Sony Accused of Using Bots to Defend Its Anti-Disc Stance Amid Backlash

Credit: PlayStation

Sony's decision to end physical PlayStation discs by 2028 has triggered a wave of backlash across social media, and now a new investigation claims the company might be using bots to fight back against angry fans.

The controversy started on July 1, 2026, when Sony confirmed that physical disc production for new PlayStation titles will stop by January 2028. Going forward, new games will only be available digitally through the PlayStation Store, or through code-in-box editions that come with packaging but no actual disc. Older titles and games released before the cutoff won't be affected, but that clarification did little to calm gamers down.

Sony went quiet for nearly a week after the announcement. When the company returned on July 7 with a trailer for its new FlexStrike wireless fight stick, fans flooded the comments anyway, with over 60,000 messages demanding a reversal on the disc decision. Phrases like "BRING BACK PHYSICAL GAMES" and "NO DISC NO BUY" have since become common under nearly every PlayStation post, whether on X, Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube.

Even the recent Wolverine trailer wasn't spared, pulling in over 10,000 comments despite not crossing a million views yet, a huge jump compared to older Sony trailers that barely hit 20,000 comments after nearing 10 million views. Fans have kept things surprisingly lighthearted though, with jokes like Wolverine being "DISCtinct" making the rounds instead of outright hostility.

Are the defenders even real?

That's the question YouTuber Moore's Law Is Dead (MLID) tried to answer in a recent video. According to the channel, finding genuine accounts defending Sony's all-digital push in the replies was oddly difficult. After digging through several accounts that did speak up for Sony, MLID flagged a handful as likely bots, pointing to inconsistent posting histories, sudden topic switches, and oddly corporate phrasing as red flags.

One account posed as an anime fan who happened to reference the PS3 Store shutdown as proof that going digital works out fine. The bigger red flag, as per MLID, was that the account hyped up a Wolverine and Odyssey movie tie-in two days before it was publicly announced, which is a strange thing to predict unless someone had inside information.

Another account came off as a devoted Rockstar fan constantly defending the company, despite being six years old with its very first post appearing just a month ago.

The third case is the one MLID says he is most confident about. This account leaned into a wholesome dad persona while casually pushing lines about not needing to own games, all while apparently being tied to a network of bot accounts boosting each other for followers.

To be fair, none of this confirms Sony directly hired bots, but MLID suspects some kind of coordinated PR effort is at play, possibly tied to Rockstar given how many flagged accounts were also hyping GTA 6.