Hideo Kojima is sounding the alarm on what he calls a frightening shift toward an all-digital entertainment landscape, following Sony's announcement that it will stop producing physical PlayStation discs in January 2028.
Speaking at the Il Cinema in Piazza film festival in Rome, the legendary creator of Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding expressed deep unease about the disappearance of physical media. "Since production is ending in 2028, this is about video games, but I grew up with physical media, so I find it really sad," Kojima said. "Currently, I've been buying up a lot of Blu-rays, such as various movies, and CDs too."
Kojima's concerns cut deeper than nostalgia. The central problem, he explained, lies in the difference between owning data and merely renting access to it. When games are downloaded to a hard drive, he noted, the data remains under your control. But the shift to streaming fundamentally changes that equation.
"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," Kojima said. "You don't actually possess the data yourself."
The real danger emerges when those servers disappear or access is revoked. Kojima painted a stark scenario: corporate decisions, geopolitical shifts, or regulatory changes could cut off access to entire libraries of games and films overnight. "There are companies that own these servers and let you 'turn the tap' for a monthly fee," he continued. "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."
This echoes warnings Kojima issued in 2021, when he predicted that "we will not be able to freely access the movies, books, and music that we have loved." Those comments resurfaced this week as Sony's decision rippled across the gaming industry.
Kojima is not alone in his concern. The backlash to Sony's plan has been swift and intense, with gamers, celebrities, and industry figures criticizing the move. The timing is especially brutal given that Sony recently informed digital film purchasers they would lose access to a library of over 550 movies they had already bought.
Adding to the apprehension, Rockstar Games revealed in late June that physical copies of Grand Theft Auto 6 will ship with no disc, containing only a download code. These moves suggest the industry is locked on a collision course with an all-digital future, with next-generation consoles like the PS6 and Project Helix expected to accelerate the trend.
Kojima remains defiant about the direction of his own work. After wrapping Death Stranding 2: On the Beach last year, his upcoming horror project OD is moving forward at Xbox, offering some shelter from the industry's broader consolidation and closure wave.
Author Emily Chen: "Kojima's right to worry. Once physical media vanishes, entire libraries of art and entertainment become hostage to corporate whims and server uptime, and there's no getting them back."
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