---
title: 'Sony Exposed for Bribery and Its Backfiring'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=mOYWTvmP530'
video_id: 'mOYWTvmP530'
date: 2026-07-24
duration_sec: 707
channel: 'Chibi Reviews'
---

# Sony Exposed for Bribery and Its Backfiring

> Source: [Sony Exposed for Bribery and Its Backfiring](https://youtube.com/watch?v=mOYWTvmP530)

## Summary

The video discusses Sony PlayStation's alleged bribery of game journalists to spread positive PR about phasing out physical media, which has backfired as community notes expose the misinformation. The creator argues that digital-only media threatens ownership and could set a dangerous precedent for the entire gaming industry.

### Key Points

- **Coordinated Journalist Posts** [00:02] — Multiple major game journalism outlets (Eurogamer, IGN, Kotaku, Nintendo Life) posted nearly identical articles within hours, all arguing that phasing out physical media is a business necessity. All posts received community notes correcting the narrative.
- **PlayStation's Community Note Problem** [00:56] — Every PlayStation post since announcing the phase-out of physical media has been community noted or is in the process. This indicates widespread public distrust and backlash against Sony's PR strategy.
- **Sony's History of Removing Purchased Content** [02:33] — Sony previously removed movies from users' digital libraries after purchase, citing licensing issues. This precedent raises concerns that the same could happen with games if physical media is eliminated.
- **Domino Effect on the Industry** [03:38] — If PlayStation succeeds in phasing out physical media, Microsoft and Nintendo will likely follow, as seen with price hikes and microtransactions. This could lead to the end of physical media entirely.
- **Misleading Sales Data** [05:28] — Articles cited US market data showing declining physical sales, but globally Sony shipped nearly 70 million physical discs in FY2025. US physical spending actually rose 3% year-over-year, the first increase since 2009.
- **Impact on Advertisers** [08:11] — Community notes on PlayStation's paid ads damage relationships with game publishers, as their ads are now associated with negative PR. This could lead to companies avoiding PlayStation for future promotions.
- **Sony Executives Selling Shares** [09:47] — Following the backlash, Sony executives reportedly sold off shares, indicating internal concern about the company's direction. This suggests the pressure is being felt at the highest levels.

### Conclusion

The coordinated journalist campaign to justify the end of physical media has backfired, with community notes exposing the misinformation. Continued gamer pressure may force Sony to reverse course, as the backlash threatens both their PR and advertiser relationships.

