PlayStation is officially killing physical media for good, so enjoy it while it lasts

Welcome to the digital era, officially: PlayStation says it will stop printing physical discs for its games starting in January 2028, meaning the assumed PS6 (and anything released after) will be a digital-only console. This move has felt like an inevitability for a while. The transition to digital media has been steadily progressing over the past few decades, but it’s still a shock to see it actually coming to fruition, albeit in a little less than two years from now. Image via Sony https://embeds.beehiiv.com/a8d62108-86ed-4039-bf49-44877ba62c15 “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,” Sony said in a statement on the PlayStation Blog. “This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today.” Sony said that the change is due to how “consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital,” but it now just means that you won’t physically, truthfully own any game you buy. Instead, you will simply own a license to play it, and that license can be taken away for any number of reasons. I personally haven’t bought a physical PlayStation game in many years now. The ease of access for digital games, being able to download and play them without having to leave the house, and never having to swap out or change a disc has been nice. But this? It still sucks, royally, and gamers are letting the company hear it on social media. The Twitter/X post about the subject, which also included news of the PS3 and PS Vita stores shutting down, racked up over 21,000 reposts in under two hours, and just 20,000 likes, with 15,000 replies. Not a good ratio. And when you dive in further in the reply section, it’s pure fury. We’ve unfortunately come very far from this legendary 2013 video about game-sharing on PS4, as Sony fired shots at Xbox for the Xbox One originally having restrictive DRM policies: https://www.youtube.com/embed/kWSIFh8ICaA?feature=oembed Yeah, it’s not aged well at all, huh? Sony said it will “continue to prioritize our resources to drive innovation in how players can access games and provide choices as to where players prefer to purchase new games, whether that’s at retailers or PlayStation Store,” and that it remains “committed to delivering a world-class gaming experience to our fans.” Enjoy those tacked-on disc drives and disc-based games while you can, gamers. 0 The post PlayStation is officially killing physical media for good, so enjoy it while it lasts appeared first on Destructoid.

Jul 1, 2026 - 22:25

PlayStation is officially killing physical media for good, so enjoy it while it lasts

Welcome to the digital era, officially: PlayStation says it will stop printing physical discs for its games starting in January 2028, meaning the assumed PS6 (and anything released after) will be a digital-only console.

This move has felt like an inevitability for a while. The transition to digital media has been steadily progressing over the past few decades, but it’s still a shock to see it actually coming to fruition, albeit in a little less than two years from now.

Image via Sony https://embeds.beehiiv.com/a8d62108-86ed-4039-bf49-44877ba62c15 “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,” Sony said in a statement on the PlayStation Blog. “This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today.”

Sony said that the change is due to how “consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital,” but it now just means that you won’t physically, truthfully own any game you buy. Instead, you will simply own a license to play it, and that license can be taken away for any number of reasons.

I personally haven’t bought a physical PlayStation game in many years now. The ease of access for digital games, being able to download and play them without having to leave the house, and never having to swap out or change a disc has been nice. But this? It still sucks, royally, and gamers are letting the company hear it on social media.

The Twitter/X post about the subject, which also included news of the PS3 and PS Vita stores shutting down, racked up over 21,000 reposts in under two hours, and just 20,000 likes, with 15,000 replies. Not a good ratio. And when you dive in further in the reply section, it’s pure fury.

We’ve unfortunately come very far from this legendary 2013 video about game-sharing on PS4, as Sony fired shots at Xbox for the Xbox One originally having restrictive DRM policies:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/kWSIFh8ICaA?feature=oembed Yeah, it’s not aged well at all, huh?

Sony said it will “continue to prioritize our resources to drive innovation in how players can access games and provide choices as to where players prefer to purchase new games, whether that’s at retailers or PlayStation Store,” and that it remains “committed to delivering a world-class gaming experience to our fans.”

Enjoy those tacked-on disc drives and disc-based games while you can, gamers.

0 The post PlayStation is officially killing physical media for good, so enjoy it while it lasts appeared first on Destructoid.

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