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

Otter on 07 August 2026
KManX89 said:
VersusEvil said:

You have 3 options.

1. Free PS NOW supported via ads aka what Xbox is doing.
2. PlayStation Home 2.0
3. They’ll be shoving ads into video games and you’ll have to pay a subscription to skip them.

Now I’ll let you guess which 1 of those is pure crazy talk.

It’s not crazy to think they’ll do what every digital platform now does on an ecosystem that they control and don’t have to share with anyone like PC does. No way would Steam be able to get away with that, they know they’d lose a good chunk of their base to other PC digital storefronts like GOG, Windows Store, etc.

Sony’s MO with everything as of late has been to squeeze every penny out of their consumers, they’ve given me exactly 0 reason to doubt they will.

You're not going to pay full price for a game and have to watch ads unless its a sports game as integrated as product placement/billboards. That's like the equivalent of buying a movie and having to watch ads in the middle of it, something none of the streaming providers do

This is going to be some free tier/entry point monetisation for streaming & subscription based game offerings. At worst they'll rise PS+ prices and create a new entry point or free tier which will include some ads before online sessions & games trials, maybe limited hours etc

In a discussion some months back I was speculating whether this might be a way they get more comfortable making a bigger loss on hardware (like $200 loss). When sony said they're looking at different business models with PS6 this is exactly what I thought they meant to be honest lol. This and consoles on loan with a more premium priced PSN contract to cover the hardware over time. 

Last edited by Otter - on 07 August 2026

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Alex_The_Hedgehog on 07 August 2026

If I wanted to watch ads after each 5 minutes of gameplay, I would go watch Twitch streamers instead.



Wman1996 on 07 August 2026
curl-6 said:

I mean technically you can care about an issue without being directly involved in it; although most people choose digital, most people also chose the PS5 that has the option of playing discs. I care about physical games, but I buy a lot of games digitally as well.

People often care about political issues that don't directly impact them, for instance. 

The logic of the PS5 SKUs with a disc drive selling more some to be down to this

1. People have physical PS4 games

2. They want it to play DVDs, Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray.

3. They have no physical discs they plan to use on it but are willing to pay the extra money as insurance policy if they want to use it for physical media.

Something tells me Option 3 is the least common but was especially least common early on when there was a $100 difference.



Lifetime Sales Predictions 

Switch: 159 million (was 73 million, then 96 million, then 113 million, then 125 million, then 144 million, then 151 million, then 156 million, then 161 million)

PS5: 116 million (was 105 million, then 115 million, then 122 million)

Xbox Series X/S: 38 million (was 60 million, then 67 million, then 57 million. then 48 million. then 40 million)

Switch 2: 120 million (was 116 million)

PS4: 120 mil (was 100 then 130 million, then 122 million) Xbox One: 51 mil (was 50 then 55 mil)

3DS: 75.5 mil (was 73, then 77 million)

"Let go your earthly tether, enter the void, empty and become wind." - Guru Laghima

xl-klaudkil on 08 August 2026

One of the things that is funny is why doesnt sony just say jow many physical copies had been sold?
Revenue doesnt mean jack shit since digital is almost always a LOT more expensive



 

My youtube gaming page.

http://www.youtube.com/user/klaudkil

Sogreblute on 08 August 2026
Wman1996 said:
curl-6 said:

I mean technically you can care about an issue without being directly involved in it; although most people choose digital, most people also chose the PS5 that has the option of playing discs. I care about physical games, but I buy a lot of games digitally as well.

People often care about political issues that don't directly impact them, for instance. 

The logic of the PS5 SKUs with a disc drive selling more some to be down to this

1. People have physical PS4 games

2. They want it to play DVDs, Blu-ray and UHD Blu-ray.

3. They have no physical discs they plan to use on it but are willing to pay the extra money as insurance policy if they want to use it for physical media.

Something tells me Option 3 is the least common but was especially least common early on when there was a $100 difference.

Sony purposely manufactured more disc PS5s than digital in the beginning of the generation because they made more money selling those. It was a lot harder finding a digital PS5 than a disc. Even with more disc PS5s sold a lot of people still only bought games digitally, same happened with Xbox where the Series X has a disc drive, but most don't use it.

Either way it's absolutely scummy of Sony producing more PS5 discs knowing there was a possibility they were going all digital with the PS6. They should have let the discs slowly die out or become a niche market.



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Conina on 08 August 2026
Sogreblute said:

Sony purposely manufactured more disc PS5s than digital in the beginning of the generation because they made more money selling those. It was a lot harder finding a digital PS5 than a disc. Even with more disc PS5s sold a lot of people still only bought games digitally, same happened with Xbox where the Series X has a disc drive, but most don't use it.

Either way it's absolutely scummy of Sony producing more PS5 discs knowing there was a possibility they were going all digital with the PS6. They should have let the discs slowly die out or become a niche market.

It's scummy from Sony to offer an optional PS5 disc drive (or PS5 disc version) for people who still want to use their compatible game and movie discs?

You have a very flawed logic.



Sogreblute on 08 August 2026
Conina said:
Sogreblute said:

Sony purposely manufactured more disc PS5s than digital in the beginning of the generation because they made more money selling those. It was a lot harder finding a digital PS5 than a disc. Even with more disc PS5s sold a lot of people still only bought games digitally, same happened with Xbox where the Series X has a disc drive, but most don't use it.

