According to a former Infinity Ward employee, video game publishers have been trying to stop the production of physical game discs for almost the past two decades and have fully shifted to digital versions. He stated that this move is ultimately aimed at maximizing profits and combating the second-hand resale market.
Robert Bowling, who served as a creative strategist for the "Call of Duty" series from 2006 to 2012, told Decrypt that he first heard discussions about reducing the disc size in 2007, during the development period of "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare".
“Once, an executive at Activision mentioned that if we went fully digital and stopped printing discs, they would be able to completely avoid the problem of reselling, and they could also take control of the gaming market,” Bowling said to Decrypt, “This would also allow us to bypass the disc fees that Xbox and PlayStation charge for publishing games on their discs.”
"It was at that moment that I expressed my concern: we would be sacrificing the freedom and enjoyment of collecting games for the sake of profit growth," he said, "which goes against our culture as both players and game developers."
This statement emerged amidst the controversy surrounding Sony's decision to cease optical disc production starting from 2028. This move has met with opposition from consumers, with over 387,000 people signing a petition titled “Don 't Kill the Disc.” Meanwhile, the founder of PlayStation, Ken Kutaragi, has defended Sony, stating that if players are dissatisfied with the cancellation of optical discs, it is a “mindset issue.”
After working at Infinity Ward for six years, Bowling went on to participate as a creative consultant in several major projects of Electronic Arts, including "Battlefield 5", "Apex Heroes", and "Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order". In 2021, Bowling co-founded Midnight Society to develop the encrypted evacuation shooter game Deadrop, but the company left in 2025 due to a lack of funds. Today, he is the head of the studio //18. bravo, which is currently developing a first-person shooter game.
Bowling to Decrypt indicates that during his twenty-year career in the gaming industry, he was one of the key figures behind the initiative to eliminate physical CDs. He believes this was because publishers wanted to increase profit margins, reduce production costs, and shrink the second-hand gaming market.
"This reflects the division that has already formed within our industry: on one side, games are seen merely as software products, while on the other, they are regarded as something closer to art, entertainment, collectibles, and a way of life," said Bowling.
He said that the reason Sony did not take this measure in 2007 was simply because consumer habits had changed since then, with more and more players purchasing digital versions rather than physical ones.
According to court documents, Sony believes that purchasing digital games from PlayStation Store does not constitute ownership of those games. Instead, Sony states that the purchase from the store is equivalent to a license that can be revoked at any time.
"It's very important whether players truly own the games they purchase from us," said Bowling. "As developers, we create games for people to buy and enjoy. We hope you own, share, and cherish these games. It's publishers like Sony who push for a purely commercial approach, and they ignore the impact of the end result on our lives."
Activision did not immediately respond to Decrypt's request for a comment.
