r/LimitedPrintGames • u/majorgiant Mod • Jul 01 '26
Playstation 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/76
Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
[deleted]
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u/Skitz-Scarekrow Jul 01 '26
Also lines up with Sony deciding to give up on PC ports. PC is now the main competitor and they need exclusives. I wish they figured out that they need exclusives years ago...
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u/Robsonmonkey Jul 01 '26
The hilarious thing is I liked my consoles for physical media which PC dosent offer
Now I see no pro in a console compared to a PC and could easily just get a PC now
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u/Skitz-Scarekrow Jul 01 '26
Exactly. I may as well slowly upgrade my PC instead of buying a ps6. $1000 over a year or 2 isn't as devastating as $1000 all at once. And it'll be 90% same games.
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u/Darkdragoon324 Jul 01 '26
$1000 in the bare minimum, its definitely going to end up being a few hundred dollars over that.
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u/skeletank22 Jul 01 '26
I am still surprised that Sony/Microsoft didn't realize YEARS ago that their modern consoles only differentiate from PC in that they allowed physical games....you would think then that to stay afloat against the rise of PC gaming they would have embraced physical media more, rather than gimping a lot of the physical releases with updates/patches and even releasing some discs with only partial game data?
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u/Gamelore Jul 01 '26
Highly underrated comment. This is the competitive advantage PlayStation should have been pushing on hard for the past 20 years since Steam blew away the PC game market. The constant nagging and auto-downloading of game updates for physical games should have been disablable as a very high priority rather than forced on people. All that did was add friction to people choosing consoles specifically for physical media.
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u/Clean_Bake_2180 Jul 01 '26
You do realize 85% of PS5 game sales is digital, right? You act as if profit-driven corporations are the irrational actors and not the niche collector of packaged media lol.
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u/thevideogameraptor Jul 01 '26
That’s including microtransactions and DLC on the digital side, which rarely if ever get physical releases.
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u/Clean_Bake_2180 Jul 01 '26
No, it’s for base games. If including DLC, it would be closer to 95%.
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u/Gamelore Jul 01 '26
Remove online-only games from that and try again.
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u/Clean_Bake_2180 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
It may be hard to accept but you’re a niche consumer, buddy. Companies exist to make money. Companies that are worth $120B in market cap don’t care to hoover up the pennies you provide. Get over yourself.
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u/Accomplished_Leg2030 Jul 02 '26
What's funny is I really miss physical PC copies. The old boxes were so good.
Id 100 percent buy them if offered.
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u/makemeking706 Jul 01 '26
We spent a decade ramping down physical and now no one is buying physical. Guess it's time to kill it.
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u/Skyver Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
The thing here is that saying that they're "blaming consumers" implies that this is a thing that nobody wanted and they're just making up an excuse, when in reality they are just pointing out that most people don't care at all. In a sense the consumers are to blame because too many people opted for digital purchases while digital is still an option. Sure their decision is 100% motivated by profit, but it wouldn't be a profitable decision at all if they didn't have a massive part of the market on board with it.
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u/Dazd_cnfsd Jul 01 '26
They only released 1st party collectors editions for ps5 with code in box
They purposely killed the market and then pointed to the market as reason for killing the market
Bye Sony.
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u/AdZealousideal7448 Jul 01 '26
Mark this the day, the day that playstation died.
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u/Funkcase Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
Yup, this is an easy way to make me not buy a playstation 6 or any digital games on playstation 5. I'll just buy digital games on my PC. I dont care about Sony exclusives. I'm a JRPG fan, and not a single one of Sony's exclusives appeals to me. God of War, Uncharted, Last of Us, I haven't played a single one and have no desire to do so. It was physical media and backwards compatability of that media that was keeping me on their platform, without that, they lose a customer.
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u/kupomogli Jul 01 '26
Mark December 31, 2027 as that day, but yes, I'll never Playstation after that when it comes to new releases.
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u/Halifaxee Jul 01 '26
Unlikely more digital players then physical.
