PlayStation Employees Placed Under "Strictest" Social Media Guidelines With Discless Future Fallout

Ex-God Of War Writer Has Heard PlayStation Staff Are Under “Strictest” Social Media Guidelines Following Disc Backlash Published Jul 23, 2026, 5:06 AM EDT Sam Woods is TheGamer’s Senior Reporter. He’s been in games journalism since 2020 and has undertaken a variety of roles in that time. These have included roles such as SEO Editor, Managing Editor at DualShockers, and Global Head of Gaming, and he's also been seen on the BBC. He was promoted to the Senior Reporter position in 2025 following a series of high-quality reports and exclusives for TheGamer. Since 2020, Sam has written over 2,500 articles and specializes in telling the stories of the people behind the games. He’s interviewed the biggest game directors, some of the industry’s top talents, told the stories of how indie games came to be, and spoken to players about what really makes them tick. He’s also interviewed some of the world’s biggest musical artists to find out how the medium has inspired their work, and TV and Film actors about their roles in video game adaptations. He even hosted a PAX panel in 2021 and made a documentary in 2024 surrounding the creation of a Disney game. Alongside this, Sam focuses on breaking news. He got the scoop on Perfect Dark’s cancellation, got context around some AI drama, and revealed how Lady Dimitrescu’s actress would love to step back into the character’s giant shoes. These articles have been picked up by the biggest gaming sites, including IGN, GameSpot, and PC Gamer. He also loves to dive into the numbers behind the games. Sam’s journey in games journalism has taken him all over the world. He’s covered Gamescom in Germany, Summer Game Fest in Los Angeles, and Tokyo Game Show in Japan, each on more than one occasion. He’s been learning Japanese since 2024 with the intention of identifying and translating Japanese-language news and bringing it to English-language audiences first, something he’s done countless times. Sam’s first review was 2020’s Battletoads reboot, and he’s since reviewed games in The Legend of Zelda, Super Mario, and Pokemon franchises. If you haven't heard of the backlash Sony and PlayStation are currently facing, you've probably been living under a rock. At the start of this month, the PS5 manufacturer revealed that, from January 2028, it would be ditching physical releases, going solely digital. That announcement angered long-time PlayStation fans and former Sony bosses, and has sparked thousands upon thousands of social media comments, protests, petitions, new bill proposals, and class-action lawsuits. Sony has yet to say anything more, sweeping it under the rug and further deepening the rift with its audience. It seems like we now know the reason for this. Speaking on her YouTube channel, former Santa Monica Studios writer Alanah Pearce has revealed that Sony has issued the "strictest social media guidelines" to employees that it has ever issued. Sony Employees Have Been Given Strict Guidelines In The Wake Of Backlash It Is Facing "No amount of public outrage or petitioning will be able to change that [Sony's move to digital only]," Alanah Pearce says in her video. "I do not think petitioning or public backlash will work here at all. That's not a reason not to do it, but Sony already knew everyone would be pissed off. "People working within PlayStation first-party studios told me Sony had the strictest social media guidelines for this particular thing they’ve ever seen issued," she continues. "Sony does somewhat regularly tell employees what they can or can’t say about certain things. I was under a lot of guidelines when I was working on God of War Laufey – I still am. And they did send me guidelines regarding what I could say on the day the game was announced. But in this instance, it’s apparently the strictest the employees I spoke to have ever seen regarding public communications. They would only have done this if they knew it was going to be an enormous PR issue. This is no surprise to them." Pearce then goes on to talk about how, despite fervent online backlash, the news resonated with shareholders, and Sony's share price jumped by seven percent. Sony had the strictest social media guidelines for this particular thing they’ve ever seen issued, What Pearce has heard lines up directly with Sony's deafening silence. While it has continued to post about new game and product releases, the company has not addressed the issue since the announcement was made. Sony is highly, highly unlikely to reverse course now. It's likely to be in the final phases of developing the PlayStation 6, and it would have been created with this move in mind. If it were to backtrack, any work on the PS6 would likely have to be redone to incorporate a disc drive and support for physical media. Brand Sony Original Release Date November 12, 2020 Original MSRP (USD) $499, €499, £449, ¥49,980 (Base) // $399, €399, £359, ¥39,980 (Digital), Operating System Orbis OS Processor Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2 Resolution 720p - 8K