The reception of PlayStation's recent decision to stop producing physical games media in early 2028 has been heard far and wide across the internet, with fans even going as far as to start the "Don't Kill the Disc" petition on Change.org. More recently, a survey on Push Square , a publication that largely serves PlayStation enthusiasts, found that 45% of 6,454 respondents were "seriously considering" switching to PC gaming as a result of the announcement, while 23% were firm in their decision to stick with PlayStation going forward, and 15% said they had already thought about it. Of those who responded to the survey, 41% cited Sony ending physical games as their reason for moving to PC. Although there hasn't been a massive outcry about it just yet, Xbox is apparently also planning on moving away from physical media, with rumors claiming a disc-to-digital attestation system coming to the Xbox Helix console .

Another point of contention in the next-gen console line-up is pricing, with some rumors placing the PS6 BOM cost at near $1,000 . Only 14% of 5,664 respondents in the same survey said that they would buy a PS6 at launch if it cost $1,000 or more, while 29% said they would buy or build a gaming PC instead, and another 29% said they would skip the PS6 console generation altogether. Up-front hardware cost is one area where console gaming usually has an edge on PC gaming, and, while the PS5 console generation saw Sony an Xbox embrace multi-platform game launches from their in-house studios, it seems as though both companies are prepared for at least some backlash for the upcoming console generation. For its part, Xbox appears to be approaching things a little differently by more or less treating PC and Xbox gaming as a monolith, especially with the next-gen Xbox Helix console all but confirmed to be a PC-console hybrid .