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The story
A notice sticker included with PlayStation 5’s optional external disc drive has revealed that retailers will stop carrying packaged (physical) software starting in January 2028. On 5ch’s “Hardware/Industry (Geha)” board, posters debated the timing of this announcement and when physical releases will actually start thinning out in practice. Some pointed out that digital sales already account for over 70% of the market, though others questioned the basis and methodology behind that figure. The discussion also expanded into broader worries about whether the PS6 generation will even support a disc drive at all.
What people said
Uh, no, that's just… normal.
…yeah right, as if.
Like Sony's gonna write the actual truth on there.
Killing discs just means even more profit for Sony.
There were folks who thought disc versions would still come out for games releasing that January.
But really, it's over by the end of next year.
That's because hardly any of those ever actually happen.
And when they do, it's only for a handful of big-budget titles.
It'll end up just like Xbox.
My guess is download-only releases and code-in-a-box will start ramping up as early as next fiscal year.
Scaling back production is probably going to drive manufacturing costs up too.
Even if it does, it'll probably just be key cards or code-in-a-box.
Nobody doubts anymore that PS6 titles won't come on disc.
The real question is whether PS6 will even support a disc drive at all.
If it doesn't, then as far as discs go, backward compatibility is effectively dead.
Probably won't support it, right?
I mean, this shape was designed to fit that hideously ugly PS5.
If PS6 ends up the same shape as PS5, there's no problem, right? Woooo!
It's huge and gets in the way!
Even with GTA6, a ton of major retailers can't be bothered and just sell it at full price.
Not like everything's going to end up that way though…
A package with an expiration date is terrifying to even keep on a shelf.
That's an adults-only game, lol.
I think third parties will start phasing physical out early next year.
They'll probably drop off a cliff once the next fiscal year starts.
But it'll get exposed in the West — what are they gonna do about that? 🥺
Publishers will still rush to brag about it early, so "it's not selling at all in Japan" stays true regardless.
They'll puff up saying "it's selling great digitally!" — then the official numbers drop and gut-punch them all over again.
but if it's multi-platform with Switch, that advantage means nothing.
Ditching Switch entirely isn't really an option.
That's probably also why Capcom and Square Enix shifted to a multi-platform strategy…
Digital share is already over 70% anyway.
Amazon purchases over the past month:
PS5 Digital Edition: 10,000+ units
PS5 Pro (sold out): 300+ units
Disc Drive: 3,000+ units
→ Digital share: 71%+
That just shifted the ratio because of piracy-related demand, that's all. (buyers skipping the disc drive because they already get games through pirated copies)
P4R is getting a disc version — preorders opened a while back.
But who knows about P6; since the Switch version of P4 comes out in May, it'll probably land around year-end, or worst case next year.
They'll 100% say "Backward compatible with previous hardware! (digital versions only, though)"
That's always how the compatibility story goes with these.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Since launch, the PS5 has sold both physical and digital versions side by side, but in recent years, as the share of digital downloads has climbed, retailers have steadily scaled back their physical shelf space. The “after January 2028” deadline at the center of this discussion is, according to commenters in the thread, slightly different from the actual retailer cutoff date — “December 2027” is said to be the final date by which manufacturers can release a physical version at all. In other words, the interpretation that “no discs whatsoever will come out after January 2028” is mistaken; in reality, third-party publishers are expected to wind down physical releases gradually well before that date, which is an easy point for readers to misunderstand. The thread also cited Amazon sales figures as evidence that the digital ratio has already passed 70%, though others pushed back, noting that this doesn’t account for demand tied to piracy or resale/scalping, making it hard to draw firm conclusions from sales numbers alone. Whether the PS6 generation will even continue supporting a disc drive also came up, tying this discussion into the broader backward-compatibility debate.
*This article was compiled by excerpting and summarizing the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Geha)) thread “PS5’s Optional Disc Drive Notice Sticker Says Physical Sales End After January 2028.”
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