While Sony has been shamed out of many fan-hated changes over the years, that was never going to be the case for its decision to abandon physical discs starting in 2028. It’s too ingrained in its plans now, with factories converting out of disc-making to the idea likely being built into its next console.
The idea here is that so many consumers are buying digital already, shoving those last players over is inevitable, so Sony may as well do it now. That, of course, gives the company a much larger share of the pie, not splitting revenue with retail and not needing to produce physical objects. Consumers get nothing, of course, as prices for games will not be lowered.
New figures have come out from sales-tracker Circana that are not great news for those hoping Sony may reverse course. The firm’s Senior Director and Video Game Industry Advisor Mat Piscatella posted on social media that only 7 PlayStation games have sold over 100,000 physical discs in the US in 2026, with only two games selling more than 10,000 physical units in a recent week.
Those numbers, to be clear, include all games, not just ones released in 2026, as many titles have legs that allow them to sell well past their release dates. Previously, it’s been reported that 85% of PlayStation sales are digital now, though fans digging into those numbers say that’s an overestimate, as many digital-only games do not get a physical release at all, which factors into those figures.
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Sony, to be blunt, does not care. We can reference its original release statement about the decision:
“We’ll continue to prioritize our resources to drive innovation in how players can access games and provide choices as to where players prefer to purchase new games, whether that’s at retailers or PlayStation Store. We remain committed to delivering a world-class gaming experience to our fans and we thank you for your continued support.”
It is unclear what the “choices” would be at a physical retailer store past a code in a box, as we are about to see with the upcoming GTA 6 release, which will be the case on Xbox as well. There are conflicting reports about whether Microsoft may try to best Sony in the next generation and include a gamer-wanted disc drive in its next console, but it is clear which direction the industry is moving.
This is not good, naturally. No longer making discs hurts all non-Sony parties in this situation, whether we’re talking about game preservation, digital ownership, consumer choice or the fact that players simply do not get anything out of this, such as reduced costs. Sony will make more money from this decision, and that’s pretty much it. We’ll see what else happens before 2028, but a grand reversal of plans is exceedingly unlikely.
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