PlayStation is ending physical discs. New games will be released digitally only from 2028

Boxed games are slowly heading to a museum. Sony has confirmed that from January 2028, it will stop pressing physical discs for new PlayStation titles and will fully transition to digital distribution.

Physical Discs Are Becoming a Thing of the Past

The company announced this on its blog: the production of physical discs for all new games on PlayStation consoles will end in January 2028. From that moment on, new releases will be sold exclusively digitally – available for download via the PlayStation Store or from brick-and-mortar and online retailers. Sony justifies this simply: customers are irrevocably transitioning to digital, and physical games accounted for only about three percent of sales last year.

Those who collect physical copies at home can rest assured. You will not stop playing games bought on disc, and consoles with optical drives remain unchanged. The change purely concerns the pressing of new titles – everything released until the end of 2027 will remain on shelves and in your collection. So you have until the beginning of 2028 to purchase your favorite physical copies.

Why This Comes as No Surprise

The manufacturer has been preparing for the shift to digital for years. The PlayStation 5 received a Digital Edition without a drive right at launch, and last year’s PS5 Pro is sold without an optical drive – the disc drive is only an optional accessory for it. The entire industry is moving in the same direction: Microsoft is pushing digital Xboxes, and Nintendo is enticing with cheaper downloads for the Switch 2. Meanwhile, the physical edition of major games remains more for collectors; even the upcoming Grand Theft Auto VI will arrive in several editions with different prices.

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What About Disc Production in Europe?

The end of disc pressing will also affect Europe. As Austrian broadcaster ORF reported, most discs for this market are produced at the Sony DADC factory in Thalgau near Salzburg, Austria, which currently churns out around 600,000 discs daily – and roughly half of that is for PlayStation. However, the company is preparing for the end in advance: it is starting the production of optical microlenses (e.g., for car turn signals), into which it has invested around 30 million euros, and according to management, it aims to retain all 300 employees through retraining. Full-scale new production is expected to begin as early as 2027.

For players, the news has two sides. A digital library is convenient, saves space, and you have the game instantly – but with the end of discs, the option to lend, sell, or buy titles cheaply second-hand also disappears. And those who struggle with slow internet or small storage have long relied on physical copies.

Will you miss boxed games, or have you long since switched to digital?

Sources: PlayStation Blog, Engadget, Notebookcheck, ORF