GoKawiilSo, that's it then. As of 2028, game discs will be a thing of the past for PlayStation. And after previously attempting to do so five years ago — before a backlash prompted it to reverse course — Sony is finally shuttering the digital storefronts on PS3 and PlayStation Vita. It doesn't seem like the company will back down this time. Both of these decisions are terrible for the future of physical media and game preservation.
Sony has been moving in this direction for a very long time, really since it started selling digital games two decades ago. The digital-only PSP Go from 2009 and PS5 Digital Edition 11 years later were both clear indications of where things were going.
As important as I believe game preservation is, I begrudgingly have to admit I'm complicit in this shift to an all-digital future. I bought a PS5 with a disc drive back in 2020 along with a physical version of Deathloop. That remains the only game disc I purchased for the console. I can't tell you the last time I put a PS4 disc in my PS5 either. The same goes for other game systems — I don't have any physical Xbox games and own just two Switch cartridges. PC gaming, of course, has long been digital-only.
"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," Sid Shuman, senior director of Sony Interactive Entertainment's content communications team, wrote 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."
The numbers back up Sony's claim. The company said that, in its last fiscal year (April 2025-March 2026), nearly four-fifths of full game purchases for PS4 and PS5 were bought digitally. Between January and March of 2026, the latest quarter for which we have sales figures, that rose to 85 percent. Some third-party publishers have reported even higher ratios for digital vs. physical sales. Over the same April-March period, Capcom said 93 percent of its game sales were digital copies. It expects that to grow to around 95.4 percent in the current fiscal year.
There have been other signs the landscape is shifting. The initial physical editions of Grand Theft Auto VI will have a code in a box (partly so Rockstar Games can prevent leaks of the most highly-anticipated game in years). Nintendo is charging more for physical editions of some first-party games than it is on the eShop. But killing game discs for an entire platform is a seismic change.
There are a lot of reasons why going digital-only makes sense for Sony. Not having to manufacture and distribute discs streamlines its operation. It now seems all but certain that PS6 will not feature a disc drive that players can use to run physical PS4 or PS5 games. Not having to include a disc drive in any PS6 variant may at least help mitigate soaring costs of other components that have forced Sony to increase PS5 prices.
Still, ending production of discs is fundamentally an anti-consumer decision that puts more power in Sony's hands. This is going to make things worse for players, who (among other things) will soon no longer have the option of trading in or selling their PlayStation games. If the majority of PS6 titles and future PS5 games are going to take place on the PlayStation Store, that gives Sony more control of pricing. The second-hand market for new PlayStation titles will evaporate.
While Sony and third-party publishers might still offer collectors editions that come with physical goodies (like pins, art books and steel cases), these will still just have a digital game code in a box. Players may not be able to lend their friend their copy of a game either. That ties into concerns around not being able to pass transfer one's game collection to others.