‘If People Want It, Companies Should Provide It’: Rockstar Co-Founder Dan Houser Joins PS5 Disc Debate

Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser – currently of entertainment empire Absurd Ventures, which launched its first collected comic book volume this past week – has weighed in on the physical games debate dominating the industry right now.

For those of you living under a rock – seriously, where have you been?! – Sony confirmed it’ll cease manufacturing physical PlayStation games in January 2028.

This has all culminated in a backlash of biblical proportions, which is seeing the platform holder’s social media get spammed almost a month after the announcement. The firm has still yet to elaborate further on its plans.

And slowly, we’re starting to hear the thoughts of other organisations, like Ubisoft, who said it doesn’t expect the decision to disturb the industry much.

Speaking with IGN, Houser said he doesn’t “personally care” about the move, but said “if people want [physical games], companies should make them”.

He explained:

“I don’t know that I care, but if people want that, I think companies should provide it. But I don’t know that I personally care. And I also think that the ability to update games – as critical as people are of digital releases – the ability to update and fix problems in games has been really useful for the quality of games.”

Houser was joined by long-time collaborator Lazlow Jones during the discussion, who noted how rewarding it was launching Absurd Ventures’ aforementioned comic book American Caper in physical format.

He said:

“We’ve worked in digital together for a lot of years and then making a physical product of a comic book is a different creative process, but it’s also just really fulfilling to have a physical thing so you can say, ‘Look, we made a thing.’”

Recent Circana data revealed the dwindling interest in physical games in the US, where just seven boxed PlayStation games have exceeded 100k copies in 2026, maxing out at no more than 275k units.

According to historical records, as many as 100 physical PlayStation games exceeded 100k copies during the same period in 2008.

But, no matter how small, there is clearly a passionate audience for physical games that remains.

The great irony is that Houser’s former company Rockstar will be among the first to do away with physical media, because its GTA 6 will controversially launch as a code in a box later this year.