Sony made a shocking announcement today, revealing that the company plans to move away from physical game releases in the future. Citing claims of how the industry is moving away from physical copies and disc-based games, and prefers digital media, PlayStation will follow suit, and will only release PlayStation games digitally. Starting January 2028, physical disc production will end, and you'll only be able to purchase video games through a digital format, either from retailers or PlayStation themselves.

According to the most recent financial report from Sony, only 3% of PlayStation's annual sales came from physical software releases, with projections for that already low number set to fall even further through the end of the PlayStation 5's lifecycle.

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 PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only. This transition has no impact on games that already released, or will be releasing, prior to January 2028 in disc format.

This is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs. This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today.

Source

 

[Kingofknights]

Is the data really true or they cherry pick something? Only 3% physical? If that's the case then you the consumer only has yourself to blame.

Guess I'm also to blame since I also 100% digital. There's no space in the room to store physical.

 

[SecureBoot]

Sadly i think that's the only alternative. I hate to play on the PC (more expensive, more tedious to set up, etc etc. i already have to deal with "pc" crap on a daily basis) BUT at least there i have options to actually get a copy that i can keep.

I get it. I'm fortunate enough to be one of the freaks who loves messing with PCs nearly as much as I like playing games, but I'm not dumb enough to say it's just like a console. Stuff like SteamOS/Bazzite goes a long way in that regard though.

 

[MariArch]

Physical collecting is almost dead

 

[Renos44]

If they transition to only offering games digitally, fine enough. I would be getting them digitally anyway, by other means

Seriously though, trusting Sony to keep your "purchases" accessible indefinitely is foolish given their track record. Also, bans on consoles are much heavier-handed than on PC (e.g. Steam), so whether a ban was justified or not, it could (to my understanding) mean loss of access to all purchased games.

I can't wait for modern consoles to die. Being hardly different from general-use x86_64 and ARM offerings nowadays, what's the point any more? Physical releases are the only advantage they had.

With the exception of the switch 1 having a modded console is pretty rare so console bans on modern consoles are pretty uncommon. Really the only way a ps4/ps5 gets handed a console ban is if multiple banned accounts were associated with it or the serial was reported stolen. However if i remember correctly a console banned ps4/ps5 can no longer play any digital purchases.

Account bans however are different though.

Both Steam and PSN can perma ban entire accounts rendering the entire digital library gone.

Steam has 3 different bans
Game/VAC bans. The ban you get for cheating. You keep the account but can no longer play multiplayer in games that triggered the ban. You also lose access to steam trading.

Community Bans. You can still keep the account and play games. But you are banned from all steam community features.

Account lock bans, Your entire account is disabled and you lose access to everything, To even get a steam account to this point you have to seriously have fucked up. This is usually reserved for fraud, account theft, account used for commercial purposes, botting or your at the top of Valve's shit list.


PSN accounts have much stricter moderation. But its been a while were I've seen someone get a ban that straight up disables the entire account including digital purchases that wasn't related to fraud.
Its usually only a ban from social functions or multiplayer.

 

[Exnor]

I get it. I'm fortunate enough to be one of the freaks who loves messing with PCs nearly as much as I like playing games, but I'm not dumb enough to say it's just like a console. Stuff like SteamOS/Bazzite goes a long way in that regard though.

Oh don't get me wrong. I am tech dork that loves tinkering with both soft and hardware, BUT i hate doing that when i just want to play a game.

I got sick and tired of that back in 2001 and decided never to really play on a PC again. Consoles are just easy to use and were until this stupid prices arrived, way cheaper to buy with acceptable performance.

Now? Same price as a PC and no physical disks (aka more expensive games and no 2nd hand market) , so i guess i will just go back to play on a PC
On the plus side, SteamOS is great and made gaming on a PC way more enjoyable (plus Linux).

 

[rudras]

I'm done with Sony since a long time now. This news only confirms my choice ...

 

[Techjunky90]

I just won't buy Playstation games anymore and move to PC and Nintendo Switch 2.

I also this could mean more interesting things outside of the high end, with options like Steam Deck/Gaming Handhelds, Steam Machine, my Mac with Crossover and Arm Windows VM and Switch make gaming more practical for me anyways. Seriously this is a big gift for Valve's Steam Machine.

Spoken like a true idiot. "I won't buy PlayStation games anymore" meanwhile PC started the trend of digital only & Nintendo started the trend of physical releases containing a download code. Steam Deck was never going to be a mainstream device, niche product with a small userbase. Steam Machine will NEVER be a mainstream device when it gets beat by decade old hardware. You are completely out of touch with reality.

 

[LusoPlayer]

Also key factors:
-Games are surpassing 100GB + in size they would need a new format to print them on

No. UHD Blu-rays exist, their disc drives play them. A single, triple-layer disc can store up to 100GB of content.

