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The story
On October 13, 2026, Sony announced on its official blog that “PlayStation games released from January 2028 onward will be sold exclusively as digital downloads.” Disc versions released before January 2028 will remain usable as normal. With reports already suggesting the next-gen PS6 won’t include an optical drive, discussion threads mixed reactions of “of course this was coming” with concerns that users in regions with unstable internet access could be left behind, alongside speculation over just how long third-party publishers will keep releasing disc versions.
[Important Notice]
Starting in January 2028, newly released PlayStation games will be sold exclusively as digital downloads through the PlayStation Store and other retailers. Disc versions of games released before January 2028 will remain available for use as before.
Source: blog.ja.playstation.com / Original article here
What people said
Well, we all knew it was coming,
but once it's official, there's no turning back.
Confirmed!
all over now.
You
look so small (riffing on a classic anime villain-taunt meme).
There's already something called a "key disc," you know.
It'd end up being some USB dongle or external authentication device, but if they're going that route, outsourcing Blu-ray disc pressing would be cheaper no matter how badly they get price-gouged for it.
They'll probably slap on two card slots and do some dual key-card thing.
You often hear that the internet out there is so bad that discs are the only way to play, so that's rough.
I can't picture people that deep in the boonies owning a PS5 or Xbox Series X.
More like they're still on PS4, or still playing Mario Kart on the Wii.
16 months left, huh.
There's still that much time left?
I was hoping it'd kick in next month.
I bet third parties switch to digital-only early next year anyway.
Right now the Japanese Digital Edition is basically the only version selling,
so there's no real reason to bother making discs anymore.
Oh, the Digital Edition outsells it now?
The disc-drive model used to sell better even at a higher price —
heck, the disc-drive version was even a scalping target at one point.
It stings because the Japan-only version is almost always bought bundled with the disc drive.
Yeah, Sony should scrap discs ASAP — no need to wait until 2028, right?!
Shipments of the disc-drive model have basically stopped since around April.
Oh, so that's what's going on.
This too, but
realistically next March is probably the last point third parties can still ship on disc.
Discs will probably keep trickling out after that,
but only for big AAA titles from major publishers.
FF7 Revelation, launching next April, is on disc.
Well, I guess that counts as a major title.
Also, if they go "code in a box" (just a download code inside the case, no actual disc) and still lose the multiplatform showdown to the Switch 2, that'd be a huge story.
Nah, nah, that's not it.
They're killing it because optical discs have no future.
They can't keep the format alive just for games.
If that's true, doesn't what Re: #83 said sound off?
Why would they keep making discs if there's no future in it?
kind of started as a way to keep music-disc factories busy during downtime.
It was never a business model where games alone could keep the whole factory profitable.
Well, Sony is one of the companies that actually developed the disc format itself.
Sony and other manufacturers created the standard, and they collected royalties even on movie and music discs.
It's just that no successor format to UHD BD ever took off.
Background and key points of this discussion
Sony has long developed optical disc formats for music and video, and game disc production partly began as a way to put that same manufacturing infrastructure to use. This announcement only applies to new releases going forward — it’s easy to misread it as meaning existing disc-based games will stop working, but that’s not the case. Some in the thread pointed out an apparent contradiction — “if optical discs have no future, why bother making a new drive?” — but maintaining backward compatibility for existing users and pulling back from producing new discs are separate business decisions, and the two can coexist. Also, this announcement doesn’t set any fixed date for when individual third-party publishers will stop making disc versions — that’s left entirely up to each company’s own profitability calculations.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Geha)) thread “[Bad News for Nintendo Fans] Sony Reaffirms It’s Killing Off Discs!“.
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