{"id":2038662,"date":"2026-07-11T14:10:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T11:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2038662"},"modified":"2026-07-11T14:10:55","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T11:10:55","slug":"eu-admits-it-cannot-stop-sony-killing-physical-discs-companies-are-free-to-offer-games-and-services-in-the-manner-that-they-see-fit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2038662","title":{"rendered":"EU admits it cannot stop Sony killing physical discs \u2013 &#8220;companies are free to offer games and services in the manner that they see fit&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<article class=\"article \" data-ads=\"true\" data-article-type=\"news\" data-article-group=\"news\" data-paywalled=\"false\" data-premium=\"false\" data-sponsored=\"false\" data-type=\"article\">\n<header class=\"article_header\" data-component=\"article-header\">\n<div class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n<nav class=\"nav_breadcrumbs\" data-component=\"nav-breadcrumbs\" aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\">\n<ul class=\"nav-links\">\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      Home<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<li>\n                <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/news\" data-active=\"false\"><br \/>\n                      News<br \/>\n                <\/a>\n            <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_details\" id=\"main-content\">\n<h1 class=\"title\">EU admits it cannot stop Sony killing physical discs \u2013 &#8220;companies are free to offer games and services in the manner that they see fit&#8221;<\/h1>\n<p class=\"strapline\">&#8220;It does come down to commercial and contractual freedoms.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"headline_asset\">\n<figure class=\"headline_image_wrapper\">\n<p>        <img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"headline_image\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/Screenshot-2026-07-11-at-15.03.49.png?width=570&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;dpr=3&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"A hand holds video game discs against a background split between a pink surface with more discs and the blue and gold flag of the European Union.\" loading=\"eager\" data-uri=\"Screenshot-2026-07-11-at-15.03.49.png\" data-lightbox width=\"570\" height=\"321\"><figcaption>\n          <span class=\"attribution\">Image credit: <cite>Eurogamer<\/cite><\/span><br \/>\n        <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"metadata\">\n<div class=\"avatar\">\n<p>    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Vikki Blake avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/assetsio.gnwcdn.com\/1533038852.jpg?width=2048&amp;height=2048&amp;fit=bounds&amp;quality=85&amp;format=jpg&amp;auto=webp\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"179\"><\/p>\n<p>  <img alt=\"Vikki Blake avatar\" data-autosize=\"crop_lossy\" data-uri=\"1533038852.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1\" width=\"180\" height=\"179\">\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text\">\n<div class=\"byline\">\n                  <span class=\"article_type\" data-slug=\"news\"><br \/>\n                    News<br \/>\n                  <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"by\">by<\/span> <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/authors\/vikki-blake\">Vikki Blake<\/a><\/span>                    <span class=\"job_title\"><br \/>\n                      Contributor<br \/>\n                    <\/span>\n            <\/div>\n<div class=\"published_at\">\nPublished on <time datetime=\"2026-07-11T14:10:55+00:00\">July 11, 2026<\/time>              <\/div>\n<div class=\"comments\">\n      <a class=\"comments__link comments-bubble\" href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/eu-cannot-stop-sony-killing-physical-discs?view=comments\" rel=\"nofollow\"><br \/>\n          12 comments<br \/>\n      <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>The European Union has confirmed it cannot prevent Sony from scrapping physical discs, stating &#8220;companies are free to offer games and services in the manner that they see fit&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/sony-ending-playstation-discs-physical-media-january-2028\">Sony&#8217;s shocking decision to end all physical media on PlayStation<\/a>, including for games not published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, was announced on 1st July. All releases from January 2028 onwards will be digital-only, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/grand-theft-auto-6-preorders-gta6-no-disc\">code-in-the-box-style options<\/a> at retail.<\/p>\n<p>In response to the news, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\/p\/don-t-kill-the-disc-tell-sony-to-keep-physical-playstation-games\">the Don&#8217;t Kill the Disc Change.org petition<\/a> quickly picked up traction, amassing over 286,000 signatures at the time of writing.<\/p>\n<p>Despite this, the EU&#8217;s commissioner for consumer protection, Michael McGrath, has admitted that not much can be done at an EU level to save the discs for customers, citing &#8220;commercial and contractual freedoms&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>As spotted by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/news\/irish-news\/politics\/eu-cannot-stop-sony-developers-37398844\">Irish Mirror<\/a>, McGrath, speaking in Strasbourg\u2019s European Parliament to reporters, said: &#8220;It does come down to commercial and contractual freedoms, and 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.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At this time, we did have to consider a European citizens initiative on this question of whether games should continue to be available after a new edition of the game has been brought forward.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The wide-reaching ramifications for the industry at large are part of the petition&#8217;s core thesis, which calls out Sony&#8217;s 2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=kWSIFh8ICaA\">Official PlayStation Used Game Instructional Video<\/a> as mocking something the company would become just 13 years later.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"preferred-source\" data-component=\"preferred-source\">\nLove Eurogamer.net? Make us a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\">Preferred Source on Google<\/a> and catch more of our coverage in your feeds.  <\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"article_body\" data-component=\"article-content\">\n<div class=\"article_body_content article-styling\">\n<p>The European Union has confirmed it cannot prevent Sony from scrapping physical discs, stating &#8220;companies are free to offer games and services in the manner that they see fit&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/sony-ending-playstation-discs-physical-media-january-2028\">Sony&#8217;s shocking decision to end all physical media on PlayStation<\/a>, including for games not published by Sony Interactive Entertainment, was announced on 1st July. All releases from January 2028 onwards will be digital-only, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurogamer.net\/grand-theft-auto-6-preorders-gta6-no-disc\">code-in-the-box-style options<\/a> at retail.<\/p>\n<p>In response to the news, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.change.org\/p\/don-t-kill-the-disc-tell-sony-to-keep-physical-playstation-games\">the Don&#8217;t Kill the Disc Change.org petition<\/a> quickly picked up traction, amassing over 286,000 signatures at the time of writing.<\/p>\n<p>Despite this, the EU&#8217;s commissioner for consumer protection, Michael McGrath, has admitted that not much can be done at an EU level to save the discs for customers, citing &#8220;commercial and contractual freedoms&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>As spotted by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishmirror.ie\/news\/irish-news\/politics\/eu-cannot-stop-sony-developers-37398844\">Irish Mirror<\/a>, McGrath, speaking in Strasbourg\u2019s European Parliament to reporters, said: &#8220;It does come down to commercial and contractual freedoms, and 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.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;At this time, we did have to consider a European citizens initiative on this question of whether games should continue to be available after a new edition of the game has been brought forward.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The wide-reaching ramifications for the industry at large are part of the petition&#8217;s core thesis, which calls out Sony&#8217;s 2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=kWSIFh8ICaA\">Official PlayStation Used Game Instructional Video<\/a> as mocking something the company would become just 13 years later.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Home News EU admits it cannot stop Sony killing physical discs \u2013 &#8220;companies are free to offer games and services in the manner that they see fit&#8221; &#8220;It does come down to commercial and contractual freedoms.&#8221; Image credit: Eurogamer News by Vikki Blake Contributor Published on July 11, 2026 12 comments The European Union has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,253],"class_list":["post-2038662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-eurogamer-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2038662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038662\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2038662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2038662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2038662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}