Sony Supposedly Surveying Devs on Death of PS5 Discs 1
Image: Sammy Barker / Push Square

Sony is apparently surveying development partners about its decision to kill physical discs.

According to YouTuber Moore’s Law Is Dead, who does appear to have industry contacts, the quiz includes a question about physical media and how studios feel about it.

He says, as first spotted by Reddit:

“There is a survey Sony sent out to developers which is, what I was told by my contacts, a bigger survey than they’ve sent almost ever before.

There was a question in it trying to ask in a not-direct way: is there an issue with not selling games physically? [It’s] asking developers for feedback on killing discs.

Wolverine is still selling plenty of physical copies and Sony is starting to ask devs if they are worried about killing physical [copies], suggesting that if they got a bunch of feedback, maybe they would consider some sort of mea culpa.”

Of course, devs could also provide PlayStation with feedback that they love the decision.

While consumers have been agitated by the move to cease manufacturing physical media, there are advantages for game makers and publishers.

Namely, without manufacturing lag, games will be able to go gold much later.

Furthermore, digital purchases can be more profitable as there are fewer parties to split the revenue between, and they eliminate used games sales.

I personally think it’s telling that none of the major publishers have spoken out against Sony’s decision, presumably because they agree with it.

So the results of this survey could simply justify PlayStation’s decision. It is interesting that it’s seemingly asking its partners for feedback, though.

[source youtube.com, via reddit.com]