Between DRM, DLC, mandatory connectivity and the end of physical media, the future will look back on this era as the 'dark age' of digital gaming history. Maintaining activation servers, cloud storage and digital delivery costs money. If it doesn't disappear when the title reaches EOL, it certainly does when the company is gone or shifts business models. And draconian copyright laws create legal jeopardy around orphaned games from long-dead companies while the DMCA makes it illegal to remove DRM.

We simply have no way to preserve games.

To illustrate why this is stupid, I will furnish two links to purchase Dark Souls 3 (PS4, 2016)

Ebay, to buy: $11 + shipping[0]

PS Store, to rent: $60[1]

[0] https://www.ebay.com/itm/298370753624

[1] https://www.playstation.com/en-us/games/dark-souls-iii/

I don't own a PS5, I do own a PS4 however and still buy physical copies of games - some of which of late have been secondhand from CeX - because 1. I don't like renting content, 2. I hate DRM, 3. physical copies are harder to censor.

Sony recently expunged copies of movies people had bought, so I honestly don't trust them not to do the same with games.

Also, they announced the closure of the PS3 store, so that's even less reason to trust that I won't be able to reobtain the games I've bought digitally in the future...

With this news, I have to wonder how much longer bluray will live.

Will we continue seeing new bluray releases of movies and TV shows for decades, or are their days numbered?

The loss of console gaming presumably removes a guaranteed revenue source that was keeping Bluray pressing plants alive.

Sales of DVDs and Bluray have been declining for years [1] [3]. Some people have been excited pushing the news that UHD bluray sales increased in 2025, [2] but that ignores the fact that the total optical sales still dropped.

[1] https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=...

[2] https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=...

[3] This article has a more complete graph: https://www.statsignificant.com/p/the-rise-fall-and-slight-r...

Well, if Nintendo and Microsoft go the same route (and sadly, I see that being almost inevitable at some point), that's probably the end of my interest in gaming as a whole. I generally refuse to 'rent' or 'license' things on a temporary basis, and have decided in this generation that every game I'll get for Switch 2 will be a physical game on cart version, without exception.

And the reasons for that are pretty simple. I like being able to resell games when done with them. I like being able to lend them to friends, or play them on as many consoles as I want. I like the idea of having something that companies (generally) can't remove due to licensing changes or an always online requirement.

This sort of change just feels like yet another step towards constantly renting rather than owning, or streaming games and media without any control over how or when you can use it.

Yes, phasing out physical discs is predatory. I'd like to also add that buying a console which can only run vetted games has already been predatory, and digital games are only the next natural step.

To play devil's advocate here, imagine a world where the exact opposite has occurred: physical media (CDs specifically) is the norm, and there's no DRM, so the raw data can be copied right off of it. In this world, scalpers scoop up all available inventory of physical media from local retailers, consumers pay a premium to them for the original product, the scalpers sell cheaper copies where the game binary has been modified to insert advertisements or mine cryptocurrency, out of the woodwork appears a cottage industry of companies offering services to modify game binaries and connect them to the ad networks and crypto exchanges. The scalper gets a cut, the gamer gets a cheaper game, everyone is happy.

My last unit was a PS2 many years ago. Back then you could bring your disc over to a friends house and play on their PS2. Is that still a thing people do?

> Sony's announcement follows Rockstar's announcement that Grand Theft Auto 6 will come with a download code in a box rather than a physical disc. It's a move that most notably stamps out second-hand reselling of a game.

This is the big point for me. If one buys a digital PlayStation game there's virtually no easy way to transfer it to another owner or sell it like one could do in past console generations. There will always be modding and ways to play game dumps, but it limits that level of "ownership" to those technically inclined to make it work.

Discs are less convenient so people have slowly moved to digital sales. This worked even better for console manufacturers, cheaper to drop that disc reader, and the second hand market is effectively dead which increases new game sales.