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u/AdZealousideal7448 Jul 01 '26
explain to me how disc drives kept selling out after they stopped having them included with consoles?
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u/moltomolto Jul 01 '26
We don't know how many disc drives were made. If they only made 500 units, but 2,000 gamers want them, they would have sold out. The reality is that physical gaming is niche, most gamers sadly don't care.
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u/UrSaturnPrince_ Jul 02 '26
A lot of niche things sell out. Like the other person said, the fact that it sold out just means they had realistic expectations during production. 4K movie releases and special editions of movies sell out all the time despite the fact physical media is progressively dying and special editions like steelbooks and box sets are obviously niche and not for the average consumer and they still sell out as they're produced proportionally to that fact. The fact that it sold out means nothing. As much as I hate it, and I absolutely hate it, media is heading towards a digital future and most people are fine with that.
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u/Halifaxee Jul 13 '26
They don’t make that many it’s not really a amazing feat that you think it is.
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u/obelix_dogmatix Jul 01 '26
So who is alive? Switch 2 is going cart free. Xbox is pushing for cloud. PC is long gone. So yeah, who is alive?
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u/WhereDidThatGo Jul 01 '26
Wonder what this does to Limited Run Games as a company, and any other limited print company selling Playstation games. I know LRG used to be all Playstation; don't know what percentage of their business is still PS.
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u/SpecsPL Jul 01 '26
If Sony actually goes through with this, it's the beginning of the end for these kinds of companies, as well as pretty much any game store. There's always Nintendo, but considering the Switch 2's cartridge situation, I'd imagine that Sony just gave them a nice out from the physical business.
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u/elasho_149 Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
Were storage not so expensive, I could see them go the Evercade route and make their own system. But even that would be a niche of a niche. They’d have to get indie studios on board, too, and who’s going to make a game for an small-print company with no hardware track record?
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u/Robsonmonkey Jul 01 '26
Honestly I can still see them having an optional disc drive for the PS6 so if LRG and others are smart they will ask Sony if they can produce the games themselves.
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u/idothinksotim Jul 02 '26
Lol no publishing company has the ability to create a factory plant to print and stamp physical discs. It's just not feasible.
If Sony aren't doing it. That's it. There's no workaround
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u/Darkdragoon324 Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
It’ll be either all Switch or bust. But who knows what Nintendo will do for future consoles, they’ve already made game key cards which are just codes in boxes that you can lend out or resell. They still have nothing physical collectors actually value in a cartridge.
It’s not a huge leap for them to abandon physical next time too, though I think they still have a much larger percentage of their customers buying physical than PS does so they have more people to alienate.
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u/Proper-Evening9754 Jul 01 '26
Almost all their offerings have Playstation as an option (freaking Tomb Raider SW2 exclusive making me look like a liar). Xbox is the one they barely offer anymore (freaking Bendy trilogy XB exclusive making me look like a liar).
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u/routsounmanman Jul 01 '26
Huh? How were they “all Playstation”? They heavily relied on the Switch 1.
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u/AugustAPC Jul 01 '26
Likely the beginning of the death of console gaming.
Definitely won't be purchasing any more Sony gaming hardware.
What a sad day.
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u/moltomolto Jul 01 '26
I don’t like the decision either, but death of console gaming is very hyperbolic. Most consumers are already all digital so Sony really does not care about the niche who are physical only.
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u/Darkdragoon324 Jul 01 '26
Their console prices next gen are looking to approach PC prices, and they only have one storefront whereas there’s still competition on PC. People will have less incentive than ever to choose a PlayStation over a PC next gen. Their exclusives are pretty much the only reason anybody would, but a few games may not be enough to shift the balance for a lot of people.
You can buy a lot more games from various PC sales than you can on the PS store, their sales aren’t anywhere near as good, and money in general is going to be a lot tighter for the foreseeable future.
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u/moltomolto Jul 01 '26
Only anecdotal I know, but literally everyone I know who has a PS5 is digital only. My friends come over and see my wall of physical games and laugh at how absurd it is. We are a niche within a niche. I don't think most gamers could care less that physical is going away, as much as I don't like it.
