the 2028 cutoff gives roughly 18 months of transition. The guidelines Pearce described suggest Sony's own communications team saw that timeline as a challenge to manage — not just an operational shift to announce.