The side-effect most people didn't consider is that you never really own a digital copy. And the most relevant part is that you cannot transfer/sell a digital copy. For everything else around ownership I know I can count on Sony to still screw it up even with discs, like disabling a disc game with some online checks.

Shutting down the stores on the PlayStation 3 and PS Vita, too.

https://blog.playstation.com/2026/07/01/an-update-on-playsta...

Discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48745476

A lot of people - rightly - pilloried Stadia for requiring a subscription and forcing gamers to "buy" games. It turns out Stadia was 1.5 generations ahead of its time.

Google - give us Stadia 2 in 2027, you cowards.

Sucks to see this right after the Studio Canal movie situation [1]. I won't be getting another PlayStation.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48691346

I have a PS4pro; technically I also already own a PS5 (kid-brother arrangement; not currently in my possession). When he gets his PS6, I'll get my PS5 back... then still keep the PS4 (always been offline: RDR2; GTA5; &c).

If Sony doesn't offer GTA6 on disc, offline: I'll sell the PS5, too. I just got a 5070Ti, so it's probably back to PC-MasterRace I'll go...

Reasons like this [Sony's 2028 disc-stop] are exactly why I won't be purchasing a PS6. At least (in Sony's defense) they're telling us oldtimers about this now, as opposed to on the day of [stopping disc retail sales].

This will hopefully backfire. As soon as there are no more physical copies of games available, Sony will run into the same situation that Apple is currently, which will make them a Gatekeeper in the EU. That will eventually mean that they need to open their platform for third-party-vendors. But, yeah. It will be bad for a few years at least, I'm afraid.

In contrast, Nintendo's idea to sell physical games that are essentially transferrable keys seems like a much smarter compromise.

Part of the appeal for the Switch and Switch 2 is the stability of their resale market. It's easier to pay for a new game when you know you can get 50% of your money back on the used market.

This move, executed when storage prices are as outrageous as they are? Again, class warfare is being waged one-sidedly.

Most games with retail copies drop in price soon after the hype window is over. They stay full launch retail price in the PSN store unless there is a "sale". Anti-consumerism at its finest.

They also changed the way DRM works for digital games purchased after March 2026. It used to be a permanent license at purchase time and is now a temporary license that requires online check for the duration of the refund period with the claimed reason of combating “refund fraud”.

It's pretty hard for me to believe that going through the trouble to set up an entirely new Playstation account, buy a game, refund it, and have the dedication to stay offline forever to keep the game could possibly have been a widespread behavior. It will obviously be easy for them to ratchet that into online check required every 30 days once the current thing is out of the news cycle: https://kotaku.com/playstation-drm-ps4-ps5-support-30-days-o...

This is an opportunity for MS to make a contrarian bet and keep supporting physical media. IMO they will benefit from acquiring gamers who want to keep using physical media.

Though, I think they will follow what Sony is doing.

How times change https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWSIFh8ICaA

I wonder if piracy will eventually fill for physical releases of movies and games. It might be a fun project to make an online store game work on blue ray with nice packaging...

In a few years Sony executives will be wondering why a portion of their consumer base decided to prioritize other forms of entertainment. I can speak for myself in that I’ve never upgraded past the PS3, and I feel no regrets about it.

Note related article yesterday: "Sony Deletes 551 Movies PlayStation Owners Paid For". Seems to be part of a general anti-ownership policy.

The lord giveth, and the lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the lord.

Guess I’m throwing my PS5 out the window and going to PC. This war on physical media is ridiculous. Pretty soon they’re going to require us to buy the console but rent the controllers for the very low price of $79.99 a month.

That will put them in direct competition with Steam, though. Suddenly their cheaper console will result in way higher cost for the lifetime of the console.

Killing the used market is a very bad idea. Remember what happened with xbox?

I remember having a goal of eventually publishing on a Nintendo and/or PlayStation console, when I first got in to game dev. Now they've both gotten so far away from gaming as I knew it that I would be embarrassed to publish on either company's consoles.

