PlayStation has finally settled on a decision I wasn’t sure it would fully commit to. Sony Interactive Entertainment helped popularize Blu-ray discs, and that is one of the reasons I stayed optimistic about PlayStation continuing to support physical media on its platforms.
Even when PlayStation released an all-digital console, it still offered a disc drive add-on, giving players a way to keep using their physical games. Computers are mostly digital now too, since disc drives no longer come pre-installed in most towers, but PC users still have options. You can buy an external reader for CDs, DVDs, and sometimes Blu-rays. Mine has helped me watch movies and TV shows on the go, and even rip ISOs from my disc-based video games.
All that is to say that yes, computers are mostly digital now, but because there are so many companies making parts, storefronts, accessories, and other physical doodads, PC users still have choices.
Recently, PlayStation has put out an announcement about stopping all disc production services in 2028. This pretty much solidifies that the PlayStation 6 is likely to be an all-digital console, and that Sony probably will not provide a tool for reading discs. If you are a physical collector, this means your games may not be playable on the PlayStation 6, even if it uses a similar framework to the PlayStation 5. That matters because games from the PlayStation 4 and newer could likely still be read and played if the hardware allowed it. Now, I know why PlayStation is likely making this change.
Ever since the PlayStation 5 Slim and Pro editions were released, the user base on PlayStation has been buying digital games more and more. I suppose that happens when you make the disc drive required to play physical games, optional. What used to be a 60/40 split between digital and physical sales has turned into an 85/15 split on PlayStation. Currently, that means 85% of software sales on PlayStation are digital.
That does not provide the full picture, however. One reason this is happening is that fewer games are being published physically. There are also instances where the physical version comes later and later, and the FOMO sets in. Buying a PlayStation 5 disc drive is also becoming harder as stock continues to run out, forcing some players to buy from scalpers instead of PlayStation.
On paper, there is only a 15% loss in sales with this decision if we base it entirely on those numbers. That is easy enough for PlayStation to manage if it means it no longer has to spend money manufacturing discs or shipping them to retail stores. It also means sharing less revenue with those retail stores. PlayStation could lose 15% of sales, and maybe even 15% of its player base, but if the remaining 85% are spending all their money on the PlayStation storefront, Sony likely makes more profit overall. They share less money, and they get more of it back. At least, that is what the numbers say. I just do not think the numbers tell the complete story.
One of the core reasons to stick with PlayStation is the library you have built by staying with them for so long. If you have a PlayStation 4 disc, you can pop it into your PlayStation 5, and it plays with no problem. The PlayStation 4 was also the console that brought many people into the ecosystem, whether they were moving away from the Xbox 360 or coming over from the PlayStation 3. Thanks to the PlayStation 3, Sony decided to axe a lot of the backwards compatibility systems it had in place because they were too expensive for the average consumer. So the PlayStation 4 became a new start, built to play strong new games instead of leaning on the past.
Later in the Xbox One’s lifespan, Xbox leadership discovered a market Sony was not really catering to: backwards compatibility. Microsoft added an emulator to the Xbox One, which allowed players to play a portion of their old library on the newer console. At the time, PlayStation was trying to serve that same market with streaming.
PlayStation Now let you play PlayStation 3 games on PlayStation 4 or PC, but it was a terrible system for playing your old games, in my opinion. It was not really your old games. It was just old games in general, chosen from a select list. Xbox’s system was also a select list, but it let you play games straight from the disc as long as the console had the backwards compatibility update. That made it feel more personal.
That is the bigger point here. PlayStation 4 catered to new users, while Xbox One eventually catered to older Xbox players who still cared about their libraries. Xbox One lost the console war, but it amassed a loyal fanbase. If you ask me, perhaps too loyal a fanbase.
This new announcement feels like another case of PlayStation catering to a new audience instead of the audience that has stuck by them. A big reason PlayStation 4 won the console war is that Sony’s leadership team focused on discs, sharing games, and selling your old games. Xbox One’s original plan put less emphasis on disc-based games and even had checks in place that would have limited selling your old games entirely.
You were forced to keep games tied to your console, even if you did not like them. Luckily, the backlash Xbox One received was enough for Microsoft not to go through with that idea. That concept, though, was one of the reasons PlayStation 4 was so widely accepted. It gave owners a choice in how they bought and played their games.
The first time I remember PlayStation not standing by those who cared about physical media was the announcement of the God of War: Ragnarok Collector’s Edition. It had a lot of awesome goodies, like Mjölnir and a really cool steel case, but instead of a disc, you got a digital code.
