Sony No Longer Releasing Physical Games Despite Vocal Consumer Preferences

Following the recent news that there will be no physical copies of Grand Theft Auto VI (it's just a download code inside the box), Sony continues to push a digital future against our own wishes.

The company announced on its blog today that starting in 2028, physical game disc production will be discontinued. Their reasoning? "Consumer trends." Seriously!

This is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs. This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today.

Ironically, their blog posts end with a prompt asking, "Did you like this?" and all the comments say they, in fact, do not like this news.

"Do not like this, I've always preferred physical to digital," said one commenter. "We literally own nothing now but licenses. This is a horrible decision, Sony," said another.

In the time between typing those quotes and refreshing the blog post, the number of comments more than doubled, with everyone expressing their dislike for the news. (A third refresh before publishing this article has tripled the amount of angry comments).

Nearly 80% of PlayStation 5 Game Purchases Have Been Digital

To Sony's credit, their data backs up the fact that a majority of consumers are, indeed, buying PS5 games digitally.

In the 2024 fiscal year, the company sold a total of 303.3 million games for the PS4 and PS5 hardware, with 28.9 million of those games being first party titles. 76% of those sales were digital. That number jumped to 78% for the 2025 fiscal year across a total of 317.9 million games sold.

Q4 2025 alone saw 85% of PS4/PS5 games sold digitally. So, yes, while a vocal amount of people prefer physical games, the data is clearly saying the opposite.

It's a slippery slope, as there's no doubting the convenience of buying a game digitally. However, nothing will ever beat the fact that a physical disc for a game simply works. There's no need to be connected to the internet, no worries about a licensing agreement ending. You just pop your disc into a console, and it starts playing.

Given the rising costs of game development, it feels like everyone is looking for ways to cut costs.

Sony is Also Shutting Down the PlayStation Store on PS3 and Vita

As Sony and the PlayStation brand shift to an all-digital future, it's closing the digital door on its past.

The company also announced today that the PlayStation Store for the PS3 and Vita platforms will be closing on the following dates in the listed regions.

• Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua – PlayStation Store on PS3 will close starting August 2026.
• Additional Latin American and Middle Eastern countries – PlayStation Store on PS3 will close starting late 2026.
• In all other countries, PlayStation Store on PS3 and PS Vita will close in July 2027.

Sony says that while they understand the news may be disappointing for fans, the company needs to focus their resources on expanding "the PlayStation experience on newer devices" where most users are playing.

Given today's top story of Sony no longer releasing their first party games on a physical disc, it's a scary time for the future of gaming. Right now, there's no worry or concern about when the PlayStation Store will be sunset for the PS5 platform, but there's no doubting that will, presumably, come.

It also all but confirms that the next PlayStation console will launch without a disc drive, whenever that may be. Will it mean that the PS6, along with future PlayStation games, will be cheaper? Honestly, I doubt it, especially with the "complete" version of GTA 6 costing $100.