Sony is killing discs — and showing us why it’s a terrible idea by Andrew Webster

Sony announced that, starting in January 2028, the company will no longer produce physical PlayStation discs, which means that from that moment on you can only purchase new PS5 games digitally. At the same time, Sony also announced that it’s going to start winding down the digital stores for both the PS3 and PS Vita, helpfully illustrating one of the most pertinent issues with a digital-only future for gaming: Once the stores are gone, so are the games.

Microsoft is doing something else - Xbox testing disc-to-digital feature that digitizes a physical game collection

Microsoft will likely soon follow Sony and stop the production of physical discs for Xbox games. But instead of leaving physical discs behind entirely, sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans tell me the company has quietly been working on a disc-to-digital feature that will allow Xbox owners to digitize their existing physical game collections.

Maybe they should add a feature which allows a user (or some archiving company) to convert a digital game to a physical one? Or some other way to conserve the games.

I have (or had) some physical games on the PS4. Maybe a 50/50 split. Since moving to the PS5, even though I paid extra for the disc drive, I have not bought a single physical game.

Physical games allow for sharing and re-playability. They could do the same with digital games, but won’t. The benefit (for the game companies) is that each players has to buy their copy of the game. The problem (for the players) is that some may not be able to afford the games. The companies must have done that calculation though.

I have started playing maybe half an hour or so each day now. I am playing Ghost of Yotei now. So I’m looking forward to playing GTA 6 when it comes out. Would I play when it releases? I don’t know. It is a single player game. I can enjoy the story later as well, when the prices drop slightly - which has been my modus-operandi with games on the PlayStation.

So, let’s wait and watch I guess.