Disgaea Creator Says PlayStation Should Ditch Hardware Without Physical Games

Disgaea creator Sohei Niikawa has added his voice to the backlash over Sony’s plan to move away from physical PlayStation media. Speaking to Noisy Pixel at Anime Expo 2026, Niikawa said he understands the business case, but argued that Sony’s decision misses what boxed games mean to the people who keep them.

Niikawa pointed to the fan who brings a physical game to an event for an autograph, then takes it home to display. A disc or a box can be a keepsake attached to a specific game and a specific memory. That is the part of physical media that quarterly sales figures do not measure.

His conclusion was blunt: “If they’re going to go as far as eliminating physical packages, they may as well eliminate the hardware too. A television would be enough. Why would you need the console?” The point is deliberately provocative, but it is rooted in a simple claim: a dedicated console loses part of its identity when the games no longer exist as things people can own, sign, and keep.