Marvel's Wolverine is the latest target of Sony physical disc backlash

1 week ago 11

Published Jul 17, 2026, 12:32 PM EDT

Angry fans are the best at what they do, and what they do isn't very nice

Logan covered in blood in Insomniac Games' upcoming Marvel's Wolverine, a PS5 exclusive. Logan is wearing a fur coat.

PlayStation released a new trailer for the upcoming Marvel's Wolverine across its social media accounts yesterday. It confirmed Lady Deathstrike is joining the game's growing cast and showed the titular hero getting beaten up a lot. The comments on the trailer are no less brutal, with players giving Sony no rest from the continued backlash over its controversial announcement regarding physical games.

To catch you up on why people are furious at Sony, the company revealed at the beginning of the month that it will cease physical disc production for new games beginning in 2028. This has fueled growing frustration with digital ownership. In response to the initial announcement, fans immediately made their frustrations known and a majority of Sony social media accounts went radio silent for nearly a week. When the company did break that silence, the backlash resumed in full force, with fans refusing to give the company a break.

The Wolverine trailer is just the latest target of a concentrated campaign from players. Many users pointedly note that Wolverine gets very angry over the loss of a physical photograph. The top comment on YouTube sarcastically says, "Wolverine was really getting PHYSICAL in this trailer, he has such a DISCtinct presence." Most of the comments are variations on a few themes: demanding physical releases, criticizing Sony, or saying they won't buy the game. Following Sony's announcement, Wolverine developer Insomniac Games had to confirm that the game would be getting a physical release that includes a disc.

Insomniac makes sense as a target for the backlash as it is a PlayStation-owned studio. However, as ire continues to grow, more and more developers are getting dragged into the conversation. Several multiplatform games are ending up in the crosshairs after PlayStation's official account reposted their content. The X account for co-op game Hela: of Mice & Magic announced it would be taking a pause from social media after a trailer for the game was flooded by commenters directing anger towards Sony. The team behind action platformer Duskfade found itself in a similar situation after announcing the game was available for pre-order on PlayStation 5. "Hey everybody, we love physical games too!" the account posted, continuing: "We'd love to make boxed editions of Duskfade a reality, but as a smaller indie team we need to see how our digital launch goes first to see if It's feasible for us."

While the frustration with Sony and the worrying state of digital ownership is well-placed, smaller teams are making great points as to why physical can be so hard if you aren't a major company like Sony. Still, it seems that many players have moved past a singular frustration with Sony and on to a wider anger at the industry as a whole. Some games are seeing an increased demand for physical editions that are difficult to meet. That's the situation Mortal Shell 2 finds itself in, with publisher Playstack revealing the limited physical editions are nearly sold out, and Playstack says there's no guarantee more will be produced. With massive releases like Grand Theft Auto 6 set to be released without a physical disc later this year, it's unlikely players will stop taking companies to task anytime soon.

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