Sony - Physical disc production ending in January 2028

[BLUEVOODU]

Title: Physical disc production ending in January 2028 for new games releasing on PlayStation consoles

Sub-Title: In response to shifting trends in consumer preference, new games will be released on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only.

Sony Message Link: https://blog.playstation.com/2026/07/01/physical-disc-production-ending-in-january-2028-for-new-games-releasing-on-playstation-consoles/

We knew this was coming - Today is the day.  It sucks to see it official announced though.  Thoughts, comments, post it up!

[retro junkie]

I just saw this and was watching this video. My personal thoughts? I think this will impact the whole industry. Nintendo will hold out for a while and then eventually cave. I am thinking they really wanted to do this with the Switch 2. I think that is what the key cards were all about. They were trying to wean gamers off of physical media. Not sure if the push back really changed their strategy or maybe delayed?

Not that I have an interest in any new consoles, but I do not like it. Games will be lost to newer generations of gamers. You just pay to have access and then games will be removed, to be lost. I will continue to hang onto the retro dinosaur consoles with their physical media. It is sad. But I am so happy that I got to live through, and enjoy, the good times of those early gaming years.

Makes me wonder just how this will have an effect on the storage in the newer consoles. Just how big will the games get and just how long will it take to download. Erase one game and download another? What kind of impact will this make on giving someone a gift, new game? No going to the local game store for a used game, it's not there anymore. You will own nothing and be happy.

wow things got busy and I didn't finish that game. Let's see......what? Wait! Where is it? NO LONGER AVAILABLE??!

[targetrasp]

completely opposed. I will never buy a stand-alone console that does not have physical media. Storage is too expensive, I feel like you'll be juggling your library around with uninstalling and reinstalling titles, and the licensing nightmares have only begun.

If everything goes digital I'll just stick with pc. The licensing bs is still there as well as the inability to will, sell, or give your rights of ownership (if we can even call it that) but computers are usable for other things. A stand alone console that costs near computer prices with no other real purpose seems worthless.

[retro junkie]

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[BLUEVOODU]

LOL .. that's pretty good @retro junkie.  I also think you are 100% right on your assessment.   Considering a few things that happened recently.  @SpartanEvolved mentioned that Terminator 2 was recently pulled from PlayStation store and from all users who bought it.  I don't think they were refunded to date.

@targetrasp  --> I am there too.  Think about the cost of storage in a console... and in 2-3 years how large the games will be.  HEY... I CAN INSTALL 3 GAMES AT A TIME ON MY PS6.  That is insane and stupid. 

I probably (not 100% right now) won't get a console without a disc drive. Hopefully Nintendo doesn't cave. However, I did buy a Steam Deck... so when I think about that, I cannot say no 100%.  Anything Steam is fully digital.  I feel it's a bit more acceptable.  However, I also think this is the trend many people are embracing.  We will see if that ever gets turned around.

Sounds like Sony is taking it to the chin (at least a bit) based on this news.

[retro junkie]

Thinking out loud: Hmmmm..........we have had Disney no longer producing their own movie releases on DVD and Blu-Ray. They are now dependent on SONY to do this for them. The focus is streaming content. SONY is going to pull over 500 movies from its online store kicking the Playstation owners in the head who "purchased" these movies. Now SONY announces that they are no longer going to produce physical games in the near future. Amazon has already went through something like this with their Kindles, removing content from peoples Kindles after the owners thought they owned the books that they purchased. People have trusted the digital format due to storage issues of the physical, and the convenience. It fits a lot of people's lifestyles.

Where are we headed with the gaming industry? Are we going to end up, at some point, with Roku like gaming consoles where we stream games for a subscription? I can't see a continuation of a system in which gamers would pay a top dollar for a game they don't own only to get it removed after the time is up to play it. Fork over $80 just to hurry up and play before it is removed? That type of business model is doomed. Does anyone remember the Ouya? One unique thing about Steam is they made it work.

Fans of Playstation are being very vocal right now. And SONY is hiding. They have not posted anything since the announcement. It is my understanding that they usually put something up at least two times a day. SONY right now is also being sued for not being up front with the truth about ownership of the movies they are going to pull. I would think that people would be very reluctant to purchase something full price that really is only a fee to have temporary access?

I feel that there are a lot of gamers out there who long for the days when you purchased a game which was totally complete and did not require the internet to play.

[retro junkie]

hmmmmm...............interesting.............

[targetrasp]

according to @retro junkie 's video, big hitters for the PlayStation revenue are 20 - 30% physical. I actually thought physical would make up for more than that. Still, if a portion of that 20 - 30% decide they're not buying a console because of the decision to go completely digital and another portion of that 70 - 80% digital buyers decide the price of entry is too steep, we'll have some decent fall off.

You'd think Sony would learn from their past. Monkey with the price, or do something consumers don't like...

ps one sold 102 mil units, ps2 (backward compatible, physical, priced same as last generation) sold 160 mil units. ps3 (200 - 300 dollar price hike, backwards compatibility was iffy) sold 87.4 million units. ps4 (better launch price only 100 dollars higher than ps1 and ps2, brought back ability to play older titles via internal emulator and online offerings as well as fantastic amounts of rehashes) sells 117.2 mil units. ps5 is currently at 93.7 million units and still has some time to get those numbers up before its time is over. It may not overtake the ps4 in sales numbers and despite the ps4 backwards compatibility, I think price, availability and just the massive footprint stifled numbers enough to cause the dip.

counter argument - sonly claims making 107 bil in total sales for the ps4 era, while already hitting 136 bil on ps5. That's more money in 3 years of ps5 vs the 7 ps4 had. From this perspective it sounds like solid business but personally I think maxing out your customer base by draining them dry all the while cutting out a "lesser desirable" portion will wind up hurting the company in the long run.

I've always thought cutting off customers to maximize revenue is bad practice at least in the long term. Reputational damage is a real thing and new customers cost 5 - 10x more to acquire vs. who you've already got. Theres so many intangibles a bigger installed customer base brings to the table outside of short-term revenues. I think they'll min max themselves into oblivion.