Ironically, I said on our gaming podcast, Spectator Mode Podcast, just the other day that I wouldn’t be surprised if more companies went digital-only, and that physical media might be on its way out entirely. Now PlayStation has officially announced that as of January 2028, it will stop producing physical discs for new games. If you’ve been paying attention to the gaming landscape, this is something that’s been a long time coming, with companies testing the waters for years before finally making the leap.
Sony’s own blog post frames it plainly: physical disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January 2028, after which new titles will be available on PlayStation Store and at retail in digital format only. Games that have already released, or that release before the cutoff, aren’t affected. Sony calls it “a natural direction… to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs.”
That tracks. PlayStation’s digital game sales have climbed steadily for years, with a massive spike during the COVID-19 era, and PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, and other digital storefronts have seen sales grow right alongside that shift. Capcom, being one of the more prominent companies has reported that digital sales make up over 90% of its sales.
Then there are the digital-only consoles, the PlayStation 5/PS5 Pro and Xbox Series X|S, which have sold better than expected, reinforcing why companies keep leaning into disc-less hardware. Add to that the growing number of digital-only console games, with Grand Theft Auto 6, arguably the biggest game of the generation, shipping as a digital-only title despite having a boxed version that contains nothing but a code.
None of this is new, exactly. It’s the blueprint PC gaming has followed for over 15 years: Steam and other digital storefronts have long proven a digital-only ecosystem is not just possible but sustainable. Of course, there are downsides, such as games getting delisted, or publishers like Ubisoft reaching into people’s libraries and removing games they’ve already paid for, like it did for its racing game, The Crew.
Still, this raises real questions about what’s coming for consoles. Will the PlayStation 6 and the next Xbox console ship without disc drives entirely? Will there even be optional disc-drive add-ons? If not, what happens to backwards compatibility? With PlayStation now putting a hard date on the end of physical media, the floor is open for a lot of questions, chief among them: what happens to the consumer?
With PlayStation going first, I wouldn’t be surprised if Xbox goes next, if it’s even going to be around by 2028.