 

[Techjunky90]

Oh don't get me wrong. I am tech dork that loves tinkering with both soft and hardware, BUT i hate doing that when i just want to play a game.

I got sick and tired of that back in 2001 and decided never to really play on a PC again. Consoles are just easy to use and were until this stupid prices arrived, way cheaper to buy with acceptable performance.

Now? Same price as a PC and no physical disks (aka more expensive games and no 2nd hand market) , so i guess i will just go back to play on a PC
On the plus side, SteamOS is great and made gaming on a PC way more enjoyable (plus Linux).

You are laughable at best. You complain about PC gaming & then go on to talk about Linux as if you know anything. SteamOS is absolute trash for gaming, just like every other Linux OS. The only people that make baseless claims about SteamOS being good are people that are absolutely clueless on the subject. When doing a proper comparison, Windows ALWAYS beats Linux in gaming performance. The "comparison" videos you see on YouTube are not legitimate. The crappy little articles written by AI are not legitimate.

 

[VioletRose]

LMFAO! People be like "Fuck Sony!!! Imma switch to PC!!!" Yeah, and you're not going to buy any games digitally from Steam or elsewhere, right? LOL! I bet same people download and listen to all of their music digitally too, and don't ever complain about it.

 

[DiscostewSM]

Spoken like a true idiot. "I won't buy PlayStation games anymore" meanwhile PC started the trend of digital only & Nintendo started the trend of physical releases containing a download code. Steam Deck was never going to be a mainstream device, niche product with a small userbase. Steam Machine will NEVER be a mainstream device when it gets beat by decade old hardware. You are completely out of touch with reality.

You talking about GKCs here?

 

[rudras]

Spoken like a true idiot. "I won't buy PlayStation games anymore" meanwhile PC started the trend of digital only & Nintendo started the trend of physical releases containing a download code. Steam Deck was never going to be a mainstream device, niche product with a small userbase. Steam Machine will NEVER be a mainstream device when it gets beat by decade old hardware. You are completely out of touch with reality.

Why? Maybe he is just telling us that he will buy only Switch 2 games physical releases (no GKC) and the rest on PC where it's more simple to handle stockage capacity/ expansion, more accessible price for the digital games and better or same performance too.

 

[pedro702]

guess ps5 will be my last PlayStation console.

 

[Exnor]

You are laughable at best. You complain about PC gaming & then go on to talk about Linux as if you know anything. SteamOS is absolute trash for gaming, just like every other Linux OS. The only people that make baseless claims about SteamOS being good are people that are absolutely clueless on the subject. When doing a proper comparison, Windows ALWAYS beats Linux in gaming performance. The "comparison" videos you see on YouTube are not legitimate. The crappy little articles written by AI are not legitimate.

I don't care. I still like SteamOS and dislike Windows more and more everyday. In fact the only game i still play on a PC runs perfectly on my Mint workstation.

 

[Seraphic]

Games will be full MSRP forever starting in 2028, just like Nintendo's.
Also: You'll own nothing and you'll be happy.

 

[phreaksho]

We all saw this coming.. cloud only is next. Gonna be quite difficult to preserve games, and we will not own games before too long

 

[AndorfRequissa]

part of the fun of collecting games is having a gaming room where you can look at all the boxes on shelves on the wall. That is something they are not thinking about. I bought tons of PS2 games and PS3 games just for the boxart and now I don't have to. I can just print out box art and not even collect the games I guess.

No need to even be a collector. They are killing off the collector and I don't think they realize the impact this will have on the industry.

Part of the joy of buying something is opening it or being able to put your hands on it.

Big loss for the gaming industry. Its like they are purposefully shooting themselves in the foot with price increases and taking options away from the consumer

 

[ChibiMofo]

My physical media is a 28tb hard drive.
Best Physical Media Ever

Saw the headline and expected a full incelgamerboy™ revolt complete with ignorant statements about the market and hate for "greedy" Sony. As per the usual, GBATemp did not disappoint.

"According to the most recent financial report from Sony, only 3% of PlayStation's annual sales came from physical software releases, with projections for that already low number set to fall even further through the end of the PlayStation 5's lifecycle."

I mean how hard is that to understand? I told all of you dickless wonders that the PS6 would be discless. Time to grow up. Physical media is dead and is not coming back. You will temporarily own your games and you will like it.

 

[K3Nv4]

No. UHD Blu-rays exist, their disc drives play them. A single, triple-layer disc can store up to 100GB of content.

Were well due to have games over the 100gb mark.

 

[Slinger]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAGSHSHAHAHAHAHAHAH

I hate this timeline....

Just a couple of days ago they deleted digitally purchased movies from user libraries.

Excellent timing, Sony.

Oh, god! I only found out about this now that you mentioned it. Why aren't there bigger headlines about this?! They're not even being subtle any more... "we are your masters and you will like it" kind of vibe.