Australia’s Choice Puts Sony in the Hall of Shame for Killing Discs

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Australia’s leading consumer advocacy group just put PlayStation in the Hall of Shame.

Choice**, the non-profit that has been calling out bad consumer deals in Australia since 1959, gave **Sony Interactive Entertainment** a **2026 Shonky Award**. The category name says it all: **”asking us to pay to play, but not own.”

Shonky is Australian slang for shoddy. These awards are the Razzies for companies. Choice uses them to spotlight products and practices it says treat customers badly. Other 2026 winners include Ticketmaster and Ticketek for dynamic pricing, and Virgin Australia for reclaiming AU $75 million in expired COVID flight credits.

What Choice is mad about

Choice’s case against Sony is not one tweet. It is a stack of 2026 decisions:

• Digital is a license, not ownership. Sony’s EULA says the software is “licensed to you, not sold.” Choice says Sony can end that license at any time with no obligation to refund, and your library is gone.
• Checkout still says “purchase.” Choice games expert Peter Zaluzny notes the PlayStation Store last step says “Order & Pay,” with no clear line that you are essentially renting the software unless you dig into optional legal menus.
• 500 StudioCanal movies. In June 2026, Sony said its StudioCanal licensing deal was ending in the UK and Europe. About 500 movies were set to leave buy, rent, and watch lists, including titles already sitting in customers’ digital libraries, with no refund.
• No more discs for new games. Come January 2028, all new PlayStation games go digital-only. Existing titles and games scheduled before that date can still ship on disc unless stated otherwise. Sony’s line: “This is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs.”
• PS3 and PS Vita stores. By July 2027, Sony will close the older PS3 and PS Vita digital stores. Existing purchases stay available to re-download for the “foreseeable future,” which Choice calls vague.

Choice CEO Monique Perry put it plainly: “This wouldn’t be too much of an issue if customers actually owned digital content purchased from Sony. The reality is, however, you’re only buying a licence to access the content via Sony’s digital storefronts, a licence which can be ended at any time, without a refund.”

Choice Editorial Director Mark Serrels added: “There’s a number of reasons why Sony pulling back from physical disc releases is bad. It’s bad for consumers, it’s bad for preservation, and it’s bad for competition in the marketplace.” And: “If they can do it with movies, who’s to say they won’t do it with expensive videogames? We’d like to see Sony commit to physical releases for the foreseeable future.”

What you need to know

• Award: 2026 Choice Shonky Award to Sony Interactive Entertainment.
• Headline charge: “asking us to pay to play, but not own.”
• Disc cutoff: new PlayStation games go digital-only starting January 2028.
• Legacy stores: PS3 and PS Vita digital storefronts close by July 2027.
• Movie precedent: ~500 StudioCanal titles removed from UK/Europe libraries after a June 2026 licensing end, no refund called out by Choice.
• EULA line Choice quotes: “The software is licensed to you, not sold.”
• Second-hand hit: Choice notes digital-only kills the affordable used-game market; the EULA also calls the license non-transferable.
• Sony’s business take (to investors, previously reported): it does not see a negative impact on the business from ending physical disc production for new games.

Primary write-up: Choice’s own Shonky page for Sony. Coverage also from This Week in Video Games (Nov 4) and TheGamer (Nov 4).

Reader poll

Sony got a Hall of Shame award for killing discs. Fair?

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Sony got a Hall of Shame award for killing discs. Fair?

Fair. License is not ownershipOverblown, every store does thisThe 2028 disc cut is the real problemXbox keeping physical is the W

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The Xbox contrast (facts, not spin)

This is not a rumor. Sony already announced the January 2028 disc cutoff on the PlayStation Blog. Xbox has been moving the other way:

• In October, Microsoft posted Xbox physical supply roles that coordinate boxed game launches across markets (we covered that hiring push).
• Xbox still ships physical games and runs Disc-to-Digital for supported titles.

Choice itself notes other platforms use license language too. The reason Sony got the 2026 Shonky, not a blanket industry roast, is the combo of license removal in the wild (StudioCanal) plus yanking the physical escape hatch for new games.

OnPoint’s take: A consumer watchdog just put Sony in the Hall of Shame for the exact thing PlayStation fans have been yelling about all year. You “buy” a game. The checkout says purchase. The EULA says rent. Then Sony kills the disc so there is nowhere left to go when the license disappears. That is not a conspiracy theory. That is Choice’s award citation, with the StudioCanal wipe as Exhibit A.

Xbox fans already know the counter. We still get boxes. We still get shelves. Microsoft is literally hiring people to keep physical launches moving while Sony tells investors ditching discs will not hurt the business. If you care about owning the game you paid for, the choice is not subtle. One side is collecting a Shonky. The other side is stocking discs. Join this side.

Image: OnPoint 4 Gamers, with Shonkys badge from Choice

Sources

• Choice: Sony Interactive Entertainment 2026 Shonky Award
• This Week in Video Games: Choice Shonky Awards 2026, Sony / PlayStation
• TheGamer: Sony Officially Wins Australian Shonky Award For Killing Discs
• PlayStation Blog: Physical disc production ending in January 2028 for new games
• Zack Shutt on X
• OnPoint: Xbox Is Hiring to Run Physical Game Launches While PlayStation Walks Away From Discs