ITS OVER Sony Interactive Entertainment to end physical game disc production in January 2028

[BraLoD]

G2ThaUNiT said:

KratosLives said:

One has to question the timing Sony came out with this fkn announcement. Surely the top dogs at take2 were at play. Gta6 news of digital only announced, people go crazy, then suddenly PlayStation jumps at defense with digital only. I wonder if strauss zelnick said something to the PlayStation boss, to take away some of the heat of gta not having physical, and instead it backfired.

Idk why some keep thinking Sony just made this announcement out of thin air because of GTA lol. Such a drastic business decision is made after months, if not years, of analyzing data to predict market conditions.

Sony's been closing down Blu-ray production in some capacity for the past couple of years now. This decision has been years in the making.

Even as what you posted is very likely right, it doesn't go against the concept of the timing tho, at least IMO. The announcement still came within a week of GTA VI fully digital media preorders, and 18 months before the announced actually takes effect.

At least IMO, I think it was timed purposedly, not a coincidence.

Sony had started the GTA VI marketing deal with a image of the regular disc PS5, and very quickly took it away and deleted nearly everything they had already posted about GTA VI to swap it for an image of digital version PS5 instead.

That means at least 1 of 2 things (maybe both):

1. the decision was not made before GTA VI was last delayed and this marketing material was outdated because of it, we have proof it was at one point supposed to be advertised with regular PS5;

and/or

2. they immediatly rushed and swapped to the digital PS5 to announce it to share the "welcoming" mindset GTA VI was getting based on preorder sales, which must have been astronomical.

To me it clearly looks like it was rushed because of GTA V preorders success, even as it was indeed already decided for some time, but not actually THAT much time, because it is the option that checks all the boxes.

- Regular PS5 was originally the one to use for GTA VI marketing, we saw it;

- GTA VI digital media only preorders success was very likely insane;

- Sony announcement came within around 1 week of GTA VI digital media only preorders data and swapping focus to the digital PS5;

- Sony annoucement was made far too early compared to when it will actually take effect (18 months prior).

My conclusion is that GTA VI was indeed the reason of the timing of Sony's announcement, even as it is extremely unlike it has anything to do with being the reason of why Sony is doing what it announced to do.