Now my focus is to be able to publish high quality games that run well on those anbernic/miyoo/ayn-style handheld devices. Those things are actually priced for consumers and the ones that have card slots provide a method for physical media. And of course, using those as a floor, the games could always upscale for more powerful machines.

I'm just so tired of this continual march toward investor appeasement at the expense of the consumers. They're games. They're entertainment. For people to play. Not how I want them to play them; how people want to play them. People shouldn't have to have an account to play them. They shouldn't have to invest a month of rent to play them. They shouldn't have to worry about me revoking their ability to play them. It's just so frustrating to see how far we've gotten from "drop in a quarter and enjoy". The industry is in sad shape and getting sadder by the day.

Wow that doesn't sound great.

We won't own games anymore, we won't be able to sell/acquire used games, we won't be able to play disconnected.

I'm curious whether Nintendo will be following the same path.

I feel the physical disc died a long time ago, most games require heavy patching to fix bugs or download new content, or even in some cases download whole portions of the game, so they rely on PS servers to even function anyway. The only advantage they have is you can sell them or buy used.

I know there's a strong desire for physical media, but games are not the same as movies or music and haven't been for a long time.

I bet people who bought the PS5 with a disc reader will be really happy...

I hope for the EU to come after Sony. Before you could argue that you could buy games as a disc and just play them. It of course was a monopoly before, but now it is pretty clear

Gaming is in a really tough spot right now, and it's not being made easier by the drain AI has put on chip and RAM prices. It's absolutely insane that Sony and Microsoft have had to raise prices on their years-old consoles.

i’m a console gamer from 10+ years, bear my stupid question

isn’t this the same with steam? can i buy a game on steam and copy and use it on another pc i own without downloading it from steam again?

This sucks. It’s better to have physical copies for retro gaming down the road

Haven’t bought a physical game in at least 15 years (because of Steam). I do wonder how many people still buy physical copies these days.

Not sure what the sales are like on PS but at least on Steam you can find great deals for the digital copies as well. (You lose the reselling though)

They want this even more than they want $100 games. Rockstar not shipping discs for GTA6 and PlayStation ending disc production is the perfect two pronged approach.

Honestly gamers have been stomaching this for decades with Steam so Sony wants in on some of that sweet sweet action as well.

That ship sailed and was sunk many years ago. I'll educate my kid to play real games from decades ago, and if he really wants to rent games he can work his ass off to buy them.

Same reason I prefer GoG over Steam -- at least I can download the installers and store them, and there is no string attached.

I wonder if this signals anything about Sony's attitude to blu-ray movies. Aside from games one of the reasons their consoles have sold well is because they've been excellent physical media players. The PS2 for DVDs and the PS3 onwards for blu-ray.

If I remember well PS3 was during the period where blu-ray lasers were production constrained and more expensive with Sony prioritizing their own devices, so the console was price and availability competitive against dedicated disc players by third parties. And the PS3 had pretty long term update/support. I'm fairly sure that had an impact on the financial side as it was in the era when console hardware was subsidized on the expectation they'd get a slice of game sales, except those consoles bought for primarily for movies didn't reimburse them so well.

I've reached an age where I don't actually buy games anymore, I just load up my wishlist with games and between Christmas, birthday and fathers day I get all the games I will care to play for the year. My wife, parents, extended family likes being able to buy me a physical gift, wrap it, and hand it to me. I understand that this is just getting rid of the disc and keeping the box, but pretty soon there's gonna be no box either, and I know my wife will hate the idea of just handing me a gift card on special days. I just hate how all physical products are evaporating.

This didn't age well : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWSIFh8ICaA

Wow. Looks like I'll be skipping the PS6 and exclusively gaming on PC.

I really don't understand their thinking here. Sure they want more money, I get that.

But 'physical media' is one of the reasons why a lot o people make a distinction between PC and console games. Removing this will make it easier for consumers to compare a PS5 to a Steam machine, and I don't think that is a good thing for Sony.

I wonder why Sony or Microsoft don't try to 'game' the used market by becoming the used marketplace for virtual copies. They can charge a commission for every game that changes hands.

