Yesterday’s bombshell news from Sony that it will stop releasing new PlayStation games on disc from 2028 onwards has generated a predictively negative response online — to the extent that celebrities and major brands from beyond the world of gaming have also joined in.
While it was to be expected that video game developers and fans would have strong opinions on what many see as an abrupt end to consoles supporting game discs (and indeed, we’ve rounded up many of the industry’s opinions right here), the news that PS5 would ditch physical media has travelled far and wide, reported by major news sources and parodied by brands on social media.
“BREAKING NEWS: KFC will stop offering its physical format starting today,” wrote the official X/Twitter account for KFC in Spain, which has over 1 million followers. “Products can only be consumed through our app in fake PNG format. Within one month we’ll release a DLC with the sauces.
🚨ÚLTIMA HORA: KFC dejará de ofrecer su formato físico a partir de hoy.
Sus productos solo se podrán consumir a través de su app en formato falso png. pic.twitter.com/7BBC2uqXHO
— KFC (@KFC_ES) July 2, 2026
“Within a year we’ll release the FriedChicken Pass,” KFC continued. “You’ll get our entire catalog for a modest monthly price. If you pirate the PNGs on Pinterest we’ll come to your house.”
Sticking in the world of fast food brands, Domino’s Pizza UK retweeted PlayStation’s announcement and commented that it “makes about as much sense as us changing to digital pizzas.” It continued: “They took Blockbuster from us. Now the gaming aisle.”
BREAKING NEWS pic.twitter.com/i28QZd7Z2g
— Domino’s Pizza UK (@Dominos_UK) July 2, 2026
Meanwhile, former late night chat show host Trevor Noah took to X/Twitter to criticize Sony’s decision in detail, arguing that sharing games via their physical discs was the only way some gamers could afford to play, when copies were eventually available cheaper second-hand. “You can also give games to your younger siblings,” Noah continued. “Which is a great way to introduce them to the games you were playing.”
Noah even pointed to Sony’s announcement earlier this week that a swathe of films bought digitally via the PlayStation Store would be removed from customers’ accounts due to rights issues.
“As we saw from PlayStation this past week, if the media we buy is only digital, it can be taken away from us at a moment’s notice with no recourse,” Noah concluded. “Imagine that, one day your entire library of games could be deleted overnight because technically you don’t own it.”
The post has been warmly received, with former Battlefield director David Goldfarb noting his approval, and the popular video game preservation and accessibility account Does it Play? stating that this was an “underrepresented aspect” that would also harm game sales by removing one method that provided word of mouth and discoverability.
Within the games industry, retro and indie console manufacturer Blaze Entertainment, which makes the cartridge-based Evercade consoles, published its own parody of Sony’s infamous “this is how you share your games on PS4” video, which many have pointed to in the past 24 hours as coming from a now-bygone era.
Official Evercade Physical Game Sharing Instructional Video pic.twitter.com/Ufb3eLmBpT
— Evercade (@evercaderetro) July 2, 2026
While many see digital downloads as the sole, inevitable method of game ownership in future, Sony simultaneously undermined this notion yesterday with the announcement that it was shutting down its PlayStation Store on the aging PS3 and PlayStation Vita. At the same time, analysts have pointed to the end of physical media on PS5 as a clear signal that PS6 will be a digital-only console, and not due for launch until at least 2028.
It’s not just Sony doing away with discs, either. Microsoft’s next-gen Xbox, codenamed Project Helix, will reportedly release without a disc drive. In tandem, Microsoft is said to be exploring a new disc-to-digital feature that would let users put a disc into their console and gain a digital license for the game, giving them the ability to play it without a disc.
Image credit: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
