David Hayter, the voice behind Solid Snake, has joined the growing chorus of gaming figures pushing back against Sony's announcement that it will stop manufacturing disc-based games starting January 2028.
Hayter posted a photo on X showing his personal gaming setup, a shelf stacked with Xbox and PS4 game cases, and attached the hashtag #NoDiscNoBuy while tagging the official @PlayStation account directly. The message was short and pointed: “Oh yeah. #NoDiscNOBUY.”
Snake's voice joins a growing list of industry names
Hayter isn't the first major name to speak out. Hideo Kojima, the creator of Metal Gear Solid, previously described Sony's physical media exit as "scary," warning that players won't truly own their games once everything lives on a server. When the person who built Snake's world and the actor who gave him his voice are both raising the same alarm, it's hard to dismiss the concern as fringe sentiment.
The backlash has been building since Sony's announcement dropped last week. A petition opposing the decision has already passed 200,000 signatures, Sony's social media accounts have been flooded with criticism, and the company notably went quiet for nearly a week before returning to posting as if nothing had happened.
Why physical media still matters to players
Here's the thing: the numbers do show physical game sales declining. Revenue from physical games in the United States sits roughly 85% below its 2008 peak. Sony isn't wrong that digital has taken over as the dominant format for most buyers.
But the players pushing back aren't the casual ones who forgot disc drives exist. They're the enthusiast base, collectors, preservationists, and people who've watched digital storefronts quietly delist titles they thought they owned. The key here is that owning a disc means owning access permanently. A digital license can disappear when a server goes down or a publisher pulls the plug.
Hayter's post resonates precisely because it's so personal. He didn't write a statement or give an interview. He just photographed his own shelf of games and said what a lot of players are thinking.
What Sony needs to do next
The backlash isn't fading. With prominent figures like Hayter and Kojima publicly aligned against this decision, Sony can't treat this as a vocal minority it can wait out. A real response, one that addresses ownership concerns and the long-term accessibility of its game library, is overdue.
For players who want to stay across everything Metal Gear, the Metal Gear Solid guide collection is worth bookmarking as the conversation around preservation and access continues to heat up. And if you're tracking the broader physical media debate across the industry, the gaming guides hub has you covered on the latest developments worth knowing.
