Sony PlayStation to phase out physical game discs by 2028

[ranger_scout]

In a blow to physical media, Sony PlayStation has announced that it will be phasing out physical copies of their games by 2028. Although I haven't owned a PlayStation in years I'm disappointed with this news because it could mean that Nintendo and Xbox might follow.

https://deadline.com/2026/07/sony-pl...cs-1236972201/

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by ranger_scout

In a blow to physical media, Sony PlayStation has announced that it will be phasing out physical copies of their games by 2028. Although I haven't owned a PlayStation in years I'm disappointed with this news because it could mean that Nintendo and Xbox might follow.

https://deadline.com/2026/07/sony-pl...cs-1236972201/

Nintendo is hardly one for following ANYONE and X-Box is poised to just go away altogether behind the Steam Machine. Sony won, Nintendo kind of forfeited into a kind of niche thing, and Microsoft lost.

[sdp]

I predicted this a decade ago and got attacked by it even by people here in the technodrome. Physical is dead and has been dying slowly over the past 10+ years.

Nintendo is still the "physical" system but even they see the trend, their last numbers showed most of their game sales are now digital as well. I don't see Nintendo continuing with physical games in a Switch 3, which of course won't likely come for another decade but I do think physical games will die on switch 2.

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

X-Box is poised to just go away altogether behind the Steam Machine.....
and Microsoft lost.

Phil Spencer had a great vision with Xbox, it's not only physical that is dying but also console gaming. We're all going to be streaming games in a couple of years and consoles will become the niche of the hardcore.

Now I won't put my hands on the fire for Xbox because they replaced Phil Spencer and now I'm not sure what vision they have for xbox, if they go the console route they are going to fail, if they continue with Xbox Game Pass from anything then they're going to win.

Sony won, Nintendo kind of forfeited into a kind of niche thing,

How did Sony win? Their revenue might be higher than Nintendo's but their profits are actually lower. Nintendo is far from a niche thing.

[Wildcat]

I hate this news. I understand things were trending towards digital but it’s inexcusable for GTA6. It’s most likely gonna be the best selling game of all time.

GTA6 feels more like trolling but to be fair they might still do a disc version especially now before Sony stops completely. I actually never got around to play GTA5 but it’s only $20 on Amazon so I definitely wanna get it. I’ll wait for 6.

I know the Xbox Helix (whatever they name it) is probably gonna be digital only too but now I’m very curious if they continue to offer physical games as a way to compete against Sony. It would certainly “win” more people over.

Nintendo, someone correct me if I’m wrong but the Key Cards are only a thing because SD cards are more expensive to produce than discs. If the Switch 2 was a traditional console and not a hybrid they’d still be fully physical. I mean support fully physical. Of course digital is an option.

Plus first party Nintendo games are offered in full physical form. Others too depending on the studio/developers.

I wonder about movies. Sony is the primary manufacturer or only manufacturer of BluRays/4K right? Although they recently said were not stopping those...just the blank discs.

[Andrew NDB]

I don't like games moving away from physical media either, but what can you do? If a game is bigger than 100 gigs (the limit of what a PS5 blu-ray can hold), what are you supposed to expect? The Playstation 6 would need to have a SSD slot in the front and not a disc drive, and each time you buy a game you'd need to buy its unique SSD.

[Mad Dog McMutt]

Well, I am glad that I jumped off of the "keeping up with modern consoles" train when I did. The Switch 1 and all of my other consoles have such good libraries that I feel like I am set for life. As a lover of physical media though, it is sad to see it go.

[Wildcat]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

I don't like games moving away from physical media either, but what can you do? If a game is bigger than 100 gigs (the limit of what a PS5 blu-ray can hold), what are you supposed to expect? The Playstation 6 would need to have a SSD slot in the front and not a disc drive, and each time you buy a game you'd need to buy its unique SSD.

https://www.thegamer.com/new-games-2-discs/

Plus not every game is so massive it needs this.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Wildcat

https://www.thegamer.com/new-games-2-discs/

Plus not every game is so massive it needs this.

Of course not, but it's not like next gen games are going to be getting smaller. They're going to be getting bigger.

Of course, if Sony REALLY cared about physical media, they would either explore like a super fast SD card (and for all the talk about Nintendo remaining physical, those Switch cartridges are basically just the regular SD cards you'd buy for like your camera but in disguise) or the next generation of Blu-ray discs. If you remember, Sony fought in the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray war and they won, vanquishing HD-DVD. But so far it is like...

Generation 1: CDs, max space 600 megs (PS1)

Generation 2: DVDs, max space 4.7 gigs (PS2)

Generation 3: Blu-rays, max space 50 gigs (PS3, PS4)

Generation 3.5: UHD Blu-rays, max space 100 gigs (PS4 Pro, PS5)

Generation 4: ....?

There's no reason to suspect UHD Blu-rays have been made as large as they can possibly be within what has basically been the same physical/dimension size as the CD since the 90s. They could make some new disc (essentially a UUHD Blu-ray) that holds a terabyte, which would surely be enough for at least the next generation of games.

But what developers don't like about disc-based anything is that they can't do patches. At least, easily. Because with most of the data actually being left on the disc and not "installed," you can't write a patch to it. I mean, you CAN, with workarounds that tell the game to look at the downloaded data first which would tell it if there's an update to look here for this and ignore this and this when you get to this and that part of the disc, but it gets pretty complicated and doubtlessly will bring load times that will f*** up anyone expecting remotely a 60 FPS experience.

[sdp]

discs were such a terrible media i'm glad theyre dead as of 2028. Card media like say the switch is mostly fine but for games you have to realize it's not the 90s anymore, you can't include everything in there when its huge data of just texture assets, they become really expensive one time use media, not to mention because of hardware you need to install stuff regardless. WIth that said consumers voted with their wallets, and any generation growing up in the mid/late 2000s grew up with downloadable games from the beginning of their life, it's their normal to them, if anything physical media just seems archaic to them. It's at hing of the past that was more logical in the world of the past that we grew up on.