## Transcript

game journalist. I'm not even joking. These are main game journalist outlets all making basically the exact identical post around the exact same time within a few hours of each other. Like here, I'll show you. You have Eurogamer, which you
see they've been community noted and you can see what time they posted at say, you know, 6:30 a.m. on July 21st. You have IGN, they also have been community noted. They posted about 2 hours prior but at 4:31 a.m. July 21st. Then you
have Kotaku, which is in the process of being community noted, but it was posted at 8:03 that July 21st a.m. And then you have Nintendo Life, which is also posted at 6:30 a.m. July 21st, which has been community noted. It's very obvious just
by the way this was presented and way all these articles sound the exact same. It is definitely Sony PlayStation buying these journalists to spread good PR. For
those that are somehow out of the loop, let me explain why this is relevant. So, every single one of PlayStation's posts ever since they made the announcement that they were going to be phasing out physical media has been either community
noted or in the process of being community noted. I mean, look, this post is from 29 minutes ago and it is in the process of being community noted. You literally just scroll Anything that
process of it, trying to get community noted to some degree, or it has been community noted. As you can see, it is not a good look for Sony PlayStation. Their PR is not good. Like they their entire public relations right now,
nobody likes them. Everybody hates what Sony is doing right now and for an obvious good reason. And it warms my heart to see the gaming community on all sides of the internet coming together not just to clown on Sony, but to say
how unacceptable this is. I've even seen people that are PC fans, people that you know, just buy games on Steam, even going after Sony because obviously this knows what this means, what this spells for the future, and how this can really
mark the end, not just for physical media on PlayStation, but physical media right into that, okay? I feel like this is a conversation that a lot of people have talked about, and I feel like the reason why I'm wanting to talk about it
with the recent news of all these different game journalists basically trying to gaslight everybody into why physical media needs to be phased out or one of the big things that I need to elaborate before I go into this is like
is doing. First off, Sony has a massive track record with just removing your games or not games, your just your media in general without warning. I mean, prior to the announcement that physical media
was getting phased out, they literally removed a bunch of different movies from them from your catalog, and you no longer had access to them after you bought them. You actually bought them, and they were just gone from your
injury, they announced that they're phasing out physical media for games. for movies and stuff. What makes you think you're not going to do this for games? Because for those that don't know, you know, a lot of this stuff, the
reason why things are removed is because of license. It's licensing and stuff like that. But basically, if you're buying a digital copy and you don't have you're technically just buying a license, and you're not really owning
from you at any given point, and you're basically you're out of money. You have money in the hole now. And that is a big that, to where you don't technically own your games on PlayStation. If Sony
PlayStation doesn't have significant enough backlash, significant enough backlash to cause it to revert course and no longer go down this path, it will obviously follow suit with Microsoft and also Nintendo. I know many people think
that this is insane. Why would any company want to dive into that and do currently getting hounded for? But, here's the thing. If PlayStation doesn't revert course, and then they continue through with it, and then they somehow
are still able to somewhat make a profit, then Microsoft and Nintendo will And the reason how we know this will happen is because any company will follow the trend. For instance, when it comes to game prices being raised, every
raise a price to $70 or $80, they start following suit. Look at what happened the big things and big aspects of GTA, the upcoming GTA game, that has everybody spooked, is that they're probably going to raise prices. Many
people are going to try to price games at 80, 90, or even $100 as a base copy, which is insane. But, the point is is there will be companies that are going obviously not make any profit. They're going to collapse because of that. But,
I'm still making a point that there is always a domino effect where companies try to follow suit these trends and do the exact same thing. Microtransactions where, you know, you have one company that starts it, it's very successful,
know, microtransactions. If one company adds a battle pass, every game now needs a battle pass. I think I've made my point very clear. Basically, digital physical media or physical media in general, if it gets phased out and it's
happen to pretty much all physical media. That is the scary part about all this. But, we now need to get into what this gaslighting is doing. And basically, the community notes that have been attached to these posts. So, first
we got to talk about Earl Gamer, which all these community notes are basically cover it pretty much once. But, Earl Gamer says, "Sony's planning shift away from producing physical disc for PlayStation might be unpopular." It No,
it is unpopular. It's very obvious it's unpopular. But, new sales data has highlighted the stark business reality behind it. Basically, this post, IGN, Kotaku, and Nintendo Life, they're not your friend. They are literally being
paid off by Sony to spread propaganda that digital media needs to be a thing and physical media needs to be killed off. They are clearly being paid. And it paid advertisements because that's obviously what this is. And there's no
trying to paint the exact same story like it's a good thing that, you know, physical media is being killed off. It's like, no, that's just not That's not okay. But also, you know, leaving out the detail that the actual data they're
getting from is only the United States market data. Which, you know, this community note outlines, "The cited sales data applies only to the United States market. Globally, Sony shipped nearly 70 million physical
PlayStation game discs in the financial year of 2025." So, basically, basically, this is just straight-up misinformation. They are Well, it's misinformation, but not. They're intentionally being disingenuous
and leaving out information to seem like it's not doing well, but in reality, it is. That the the physical disc department is selling pretty well. In fact, if you go over here, someone even highlights a few other ones, which I'll
highlight this one. So, the CEEKA reports US physical game spending CEEKA reports US physical game spending rose 3% year-over-year to $1.6 billion rose 3% year-over-year to $1.6 billion for 12 months ending in May 2026. So,
recently, first increase since 2009, driven by Nintendo Switch 2. Rhythm Heaven Groove sold 393,000 copies, physical copies, in its first week in Japan per Famitsu. So, basically, what is being outlined here
and intentionally being left out is that globally, the market is doing very well with physical media. But they're they're just talking about the US market and needs to be canceled." It's like, that is so stupid. Like, look, that is so
is so stupid. Like, look, that is so disingenuous and I am so glad that these posts have been community noted because that is actually freaking insane. They're trying to sell that it's not doing so hot when it clearly is. I mean,
this even outlines that it rose for the first time, you know, since, you know, first time, you know, since, you know, 2009. So, like >> [laughter] >> it it it's absolutely ridiculous. But,
anyways, back into the point, PlayStation is legitimately not having a good time because they are legit getting community noted at every single turn, every single game announcement, and trying to push a game announcement is
getting community noted. And let me tell you what this basically means, okay? All PlayStation, working with Sony, and they have their game ad pop up to basically be presented by PlayStation because FYI, when these games are being presented on
PlayStation's platform, it's advertisement. It's paid advertisement. So, these companies are definitely paying PlayStation to put their product on PlayStation's Twitter. But, when their post, their ad is now being
completely unrelated because PlayStation doesn't know how to have good PR, this this is going to piss off a lot of companies that don't even really want to work with PlayStation. Like, this is going to cause massive damage. For
instance, imagine, hypothetically, this post pops up on GTA. Like, for instance, this post pops up with a massive GTA trailer that's going to come out soon, and this community note comes out, and it slams PlayStation. It is not
good for advertisers. It will not look good for people wanting to get invested into a PlayStation game, and I feel like Sony is probably sweating a little bit they're paying PR for this right now because they are going to have some very
big massive announcements soon, and if these community notes continue to pile up and stack on their account, especially on big announcements, it's bend. And I feel like they are starting to feel the pressure, and they can only
ignore this for so long. Which by the way, that is something I do want to talk about. So, I think this is very relevant to kind of attach onto this story. So, that they were going to be ending physical media, a bunch of Sony
executives apparently sold off their shares from the company thanks to the backlash. see where you can actually see real information of them selling their shares, filing reports and stuff, which is pretty damning information, honestly.
It pretty much indicates that they are kind of worried. They're just keeping it hush-hush and silent because obviously there is a lot of you know, shareholders and stuff that they got to make happy. And it's clearly it's starting to be
felt quite a bit. And I feel like if gamers continue up the pressure, Sony is much as they think they are. They think right now that they can ignore you. They They think that that you're not you don't matter at all and that they can
get away with this. That's what they think. But do not let them. And I feel talking about this because this is legitimately insane that they're trying the whole thing I've been talking about lately with Crunchyroll and how
Crunchyroll is potentially ending physical media as well. I'm going to who are watching this Sony video that might not know anything about Sony. It's an anime site and they have a store
and basically you got Crunchyroll store that does sell physical media. And with clear that they're probably trying to phase out physical media as well. Very similar to what Sony is doing with PlayStation, which makes sense because
they're owned by Sony. So, yeah, everything kind of lines up. So, it's clear what's going on here. It's trying to make it to where everybody is on a license and you don't own anything and it kind of cuts out resells or used
copies or anything like that. It is disastrous for the market in my personal opinion, and I think many people can agree with me on that. But, I'm going to content, you know, please subscribe. It does help me out a lot, and I would
greatly appreciate it. But, be safe, stay healthy, chibi out.