While the industry is bracing for news of Xbox layoffs, Sony decided to hop into the boiling pot first by announcing that PlayStation would no longer sell physical discs for its new games starting in 2028.

A disc-less future was something that was starting to be pitched in the PS4/Xbox One era, which led to a now infamous video where Sony execs passed a disc back and forth, a counter to Microsoft’s complex (and eventually scrapped) disc license sharing plan. But now, no more discs, and consumers are not amused.

On the one hand, this does seem inevitable, both in terms of industry direction and the desire to cut costs however possible. As much as 80-85% of game sales are digital now, where Sony is declaring that it’s simply time to make this switch as an obvious change the industry has been moving toward for a while.

On the other hand, this does absolutely nothing to benefit consumers, taking away the option for physical entirely. It’s yet another blow against true ownership in the digital age, with Sony itself being a prime example of what can go wrong as it just deleted scores of movies from its service due to licensing issues. This is also a blow to the idea of game preservation, which relies heavily on physical copies. And of course, games will get no cheaper by eliminating discs from the equation.

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That said, we have been in a weird era with discs for a while now, with many games requiring huge downloads regardless, even if you’re inserting a disc, and a necessary online connection to play. We’re already seeing the erasure of discs with upcoming monster game GTA 6, where its “physical” version is literally a download code in a box.

This raises a lot of questions about what will happen with the PS6, which is predicted to not release until 2028 after this mandate goes through, so it being an all-digital console is the obvious guess. But that works against backward compatibility, so the hope would be at least an optional disc drive will still be sold.

As this spools up, it could do serious damage to a retailer like GameStop, which has long feared this day. An all-digital gaming world means no discs to trade in or resell, though the market has already shrunk dramatically. For now, this is just PlayStation, but if it has pulled this trigger, it seems pretty clear that Xbox Helix, Microsoft’s upcoming PC/console hybrid, will likely lose discs as well.

The internet is awash with anger about the move, where you only need to read the comments under any social media post announcing the decision to see that. Even those who might play mostly digital recognize the anti-consumer nature of the change, which doesn’t benefit players in the least and is only upside for Sony (well, minus the reputational blow). We will see if Xbox follows suit, but there are bigger issues on the table for that brand at the moment.

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