Either way it's absolutely scummy of Sony producing more PS5 discs knowing there was a possibility they were going all digital with the PS6. They should have let the discs slowly die out or become a niche market.

It's scummy from Sony to offer an optional PS5 disc drive (or PS5 disc version) for people who still want to use their compatible game and movie discs?

You have a very flawed logic.

I'm saying it's scummy Sony produced way more disc PS5s making everyone think physical was going to be around for at least the entire PS5 life, and possibly PS6.



Conina on 08 August 2026
Sogreblute said:
Conina said:

It's scummy from Sony to offer an optional PS5 disc drive (or PS5 disc version) for people who still want to use their compatible game and movie discs?

You have a very flawed logic.

I'm saying it's scummy Sony produced way more disc PS5s making everyone think physical was going to be around for at least the entire PS5 life, and possibly PS6.

  • Only a tiny tiny fraction of PS5 buyers would even had had the information, that Sony produced more disc models.
  • Even with that information: why should that info weight more than the individual needs? If someone don't have compatible discs and doesn't intent to buy discs... why should they spend more for a disc model, if the discless model is also available?
  • Since 2023 it is even easier for the few undecided (if they need an optical drive or not)... they can start with the discless model and add the optional disc drive later, if they need it
  • I'm sure that you'll find a buyer for the external drive, if you don't need it anymore
  • I'm sure that owners of a 2020 - 2023 PS5 disc model will find a buyer easily, who pays them almost the price, they paid in the past 
  • in January 2028 the PS5 is already 7 years old... that is a normal console cycle. So you can play retail PS5 games of late 2020 - 2027 (over 7 years of content), retail PS4 games of 2013 - 2027 (over 13 years of content), blu-ray movies of 2006 - 2027+ (over 20 years of content) and DVD movies of 1996 - 2027+ (over 30 years of content) on it


EricHiggin on 09 August 2026
Jizz_Beard_thePirate said:

The removal of physical discs is such a short sighted decision that I am still perplexed as to how the clowns at Sony that are making these decisions are still employed. It wasn't enough to lose 100s of millions on their live service fetish which resulted in tons of lay offs and studio closures, price increases and etc. But now they are going to go forward with removing physical games that is royally pissing off their fanbase.

What they really don't realize however is how much damage this is going to do to Playstation long term. In the past, you have had many reasons as to why someone would choose a Playstation over PC. Things like exclusives, physical media, being able to pick up and play, having the living room experience with UI and controller inputs, lower up front cost and etc.

These days however, the reasons to get a Playstation over PC has been continuously decreasing and in fact, reasons to get a PC over consoles have been continuously increasing. Exclusives outside of first party are virtually non-existent. Valve has been developing SteamOS to bring the living room experience to PCs for many years now in order to merge the gap between the PC experience and console experience. Playstation has lower up front cost but it also has a fee for online and cloud saves while Steam does not. Steam also has better sales, better customer support and refund system as well as many other features like family sharing all for free. On top of that, you aren't locked to Steam on PC for games purchasing and sites like GMG and Fanatical gives pre-order discounts of 15-20% for most major titles. Essentially having multiple store fronts also allows for tons of competitive pricing and sales which is what we have seen many times for Physical games.

So what I am getting at is, Sony is essentially knocking out another reason that differentiated Playstation vs PC. Millions of people buy consoles for physical media whether it be using it to play physical games or watching bluray movies on it. Physical media itself is a form of exclusivity that PCs cannot do. And by getting rid of it, they are giving another reason for gamers to buy a PC and ultimately getting rid of what made console experience so unique.

Yup. It's the main reason they're dropping PC ports. If they kept putting PS Studio games on PC, there would be a mad rush for gamers to jump to PC by next gen. SNY had no choice but to go back to console exclusivity to force everyone to remain locked into PS(6) hardware ecosystem going forward.

How many will still abandon PS regardless come next gen will be interesting to see. Possibly sad to see. Even more interesting, may be if Helix can thread the PC-console hybrid needle and those PS gamers go to XB hardware instead of direct to PC next gen.



PS1   - ! - We must build a console that can alert our enemies.

PS2  - @- We must build a console that offers online living room gaming.

PS3   - #- We must build a console that’s powerful, social, costs and does everything.

PS4   - $- We must build a console that’s affordable, charges for services, and pumps out exclusives.

PRO  -%-We must build a console that's VR ready, checkerboard upscales, and sells but a fraction of the money printer.

PS5   - ^ -We must build a console that’s a generational cross product, with RT lighting, and price hiking.

PRO  -&- We must build a console that Super Res upscales and continues the cost increases.

KManX89 on 10 August 2026

Another day, another company highlighting the folly of a digital-only future: Google literally removed LotR Extended Edition copies from a guy’s account without refunding him.

Also another day, another company giving credence to the mantra:

Hell, this guy should be fair game to torrent the movies since they literally swiped them from his account without refunding him and he already paid for them in full.




                           PSA:
SONY:
If 💳 ≠ OWNING
        ,THEN
   🏴‍☠️ ≠ STEALING