At the beginning of July, Sony announced it would cease producing physical discs for PlayStation games entirely by 2028. That all but guarantees the PS6, whenever it arrives, will be a digital-only machine with no option for a disc drive. This led to an almost immediate backlash from players who, like me, understand that actual ownership of media can only occur through a physical object. Digital media can go away like a puff of smoke at the whim of licensing deals.
Well, Sony has heard the outcry. They understand that fans are upset. And they’ve decided to go ahead and just do what they were gonna do anyway. This came to light after a question about the backlash on a recent earnings call.
“There are various reasons we made this decision, the biggest being that the digitalization of content overall has been progressing, that’s the big factor,” Sony chief financial officer Lin Tao said through an interpreter during a Q&A on July 31. “It’s not just for PlayStation, but for all kinds of content, digitalization is progressing.”
She continued, ““And so, when we think about the future, we put in a lot of thought and time, and we cautiously considered this, and we came to this conclusion, and we’re going to cautiously move this forward.”
This doesn’t surprise me in the least. It’s always been about market share and cost cutting. If it saves Sony money not to make physical discs—and certainly more gamers just download games—that’s what they’ll do. Still, it feels a bit like a “we know best, sorry you’re mad,” response to aggrieved consumers. Ah well.
Original Report Below
Now’s the time when Grandpa Kyle gives you a tale of the 1990s. Back then, if you were lucky enough to have a home video game console, you coveted your library of games. You’d have to keep them free of dust, you’d add new ones and make room on your shelf or cupboard. And renting a new game? Oh, it would make or break a weekend. If you didn’t have the game in your hands, you couldn’t play it. Cut to now when the rise of digital downloads has made owning a physical copy of a game rarer and rarer. Add the word “obsolete” when discussing physical games and that’s where we are now as PlayStation has announced it will no long produce physical game discs.
The news comes via a blog post on the PlayStation site. Physical copies will cease production beginning January 2028.
Sid Shuman, Senior Director of Sony Interactive said, in part:
In response to shifting trends in consumer preference, new games will be released on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only.
Shifting trends is right. Digital downloads of new games has completely overtaken physical, as a tweet from Daniel Ahmad illustrates. What started as roughly 10% of sales in the PS4 days has ballooned to 80% of total game sales, DLC not included.
Evidence and behind the scenes scuttle also indicates PlayStation 6 and Xbox’s Project Helix will not have a disc drive option. If you, like me, use your PlayStation has 4K disc player in addition to a way to play games, you’re SOL.
So, what does this all mean? If 80% of players already download their games rather than buy them physically, this doesn’t seem like that big of an issue, right? Well, it goes toward a growing trend of the ephemeral nature of media. Maybe not the huge, giant popular titles, but smaller games, indie games, or weird games might suddenly disappear from your library when Sony loses a license. This happens all the time. You can never actually own digital media. You merely rent it. A $70+ rental.
Originally published July 1, 2026.