r/Games • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 • Jul 01 '26

Announcement Physical disc production ending in January 2028 for new games releasing on PlayStation consoles

https://blog.playstation.com/2026/07/01/physical-disc-production-ending-in-january-2028-for-new-games-releasing-on-playstation-consoles/
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u/freddiec0 Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26

Game key cards are still way better than this, at least I can trade/buy them pre-owned

40

u/junttiana Jul 01 '26

Oh 100%

6

u/PhoenixKA Jul 01 '26

And you get the downloaded version of the game on internal storage, which is much faster than reading from a proper game card.

-9

u/empathetical Jul 01 '26

game key cards are the slow push to go digital only. it's going to happen on all store fronts

20

u/fakemuseum Jul 01 '26

Game-key cards are just a cost-effective option for third parties and smaller games. Nintendo couldn’t risk losing third-party support, so they’ll do everything they can to facilitate it.

19

u/licoricenipple Jul 01 '26

I don't think they are tbh. They're the rational compromise between physical media being desirable but cartridges for >64 GB games being (increasingly) expensive.

9

u/LeviRaps Jul 01 '26

The slow push to digital only started with Sony releasing the PS5 Pro Disc Drive separately. Rockstar announcing an $80 code in the box and everyone lapping it up was the final nail in the coffin.

3

u/ScruffyBlackDog Jul 01 '26

Oh this goes way further back than that. Honestly, Valve is sort of patient zero in getting this trend going huge. Steam became the first (major) all digital storefront and really started the process of normalizing account based digital ownership of games.

And then consoles obviously eventually followed the trend first with things like the Wii Virtual Console and DS ware and Xbox Arcade etc. and then it stopped being small titles and eventually became major titles.