It’s been a week since Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) dropped the bombshell news that they were moving away from physical disc production by early 2028, a year that analysts have earmarked for a possible release of the next-gen PlayStation (PS) console. Since then, the backlash has been loud. Putting aside the multiple parodies from companies that jumped on that bandwagon, many have expressed disappointment in SIE’s decision, including third-party console makers, video game retail sellers, and game developers. Fans of the console have also taken to social media to air out grievances. As the initial noise from SIE’s announcement begins to die down, this might be a good opportunity to give some retrospect on the lead-up to the decision to do away with physical disc production.
A numbers game
The core of the announcement is that digital sales have been dominating for the past few years. Even before the global pandemic, digital sales of PS gaming software was at 60% in the first quarter of 2019, a far cry from what it was in 2013 at 13%. Looking at the same quarter in 2025, that number is now at 83%. It’s not just the sales that come into play here. Digital games don’t entail the same production needs that physical copies do. Details like manufacturing the plastic covers and shipping the games worldwide all add up to efforts that may no longer be paying off in sales. It’s also hard to ignore the recent struggles of the world that make hardware more inaccessible and expensive.
While physical games sit in brick-and-mortar stores (which are also declining, and that’s another story), the accessibility of simply downloading a game from home is already an appeal that’s hard to overcome. Sure, one could order a physical game online, but the wait time for it to arrive will always be longer than just buying and downloading the digital version. A digital gaming library can get filled up easily, but so do physical shelves at home. Switching from one game to another while sifting through a library without having to stand up from a couch is easier than physically popping a CD in and out of a console’s disc drive.
Fans vs. financials
Of course, the argument for physical media, particularly on ownership and legacy, has been made. Gamers are quick to remember the PS instructional video for sharing games released 13 years ago – a possibility that will no longer be once 2028 comes around. Video Game History Foundation‘s director, Frank Cifaldi, also weighs in on the difficulties for preserving digital-only content for research and archiving: “asking museums to download a copy of Grand Theft Auto VI and hope it’ll run in 50 years is not a preservation solution.”
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One could make the argument that sales by region or country could provide a better view of how each market works. That picture would probably show physical sales faring better in areas like Japan or Southeast Asia simply because these countries traditionally lean more towards physical copies, but that clearly hasn’t been enough. Financial Times quotes Robin Zhu from Bernstein, “if gamers and preservationists had bought more physical games, Sony wouldn’t have seen the digital sales ratios that justify this decision.” That is, if we are to believe the numbers previously mentioned. Looking back just last year, leaked data from Insomniac Games revealed that numbers for PS digital sales were skewed, as it also includes those that are digital-only releases and older titles that have been made available digitally. For instance, the release of The Last of Us 2 had physical sales of 61% while digital sales only had 39%.
The blame isn’t also on the supposed lack of patronage for the physical medium. One can surmise that while digital sales did pick up during the pandemic, the global circumstances during that time meant people had more time to play games. Hence the rise of the gaming industry, which also attracted investors. When the world was getting back into shape, so did the gaming market normalize to a margin that is most likely below expectations of investors who have otherwise no knowledge or interest in the industry apart from gains promised during the pandemic. While this argument is not exclusively about the SIE’s decision, it could very well be a factor in which investors could pressure the company to cut costs, and that could mean increasing price tags, layoffs, or, in this case, halting the production of physical discs.
As gamers, we’d like to think that a gaming company as big as SIE would have the ears and sensibilities to lean more towards its community, but of course, as with all companies, this isn’t the case. Over the past few days, the complaints over the decision have been loud, but in the eyes of SIE as a corporation, this does not translate to people buying physical copies, and actions do speak louder.
Out of physical reach
So, was the decision a shocker? Absolutely. After all, having an option taken away from anyone feels like the rug being pulled from underneath one’s feet. However, whether this comes from the supposed downward trajectory of physical copy sales, the forced push for digital copies, or the simple corporate stance of cost-cutting, the decision also comes as no surprise. Still, this may mean that fans of the console would be forced to live with this decision or to simply stop at this current generation. This doesn’t mean that people will stop playing games, but it will make them move on to another medium that won’t make them feel the discomfort of having that metaphorical rug tug.
Hideo Kojima, one of the industry’s celebrated video game designers, gives his take on the possible shift from digital to streaming, which is already happening for movies. He shares that while “[games] are downloaded to the hard drive, that means the game data remains on your own hardware. However, if things shift to streaming in the future, that won’t be the case anymore.” As someone who lives in a fairly small country with bad internet infrastructure, that future could mean it would be harder for gamers like me to play via streaming. Coming from a PS fan since the first gen who chooses physical games over digital downloads whenever possible, I share the disappointment of that option being taken away from me. It’s most likely that SIE won’t rescind their statement any time soon despite the backlash; rather, this might start a trend that would lead towards a fully digital future for gaming, and we’ll need to get used to it by 2028.
Photo credit: The feature image is symbolic and has been taken by Mélanie These. The infographic in the body of the article has been made available by Statista.
Sources: Tom Phillips (IGN) / Piers Harding-Rolls (Ampere) / Statista / David Keohane (Financial Times) / Mike Futter (Games Industry.biz)