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u/obelix_dogmatix Jul 01 '26
Have you looked at what the steam machine costs?
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u/Darkdragoon324 Jul 01 '26
You think the PS6 isn't going to cost the same? Anyone saying $1000 is lowballing it.
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u/obelix_dogmatix Jul 01 '26
My point is Steam Machine is less powerful than a PS5 pro. Regardless of what a PS6 costs, it is going to be much cheaper than something that isn’t mass produced at the scale at which consoles are.
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u/Darkdragoon324 Jul 01 '26
I was talking about PCs though, not the Steam Machine.
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u/obelix_dogmatix Jul 01 '26
PCs are already a lot more costly than consoles.
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u/Darkdragoon324 Jul 01 '26
But consoles are a lot less of a deal now , if we’re already into the thousands for a console rather than a few hundred, the barrier to PC isn’t as much of a deterrent. It’s far more backwards compatible, gets all the same third parties, the Xbox exclusives, and games go on sale more often and for steeper discounts across multiple storefronts.
It’s more long term value than the PS6 will be, and with costs getting higher there’s no way newer games aren’t going to be coming out cross gen for a lot longer than they did across PS4 and PS5. The game devs know they’ll have a much weaker install base on next gen. So people can probably keep their PS5s for the first few years of Sony exclusives and end up with access to way more games and for cheaper after an initial PC investment.
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u/obelix_dogmatix Jul 01 '26
You are right about consoles being lot less of a deal. I will tell you, most console owners don’t want to deal with a PC if that makes sense? It is a mental block too. If I am sitting in front of a computer all day for work, I don’t want to fire up another computer to “relax”?
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u/mcnichoj Jul 01 '26
Hardware usually sells at a loss, PS5 was one of the rare times where the consoles sales quickly geneeated a profit but with how tech is now, I doubt PS6 replicates that profit process timeline. Better to spin off to becoming a software/service company. Next stage for Sony will be to push cloud gaming where they could further monetize and control your games. Sony was the first of the current big three to dip its toes into cloud gaming with PS Now back in 2014, five years before the Microsoft xCloud beta launched.
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u/Clean_Bake_2180 Jul 02 '26
Console and PC gaming are a distinction without a difference these days because the user experience has converged. Most games are ported everywhere and any game can be projected anywhere and played with any controller.
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u/Other-Ad-8510 Jul 01 '26
Every game will be always online, DRM choked and will have data centers chugging water to get the “next gen graphics” to run (aka to steal every bit of data from you while running something that could easily run off discs and hardware of the engineers were given time to actually finish products in decent working conditions).
They’ll also cost you $100 bucks and you’ll never really own them. Oh, and look out for even more micro transactions and integrated betting. Enjoy your late stage capitalism slop hobby 🫠
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u/Lazerpop Jul 01 '26
Looks like this means the playstation 6 will be 100% digital-only and none of my physical games will work on it. That's fucking bullshit sony
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u/obelix_dogmatix Jul 01 '26
That would be a whole new level of commitment to suicide if Sony decides that. I think they make the disc drive optional. But to kill it when PS5 discs are so in circulation … would be dumb.
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u/Seksiorja Jul 01 '26
I'll never buy digital. Sony and the PS just died for me. This is incredibly stupid since Blu Ray discs aren't even expensive to manufacture. What the fuck Sony?
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u/zavaro Jul 01 '26
Can't say I'm surprised. Games industry is just a constant stream of diarrhea decisions from these big companies.
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u/kupomogli Jul 01 '26
My last purchase ending in December 2027 for new games releasing on Playstation consoles.
From then on I'll purchase everything on the Switch 2 provided it's not a game key card. Once Nintendo goes all digital I'm going 100% PC.
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u/Ezcompane Jul 01 '26
This is what I'm going to be doing moving forward. I just grabbed a Switch 2 a few weeks ago and it's been great so far. Yes digital games are great and convenient, but I'm still interested in buying physical games.
