PS5 boycott to continue indefinitely as organisers ask fans to ignore Wolverine

Some people really want Sony to U-turn on its plans to abandon physical games (X) A planned PlayStation blackout was set to end on Sunday, but the organisers have pledged to keep it going for as long as they need to. Yesterday marked the start of a week-long blackout amongst PlayStation owners, who are incensed over Sony’s decision to abandon releasing physical games after 2027. With the outrage refusing to die down, this PlayStation boycott aims to hurt Sony’s active player count and ultimately disrupt the company’s business enough for it to change course. A week really isn’t enough time to make that significant an impact, though, which is why organiser DoesItPlay1 has requested people try to boycott PlayStation forever. On X, DoesItPlay1 describes the week-long blackout, which ends on August 30, as the bare minimum, to make it easier for people to participate: ‘Everyone is encouraged to go indefinitely until Sony change course! Pedal to the metal or we won’t get anywhere!’ Online reactions show there are people committed to the cause but even if you assume that the post’s 3,300 likes and 670 shares (at time of writing) represent those willing to drop PlayStation, that’s not going to leave much of a dent in an audience of millions. Expert, exclusive gaming analysis Sign up to the GameCentral newsletter for a unique take on the week in gaming, alongside the latest reviews and more. Delivered to your inbox every Saturday morning. While people are obviously free to boycott PlayStation and take their money elsewhere, the next couple of months are going to be very fruitful for Sony. For starters, the PlayStation 5 Wolverine game is due in September and despite it too facing some backlash, the popularity of the title character means it’s unlikely to be a flop at launch. More importantly, GTA 6 is launching in November and there’s too much anticipation for that game for enough people to not boot up their PlayStation 5 when it comes out. In fact, the PlayStation 5 is guaranteed to be the most popular platform for the game. There’s no PC version to fall back on and although GTA 6 will be available on Xbox Series X/S, that console’s sales have been consistently awful in the last few years, meaning the Xbox version of the game will naturally sell fewer copies. It’s already claimed that PlayStation 5 pre-orders of GTA 6 are vastly outselling Xbox pre-orders, although Microsoft has denied the accuracy of this and said people should wait for the ‘real data’… which will probably never be released. Even so, all signs point to GTA 6’s pre-order figures being incredibly good and this is despite it only releasing digitally, with no physical option whatsoever. Sadly, this is strong evidence to support Sony’s decision to ditch physical games, and its actions thus far shows it really doesn’t care about the outrage. Sony is similarly committed to pulling out of porting its single-player games to PC, having launched a new ‘Only On PS5’ ad that features a new ‘It happens on PS5’ tagline. The ad highlights not just upcoming releases like Wolverine and God Of War Laufey but also older games like Gran Turismo 7 and Astro Bot, making it abundantly clear that such games will not see a PC release. Unsurprisingly, the ad has been overwhelmingly disliked on YouTube (9,200 dislikes compared to 4,000 likes) and the top comments are mostly people complaining about the disc situation. What will really determine if any of this outrage meaningfully hurts Sony is when the PlayStation 6 launches, though if anything’s going to risk crippling that console’s sales, it’ll be its presumably high price tag rather than its lack of physical support. Probably should’ve gone with a tagline that couldn’t be easily edited to say ‘S*** happens on PS5’ (Sony/YouTube) Email gamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below, follow us on Twitter. To submit Inbox letters and Reader’s Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use our Submit Stuff page here. For more stories like this, check our Gaming page. Arrow MORE: The Brit who created the best and worst Pokémon is now overseeing all of them Arrow MORE: Games Inbox: Will the new The Witcher 3 DLC be worth getting? Arrow MORE: Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 beta review – the slow road to redemption GameCentral Sign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.