The death of physical media began long ago, but when Rockstar Games announced Grand Theft Auto 6 would be digital-only, it was the death knell for the medium. Now, Sony confirms it will no longer produce physical PlayStation media beginning in 2028.
In a PlayStation Blog post, Sid Shuman, Senior Director for SIE Content Communications, revealed that Sony will stop producing physical discs due to “shifting trends in consumer preference” and that new games will be released only on the PlayStation Store in digital formats.
Essentially, it sounds like there’s a disconnect between what Sony believes and what is actually true. While it isn’t surprising that digital is the preferred way to buy and play games, it isn’t the solution to the death of physical media. For someone like me, I still buy physical media where I can, and have for years, especially if there’s a game that I liked so much I wanted a physical copy on my shelf.
“As consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital, physical game disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January 2028. Following this date, new games will be available on the PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital-only formats. This transition has no impact on games that already released, or will be releasing, prior to January 2028 in disc format,” Shuman said.
He goes on to say that this choice is a “natural decision” for Sony Interactive Entertainment as it adapts to consumer trends which lean toward a digital preference. “This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today.”
Many people prefer to own physical media, and with so many companies essentially telling consumers that they do not own the game which they purchased, rather they bought a license for said game and that digital media can be pulled at any time.
At this point, I don’t expect to see the PlayStation 6 even include a disc drive. Sony’s been focused on its current console with barely a mention of what the PS6 will include. The PlayStation 5 has moved away from a disc drive, though you can purchase one as an optional upgrade.
Fans of preservation and collectors should be in an uproar about this, and to be frank, we all should be upset at this news. It’s a blow against consumers, it’s a blow against ownership, and it’s a blow against choice. We’ve seen Sony pull hundreds of video titles, including purchased titles sitting in people’s libraries.
We’ve known for years that physical discs cost money to produce, and it was factored into the price of a video game. Now, things are changing, and we all know Sony will not update prices to account for physical media no longer being included in how it calculates a title’s costs. And this decision doesn’t even factor in how this blow to physical media will affect EB Games, which buys and sells second-hand used games.
US new physical video game software spending. 12 months ending May 2007-2026:
— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-06-25T11:30:56.827Z
“The overwhelming majority of volume is done digitally now. The second-hand market… doesn’t really matter. More than half of all Xbox Series consoles in the US don’t have a physical drive, while over a quarter of PS5’s are the same.
We likely have less than a decade left of physical software,” said Mat Piscatella, Senior Director and Video Game Industry Advisor at Circana.
For years now, we’ve watched as more and more companies pull away from physical media. We’ve seen the removal of manuals in a box; now it’s discs, and all we’ll have left is a game case with a downloadable code. The future is bleak for physical media as more and more companies shrink their retail floors to exclude physical.
