Physical media in gaming is nearly dead as Sony announced the end of new PlayStation discs
Sony has announced it will stop producing physical discs for new PlayStation games starting in January 2028. After that, new titles will be sold only in digital formats through the PlayStation Store or retailers offering download codes. Games released or already planned for disc before the cutoff will not be affected.
Sony said the decision reflects the continued shift toward digital game purchases, which now outpace physical sales. While the move matches how many players buy games today, it is likely to frustrate collectors and those who prefer physical ownership. The announcement also follows backlash over the physical edition of Grand Theft Auto 6, which reportedly includes only a download code instead of an actual disc.
The timing has raised speculation that the PlayStation 6, expected around 2028, could launch without a built-in disc drive, although Sony has not confirmed its hardware plans. The company also announced its plans to close the PlayStation Store on PS3 in select markets later this year, followed by global closures for PS3 and PS Vita next year. Players will no longer be able to buy new digital content on those systems, but previous purchases will remain available to download.
- Freemium
- Proprietary
Related news
External links
- Physical disc production ending in January 2028 for new games releasing on PlayStation consolesPlayStation Blog • Official source
- An update on PlayStation Store for PS3 and PS VitaPlayStation Blog • Official source
- Sony Will Stop Producing Discs for New PlayStation Games in 2028Insider Gaming
- Sony to end physical PlayStation game disc production in 2028TechCrunch
- Sony will kill PlayStation games on discs in 2028 and offer digital downloads onlythe Guardian
Comments
I may sound rude but:
Forget about games, or play games that do not require payment.
Finally, create games yourself, there are all the tools for this, even artificial intelligence, which I hate.
The real problem is that ownership is nearly dead. I'd be fine with digital if they weren't just useless licenses.
A lot of game stores downsizing or closing in the future?
Totally. We gamers are definitely the ones most affected by the loss of options, even if most people were not buying physical discs, because that is still less choice than what we currently have. But this is probably the final blow for game stores, which were already holding on to that tiny niche of people who still wanted to own their games in some way.
Then we switch to Open Source Games, or we develop games through a game engine similar to Godot and do not sweat.
That makes sense because PS5 only use triple-layer Bluray, limited to 100 GB, which is not enough for most recent AAA games (CoD BO7 7 needs 300 GB on XBox, and GTA 6 may be over 200 GB on console), making the Bluray technology obsolete for gaming, and Sony certainly doesn't want game studios to struggle to fit their games on disc.
Now sure, Sony could have switched to USB keys (or the old Memory Stick, or Nintendo cartridges) for games, it may do that (because Bluray won't keep evolving), but most gamer got now a fiber internet connection to download all patches and updates needed because many AAA games are utterly broken on day one.
Physical disc always has been a joke. They start to rot after 15-20 years. Modern games don't have the full game on it and ask for an internet connection in order to install it on your console. So on console even if physical copies of games were still a thing (compared on PC) they all are DRM games that you still don't own. Thankfuly most of the time you can still buy and sell second hand but Nintendo seems to not like that either.
That's why I made a list for DRM-free media and I think it's important if you want to own a digital library of media to support services that allow you to do that. Also you can create physical collection from them with project like:
Zaparoo , 
Kazeta and probably others.
My list: https://alternativeto.net/lists/41619/oppose-to-drm--buy-drm-free-digital-medias/
Hey there I appreciate your help But you should make sure that console users are covered just as pc and mobile users
Sorry but consoles are DRM based hardware. You do not own a console anymore, nor the software, nor the media you "bought". I don't see console gamers escaping from DRM as it is contradictory to the modern digital console philosophy itself. Mobile gaming can be DRM free on Android but honestly the popular mobile games are usually Game as a Service (GaaS), which is also not something you own. Of course on Android you can download foss games on F-Droid (at least for now) or buy them on itch.io, or even run GoG titles on GameNative, but console gamers... It's hard to believe they will free from this distopia. Back in the days the DRM were in the physical copy, but now with digital store, consoles moved from relying on region locking and copy protection on physical media to embedding DRM directly into the hardware and operating system. This creates a significantly stronger form of control than simply protecting a physical copy. You don’t own a console in the traditional sense; you license the right to use it and the associated software under the terms of the manufacturer’s agreement.
Just as as me and my little brother bought 2 new games yesterday(Those being Sonic X Shadow Generations and Transformers Galactic Trials)Sony is now going to kill physical media like that so the only point of PlayStations nowadays is being fancy consoles that can run high fidelity games using “AI Upscaling” and charging more that 750 dollars for everything including the disk drive and controllers may god bless us with more hope in this time of need amen