No Significant Change” Happened During PSBlackout Protest

Some weeks back, there was a protest dubbed PSBlackout that that encouraged participants to not touch or log into your PlayStation, or buy anything from said platform in protest of Sony’s decision to kill physical games. While I see it a noble cause, I had a hunch the result was gonna be minimal at best, and it seems my hunch was right.

Mat Piscatella took to Bluesky to state that there was no significant change in player count or engagement during PSBlackout. Am I surprised that’s the case? Absolutely not. First off, it’s not clear how many people actually actively took part in the protest and second off, it plays to a still likely smaller part of the community.

Even as someone who enjoys physical media, I’m aware that even if reports are accurate and the small percentage is skewed, I am confident in saying that a majority of gamers are still more digital than physical. I do believe players should have the option, but I can’t say I’m surprised the whole PSBlackout protest didn’t do much damage to player engagement.

Gabriel Stanford-Reisinger

Gabe's been a life-long gamer with his fondest memories involving Jak and Daxter and Ratchet and Clank who transformed that love for gaming into a hobby for nearly a decade and counting.