Veteran Xbox team member: Sony’s all-digital future could end true game ownership

One of the founding members of the original Xbox team, Laura Fryer, has stepped forward to speak out against the risk of video games going fully digital, turning physical video game discs into relics of the past. With Sony’s announcement that it would end production of PlayStation game discs in January 2028, Fryer cited her personal experiences to explain why owning physical media and games matters.

In a recent YouTube video, Fryer shared a personal story that highlights how fragile digital purchases can be once licenses expire. She explained that her family spent hundreds of dollars on Rock Band songs, only for that content to disappear due to licensing issues after their original console died and they upgraded to a new one.

When the family booted up Rock Band again, the songs were no longer available for download. Fryer detailed the experience, saying, “Eventually, we just gave up. We gave up on our favorite family game.” She argued that this was not a one-off incident but “the blueprint for what Sony is planning next.” 

Fryer continued:

“So when people ask me what I think about Sony’s recent announcement that they’re going all digital, that’s all I can think about. Sony waited for Rockstar to make the first move, take the heat, and now they’re going all in to make this the new normal.”

Discussing digital PC platforms like Steam, she added:

“I admit, most of my Steam library is digital too, because I trust they won’t pull games. But I worry about that, because platforms depend on good leadership. Gabe Newell will not run Steam forever, and we’ve seen from Xbox how fast priorities can shift when you get new leadership.”

She ended her statements with a caution:

“Digital is convenient until someone else decides you’ve had enough, and there are some games and movies where I will never have enough of them. Physical gives you real ownership, right? And in my case, physical would’ve protected those irreplaceable memories.”

However, there’s another side to this argument. Online-only “physical” games like Ubisoft’s The Crew have had their servers shut down, sparking the Stop Killing Games movement. Offline single-player games that run entirely from physical media can still count as real ownership, but many modern discs contain only partial data and require online downloads to complete the installation.

If online stores such as PSN were to go offline in the future, gamers wouldn’t be able to reinstall, preserve, or replay their favorite games, such as Doom: The Dark Ages, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Hogwarts Legacy, Far Cry 6, and more, even if they own the physical discs.