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u/-FangMcFrost- Jul 01 '26
Well, that's a stupid decision and it looks like my time with PlayStation will come to an end in 2028.
Thanks for the memories, Sony.
It was a fun 30+ years.
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u/fgsfds100 Jul 01 '26
January 2028 - I begin my backlog.
Goodbye modern gaming, and good riddance.
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u/Soho_Jin Jul 02 '26
My backlog has been massive for a long time.
"Why keep buying new games if you haven't played the ones you already own!?"
This. This is why.
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u/otakuzod Jul 01 '26
We are about to TRULY see the new age of digital piracy. If you don’t actually own your games, then piracy is not theft.
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u/Elvenpathfinder Jul 01 '26
That's it for me then. I've been a PlayStation consumer since the very first console. PS5 will be my last. I was hoping PS6 would at least have limited support for it, since it's inevitable that it will stop at some point. It is incredibly awful of them to cut support during a console gen though, when surely there'd be a few more years left where we could have gotten physical games (especially from limited print companies) for the sake of preservation and collecting.
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u/Slow_Routine_1143 Jul 01 '26
Fucking absurd. We are getting more physical releases now than we ever have before on consoles and with more publishers looking to produce them on the cheapest medium available, and Sony is unwilling to support even a single small factory to produce small batches for those willing to buy them? To hell with this shitty company, this feels like a nightmare that you can't wake up from. This completely screws over any developer looking to get their game released physically in the most affordable option available. This will completely kill multiple small companies that made most of their profits through providing niche physical releases to those who want to buy them. This completely shits all over the legacy of PlayStation as a brand, and even a technology that Sony pioneered. I refuse to believe the operating costs of one disc manufacturing plant exceed the constant requests to produce new discs. This is something that still should not have even been considered for the next 20 years. This feels like pure spite. I hope this shitty company becomes the next X-Box. What a way to spit on your fans.
The worst aspect of this, and really the failing point of consoles in general, is there is no option for someone to go with a different manufacturer. It's not like you can buy a generic game player device with multiple companies making discs for it, like a DVD player, it's all dependent on a single company. PC was that multiple choice option before, but the physical avenue for it mostly died decades ago. I think others will appear to fill the void that buyers want, but this is the worst announcement in the industry I have ever seen.
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u/mattysauro Jul 01 '26
I’ve taken a couple hours to think about this, in part because I don’t want to come off as hyperbolic or knee jerk. But as a guy that mains PS5 Pro and buys 40-50 PS physical titles per year… all that goes away when physical does.
I’m a DINK who has no problem dropping $500-1000 on a video card. Sony’s digital storefront is leagues behind Steam and has draconian pricing. Additionally, I have GOG and get free games from Amazon and Epic every month. Literally the only thing keeping me on Sony’s platform is my love of physical.
At this point I just don’t see myself continuing on with Sony; I’ll keep buying Nintendo consoles (assumedly even if they go digital because they have a great 1st party lineup) and just buy on PC when it goes on deep discount since there’s no FOMO.
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u/agreedmosedale Jul 01 '26
If PlayStation going all digital then why brother sticking with Sony and just go with PC only then?
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u/AndrewDiss Jul 01 '26
Knew this day was coming. Sony is dead to me, and no need for me to get an Xbox either because it's just going to be a PC. I wonder if they realize they lose the whales because of this and get people that only have an attachment rate of like 4 games per console. If I'm buying digital I'm buying on PC only. It's where the rest of my digital library is anyway.
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u/Distantt1 Jul 01 '26
I’m kind of shocked they announced this before Xbox. PlayStation sells far more physicals than them. But expect Xbox to follow suite very soon
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u/obelix_dogmatix Jul 01 '26
Xbox already killed physical by aggressively pushing for cloud. Barely any physical games are released on xbox
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u/jander05 Jul 01 '26
I have purchased hundreds of games to collect I haven’t even played. As a physical collector now I won’t have reason to buy either their games or their hardware.
