Sony's gaming unit said the shift reflects consumer preference for digital media, making it the first major console maker to abandon physical game discs
Bloomberg / Getty Images
Sony $SONY's PlayStation unit announced Wednesday that it will stop producing physical game discs for new titles starting Jan. 2028, after which new releases will be available only through the PlayStation Store or through retailers in digital formats.
"As consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital, physical game disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January 2028," PlayStation senior director of content communications Sid Shuman said in the blog post. The company called the move "a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs."
Disc titles already on shelves or due out before the cutoff will be unaffected, Variety reported, pointing to this fall's "Marvel's Wolverine" as one upcoming PlayStation release still confirmed for a physical edition.
No other major console manufacturer has gone this far, Bloomberg noted, making Sony a first in the industry. While disc-free hardware options have existed for years at both Sony and Microsoft $MSFT, those companies had always kept physical game production running alongside them. Collectors who have dedicated years to curating physical game libraries responded to the news with sharp criticism across social media platforms.
Separate announcements on Wednesday revealed that Sony intends to shut down the online stores for both the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita, citing the inability of those aging platforms to meet modern e-commerce and payment-processing requirements. "PS3 and PS Vita represent an important era in our PlayStation history, so this was not an easy decision for us to make," Sony said.
Sony has been contending with pressure across its gaming hardware business. The company raised PS5 prices for the second time in under a year in April, pushing the disc edition to $649.99 in the U.S., citing persistent memory cost pressures driven by semiconductor suppliers prioritizing AI data center customers over consumer electronics buyers. PlayStation 5 hardware sales have also been declining, with just 1.5 million units sold in the three months through March 2026, roughly half the volume recorded in the same period a year earlier.
Sony said it remains committed to giving players a choice of where to purchase new games, whether through retailers or its own storefront.
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