Sony announced that physical game disc production will cease for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles, beginning in January 2028. It’s the biggest announcement we’ve seen yet in the gaming industry toward a digital-only future, since Sony announced the disc-less PlayStation 5 Pro.
The news also comes just after Rockstar Games announced that the initial release of Grand Theft Auto 6 will not include a game disc for the physical version.
“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,” writes Sid Shuman, Senior Director, Sony Interactive Entertainment. “This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today. 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.”
Needless to say, gamers are not happy. The original announcement on Twitter/X has over 70,000 replies. And folks on Reddit are pointing out that you technically don’t really own digital games — you purchase a license to play them.
And that license could technically be revoked at any time.
In fact, Sony recently did just that, removing over 500 movies and shows from the PlayStation store due to licensing issues with Studio Canal.
The kicker is that the affected products will also be deleted from user’s libraries!
This is in stark contrast to Valve’s policy on Steam, where games can be delisted and removed from the Store, but never removed from user libraries. Steam also features full refunds, if players have less than two hours of total playtime.
At a time when Xbox is earning all the bad will from rumors of studio closures and layoffs, Sony decided to Hold My Beer with the negative attention. It’s a depressing, though not surprising, change that greatly benefits the publisher by eliminating second-hand sales. But us gamers are rightly concerned about what that means for ownership of our digital games going forward.
Grand Theft Auto 6 releases November 19, sans game disc. Official cessation of physical game discs begins January 2028.