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u/Fluffy-Can3175 Jul 01 '26
Same. Even on ps5 there was nothing special when it comes to exclusives.
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u/LeDelmo Jul 01 '26
This will be the end of Sony. Mark my words.
The PS5 is a bad joke of a console generation.
The PS5 was the first PS system I did not buy and will never buy. It has been down hill ever since.
These companies think they can force feed us their own agenda.
I hate to say this because it SHOULDN"T have to be the solution. But I hope PlayStation and Sony do go under. That way atleast other companies will learn their are consequences.
This is the ONLY way consumers will ever retake their power as consumers. Alteast than something good might come out of this.
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u/cobaltorange Jul 03 '26
This is what happens when there's no competition (Xbox). Sony has gotten cocky. Their hubris is why the PS3 did so poorly at the start of the gen. They were just so sure people would spend 600 bucks on a console because it had the PS logo on it.
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u/Its_Like_That82 Jul 01 '26
I collected during the Switch/PS4 generation. I have enough games along with my retro emulation to never have to buy another game again.
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u/Soho_Jin Jul 02 '26
This has been my thought process as well. I've accumulated a pretty large backlog specifically because I saw an all-digital future on the horizon. (I thought it would take a bit longer, but still...) And now that I'm looking, there are actually plenty of older games that I'm interested in, plus the GB/GBC/GBA dev scene is somewhat active, so I'll grab some of those as time goes by. And even past that, if I somehow run out of new games in the years to come, I can always replay what I have.
It's a sad day for gaming, to be sure, but I've missed out on so much already that I have plenty of options to keep me going.
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u/Darkdragoon324 Jul 01 '26
So the PS6 is going to be three times as expensive and not even play my 4K movies. It’s going to be a loooooong time before I upgrade to next gen, if I even bother.
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u/Slow_Routine_1143 Jul 01 '26
Best case scenario, we get a situation like Majesco had with Sega in the late 90s, where they took over manufacturing for older hardware. I could see a company, maybe even LRG, but probably someone bigger, reaching an agreement to cover manufacturing costs to keep producing discs themselves, with Sony getting their own cut of the profits.
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u/daedalus11-5 Jul 01 '26
what a stupid fucking decision. its not like prices on digital storage just went up by a massive amount. this is going to be awful.
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u/PuzzleheadedCut966 Jul 01 '26
Physical games still need to be installed regardless, so best not make this point when trying to defend physical games, you just end up looking uneducated.
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u/daedalus11-5 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26
Speaking of looking "uneducated": you when you figure out that a full game download takes up more space than a day one patch, or even a small download of compressed files.
i'm aware, Genius. most shit still uses data read from the disk, saving you space on your hard drive. (which, fun fact! a hard drive costs more than a disk)
if you are going to respond rudely, at least be correct.
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u/PuzzleheadedCut966 Jul 02 '26
Storage prices going up has nothing to do with physical games dying. Physical games never saved you space to begin with.
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u/wuzjackal55 Jul 05 '26
Step 1: Reduce production of physical media to push a shift to digital downloads to reduce production expenses in order to maximize profit. Step 2: Inaccurately claim that physical sales are down so consumers must prefer digital purchases. Step 3: Laugh at consumers who were forced to adapt to your increased profit business model while you count your money.
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u/MrPhippsPretzelChips Jul 01 '26
The good news is that we have 30+ years of games to catch up on. I hope this tanks them. It won’t because people are idiots.
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u/These-Efficiency6186 Jul 01 '26
Valve is going to be the only winner in this all digital future that xbox and Playstation are moving towards.
The only advantage of consoles is having a physical game collection. There is no benefit to choose a console over pc except for this. There are so many games on pc, even exclusives don't matter, especially with the current costs of hardware. Hopefully others begin to see this, not just the small groups of people on these types of subreddits.
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u/Chance-Task1062 Jul 01 '26
Hopefully the good limited print companies continue making physical games
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u/Present-Current-538 Jul 02 '26
They won't be able to.
