Layden, who left Sony in 2019 after chairing its worldwide studios group, was speaking on The Expansion Pass podcast. He was careful to caveat his view, saying he had not been in the room for the decision and had no visibility of the financials behind it, but argued the move targets the wrong customers. While most players download games, he estimated the remaining physical buyers, perhaps around 20%, are the most dedicated collectors, the sort who buy two copies of a game and leave one sealed.

He also flagged a subtler problem: going digital-only reframes the debate from owning a game to merely having access to one. "If you can't sell a thing, that means you don't own a thing," he said, arguing that players will instinctively imagine the worst-case scenario and that this alone deals Sony "a significant brand hit".