[Wildcat]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Of course not, but it's not like next gen games are going to be getting smaller. They're going to be getting bigger.

Of course, if Sony REALLY cared about physical media, they would either explore like a super fast SD card (and for all the talk about Nintendo remaining physical, those Switch cartridges are basically just the regular SD cards you'd buy for like your camera but in disguise) or the next generation of Blu-ray discs. If you remember, Sony fought in the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray war and they won, vanquishing HD-DVD. But so far it is like...

Generation 1: CDs, max space 600 megs (PS1)

Generation 2: DVDs, max space 4.7 gigs (PS2)

Generation 3: Blu-rays, max space 50 gigs (PS3, PS4)

Generation 3.5: UHD Blu-rays, max space 100 gigs (PS4 Pro, PS5)

Generation 4: ....?

There's no reason to suspect UHD Blu-rays have been made as large as they can possibly be within what has basically been the same physical/dimension size as the CD since the 90s. They could make some new disc (essentially a UUHD Blu-ray) that holds a terabyte, which would surely be enough for at least the next generation of games.

But what developers don't like about disc-based anything is that they can't do patches. At least, easily. Because with most of the data actually being left on the disc and not "installed," you can't write a patch to it. I mean, you CAN, with workarounds that tell the game to look at the downloaded data first which would tell it if there's an update to look here for this and ignore this and this when you get to this and that part of the disc, but it gets pretty complicated and doubtlessly will bring load times that will f*** up anyone expecting remotely a 60 FPS experience.

I’m aware Switch games are basically standard SD cards. I mentioned it in my first post. The Switch 2 is Nintendo’s Next Gen console though so they will still be physical-friendly. Other than that I understand it gets harder to keep up but it’s doable.

[CyberCubed]

It was inevitable, the reason they're saying 2028 is because the PS6 is launching then (or late 2027), so it's basically Sony saying early that the PS6 will have no disc drive.

What surprises me though is them saying even all PS5 games will stop getting discs by Jan 1. 2028. That's odd, you'd think they'd at least ride out the rest of the PS5 gen and keep physical going until the system is stopped being supported. As I said it makes sense for the Playstation 6 to be digital only right from the start, but PS5 will likely still get games well into 2030, with cross-gen games.

[member_removed]

Originally Posted by sdp

How did Sony win? Their revenue might be higher than Nintendo's but their profits are actually lower. Nintendo is far from a niche thing.

Nintendo is far from a Niche thing. the OG Switch outsold the PS4. 153M units to the PS4's 117M. Nintendo were smart to dump the Wii U and pivot to the Switch.


The original Switch is the second bestselling console of all time second only to the PS2.
And the Wii outsold the PS3

Currently Sony and Nintendo and 2 all.

PS1 beat N64
PS2 beat Gamecube
PS3 lost to the Wii
PS4 was winning against the Wii U until the Switch (to the Switch)

And Switch 2 Sales are currently very promising.
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/20...-been-revealed

Despite this I'm a PS guy who prefers physical media.

[sdp]

I was so envious of the PS1 during the N64 era, I caved in and got a PS2 and finally felt I could love another system besides Nintendo. But they lost me with the PS3. The price made me not get it, and when I had reached a point I could afford it, I realized basically most games were released on PC at that time as well so I just swtiched over to PC.

The fact that PS3 never had as many quirky and fun games as PS2 didn't help, nor that the Sony exclusive franchises I loved basically died in the PS3 era. I never once did I find the need to own another playstation, everything is on PC.

A new good twisted metal, a new ICO series game that is great, a new Sly Cooper. God of war held fine but it was milked and the soft reboot on PS4 seemed awful.

[IMJ]

The PS2 is STILL a TON of fun to collect for. And all you need to bring it up to speed is an upscaling HDMI cable, which works great.

[Mad Dog McMutt]

Originally Posted by IMJ

The PS2 is STILL a TON of fun to collect for. And all you need to bring it up to speed is an upscaling HDMI cable, which works great.

I agree, and the games are still kind of cheap to collect for. They are slowly rising in prices though. The PS 2 has a giant library of amazing PS 1 and PS 2 games. I also never felt the need to get a PS 3 or anything after. I heard the Twisted Metal PS 3 game sucked and that was the only thing that I was interested in.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by IMJ

The PS2 is STILL a TON of fun to collect for. And all you need to bring it up to speed is an upscaling HDMI cable, which works great.

Nah, that's just stretching the 480i.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Nah, that's just stretching the 480i.

I mean.... all I can say is that at the end of the day it looks great, smooth and playable. Soooo.....

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Tyler Esposito comments the issue. Will young people today be able to experience the same video game memoeries as in the 1970's, 80's, 90's and early 21st century?

[Wildcat]

I mentioned during the Netflix/WB news how Ive grown extremely annoyed by YouTubers spamming videos. 90% of the time it’s clickbait and nothing substantial. It’s all hyperbole and speculation they did for views. The same flashy thumbnails, misleading titles and 15+ minute runtimes.

Ya this particular news is legitimate and sucks but at the same time I’m already tired of seeing the same videos pop up in my feed. They are quite literally all the same. I don’t know how many thumbnails I’ve seen saying the same exact thing...“Sony Kills Physical Media” and “You Will Own Nothing”.

There’s no doubt in my mind that to a certain point these people are happy they get to make multiple videos ranting about it and accumulating views. I watched a few shorter videos the other day. There’s a few I follow of course but some have not even posted about it yet. There’s very few gamers I follow and some only make videos about toys.