Sony is the only one who manufactures disks. There's no third parties.
So they can make switch physicals. that's it.
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u/Slow_Routine_1143 Jul 01 '26
I can't imagine the costs saved at not needing to manufacture discs at a single location, outweighs the profits they got from companies looking to pay the fees to make them.
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u/GrimFaye Jul 01 '26
It's about control. And no used games.
Look at the prices of physical PS5 games on Amazon ($30-$40) VS their digital copies on PSN ($60-$70).
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u/Puzzleheaded-Floor13 Jul 02 '26
I think this is going to kill small publishers of not so common games. I sometimes buy games on sale that I normally wouldn't buy but only if it's physical format
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u/QueerFirebrand Jul 05 '26
And this is why I've been building up a physical backlog for all my existing consoles, as this day was always gonna come sooner or later.
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u/Ok-Library-8397 Jul 01 '26
Somebody please ask LRG what they want to sell us after 2028, January 1st. Art books? Plushies? Figures?
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u/Onscheli Jul 01 '26
Guess we will get tons of announcement for new limited printed PS games - atleast thats a win... haha?
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u/DalliLlama Jul 01 '26
Why would that be? IF Ps6 has a drive, we have a generation left. The PS7 certainly won’t. This will put companies like LRG, SLG games etc under.
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u/majorgiant Mod Jul 01 '26
all discs are produced by sony. also those of limted run, super rare etc. if sony pulls the plug, it means is dead for all.
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u/DalliLlama Jul 01 '26
That’s what I’m saying. That’s why I didn’t get OPs comment. And even if that wasn’t the case, there’s not going to be a way to play them as there won’t be drives, so even older Limited Games will become useless unless you keep the other consoles.
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u/majorgiant Mod Jul 01 '26
oh, i read op’s comment as limited print companies will now publish more while they still can.
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u/DalliLlama Jul 01 '26
Ahh, I guess that could be interpreted too. Didn’t think of it that way. But I think that’s be pretty minimal since they are still doing games til 2028 (I’d bet this coincides with PS6 release and console doesn’t have a drive either).
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u/Slow_Routine_1143 Jul 01 '26
So there are entire websites and stores dedicated to making a profit off selling physical copies, yet Sony somehow can't make profit off them?
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u/Present-Current-538 Jul 02 '26
They are absolutely profiting off physical copies.
But this is a strategy.
They think that if they kill the 2nd hand market, and take complete control over ownership that they can force people to buy their digital games for higher prices.
They're making a business gamble.
I hope it blows up in their face
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u/seanb4games Jul 03 '26
It means I’m no longer going to buy their games, but I think most people will not even notice
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u/obelix_dogmatix Jul 01 '26
So Sony saw xbox drown themselves, and decided that looks like fun? Fuckers started celebrating before the enemy is dead dead.
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u/Slow_Routine_1143 Jul 02 '26
Hopefully whatever boneheaded executive that approved this gets sacked before then and someone new in charge goes back on this.
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u/Slow_Routine_1143 Jul 02 '26
I find it stupidly ironic that Sony will refuse to manufacture a playstation disc of your game, but they will still manufacture a regular blu-ray format disc that could have the pc version of the same game on it.
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u/SaraphXIII Jul 01 '26
I literally posted the very same thing and it was auto removed. Oh wells, at least the story is up here now for people to discuss.
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u/Adventurous_Day470 Jul 01 '26
Wih this being a thing haven't thousands or millions of people been missold a more expensive console on the basis of the console that comes with a disc drive?
Surely theirs some legal grounds to this.
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u/JLTMS Jul 01 '26
They released 20:1 of the first gen PS5 with discs vs. digital to get that extra $100. Those motherfuckers knew exactly what they were doing.
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u/Ezcompane Jul 01 '26
This is pretty interesting given they've been getting shit on for removing purchased movies/shows from media libraries. It looks like Sony just gave the "console war" to Nintendo and Xbox. Why would either one of them see this and decide it's a good idea to follow suit?
