Sony Group will end production of physical discs for its PlayStation video-game consoles starting in January 2028, going all in on a digital approach that will require consumers to download titles from the company’s online storefront moving forward.
“This is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs,” the company wrote in a blog post on July 1.
“This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today.”
The transition will have no impact on games scheduled for release before early 2028, which will still be released on disc, Sony said.
In making this move, the Japanese company becomes the first major console maker to fully abandon physical media.
Both Sony and Microsoft have released less expensive digital-only versions of recent consoles that do not accept discs, but their primary hardware has continued to accept physical games and Blu-ray media.
Sony said “consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital”.
But the announcement immediately drew the furor of gamers on social media, some of whom have spent decades amassing a prized collection of titles across numerous systems.
Now, they will have no choice but to make the switch to a digital library on Sony’s hardware.
In a separate post on July 1, Sony announced the pending closing of its digital stores for the legacy PlayStation 3 console and Vita gaming handheld device.
“PS3 and PS Vita represent an important era in our PlayStation history, so this was not an easy decision for us to make,” the company said, adding that both products are no longer able to keep up with the latest e-commerce systems and payment processing standards.
But that news played directly into the concerns of physical game collectors, showing that digital support will only remain in place for as long as a manufacturer decides. The PS3 was released in 2006, with the Vita following in 2011. BLOOMBERG