Never been happier that I've turned into a retro-gamer. This is more the result of being old than a principled stance, but never the less. Increasingly I don't view myself as actually owning anything that connects to the internet. Minecraft is delightful on my disconnected Xbox-360, thanks. Nobody can break it by forcing an update or shutting down a server.

This was bound to happen. I’ve long suspected the #1 reason physical games exist was to placate a few big retailers like Best Buy and Walmart and Target so they’d continue to carry the console.

Clearly that’s no longer necessary. Download-only retail boxes or gift cards or whatever are enough.

I know some people really care about physical releases, but I think the writing has been on the wall for years that this was coming.

I'm done with companies whose only goal is maximization of profit via manipulative, engineered outcomes.

The Sony that has just proved you can't trust them to maintain access to the digital content they "sold" you right?

<Unplugs PS5>

I have a PlayStation and I exclusively buy my games via discs. On the other hand, these days I exclusively buy computer games via digital download (mostly via Steam). I have more consumer confidence that digital games on my computer will remain accessible vs games on my console, maybe because Sony controls the entire console ecosystem.

Interesting timing to announce this at around the same time as the PS3 digital store is discontinued signaling that digital only doesn't last as long as physical.

My old Nintendo Wii is modified with homebrew software that keeps alive some otherwise inaccessible features since Nintendo shut off their servers. I hope the community can do similar for newer consoles when they reach the end of their life.

One of the major reasons I upgraded to ps5 was because it would also allow me to play blu-ray movies.

If the PS6 comes out with no disc player at all, not a chance I buy it.

Also, that's a definite middle finger to second hand and physical stores then ? Hoping MS will make a bet in the opposite direction (but I don't see it) and the players will follow..

The PSN store does have sales often and digital games can be up to 90% off even AAA titles. This news has me wondering how the supply of used physical copies drives game prices lower. It's possible that eliminating physical releases gives Sony the pricing power to eliminate sales, or at least cut back from the huge sales they do currently.

I never understood why disc versions of current gent console exists at all. Don't @ me about internet speeds: even if game does come on a disc, day 1 patches got out of hand before this generation was launched or in works.

Anyone with shitty internet, have fun!

Since they're also shutting down the PS3 and Vita stores - https://blog.playstation.com/2026/07/01/an-update-on-playsta...

That means that when the PS8 rolls around, any games you've bought for the digital-only PS6 will be unplayable, so think about that when you buy digital games when that (and for PS5 now) comes through.

I wonder if the leadership at Playstation and Xbox understands they are killing themselves.

Well, I guess that answers the question of whether the PS6 will have an awkward snap on disc drive.

This comes a week after Sony deleted 500+ movies from people that legally bought them

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/sony-removing-over-50...

Who's to say that the games you buy for the PS6 will be playable in a couple of years?

Rip main stream physical game market.

Long live independent physical game market. We already see people with 3d printed carts, designing labels and making their own homebrew games for retro consoles. Some people are also producing their own big box PC games for the hell of it.

As I continue to largely ignore AAA & mainstream gaming companies I look forward to how the indie gaming market takes advantage of everyone's growing nostalgia for physical ownership of games.

From a business perspective, I understand this. The physical games sections of most retailers are pitiful these days - take a walk down the PS5 aisle in Target or Best Buy for example. They also have a need to shore up margins if they want to keep subsidizing the hardware during the component crisis. And their biggest competitor, XBox, is in the process of pivoting out of their current pivot and apparently is about to layoff a massive chunk of its workforce.

But at the end of the day, part of what makes a console a console to me is the ability to swap games with friends. If I can't do that easily, why wouldn't I just use Steam?

Bye bye then. I love physical collection. If I buy it, it is my copy, not my provider's copy for rent.

Imho this is no issue, as long as the game is playable after download without some kind of server or account.

The moment you need an account or server to play you don't own the game. I think governments should step in here. They must force stores to use words like rent or lease instead of buy. That way it is way more clear where you are going to spend money on.

