Sony's 'It Happens on PS5' Ad Gets Buried in Disc Backlash

The Ad Nobody Asked For, Right Now

Timing, as they say, is everything. Sony dropped a glossy new PS5 commercial this week called “It Happens on PS5,” a big-budget spot featuring footage from some of the platform’s most anticipated titles: Marvel’s Wolverine, God of War Laufey, Helldivers 2, 007 First Light, and even GTA 6. The message was meant to be a celebration of what the console has to offer. The internet had other ideas.

According to Push Square, the YouTube comments section filled up almost immediately with variations on the same joke. The most popular retort, predictably, was some version of “discs don’t happen on PS5.” It is blunt, it is repetitive, and it has been going on for well over a month now.

Where the Anger Comes From

The context here matters. As reported by Push Square, Sony made a shock announcement more than a month ago confirming it will stop manufacturing physical discs for PlayStation platforms starting in January 2028. The initial backlash was fierce, and while the volume of outrage has cooled somewhat over the weeks since, it clearly has not gone away. Every new post from Sony’s social media accounts, regardless of subject matter, continues to draw criticism tied to the disc decision.

Sony, for its part, has not exactly helped itself. The company has acknowledged that it knows how people feel, but according to Push Square it has also made clear it has no plans to reverse course. That combination of awareness and indifference tends to keep a fire burning rather than put it out.

Sony Is Riding It Out

One of the more interesting wrinkles here is what Sony has chosen NOT to do. Plenty of observers assumed the company would eventually just shut off comments and replies across its social channels to stop the bleeding. As of now, that has not happened. Push Square’s Robert Ramsey noted that Sony appears content to weather the public-facing storm, which raises a reasonable question: how long can this actually go on?

The honest answer is probably: a while. The people most likely to keep commenting are also the people most invested in physical media and PlayStation’s ecosystem generally. They are not going anywhere, and neither is their frustration. Several commenters on the Push Square article expressed the same resigned expectation: Sony will ignore the noise, the PS6 will launch without a disc drive, and most people will buy it anyway because the alternatives are limited.

That is a cynical read, but not necessarily an unfair one. Physical media has been effectively gone from PC gaming for years, and the console space has been trending that way for some time. Sony is clearly betting that there is no mass exodus waiting on the other side of this decision.

The Games Caught in the Crossfire

What gets a little lost in all of this is that the ad itself features some genuinely exciting software. Marvel’s Wolverine remains one of the most anticipated PlayStation exclusives in recent memory. God of War Laufey continues to generate enormous interest. GTA 6 appearing in a Sony commercial at all is a statement about the PS5’s position in the market.

None of that is landing right now, at least not in the comments. The games are almost beside the point. The ad has become a proxy for a broader argument about ownership, access, and what it means to build a library when the physical copy is no longer an option.

Push Square also noted that a Phantom Blade Zero State of Play broadcast was scheduled for the same evening, and whether the backlash would carry into that show’s live chat was an open question. Given the trajectory of the last several weeks, the answer probably was not hard to predict.