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Sony is moving away from physical discs, will soon only release PlayStation games digitally

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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.
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Viri said:
My niece and nephews like to rent their Switch 1/2 games from the library. I guess if Nintendo does such a thing, no more renting new games from the library. lol
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N have always been a physical company right from the off over a 100 years ago making cards - I cant see even the next Switch (mk3) losing that as they love the idea that kids can just buy the game and play it there and then....As all N first party games are on the cart
 
And they will "magically" state that the most expensive hard drive they sell is the best to use for PS games...

Here comes another PS Vita styled flaw...

Sunny of the Beach, making the same mistakes again and again... They never learn... Thank You!
 
Sono said:
They probably upsell the price per disc quite a lot, making it barely worth it for some very popular AAA titles. For indies, there is no chance, for sure.
So if you're not interested in AAA titles, you literally have no choice, your favorite game is digital-only.
:rofl2:
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Console disc pricing has always had roughly the same model.

A few years ago to print a ps4 disc it was $5-7 per disc. On top of this Sony has a minimum order of a few thousand discs. On top of this is typical licensing fees. For the big AAA publishers Sony would typically cut them a deal Indies's not so much.
A big reason a lot of indies don't do a physical release is if the game is not a huge success the price of the physical copies can bankrupt them overnight.


Nintendo is the same but the proce for carts is $10-20
 

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