I hate that Sony is ditching physical discs for the PlayStation

Sony calls it progress. I call it the death of ownership, game sharing, and consumer choice on PlayStation.

Earlier today, Sony dropped a bombshell, announcing that it's ending physical game disc production from 2028, which essentially means that any games released after that point will be digital only. It called this a "natural direction" for the company, citing consumer trends which indicate a preference for digital purchases. While it certainly makes sense from a business perspective, I do think it's a disaster for the gaming community in general.

But before you give this opinion some weight, it's perhaps better to know more about me so that you can evaluate if I'm someone even worth listening to. I started gaming with the PlayStation 1 in the late 1990s, transitioned to the PlayStation 2, followed by an Xbox 360, a PlayStation 4, and now, a PlayStation 5. This is only a list of my home consoles; handheld hardware includes the Nintendo Switch Lite and the Nintendo Switch OLED.

Even with the Xbox 360, I initially purchased physical media, but as I began to realize the benefits of digital purchases such as immediate checkouts, downloads, and no risk of wear and tear, I slowly began to buy digital media too, just like the rest of the world.

As things currently stand, I don't have a strong preference for either format, but I do lean towards physical media if there's a "special" edition involved or if the price is slightly better. However, I would say that 80% of my titles on the PlayStation 5 in the past couple of years have been digital only, primarily because I heavily use my PlayStation Plus subscription.

That said, while I do purchase digital titles more than physical, I still think that there is a strong case for the latter, especially on home consoles. For starters, a physical disc typically comes with a case, mostly with beautiful artwork that you can hold in your hands.

It's a tangible product that you get in your hands, something that you can admire at any point, rather than simply glancing at the artwork displayed on the PlayStation home screen. It's a crucial part of my purchase decisions, and while Sony's wording suggests that physical retailers will still have games for sale, they'll likely only be download codes in a box, similar to GTA VI.

But perhaps the most important aspect of physical media is that it encourages media preservation. Games often get removed from digital storefronts due to license expirations, studios shuttering, storefronts closing (on a related note, Sony also announced that it is shutting down the PlayStation 3 and Vita stores), servers shutting down, and more.

With a physical disc, the chances of DRM-enforcement are lower, simply because of the backlash it would invoke if you purchased a PlayStation disc and it simply stopped working completely at some point because the included music licenses expired. Games being removed from storefronts due to license expiration is a common occurrence with digital titles. While it can happen on physical discs too, especially if a developer implements a license validation process through its server on game launch, this is usually not a common practice.

Of course, some would argue that PC storefronts operate completely digitally, so why all the furor when it comes to the PlayStation platform? But to them, I would answer that those on PCs typically have access to multiple storefronts, including DRM-free options like GOG, this is simply not the case on PlayStation, which only has its native store.

Additionally, game preservation on PC is also much more common due to communities actively focused on cracking and emulating games. Of course, many engage in this activity for pure piracy reasons, but that is another debate altogether. At least games do get preserved this way. While cracking games is possible on home consoles, it's not a common practice and it's usually not something that is accessible as a DIY for the average gamer, unlike on PC.

Another reason I absolutely detest Sony's decision is that it effectively ends sharing of games and pretty much kills off the used, or "second-hand," games market. When you purchase a digital game, the license is solely tied to your account and there is no legal way that you can transfer ownership.

Once Sony enforces its 2028 decision, the choice of sharing games will simply be taken away from most gamers and a title will only be accessible to members of that household only. It's unlikely that Sony will implement a mechanism to share digital games without paying extra in some way.

Remember this absolutely fire video that Sony cooked up to poke fun at Microsoft's Xbox game sharing strategy? Those were the good old days:

Of course, from a business perspective, it makes financial sense for Sony to ditch physical media entirely. The company will skip on printing costs, cost of goods (COGs), and more, which means a healthy net profit margin. But the benefits aren't really being passed downstream.

Sony will get a healthy margin, but consumers will still have to pay $70 or more for the same game now available as a download code only. Costs aren't going down anytime soon. If anything, they'll only go up, if the upcoming $80 GTA VI is anything to go by.

Finally, I also think this pretty much kills the chances of a "PlayStation 6" hosting a disc drive. If Sony really is going all in on digital, it makes no sense to pack a disc drive that won't be used by modern games at all. As someone who purchased the disc version of the PlayStation 5 just to have the option to purchase physical discs, this is yet another loss for consumer choice in this space.

All in all, I do get why Sony is doing what it's doing. However, it's a drastic change, and one I don't think that the home console gaming market is ready for. Xbox hasn't announced similar plans yet, but once the biggest player in the market is going in this direction, you can bet that Xbox will follow suit eventually.

Yes, people prefer buying digital media, but getting rid of physical discs altogether has tons of other disadvantages highlighted above. Additionally, these disadvantages get passed onto consumers only, and Sony has unfortunately had a habit of enforcing strategies that don't really benefit its customers.

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Posted Thursday 2 July 2026 at 8:16 am AEST (my time).

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