New Playstation games to be digital only from January 2028

[eltawater]

Sony is ending production of physical playstation discs from 1st January 2028, new games will be released digital only.

https://blog.playstation.com/2026/07/01/physical-d...

[CT05 Nose Cone]

Terrible for consumers, especially coming days after they announced they were removing hundreds of films that people had paid for

https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-to-delete-movies...

At least on PC you have a choice, on PS it's pay their prices or go without.

[Hol]

Like a lot of people I bought a disc version of the launch PS5 when it came out because it was backwards compatible with old PS4 games.

Whilst I appreciate that equivalent media like DVDs have gone digital and this is likely a response to sales trends, I hope they still include a disc option when machines like mine finally give up working.

[SmoothCriminal]

[RSTurboPaul]

What he said ^^^



But I'm sure we will have access to our digital content...


... just as long as we submit our Digital ID for access every time we wish to use it, and make sure to not transgress 'the rules' in case our permissions are revoked.


You know, like communist China.

[wildoliver]

I reckon this is a huge own goal from Sony. The mistakes Xbox is making at the moment all Sony has to do is keep on producing decent machines that people want. Physical media is dying, we all know it, it's dead everywhere else (aside from enthusiast level music/photography) but I think it's too early to say that's your lot and not be perceived as the bad guy. Another generation on having stayed that disc versions of machines accounted for such a small percentage it isn't viable to make them anymore would have been the right move imo.

[eltawater]

In related news for PS3 and PS Vita, they're starting to close in some territories in just a few months with the remainder worldwide closing those online stores next year:

https://blog.playstation.com/2026/07/01/an-update-...

I'm not sure how much of an impact this is going to have on the emulation scene as some of the emulators rely on downloading updates for games from online. It's not clear whether these repositories will be closed at the same time and where this leaves retro gaming. I've got a stack of discs here like GT5 which will presumably lose access to install the spec 2.0 update amongst other things.

[Composite Guru]

Will be buying nothing then.

[ambuletz]

its bad for so many reasons
- games always tend to be more expensive on the PS store, we all know this
- older games will get heavily discounted from retailers. Rarely happens on the PS store.
- its skewed because many kids probably bought/gifted digital only versions of the PS5
- a game could get pulled from the store at any time and you'll never be able to buy or play it. Just like how sony are closing down the store for PS3 games... lost in time forever

The only game i ever bought off the store was Streets of Rage 4, as it never had a physical copy. Everyone of my games has been physical.

and not forgetting the obvious one... they could take the game away from you anytime you want.

Edited by ambuletz on Wednesday 1st July 23:11