PlayStation Blackout Boycott Had 'No Significant Change' on Player Counts or Engagement, Says Analyst

The recent PlayStation blackout boycott reportedly had no "significant" change in player engagement with the platform, according to an analyst.

Last month, fans organized a boycott against PlayStation for the last week of August as a way of protesting the company's decision to abandon physical media. The boycott asked players to avoid playing their PlayStation, make purchases on the console, or renew any subscriptions to services like PlayStation Plus. Many questioned how effective this would actually be, given the blackout overlapped with the gameplay reveal of GTA 6, which would inevitably drive pre-orders for the game, and the beta for Modern Warfare 4.

As it turns out, it apparently wasn't very impactful. Circana analyst Matt Piscatella noted that the company saw no significant changes in player counts or overall platform engagement on PlayStation during this period. No numbers or hard data were provided on what changes there might've been, but it appears to be negligible. This may come as disappointing news to those who are trying to make their voices heard.

As of right now, it seems unlikely PlayStation is going to back down on its stance regarding physical games, especially as Grand Theft Auto VI likely won't suffer from a lack of a disc. Rumors have suggested that the next Xbox console was planned to have a disc drive prior to the recent "reset." If that's still the plan, Xbox may try to fill the hole left in the physical market with its next console. Microsoft is staying tight-lipped on how it plans to approach physical media with its next-gen console, but it has started implementing features that let players digitize their physical libraries.

Next year will be the final year for PlayStation's support of physical media, meaning games like God of War Laufey and potentially Intergalactic: Heretic Prophet will be the last physical PlayStation exclusives. Maybe something will change, but you probably shouldn't hold your breath.