You can put a date in your calendar if you’re one of those who enjoys unboxing a new disc. According to Sony, from January 2028 on, any new game you see will be digital. They are phasing out the disc to put the ecosystem where it has been heading anyway. For the kind of people who have made a living off of boxes, or like to borrow and lend, this is going to be a hard landing.
What exactly is changing from January 2028
The short of it: no more physical production for new PlayStation software after the New Year. This goes for both first-party and third-party. If a title is already on a disc or comes out before then, it’s fine, it stays as is.
Don’t expect store shelves to go bare in a day. You can still buy the boxed version, but you’ll be getting a code to download with it, not the actual game.
Why Sony says the disc era is over
Sid Shuman, the Senior Director of SIE Content Communications, made the news on the PlayStation Blog. He put it down to how we play these days, calling it ‘a natural direction’.
‘As consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital, physical game disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January 2028,’ he put it in a post.
Players see the writing on the console
This isn’t some bolt from the blue. The PS5 Pro came out without a drive, and you’ve been having trouble finding a standalone one for a while. In a way, Sony has been weaning us off it, one sold-out add-on at a time.
Then you have Rockstar Games telling you that pre-orders for GTA 6 will be digital even if you opt for the physical. The waters were churning well before Sony made it a matter of record.
The backlash: ownership, lending and preservation
It’s a letdown for the type of fan who likes to trade cases at the local shop or let a pal have a go at a favourite. With a digital copy, you can’t pass it on, and you are at the mercy of Sony’s servers.
And it’s not just a hypothetical. We’ve seen them pull the plug on hundreds of movies folks had in hand, and they did the same with the shooter Concord not long after it hit in 2024.
So you hear the same things from annoyed customers:
– A disc is something you can give to someone or sell
– Your digital stash is only as good as your account
– There is still value in a nice looking collection on a shelf
Retail reality and how you will buy games
The retailer is still in the mix, but in a different capacity. You’ll see more of the code-in-a-box variety and fewer people coming in to trade in old stock. For the casual buyer, the PlayStation Store or a digital code from the shop is the way to go now.
There’s a feeling to it, too. Picking up a case is one thing; having a license in your name is another. It doesn’t quite hit the spot in the same way.
What this means for the next PlayStation
We don’t know for sure if the next box from Sony will have a drive. Most would put money on it being able to run your old physicals, but they haven’t said as much. The path is clear, the details are not.
Until 2028, that kind of ambiguity is going to be in the back of the mind for anyone with a late-model PS5 or one of the next in line.
What to do before the deadline
If you like to have the disc, you have some time but not forever. What’s on the market and what’s coming before the 2028 mark will still be on platter. Once we get past that, it’s all digital for a new release on PlayStation.
Some will say it’s easier this way. For the rest of us, it’s the close of a chapter, and a download code is the period at the end of the sentence.
