Sony Receives Australian Consumer Group's Annual Shonky Award Over Disc Cancellation Plan

Summary

Australian non-profit consumer advocacy group CHOICE has given Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) its 2026 Shonky Award, targeting the company's plan to fully phase out PlayStation physical discs starting in 2028 and the long-standing digital licensing system in which players pay but do not truly own games. CHOICE summed up its citation as: "asking us to pay to play, but not letting us truly own." The organization said that when consumers buy games or films from digital stores such as PlayStation Store, what they receive is not ownership but merely an access license. The end-user license agreement (EULA) explicitly states that software is licensed, not sold, to the user, and Sony reserves the right to terminate the license at any time without obligation to refund. Now in its 21st year, the Shonky Awards expose products, services and corporate behavior that harm consumer interests. Other 2026 recipients include Virgin Australia, penalized over about AU$75 million in expired pandemic flight credits, and Ticketek and Ticketmaster, named for dynamic pricing that pushes up ticket costs. The award is not merely symbolic mockery: past winners have subsequently drawn further attention from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), and some cases even prompted legal reform. For players, the case puts digital ownership and the future of physical media back in the…