(Illustration: GamingPlanet.nl)
When Sony announced on 1 July that it would stop producing new PlayStation games on disc from January 2028, the discussion quickly turned towards plastic boxes, collectors' shelves and people who simply like holding something physical. Those things matter, but they are not the core of the issue.
A disc is not merely packaging. It is also a transferable copy, a second-hand product, an object that can be lent and often a way to buy a game outside the platform holder's own store. Even when a modern game needs patches or is not fully contained on the disc, that disc still represents something an account-bound download code cannot: the ability to physically pass access to somebody else.
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot was asked today during a discussion of the company's quarterly results whether Sony's decision would be positive or negative. Guillemot said there were advantages and disadvantages, but that the change would probably not disturb the industry too much. He pointed to the PC market, where the move to digital distribution had, in his view, helped the market grow. A fully digital console might also be cheaper and therefore more accessible.
From the perspective of a major publisher, that is an understandable argument. Games are still sold, players continue playing and part of the cost of manufacturing, inventory, distribution and returns disappears. The industry continues moving.
The question is not only whether the industry keeps moving, however. It is also who is holding the wheel after the change.
Guillemot's comparison with the PC market sounds logical. Large cardboard PC boxes gave way to DVD keepcases, which in turn were largely replaced by Steam, GOG, the Epic Games Store, publisher stores and standalone game keys. Many PC players have not had an optical drive in their computer for years.
Yet the comparison is incomplete. A PC is not a closed retail environment controlled by one manufacturer. Players can use the same machine with several stores, buy directly from developers, download DRM-free versions, manage files themselves and, in some cases, use alternative patches or community servers. Even when almost everything is delivered digitally, some competition between sellers and some freedom outside a single central account remain.
A PlayStation works differently. Sony controls the hardware, the account, PlayStation Store, technical approval of games and ultimately the terms under which digital purchases are offered. Retailers may continue selling digital products from 2028, but a code bought in a shop is not an independent copy of a game. It still ends as a licence inside the same PlayStation ecosystem.
That distinction matters. The PC market did not grow simply because discs disappeared. It grew within an open hardware platform where several distribution models could develop alongside one another. When a closed console becomes entirely digital, one of the few distribution methods not completely tied to the platform holder's account disappears.
The argument about cheaper hardware also needs context. A console without a disc drive can cost less to manufacture and may be cheaper in shops. Sony already sells a digital PlayStation 5 alongside models capable of reading discs. For somebody who exclusively buys downloads, that may be an entirely sensible choice.
A lower purchase price for the console says little about the total cost over five or seven years, however. With discs, a player can compare prices between online retailers, local shops and the second-hand market. A completed game can be sold or traded. A friend can lend a game. An older title can end up in a clearance bin without Sony changing its digital price.
Without discs, that part of the market disappears. Offers and digital codes may still exist, but access ultimately remains tied to Sony's system. A console may be a little cheaper at the start while the player spends hundreds more on games over the generation and cannot resell any of them.
That will not affect every player equally. Somebody who mainly uses PlayStation Plus, rarely resells games and already downloads everything at launch may notice very little. Sony is now turning that personal preference into a platform rule for every new release, however. Choosing to buy digitally is not the same as no longer having a physical choice.
Guillemot may be right that the industry will barely be disrupted. Major publishers already know how to sell games digitally, expand them and continue monetising them after launch. For them, a market without physical inventory may even be easier to manage.
The second-hand retailer, collector and player who buys and sells on a limited budget do not occupy the same part of that calculation. Their loss may never appear in Ubisoft or Sony's revenue figures. It appears as an option that no longer exists.
A digital licence cannot be listed on a local marketplace. An account purchase cannot legally be placed in an envelope and sent to a friend. A game removed from PlayStation Store cannot unexpectedly be discovered in a charity shop years later. And when the terms of an account or service change, the player has no separate copy to fall back on.
Physical games are not automatically playable forever. Discs can be damaged, consoles can fail and online-dependent games can become unusable even when sold in a box. That is precisely why voluntarily removing an existing form of redundancy is strange. Game preservation does not need one perfect solution, but several routes through which a game can survive.
Sony says new games will still be available from retailers after January 2028, but only in digital formats. That may mean shops selling download codes, gift cards or boxes containing a code. For the visibility of games at retail, that may be better than nothing.
For game ownership, it changes very little. A code can generally be redeemed once and then becomes part of an account. The box may remain on the shelf, but its usable value exists elsewhere. Second-hand resale does not work, lending does not work and the code provides no alternative installation source if the online service ever changes.
Physical packaging without a physical game mainly preserves marketing material. That can still be collectible, like posters, steelbooks and statues. It is simply important not to pretend the same functional choice has survived.
The old disc was sometimes incomplete and certainly not always free from account requirements. It could nevertheless act as carrier, licence key and transferable object at the same time. A download code performs only one of those functions, and only once.
Sony points out that roughly eighty percent of its full-game sales in fiscal 2025 were digital. From a business perspective, the direction is therefore clear. Most customers already choose downloads and physical manufacturing costs money.
Yet eighty percent digital also means roughly one in five sales was not digital. That is not a forgotten fringe. It represents millions of purchases made by players who still deliberately choose a disc because of price, ownership, collecting, lending or habit.
A market trend describes what people do while they have a choice. Sony is now using that trend to remove the choice eventually. That is efficient, but it is not neutral. From 2028, every new PlayStation game will begin as permission inside a digital system, rather than a copy the player can independently preserve or transfer.
Guillemot is probably right about the first few years. There will be no sudden collapse. New Assassin's Creed games will still sell, PlayStation players will still download them and digital consoles will still sit beside televisions.
The real consequences only become visible when a game disappears from the store, an account is blocked, a licensing conflict occurs or a player discovers that an old purchase can no longer be found second-hand. At that point, the transition reveals itself as more than different packaging. It was a transfer of possibilities.
For the industry, a sold digital licence is probably enough. For players, a game has always been more than the moment of sale. It was also something to preserve, reinstall, carry, lend, sell and unexpectedly rediscover years later.
A PlayStation without discs probably will not disturb the games industry very much.
But perhaps that is exactly the problem. The industry loses little because almost everything disappearing belonged to the player.
Sources: PlayStation Blog: disc production ending for new games from January 2028, VGC: Yves Guillemot on the end of discs, Reuters: Sony shifts fully to digital distribution.
