The European Union, the regulator that forced Apple to adopt USB-C, fined Google billions, and broke Microsoft's bundling strategy, has met its match in a plastic disc.
EU Commissioner for consumer protection Michael McGrath confirmed this week that Brussels has no legal authority to block Sony's plan to end disc-based releases starting January 2028. Speaking to reporters in Strasbourg's European Parliament, McGrath said the decision comes down to "commercial and contractual freedoms."
"Companies are free to offer games and services in the manner that they see fit, provided that consumer rights are fully protected in line with national and EU law," McGrath said. The EU's hands-off stance lands weeks after Sony's July 1 announcement that all new PS5 titles from 2028 onward will be digital-only, including code-in-box retail options. A Change.org petition urging Sony to reverse course has amassed nearly 300,000 signatures, and PS5 owners have been posting cancelled PlayStation Plus subscriptions across social media.
Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of Japanese game consultancy Kantan Games, said the backlash is a rounding error for Sony. "They of course knew what the online reaction would look like, and they now wait for this storm to pass." With over 120 million active PlayStation users and roughly 50 million PlayStation Plus subscribers, even 500,000 cancellations would represent just 1% of that revenue stream.
The math explains Sony's stubbornness. On a first-party disc-based title like The Last of Us, Sony keeps roughly 65% of the sale price, with 30% going to the retailer and 5% to manufacturing. Sell the same title through the PlayStation Store and Sony pockets 100%.
For third-party titles like Call of Duty, the gap is even wider: a 15% licensing fee on discs versus a 30% cut on digital downloads, roughly $21 on a $70 game. That margin difference makes physical media a liability Sony is eager to shed, especially as console hardware costs climb and unit sales face pressure. The Stop Killing Games campaign suffered a related blow last month when the European Commission said EU copyright law prevents it from requiring publishers to keep games playable after they stop selling them commercially.
Rights holders, the Commission said, enjoy exclusive control over their creations. The consolation prize: a voluntary industry code of conduct on managing games' "end of life", a promise with no enforcement mechanism.
Physical PS5 games released before January 2028 will still function and can still receive new print runs. Santa Monica Studio confirmed this week that God of War Laufey will ship on disc, suggesting a 2027 release. Insomniac also confirmed that Marvel's Wolverine is getting a disc-based edition.
