Former Santa Monica Studio employee Alanah Pearce says Sony has introduced what she describes as its strictest-ever social media rules for employees following the backlash over its decision to stop making physical PlayStation discs in January 2028.
Pearce said Sony expected strong criticism and instructed staff not to comment publicly on the issue. While the company often limits what employees can say before major announcements, she said these new rules are more restrictive than usual.
“Sony already knew everyone would be p*ssed off – they knew this. People working within PlayStation first-party studios told me Sony had the strictest social media guidelines for this particular thing they’ve ever seen issued.
Sony does somewhat regularly tell employees what they can or can’t say about certain things. I was under a lot of guidelines when I was working on God of War Laufey – I still am. And they did send me guidelines regarding what I could say on the day the game was announced.
But in this instance, it’s apparently the strictest the employees I spoke to have ever seen regarding public communications. They would only have done this if they knew it was going to be an enormous PR issue. This is no surprise to them.”
The decision to end physical disc production has sparked ongoing criticism from many PlayStation fans, with Sony remaining silent despite continued complaints on social media.
Pearce also said she does not expect Sony to reverse its decision, noting that the company’s disc manufacturing facility in Austria is already being converted into a plant that will produce microlenses used in AI data centres.
