Former Square Enix Exec Says Sony's Disc-Free PlayStation Could Actually Lower PS Store Prices

Jacob Navok is not going to win any popularity contests with this argument, but he is putting his name on it. The former Square Enix business strategist, who ran business development at the publisher from 2010 to 2015, posted on X this week that Sony killing physical discs for new PlayStation games will end up pushing PS Store prices down, the same way Steam forced an arms race of discounts once PC gaming went fully digital. It is the rare pro-discless take from anyone with actual publishing experience, and it landed right on cue as Sony's January 2028 disc deadline creeps closer.

Navok made two posts on August 13 that frame the argument. The first claims digital prices on the PlayStation Store will likely get cheaper because right now they are tied to retail, and physical discs holding the digital price hostage is what stops publishers from competing on actual price. The second pushes harder on publisher-on-publisher competition. His point is that the more the PS Store becomes digital only, the more you will see Steam-style sales and dynamic pricing because publishers will be forced to undercut each other instead of hiding behind a uniform MSRP. He even uses Final Fantasy XVI on Steam as proof, showing how the price kept creeping down as the title competed against other Square Enix releases.

Where the argument falls apart

It is a clean theory, and it reads well in a tweet. The problem is the data on PSN, the Nintendo eShop, and Xbox has not moved the way he describes for years, even as digital has overtaken physical. The PS Store has had a digital-only SKU for most first-party releases since the PS4 era, and the price floor never dropped in any meaningful way. Capcom told Kotaku earlier this month that 90 percent of its sales are already digital, and its answer to losing discs was a shrug, not a sale. The Grand Theft Auto VI price point is the cleanest counter-example. It is a fully digital launch by design, and there is zero indication Rockstar plans to undercut its own $69.99 to $89.99 tag. If anything, the publishers have realized there is no used-game market to fight anymore, and they have priced accordingly. Square Enix itself launched Final Fantasy XVI on PC at a $69.99 tag and only ran it down to $39 over the following year, and that is one of the more aggressive curves on Steam, so the comparison is not exactly flattering for the theory.

What players are actually saying

The replies under Navok's posts are a bloodbath. The most common thread is that publishers are not charities, and that removing discs removes the only real ceiling on what they can charge. Several readers pointed out that the comparison to Steam ignores the entire Steam ecosystem of regional keys, aggressive indie competition, and Valve's flat 30 percent cut that forces publishers to keep prices competitive. Others brought up tacit collusion, the same publishers agreeing on the same MSRP without ever talking to each other, which would get worse without a physical anchor breaking the price floor. One reader summarized the mood as 'the only reason prices may drop is because consumers cannot afford them and a downward drop is needed to maintain sales,' which is a fair read of the situation. A former Square Enix employee in the replies was blunt about the company culture too, suggesting that even Navok's own old publisher has shipped enough underperforming games that trusting it with a new pricing structure is a stretch. The general sentiment is that Navok is correct on the theory, but wrong on the assumption that Sony or any of the publishers will ever let the discount floor breathe on its own.

Why this take is still worth covering

Navok is wrong on the timeline but not necessarily on the mechanism. Once Sony fully closes the physical channel, the only thing stopping Square Enix, EA, Ubisoft, and the rest from pricing in lockstep is the consumer backlash on social media, and that has been mostly ineffective. Steam got cheap because the platform holder cut the cut, because the indie scene flooded in, and because Gabe Newell has been running a discount engine since Half-Life 2. None of those conditions exist at Sony. Microsoft, or Nintendo. The most likely outcome of disc-free PlayStation is that the price ceiling stays where it is for new releases, mid-cycle discounts get slightly deeper because publishers need to clear unsold digital inventory, and the back catalog gets a long tail of aggressive sales, which is already happening. That is a better outcome than nothing, but it is not the cheap PS Store Navok is selling. It is also worth remembering that the PS Store has never had a regional pricing parity policy, and the recent price hikes in Turkey, Argentina, and the rest of LatAm already prove Sony is willing to gouge where it thinks it can get away with it.

What to actually watch for

If Navok's thesis is going to be proven right, it will not be in 2028 when the disc dies. It will be in 2030 when the first big single-player Sony exclusive launches fully digital with no collector's disc edition, and the price tag is the same as the last disc-based exclusive, not lower. That is the moment to write the follow-up, not the moment to take the bet. For now, treat any prediction of cheaper PS Store games as PR, not policy, and budget for full price plus tax.