Your physical game collection might be worth more than you think. Hideo Kojima, the creator of Death Stranding and Metal Gear, has gone on record saying he's "really sad" about Sony Interactive Entertainment's decision to stop manufacturing physical game discs from January 2028. But the disc situation is almost a footnote compared to what actually worries him.
What Kojima actually said, and why it matters
Speaking at the "Il Cinema in Piazza" Film Festival in Italy, Kojima drew a clear line between two very different futures. Digital downloads, he argued, are at least something you hold locally. The game data sits on your hardware. That's not ideal for a physical media lover, but it's manageable.
Cloud gaming is a different story entirely.
"With streaming subscription services, like Netflix or Amazon, there is a server somewhere, and you essentially just have the right to turn the tap," Kojima told the audience. "And when you do, the data flows out." The consequence, he pointed out, is that you never actually possess anything. You're renting access, not owning content.
His concern goes beyond inconvenience. Kojima specifically flagged geopolitics as a real risk: "With nations, politics and various ways of thinking, one naturally has to consider the possibility that if there is a change, the data inside will stop being distributed. And if that happens you won't be able to watch or play the movies and games you like."
These aren't new fears for him. A 2021 post he made on the same topic has been recirculating this week, where he wrote that "access to it may suddenly be cut off" whenever major changes happen in the world, in governments, or in corporate thinking. The timing of that resurfacing is pointed.
The PlayStation disc situation Kojima is reacting to
Sony confirmed publicly this week that it will stop manufacturing physical game discs starting January 2028. The announcement landed hard for collectors and physical media advocates, but the details that followed softened the edges slightly.
Sony has told development partners that reprints of games released before the 2028 cutoff will still be possible, so older titles won't be completely locked out of physical form. Sony has also said it will give publishers the option to release new games at retail using digital codes, potentially in physical boxes, similar to what's reportedly being planned for GTA 6's boxed edition.
That last point is worth sitting with. A box with a download code isn't a physical game. It's a receipt. The distinction Kojima is drawing between "data on your hardware" and "access to a server" applies just as sharply here.
The gap between digital downloads and cloud streaming
Kojima's framing is useful because it separates two things the industry often lumps together. Buying a digital game on PSN and streaming a game via a cloud service are not the same thing, even though neither involves a disc.
A downloaded game lives on your console until you delete it. A streamed game lives on a server you have no control over. If that server goes offline, if a licensing deal expires, if a company folds or a government blocks access, the game is gone. You paid for something that was never really yours.
This is already happening with movies and music. Titles disappear from streaming platforms constantly. Games face the same risk, and the stakes are arguably higher because games are interactive and often require active server infrastructure to function at all.
For players who want to hold onto their libraries long-term, our gaming guides section covers preservation-adjacent topics across current-gen titles, including horror games like Hollowbody on PS5 that represent exactly the kind of disc-era experience Kojima is mourning.
Where this debate goes from here
Kojima isn't alone in these concerns, but his voice carries weight. He's one of the most visible creative figures in the industry, and his comments at a film festival in Italy, translated and shared widely, have given the PlayStation disc news a sharper cultural edge than a corporate announcement alone would have.
Sony's 2028 timeline gives players roughly 18 months to stock up on physical releases before new disc production ends. Whether publishers embrace the code-in-box format or quietly abandon physical retail altogether will define what the post-disc PlayStation era actually looks like for consumers.
The conversation around cloud gaming and ownership isn't going away. If anything, Kojima's comments suggest it's just getting started. Phasmophobia's recent port announcement for Nintendo Switch 2 is a reminder that physical platforms still have advocates, and players still have choices, for now.
