The last few weeks in the video games industry have been as dramatic as they have been polarising at every level. From the 'reset' and mass redundancies at Xbox to the announcement that PlayStation will phase out physical discs by 2028.
Regarding this move, it appears that a significant section of Sony's console users has risen up in protest and is launching one of the biggest campaigns of criticism against Sony and PlayStation in its history, which has caused some turmoil in the company's social media communications and led to some strange moves by management, such as the sale of 56 per cent of its chairman's shares just two days after the measure was announced. Furthermore, gamers are trying to revive the 'Stop Killing Games' campaign and push for measures to safeguard physical video game formats in the European Union, but it does not look as though this will come to fruition.
We say this because an official response has already been issued by the European Commission, via its European Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection, Michael McGrath. Speaking to the press at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, he commented that the European Union cannot prevent or interfere with Sony's decision: "Ultimately, this is a matter of commercial and contractual freedoms, and companies are free to offer games and services in whatever way they see fit, provided that consumers' rights are fully protected in accordance with national and EU legislation."
Although the 'Stop Killing Games' initiative also appears to be stalled within the European Commission's deliberations, President Ursula von der Leyen and Michael McGrath stated that they will work with video game publishers to jointly draw up a 'code of conduct' to regulate the life cycle of video games.