"Sony had the strictest social media guidelines they've ever seen issued," says former first-party dev about physical disc backlash

"They would only have done this if they knew it was going to be an enormous PR issue. This is no surprise to them."

Sony has reportedly engaged its strictest social media rules for current and former staff across the company and its family of studios following its physical media announcement.

That's according to Alanah Pearce, who worked at God of War developer Sony Santa Monica Studio as a writer until 2024.

Referring to Sony's shock decision to end all physical media on PlayStation – including for games not published by Sony Interactive Entertainment – released from January 2028, Pearce offered a glimpse into how the megacorp worked to contain the fallout.

"Let's specifically talk about PlayStation and why they just did something that everyone hates, that they knew we would all hate, the enormous public backlash that has come from that, and why none of that backlash – no amount of public outrage or petitioning – will be able to change it," Pearce said in her latest video entitled: "Everyone is missing the point".

"People working at PlayStation first-party studios told me that Sony had the strictest social media guidelines for this particular thing that they've ever seen issued," Pearce said (thanks, InsiderGaming).

"Sony does somewhat regularly tell employees what they can or can't say about certain things. I was under a lot of guidelines when I was working on God of War: Laufey. I still am, and they did send me guidelines regarding what I could say on the day that the game was announced.

"In this instance, it is apparently the strictest the employees I spoke to have ever seen regarding public communications," Pearce added. "They would only have done this if they knew it was going to be an enormous PR issue. This is no surprise to them."

Sony's decision to end all physical media on PlayStation, 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 code-in-the-box-style options at retail. It applies to all games releasing on PlayStation, including third-party titles, not just those produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment.

"As consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital, physical game disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January 2028," Sony said at the time.