Sony Clarifies: Disc-Based Games Won't Disappear Immediately, but Format Will Eventually Change to Digital

This week, Sony literally shocked a lot of users, if not everyone, with their announcement that the company will stop releasing games on discs starting from January 2028. This sparked an unprecedented wave of public outrage, and so far, PlayStation hasn’t made any official statements on their social media since then—apparently fearing the user’s reaction. However, some clarifications have emerged about the shift from physical to digital distribution’s model of video games and reveal that there are some nuances.

According to a new report from Game File, Sony has reportedly informed its partners that publishers will still be able to place orders for games on discs and that the transition to a fully digital model will not happen at one specific moment. However, it's important to understand that the process itself will change, so while this period will continue for some time, it will not last long. In fact, Sony confirmed that games can still be released in retail in physical form, but instead of a disc, they will contain a digital code to the game. Unfortunately, the source does not specify exactly how long this phase will last.

It is also worth noting that in response to Sony's decision to stop releasing games on discs, a lot of PS Plus subscribers are calling to cancel their subscriptions to "make their voices be heard," as one X user shared that you can check out below:

Keep spreading the word and don't let SONY get away with this!

If you want to make sure your voice gets heard for real for playstation, unsubscribe to Playstation plus!

How to do it:

Web Browser: Account Management → Subscription → Cancel Subscription

PS5 Console: Settings → Users and Accounts → Account → Payment and Subscriptions → Subscriptions. Select PlayStation Plus → Cancel Subscription or turn off auto-renew

Speak up today or lose ownership forever!

Meanwhile, former PlayStation CEO Shawn Layden recently revealed in an interview that Sony was already considering moving away from discs during his cadence, as digital sales account for 95% of the company’s revenue. In a conversation with Eurogamer, he revealed:

“If you look at any decision to discontinue a product or a feature or model or what have you, largely it's a straight spreadsheet. What are disc sales compared to digital sales? And I'm old enough to remember when digital sales were like 10 percent - I'm old enough to remember when digital sales were zero percent because we didn't have a digital market! And that number just grew over time.”

Majority does not mean entirety. So there is a point, a tipping point, where if I have 80 percent of the opportunity, which represents 95 percent of the revenue source, what's my incentive to keep the lights on for the other 20 percent if it's effectively only 5 percent of the business? See what I'm saying? At some point it just becomes obvious that we can't keep this whole thing running just for this very small slice of opportunity.”

Earlier, Shawn Layden also criticized Sony for refusing to release its single-player titles on PC, as he revealed that the company is missing out on reaching a wider audience.

What do you think of Sony’s refusal to release games on discs? Share your thoughts in the comments below!