Log out, switch off, spend nothing—the #PSBlackout protest hits PlayStation from August 23.
The ask is simple enough: stay logged out of PSN, play nothing online, and spend nothing on the PlayStation Store.The trigger is Sony 's decision to stop producing discs for new PlayStation games from January 2028.
Circana's Mat Piscatella noted that only seven PlayStation games have crossed 100,000 physical units in the US this year.
In the week ending July 11, just two managed 10,000.Serkan Toto of Kantan Games told IGN that Sony has no intention of turning back.
Sony has over 120 million active PlayStation users and roughly 50 million PS Plus subscribers.
Log out, switch off, spend nothing—the #PSBlackout protest hits PlayStation from August 23.
The disc shutdown is the flashpoint, but the PSBlackout protest is really about five years of grievances
Analysts say a week offline won't make Sony reverse the digital-only PS5 decision
PlayStation owners are being asked to switch everything off. Game preservation group Does It Play? has called for a seven-day #PSBlackout running from Sunday, August 23 to Sunday, August 30, starting and ending at 7PM local time. The ask is simple enough: stay logged out of PSN, play nothing online, and spend nothing on the PlayStation Store.The trigger is Sony 's decision to stop producing discs for new PlayStation games from January 2028. A month on, the anger hasn't cooled. The group's call to arms on X has been viewed close to a million times, and Stop Killing Games, the campaign against publishers remotely switching off titles people have paid for, has backed it.The blackout statement reads like a receipt. It names the closure of Bluepoint Games, a live-service push that mostly missed, cancelled fan events, and PS VR2 left to fade out. It misses Twisted Metal, SOCOM, Sly Cooper and Resistance. It misses PlayStation Experience and Japan Studio. Then the summary line: "Ending physical discs in 2028 feels like the last straw."Sony's stated reasoning is consumer preference. Sid Shuman, Senior Director at SIE Content Communications, wrote that new games will arrive on the PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only.The numbers back him up. Circana's Mat Piscatella noted that only seven PlayStation games have crossed 100,000 physical units in the US this year. In the week ending July 11, just two managed 10,000.Serkan Toto of Kantan Games told IGN that Sony has no intention of turning back. His maths is blunt. Sony has over 120 million active PlayStation users and roughly 50 million PS Plus subscribers. Even half a million cancellations would erase one percent of that business. Ampere's Piers Harding-Rolls adds the longer view: digital made up 13% of Sony full-game unit sales in 2013, and close to 80% by 2025.Pressure keeps building regardless. The Don't Kill The Disc petition has climbed from around 120,000 signatures on July 6 to more than 345,000 three weeks later.One awkward detail: Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 2 lands during blackout week, finally springing MGS4 from PS3 jail.
