As just about everyone in the industry is putting Sony on blast for deciding to kill physical media, we’re starting to see great names in gaming also come out to voice their heartfelt opinions. Hideo Kojima, a big advocate for physical media in general and not just games, said it is quite sad to see Sony going down this road, saying it leads toward a frightening future. Speaking on a panel at the Il Cinema in Piazza festival in Italy, Kojima reflected on Sony’s recent decision to stop producing any new discs for games released after January 2028, effectively changing the entire platform into an all-digital service. It’s already reportedly begun repurposing its disc factories and will likely continue to downsize them as that fateful month approaches. “I grew up with physical media, so I find it really sad,” Kojima said (translated by Genki_JPN on X). Hideo Kojima on the end of physical disc production for video games:"Since production is ending in 2028, this is about video games, but I grew up with physical media, so I find it really sad. Currently, I’ve been buying up a lot of Blu-rays, such as various movies, and CDs too.… pic.twitter.com/ivL989gOFd— Genki✨ (@Genki_JPN) July 5, 2026 “Currently, I’ve been buying up a lot of Blu-rays, such as various movies, and CDs too. The situation is different for games, as they are downloaded to the hard drive, that means the game data remains on your own hardware. However, if things shift to streaming in the future, that won’t be the case anymore,” he said. Kojima pointed out that by moving to streaming, we’d risk losing access to whatever we’re watching or playing because someone somewhere decided to put a cork on the data tap, as he calls is, essentially locking us out of our own media. “With streaming subscription services, like Netflix or Amazon, there is a server somewhere, and you essentially just have the right to turn the tap, and when you do, the data flows out. That’s how movies work on these platforms, right? You don’t download the data, you access it directly through a subscription. And the consequence of that is that you don’t actually possess the data yourself,” he explained. “However, 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.” Kojima called this hypothetical but ever-more-apparent reality “frightening” and added that “what is happening to video games in 2028 might also happen to movies.” “I’d like everyone to keep that in mind,” Kojima concluded. It seems so many partnerships with Kojima never really made those Sony suits any more understanding. Image via Sony He particularly highlighted movies in this discussion because it was a movie-oriented panel, one he shared with Gaspar Noe and other film directors and artists. However, it is very clear that Kojima believes the move away from discs in 2028 will likely lead to Sony and other popular platforms also embracing streaming, something that most other industries already have but also something that gamers never really seemed to care for. We’ve got subscription services in games already, such as Game Pass, PlayStation Plus, and so on, but these are all add-ons and not default options, whereas in movies and music, streaming has basically become the norm outside of going to the cinema. Of course, even with that being the case, most films and music albums eventually make their way to Blu-ray and vinyl and other formats, and no one has (yet) declared the death of physical media like Sony has. What’s interesting is that, comparatively, more people stream films and music than they buy digital games, especially if we exclude live services, indies, and free-to-play online games that never had a physical disc to begin with, and Kojima appears to be well aware of that. There should be more reasons to fear the death of the disc in these industries mentioned above than in console gaming, but alas. It’s good to have someone as big as Kojima speaking out about this, though. If enough people rally behind this backlash, then perhaps we can, at least for a while, stall Sony’s ill-advised decision. However, only one thing matters to these people: money, so let your wallet be the loudest voice in the crowd. 0The post ‘I find it really sad:’ Hideo Kojima reacts to Sony’s physical media debacle appeared first on Destructoid.