Sony spent 2013 dunking on Microsoft for trying to kill used game sales. The company released a tutorial video. Showed gamers how to share a PlayStation disc. Step one: hand the disc to your friend. Step two: there is no step two. Xbox looked like idiots. Sony looked like heroes. Gamers cheered.
Fast forward to now. Sony just announced the PlayStation 5 Pro ships with no disc drive. You want physical media? Buy the separate drive for $80. You want to play your old PS4 discs? Too bad. The drive doesn't work with them on the Pro. Every disc you own becomes a coaster. The $7 billion used game market that GameStop and eBay built? Gone. Not disrupted. Deleted.
Gamers are calling it ironic. That's generous. Irony requires subtlety. This is just lying with a thirteen-year gap between the setup and the punchline. Sony played the long game. Convinced everyone they cared about ownership. Built trust. Waited for Microsoft to eat enough shit that nobody remembered who started the fight. Then did the exact thing they mocked.
The Pro costs $700. No disc drive. No stand. Those are sold separately like you're buying airline tickets. You get a console and the privilege of spending more money to make it functional. Sony's marketing team probably high-fived each other for months. Called it innovation. GameStop's stock dropped 8% the day of the announcement. Their entire business model depends on people trading in physical games. Sony just turned their inventory into decorative plastic.
Retail traders who bought GameStop at $483 thinking it was a movement are learning that companies don't have principles. They have quarterly earnings calls. Sony didn't become what it mocked. It was always planning to.
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