It's officially over.

[weirdfeline]

https://blog.playstation.com/2026/07/01/physical-disc-production-ending-in-january-2028-for-new-games-releasing-on-playstation-consoles/

[dhaabi]

In time, a lot of other related things will eventually cease. Video games having a retail presence, the limited print industry (for discs at this time, anyway, though it remains to be seen with Nintendo's future as they currently manufacture cartridges), and—much later—dedicated brick-and-mortar stores. I can easily envision consumer prices for the secondary market becoming even more expensive than they already are.

[telekill]

Aaannnnnddd.... the nail in the coffin. PS5 is confirmed to be my last Playstation. Congrats Sony.

The question for the last two gens has been... "What will you do when gaming becomes digital only."

My answer.... I walk away.

[sworddude]

Can't say I'm playing allot of modern aside from nintendo anyway but  gaming is gonna get pricy in this digital only future 

piracy and jailbroken consoles like in the good ol days might actually peak again if digital only will keep prices sky high.

truly the end of an era, gen z consumers have spoken

[weirdfeline]

I was actually going to comment earlier how I noticed Xbox already had their video game selection wiped out at both Walmart and Target. The titles they carry are the latest entries for: Battlefield, Madden, Call of Duty, Forza, NBA 2K and EA Sports FC. One little row of shelf space. Nintendo has a ton of shelf space at Walmart in particular as well as their own aisle at Target.

DVDs are still being made and sold alongside Blu-rays and 4K but PlayStation and Xbox games won't be.

I think Sony thinks GTA VI will pave the way for this digital future they envision but I think GTA VI could potentially be the stopping point for hundreds of thousands of gamers if not millions of gamers. The next generation is going to price out so many already and now without even a library to be physically invested in that could easily be something that breaks the magic for lots of people.

If you don't care about collecting but live paycheck to paycheck you're looking at $80 games and you can't sell it to make some money back to pay for the next game after you beat it over the weekend. Plenty of other things to get entertainment out of for less.

If I'm Nintendo I'm going back to having two consoles. Keep the Switch line as the handheld and return to GameCube power parity era while being the exclusive home of physical games. They might even be the only console with a physical store presence outside of gift cards.

[sworddude]

tbf xbox was losing the battle anyway and their games physically where almost worthless. and with gamepass being that cheap most of their consumers just stuck with that. they killed it fast although probably by design now with their gamepass not being as good of a deal, since they can inflate prices and consumers can't buy cheap physical xbox games anymore.

If you don't care about collecting but live paycheck to paycheck you're looking at $80 games and you can't sell it to make some money back to pay for the next game after you beat it over the weekend. Plenty of other things to get entertainment out of for less.

there is one way for you to sell your digital games. it's by selling the entire console with it. but far less convenient. or perhaps you could sell your account but even that not really convenient but there might be ways although really at that point piracy is gonna increase tenfold if it's digital only and if prices are kept high. people gonna get money for those services guaranteed

[dhaabi]

If you don't care about collecting but live paycheck to paycheck you're looking at $80 games and you can't sell it to make some money back to pay for the next game after you beat it over the weekend. Plenty of other things to get entertainment out of for less.

If I'm Nintendo I'm going back to having two consoles. Keep the Switch line as the handheld and return to GameCube power parity era while being the exclusive home of physical games. They might even be the only console with a physical store presence outside of gift cards.

I'm sure Sony has acknowledged that internally to some effect. They'll just keep pushing subscription models as they bleed out remaining subscribers as more and more unsubscribe.

At the very least, Sony will maintain some sort of in-store retail presence so that hardware and accessories can be sold. But they could also just package all games in empty cases once 2028 comes, like Take-Two is doing now with Grand Theft Auto VI.