NIS America president Kenzo Saruhashi reports ongoing discussions with Sony regarding its scheduled January 2028 shutdown of physical game disc manufacturing, as developers and players push back against a digital-only future for PlayStation consoles through recent surveys and public feedback.
When Sony announced plans to cease manufacturing physical game discs starting in January 2028, the decision triggered immediate controversy across the gaming industry. While major industry players like SEGA and Capcom have indicated they are unconcerned by the shift, companies that rely heavily on physical collector’s editions face a starkly different business reality.
NIS America President Kenzo Saruhashi Pursues Discussions With Sony Over Physical Media Cutoff
Kenzo Saruhashi, who serves as CEO of Nippon Ichi Software and president of subsidiary NIS America, addressed the upcoming cutoff during an interview at PAX West. The publisher frequently produces elaborate limited-edition boxed sets containing physical discs alongside collectible memorabilia. Although the company briefly experimented with game key cards on the Switch 2, customer pushback prompted a swift retreat from that format.
Saruhashi noted that his studio is currently operating under the same public timeline as consumers, yet he remains hopeful that a compromise might emerge for specialized publishers. In our discussions with Sony so far, I think that they’re hearing a lot of the feedback from customers and so while that may be one destination that we arrive at, it’s possible that the discussion may change in the future, so we’ll have to see what happens, what comes of it,
Saruhashi stated.
Developer Surveys and Public Pushback Challenge the 2028 Discless Mandate
Industry rumblings suggest that Sony distributed a comprehensive survey to game developers asking for direct feedback on its physical media elimination strategy. According to leaks discussed on a recent livestream by Moore’s Law Is Dead, the questionnaire represents one of the largest information-gathering efforts the platform holder has ever directed at its development partners, specifically probing whether studios harbor concerns about abandoning physical sales.
Parallel to the developer questionnaire, PlayStation launched a public survey on September 25 targeting adult players. While the questionnaire covers general console satisfaction, the DualSense controller, and exclusive software libraries, it offers open text fields that players quickly repurposed to criticize the discless transition. Social media reactions captured widespread consumer frustration, with one participant writing, To access this information, please insert the ‘my opinion’ disc into the disc drive, plus download the needed information from the internet.
Between Code in the Box Realities and Corporate Stance
Despite mounting public pushback and developer dialogue, Sony leadership has previously signaled firm resolve. During a July investor Q&A, chief financial officer Lin Tao acknowledged strong public opposition but confirmed that the corporation intends to cautiously move forward with its digital strategy. For publishers like NIS America, the fallback option if physical disc production ceases entirely in January 2028 remains transitioning to a code in the box
format.
At the same time, market data confirms the ongoing commercial viability of retail releases. Figures from Alinea Analytics show that Marvel’s Wolverine generated 23 percent of its first three-day revenue from physical retail sales. Whether incoming survey data and executive discussions can alter a factory retooling already underway across Sony’s manufacturing operations remains entirely unconfirmed.
