Rockstar Games co-founder Dan Houser and his longtime collaborator Lazlow Jones had a sit down with IGN at San Diego Comic-Con 2026 where one-half of UK's richest gaming moguls was asked about the death of physical media and some are saying that he took a swing at Sony Interactive Entertainment over its decision.
The version of his answer doing rounds on the internet is that he loves discs, everyone loves discs, and companies should provide them if people want it. The truth? He did say that, but it was not an unqualified defence of physical media, as some are making it out to be.
Asked directly whether he wants his games released physically, his response opened with something close to indifference, saying:
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.
He later says that he loves physical media, but he was more referring to comic books. Houser and Lazlow now run Absurd Ventures, which publishes physical comics among other things, and the affection he expresses for the feel of physical media comes while talking about paper and flicking through printed pages. Houser also spoke about the value of digital updates for game quality, while Lazlow balanced the tactile appeal of physical media against the convenience of digital copies when travelling.
Still, Houser does make a point.
He argues that if people want physical media, companies should provide it. It is also, and this is the part nobody using the quote seems to have noticed, an argument about consumer demand rather than an argument about ownership or preservation.
Sony's entire justification for winding down disc production is demand. The company's position, backed by allegedly fabricated and inflated sales data, is that people have overwhelmingly stopped buying discs.
Based on Houser's principle, companies should keep on selling physical media as long as there's a demand for it, and Sony is just following demand. The company looked at whether people wanted discs, concluded they largely do not. You can argue Sony helped create that decline by making digital the default, but that's a different case entirely.
The stronger case for discs is about what happens when a store front closes, when a licence expires, when a server goes dark and a game you paid for simply stops existing. We got a recent example of this when the PlayStation Network went down for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 users around the world for roughly 12 hours on July 24.
Ultimately, Houser's view is interesting as the perspective of someone who helped build this industry with his work on, among other things, Grand Theft Auto IV, Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2.
So take the comment for what it genuinely is. Houser expressed a reasonable principle about supply following demand, offered a fair point about the value of updates, and said something warm about physical media while discussing comics.
At the end of the day, GTA 6 is still not launching with a disc.