When pressed on it, there was a reasonable answer about not wanting PlayStation 5 digital owners to miss out on the collector’s edition. But the standard edition came with a disc, so many physical enthusiasts had to buy the game twice: once for the goodies and steel case, and again to get the version that actually had a disc. They could also skip the Collector’s Edition altogether.
All of this is to say that, yes, I know this is where PlayStation was heading. I was just hoping they were not going to head there fully.
The Problems
The console gaming space, at least for PlayStation and Xbox, has only waned in recent years. More players are moving to PC or out of the medium entirely. This announcement may only affect 15% of the current user base if you go by sales numbers, but it also isolates console users even further from future gamers. However, this also comes from a single year of sales data. That does not account for players who do not buy games every year, or players who buy from the second-hand market, which will not be part of the data PlayStation sees. Physical games have a second-hand market that lets gamers sell their previous games to used game shops or on eBay. That market is going to vanish for new PlayStation games once this change goes into effect.
Used game shops and game shops in general are going to be left with old games, retro titles, and Nintendo Switch 2 titles. Nobody is going to discover a game they have not heard of on a store shelf if the store can no longer get physical PlayStation games.
“But the digital storefront,” I hear some people saying. You can find random games on the PlayStation Store, but that storefront is curated by PlayStation itself. It is not going to show you games you have never seen before just for the sake of discovery. It will show you games it thinks you are likely to buy, thanks to your digital library and the algorithm tied to your account.
Most digital storefronts are built to put games in front of you that are more likely to make you spend money. That usually means popular games get more popular, while smaller or stranger games get pushed further down. PC storefronts avoid this problem a little better because of key shops. When you look at key shops online, they generally do not throw an algorithm in front of you immediately, since you do not have to log in just to browse.
Essentially, this reduces the space even further and pushes physical media enthusiasts away. Some of those players buy games on console because they have the option to play on disc or digitally. Removing that choice cuts off another portion of an already shrinking console gaming audience. It is not a good idea to keep cutting off minority shares of gamers, especially in a medium already losing user share to mobile gaming and PC gaming.
Another big problem is one you have likely experienced with Nintendo: lack of digital sales. PlayStation has gotten better about running storefront sales, but without a physical second-hand market, the only party that gets to dictate the value of a game is PlayStation on its own store.
One thing I always joked about in the past is how if a game gets on Game Pass, the physical version usually plummets in price, making it the perfect time to buy. When Persona 3 Reload went to Game Pass, you could buy the physical Xbox version for around $20. Physical games are impacted by subscription services because demand drops when players can spend a portion of the price to play the full game for a month.
The same thing followed PlayStation when it started adding games to PlayStation Plus. The price for God of War: Ragnarok dropped to around $25 physically once it was added to the subscription service, while the digital price remained the same. Digital storefronts only lower prices when the platform decides to run a sale. Steam has sales constantly, so games are frequently cheap to buy. PlayStation has more sales than it used to, but when it comes to first-party IP, it tends to hold those prices close to its chest.
The consumer is not the only one who loses out here. There are more companies focused on getting and selling physical games these days, including VGP Video Games and one of my favorites, VGNYSoft Games. If the next PlayStation console does not have the option of a physical drive, even companies that press their own discs will have a much harder time surviving.
What Can We Do (If Anything)?
I do not want to spiral into a void of chaos from this announcement. Part of me does, but it is not useful in the long term. We need to have a plan as consumers if we want the all-digital future to be an option rather than a requirement.
Yes, you can cancel your PlayStation Plus subscription or demote yourself to a lower tier if you are a Premium member. I would recommend something else, though: buy more physical games. If data is all PlayStation can see, then help them see that the physical buyer still exists. If they lose physical sales, they may lose a much bigger portion of their user base than expected. Make sure to sign any petitions you can find that you can put in front of PlayStation’s eyes.
I hate this. Being forced into a digital future sucks. I like the convenience of digital. I like being able to play my digital library on the PlayStation Portal. I like not needing to change a disc every time I want to play something else. That is a convenience I wish I had the choice of pursuing, not one that is forced onto me.
I do not hate digital as a future. I hate it as the only future. Digital is not the enemy; the lack of choice is. I love my physical library, and I love finding deals at GameStop or a mom-and-pop shop down the street. I like the benefits of stores fighting for my dollar, rather than one store never needing to fight at all.
I want options. I want to feel like I have agency over what game I buy and what medium I buy it in. Without options, the world becomes less colorful. I know about fewer games. I have to doomscroll through pages of popular releases before getting to the interesting games I might want to try because they are different.
Please do not let that be the future. An all-digital future is not bad by itself, but if it is all we have, then it is not a future I want.