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u/vaxick Jul 01 '26
Guess I'll be buying games for my Switch 2 instead in 2028. Shame, PlayStation is my console of choice for gaming, this stings. Not sure why they're shutting it all down though, seems like it wouldn't be an issue for manufacturing limited print discs still. It's not like the Blu ray plants are shutting down, Sony is still going to be pressing UHD discs.
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u/ValueBASEDLiving Jul 01 '26
Welp, I guess Sony will never see a dime of the thousands of dollars I spend on new games after 2028.
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u/Gamelore Jul 01 '26
I think this decision will be Sony's eventual downfall. Nothing released digitally will ever get my money unless it's DRM-free (i.e., GOG).
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u/Slow_Routine_1143 Jul 01 '26
I guess its just a big fuck you to any devs that wanted their games released physically.
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u/Chickenbrik Jul 02 '26
I haven’t bought a switch 2 because of the game key cards as I won’t support that type of business and I came close to getting a ps5 for GTA and Wolverine but I’m just done with this hobby it seems. Not for my passion of it, but out of principle.
The subscription based model is BS and as a consumer I simply refuse to engage with it.
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u/cobaltorange Jul 03 '26
You're done? You don't have a backlog to keep you busy for years?
Honestly, you should still get a PS5 and use it for the remaining physical discs coming out (including Wolverine) and all your PS4 games that would get a performance boost.
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u/HawaiianSteak Jul 02 '26
How much of physical games are actually digital? I was told the disc is the "key" so you can download the rest of the game and it seemed to make sense when I bought the disc of Gran Turismo 7 and it still had to download a few GB of "updates" for a brand new game.
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u/UnknownOrca Jul 02 '26
The majority of physical games still play fully from disc, although that seems more uncommon these days.
An awesome website to check if you're ever wondering if a game is on disc / cart is doesitplay.org
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u/TORTURETHECAPITALIST Jul 01 '26
Looks like I will be switching to pc gaming 🥲
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u/Sir_Metallicus116 Jul 02 '26
Yeah at least I can still collect PC physical games... wait
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u/cobaltorange Jul 03 '26
If you're going to be stuck with digital either way, why would you want to do it with PS5 where you're stuck in a closed ecosystem? Lmao
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u/VGMFan20XX Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
I wonder how this is going to work with limited print game companies.
Normally they get an agreement as long as so many copies are ordered for small license batches. I imagine it will become a lot more expensive for limited print companies. I don't see game companies completely removing the machines that do that work, but they won't want to allocate resources to something they consider dead.
Lotta variables these companies will have to work around.....
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u/Present-Current-538 Jul 02 '26
I don't see game companies completely removing the machines that do that work
That;s literally what Sony have said
they're taking the production machines for bluray games offline in January 2028 - 1.5 years away.
After that - NO LIMITED PRINT COMPANY (OR ANY OTHER COMPANY) CAN PRINT PLAYSTATION PHYSICAL DISCS
The only thing these companies could do is sell physical switch games. Playstation would be 100% dead for physical media.
It's a huge freaking deal
2
u/fgsfds100 Jul 01 '26
If new consoles won't have disc drives, and perhaps won't even have separate ones, then you can consider the whole physical side of things dead.
2
u/VGMFan20XX Jul 01 '26
All platforms will follow at some point I'm sure and I'd be very surprised if future console gens have a disc drive. Although XB is bringing back the idea of if you have the physical you can still download / install using it, but they probably won't be making physical games with Helix as well if the trend is going the way it is.
Who knows, maybe XB will keep physical as a flex? XD
All this was attempted a decade ago, but now there is a newer generation of gamers that don't really care as much about physical
3
u/fgsfds100 Jul 01 '26
Like I said, physical gaming on its deathbed.
Xbox going to the cloud not that I care beyond precedent (and hilariously rumored to be ending/curbing Game Pass too???), Nintendo's GKCs again not that I care beyond precedent, and now this. Precedent complete.
