Sony has dealt a critical blow to physical media with its latest PlayStation announcement.
Starting in 2028, Sony will end physical disc production for PlayStation games, meaning you will be able to access future titles only digitally. Sony confirms that retailers will carry digital download codes for games from 2028 onwards, with the PlayStation Store as the most convenient place for gamers to access new titles in two years.
The Japanese AV and gaming goliath confirms that this change will affect only new titles, and that “this transition has no impact on games that already released, or will be releasing, prior to January 2028 in disc format”.
This news follows the announcement that Grand Theft Auto VI, which is expected to be one of the biggest video game launches of all time, will be available only in digital formats on PS5, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.
The reasoning behind this monumental change, given by Sony, is that it simply follows consumers’ wants and needs. The company had this to say in a PlayStation Blog post made yesterday:
“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. This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today.”
While Sony claims that this decision has been made with consumer interests in mind, the general reaction to the news has been less than positive from gamers. At the time of writing, there were 6256 comments on Sony’s blog post, and the consensus is overwhelmingly negative.
Comments on the blog post from PlayStation users include: “Do not like this, I’ve always preferred physical to digital”, “Shame on you Sony”, “Revert this decision right now”, and “We literally own nothing now but licenses; this is a horrible decision, Sony”.
This also comes in the wake of a digital-media fiasco made by PlayStation a mere three days ago. The company announced that, due to a content licensing agreement with Studio Canal, users will lose access to more than 500 films and TV shows that they have bought from the PlayStation Store here in the UK.
If that’s not already concerning enough, Sony confirmed that the affected content will be removed from users’ video library with no mention of refunds or compensation. This makes Sony’s announcement to ditch physical game releases even more troublesome.
It has been made clear time and time again that access to digital media can be revoked in a heartbeat, so seeing physical media being phased out is leaving gamers feeling understandably insecure.
While it is currently far too early to speculate, it’s presumed that Sony will lift the lid on the PlayStation 6 next year, just in time for this new digital revolution.
Therefore, it’s not out of the question to assume that the PS6 will be a digital-only console, which could deal a critical blow to the 4K Blu-ray format.
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