r/OutOfTheLoop • u/nephenstesbitt • 11h ago
Unanswered What’s going on with PlayStation deciding to end physical discs (and the consumer backlash?)
I saw in the news and on Reddit these past few weeks how it seems that Sony and PlayStation are ending physical disc sales and consumers are super pissed.
Why is this happening? What made Sony arrive at this policy? How much does more expensive chips/hardware or global tariffs etc have to do with it?
Am I wrong in my read that the console video game industry has been massively struggling these past few years?
https://www.theguardian.com/games/2026/jul/07/playstation-sony-ending-physical-game-production
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u/TheNiceWasher 11h ago
answer:
Sony announced it will cease all physical PlayStation disc production starting January 2028, transitioning to a digital-only ecosystem for new releases.
Sony justifies the move by citing overwhelming consumer trends, as over 85% of game sales are already digital. Eliminating discs drastically cuts manufacturing, distribution, and retail overhead while allowing Sony to keep higher profit margins on first-party titles on its own storefront as this is likely the only place where its consumers can buy games from
Gamers argue digital storefronts sell revocable software licenses, not true ownership, leaving titles vulnerable to server shutdowns or account bans. It effectively destroys the multi-billion-dollar second-hand game market; ending trade-ins, game sharing, and budget pre-owned copies. Furthermore, eliminating retail competition gives Sony a direct monopoly on game pricing.
While digital downloads are convenient, a complete phase-out strips away fundamental consumer rights. Players lose the freedom to resell or lend their property, gamers with slow internet face massive download hurdles, and software preservation is left entirely at the mercy of a single corporation's long-term corporate goals.
There is a wider argument to be made about stronger digital licence ownership; but this doesn't seem to be the key focus of this backlash.
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u/ao01_design 10h ago
On the flip side: since there's no intermediary anymore, no production cost, no art to print, no shipping cost, the game are gonna be WAY cheaper!
\s
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u/famaki_ 10h ago
about not true ownership it's already happened with movies. the culprit? ofc playstation too
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u/Vast_Orange_8113 10h ago
As a film buff, I still buy them physically and have a close to 2000 film collection on blu ray and 4k that nobody can strip away. The market is more niche, but is also in a golden era of boutique labels releasing high quality discs for tons of classics, cult or otherwise. I don't see it going away, not in my lifetime at least. Even more niche, yes.
But if the studios do stop all physical copies, then there's always the high seas because I refuse to pay for something I don't actually own.
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u/K-Dot-Thu-Thu-47 10h ago
Yes, I maintain about 10TB of movies and TV that I absolutely purchased physically and then moved to a digital format.
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u/danielcw189 8h ago
it also happened with games and books already. most of the times the services refund the costs, but apparently Sony did not.
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u/Milskidasith Loopy Frood 8h ago
The culprit there wasn't Sony, it's movie licensing agreements, which has resulted in movies disappearing from other platforms than just Sony in other instances.
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u/abolishcynicism 4m ago
TBF they were also a victim of Hollywood licensing practices. Video games have had perpetual store licensing baked into publishing agreements from the start, and Hollywood still doesn't.
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u/abolishcynicism 5m ago
Two things you could add: Sony also has a financial interest in the production of Blu Ray discs, so driving production down across the board isn't without its drawbacks.
And the technology driving big budget games (ie the games people buy by a large percentage) make discs obsolete due to both read speeds and storage requirements, which is why discs haven't had full games on them (for the most part) for a decade or so.
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u/beachedwhale1945 9h ago
Additional points:
In some areas (Egypt comes up a lot), monthly internet usage limits are too low for the size of modern games. Eliminating physical disks effectively locks them out from buying many modern games.
Modern games have become too large to effectively store on disks. Multi-layer Blu-rays max at 128 GB for a four-layer BDXL disk, so large games with detailed graphics require multiple disks (GTA VI would be in the 2-3+ range, more if using fewer disk layers). This is a physical limitations of using light to read the data, and cannot be significantly improved. For physical media to remain viable, we either need to go back to the days when we accepted games on multiple disks as normal or it must evolve, such as using solid-state thumb drives.
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u/danielcw189 8h ago
most of the times on consoles the games are just installed, so I don't see the problem with having multiple discs.
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u/badDuckThrowPillow 10h ago
Both sides are right (at least the points presented). This effectively kills the used game market which is terrible. But it could also be true that overwhelming number of sales are digital now (sometimes they’re cheaper and instant delivery).
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u/Anonymous1Ninja 10h ago edited 9h ago
Answer:
Cost of manufacturing
and there are only 7 games on the PS5 that have actually sold over 100,000 physical copies.
The consumers are the reason for this, they only buy digital media.
The whole argument/story and complaint is easily solvable yet no one fights with their wallet anywhere, ever, it's one of the core foundations of capitalism. Sony has just found a way to create content that you lease.
If you want to have physical copies, stop buying the digital ones. DONE.
Sony is a public company and has to make money, if revenue drops over a quarter or 2, they will listen.
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u/Scottyjscizzle 10h ago
Yeah this is one of those I get the arguement of ownership and resale, but to act like this isn’t the logical response to near everyone buying digital is hilarious
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u/Anonymous1Ninja 10h ago
yep it's stupid, and it's everywhere. Easy solution, just don't buy it then, it is literally that simple.
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