Weeks after Sony’s controversial announcement to end disc production, the outrage among gamers still hasn’t died down. Calls to boycott PlayStation and Sony continue to flood social media to this day. But former Valve writer Chet Faliszek believes the real challenge isn’t getting angry now. It’s sticking to that anger when the next must-play game — and the next console generation — arrives.
Faliszek, who wrote Valve’s classics including Left 4 Dead, Portal, and Half-Life, recently shared his thoughts in a video comparing PlayStation Network and Steam. While he acknowledged that players have legitimate concerns over Sony stopping its disc production, he argued that most current protest methods simply don’t carry much weight.
“[…T]he rest of this is just a lot of noise,” he said, as people have been spamming PlayStation social media uploads since the announcement. “Telling people you’re going to pirate their stuff is not really effective.”
He believes it’s easy to boycott right now, but the majority might struggle once GTA 6 is out. “Because you have Grand Theft Auto 6 coming up. That’s why Sony’s doing it now, cuz everyone’s going to want to play that,” he added, as he expected that Sony probably thinks that much of the backlash will die down at that point. His worry seems well-founded, since the $99 GTA 6 Ultimate Edition preorders are already topping charts across nearly every PSN region.
That doesn’t mean Faliszek thinks gamers are powerless. He argued that canceling your PlayStation Network subscription is probably the most meaningful protest available today. After all, it hits Sony’s bottom line in a way angry posts and boycott PlayStation hashtags simply don’t.
“[…] Now that people are, like, canceling their PSN accounts and stuff. That’s just a good way to protest, by the way. That is probably the most effective cuz it actually shows with dollars,” he explained.
Even then, Faliszek believes the real test is still ahead. According to him, the biggest challenge for gamers will come once the next console generation is eventually revealed. “And the real test is going to be when the PlayStation 6 gets announced, and they start showing what exclusives are,” argued Faliszek.
If gamers truly disagree with Sony’s all-digital future, then that’s when they have to put their money where their mouth is. “Do you preorder any of those? Do you buy any of those? That’ll be the test,” he said.
Ultimately, Faliszek isn’t telling frustrated gamers to stop criticizing Sony. Nevertheless, until fans actually start voting with their wallets, he believes Sony has little reason to change course.