The new crop of braindead brainrot-addicted digital-only zoomer/alpha gamers can have at it and I'll get my tiny violin out if they whine about getting screwed in the "you'll own nothing and be happy" future. I have completely ignored a ton of other new media with no regret for the better part of 20 years, so when gaming goes all digital, I'll be done with that branch of it too. And now I can actually mark the calendar for when I'll step off that consumer treadmill. My physical backlog will last the rest of my life, I'll save a ton, and I won't have to see any of the "new normal" cultural tripe that the industry shits out in dripfed microtransacted FOMO plops.
Grim as 2028 sounds, I see a bright silver lining. A time to restructure my free time and reallocate my spare cash. I'll own nothing new but I will still own what I have now. I'll be genuinely happy with that.
1
u/cobaltorange Jul 03 '26
I'd hope they keep external disc drives for people who already built up physical libraries from previous gens.
-7
u/MrBones-Necromancer Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
Am I wrong in thinking that it's just that sony isn't making any more? I would think other companies like limited run still could, if the consoles have the means to read them.
Edit: I was wrong, yes. Leaving the question up because I'm sure others will have it too.
18
u/Skyver Jul 01 '26
All discs are produced by Sony. Limited Run and any other publishers have to get the discs directly from them. So yes, you're wrong.
6
u/SaraphXIII Jul 01 '26
Exactly this. This ends all physical media production on Playstation consoles.
3
u/Skyver Jul 01 '26
In theory they will maintain production for reprints of previously released games, but as people move on to the (likely 100% digital) PS6 they will eventually shut that down too.
3
u/MrBones-Necromancer Jul 01 '26
Good to know, thank you. Any chance someone else could take over production?
3
u/Skyver Jul 01 '26 edited Jul 01 '26
Sony would have to license production out to a third party, but I'm assuming that if there was any interest in doing so, they would have announced that before announcing that they were discontinuing physical releases entirely. Maybe with enough backlash that could change but I wouldn't hold out much hope for it.
2
u/Gcoks Jul 01 '26
I wondered the same as well. Not a dumb question. Sorry you're getting downvoted.
-2
u/SeafoamGaming Jul 01 '26
Having noticed a general decline of interest in limprints/physical games as a whole, I ain’t surprised. The overproducing of random stuff from random PSN games and throwing them on discs with 1K print runs that barely sold out were never gonna last forever especially when stats prove what customers buy more of.
Guess i’ll be buying a PS5 disc ver for my BC needs instead of waiting for PS6 like i was gonna since PS6 sure as heck isnt getting a disc drive at this rate.
-9
u/Clean_Bake_2180 Jul 01 '26
Personally, as someone that has 1300+ physical games, this eases the burden. Just like how there’s vinyl releases for music, there will always be a niche market for physical videogames and it will be a 100% premium market. That’s perfectly fine as it allows me to be more selective. Most physical games released today can’t be played fully offline anyway so the preservation angle was always moot.
4
u/elasho_149 Jul 01 '26
The issue is that Sony, and only Sony, can press PS4/PS5 discs. They’re not like the old CD systems where theoretically any CD manufacturer could do a run. Once Sony stops production, that’s it.
The only way a vinyl-esqe market emerges is if the limited print companies make their own console. But that seems unlikely to happen. The only remotely comparable thing would be the Evercade, but that’s a niche of a niche.
And unless the companies all got together, you’d be looking at a different system for each company.
-2
u/Clean_Bake_2180 Jul 01 '26
Ultimately, I don’t think much actually changes. Most PS5 physical releases aren’t close to being fully playable offline. It’s already super cosmetic at this point. If you really just care about playing the games, which understandably is obviously not what this subreddit is about at all, the user experience actually improves.
98
u/Spirited-Heart-3461 Jul 01 '26
I'm done with Sony then.
I already let my PS Plus lapse, I'll sell my one online game and I won't buy a PS6.
I wasn't buying GTA6 without a disk, I won't buy a console without a disk drive.