Some libraries let you borrow Playstation video games. I wonder if those libraries will have access to a system that allows people to borrow digital video games.

My household has been tied to the gaming industry in some form for decades. We’ve owned at least one of every console and handheld during that time, and a myriad of games for each. Collectors Editions, physical copies, digital if there was no other way or it was on sale.

We all agreed that we’re done with this. Nintendo gets a pass for making physical carts, but we’re done with paying full price to rent content in general. That also means no PS6, no Xbox-Whateverthefuck, and avoiding Game Key Cards where possible on Switch 2 (or buying them used).

If it’s not on GOG or Itch.io free of DRM, or there’s no physical copy available for sale, then we’ll wait for a deep discount on Steam or use our family library instead.

Fuck this noise, we’re out.

Sony just literally stole 500+ movies from PlayStations last week.

https://www.doesitplay.org

I guess this resource is relevant to the topic at hand. It lists games and whether you can play and complete them fully from disc without an internet connection

I thought CDs were (mostly) no longer being produced. I'm surprised this decision was not made years ago.

Bummer! Based on the current trajectory, PS6 will be the first non-handheld PS I will not own.

Modernity, ladies and gentlemen.

And this is coming right after the news about how Sony will be deleting movies from people's accounts.

I will no longer buy playstations starting now

Starting 2029:

  we don't have your game! and what are going to do now?

just in time for Sony to sell you a digital game and delete it at their whim

what will happen when in 10 years they will want to discontinue those games? will they be hosting them forever? how are we going to preserve all the videogames production from 2028 on?

If they are going digital only then they are competing with Steam. They will lose.

It backfired with the PSP Go. It will backfire again. No-go I would buy a console without disks. Sorry. No.

So this pretty much confirms that GTA 6 won't be sold as disc later on

So physical disc production is ending for new games on Playstation.

At the same time, as @outervale has said: they are shutting down PS3 and PS Vita online stores as well.

AND at the same time as @zache has said & previous discussions about PlayStation Deleting 551 Movies from Customers' Accounts.

WHILE at the same time, Dynamic pricing[0] is occuring where people who buy games are charged more because PS expects them to be able to cough up more money from my understanding

Combining all of this: No physical disc + shutting down online stores + deleting movies from customers accounts + dynamic pricing.

These might basically just be planned obsolence devices while trying to extract as much profits as humanly possible from your wallets.

I remember the dynamic pricing debate and that some people were somewhat tolerable of that, but I think that being tolerable of that is what is causing more and more precedents and an overall situation has occur where things are just increasingly more actively consumer-hostile.

[0]: https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-reportedly-testing-dynamic...

AAA game industry is in such a state, that not justifying piracy becomes harder and harder with each day.

This is another opportunity for the EU to reign in and create a proper definition of ownership so that this does not pass.

Of course, it would be interesting to hear the freemarketeering on this site and how people should "vote with their wallet" and sites/movements such as $freeplaystation.whatever sprouting pseudopolemic nonsense.

If buying isnt owning a physical disc

then burning dics isnt stealing

This sucks but I guess PC has been like this for a long time and no one seems to care/talk about it

One huge downside for this is allowing kids to understand how things work.

A digital delivery world does not teach the same way as children learning to put a DVD into a player, hitting play, and understanding how things get somewhere.

Physical game disks, were also about community, gathering.

This is surprising because Sony obsessed over the isolation it was creating when it released the walkman.

Last step is for them to say that due to rising components' cost, they are transitioning to rent-only model for consoles.

This way you will finally own nothing except for maybe console rent arrears.

I can't wait to see the impact this will have on game prices due to the monopoly Sony is creating on selling PlayStation games.

Thanks for the fish but enshittification is only getting started.

total capture of gaming by cloud streaming by 3030. You thought you owned that thing you paid for? pshaw.

Didn't Sony get in trouble for deleting movies from devices ? I guess they want to do the same for their console too.

So people should just stop buying games that are not on phyical media. THat will get Sony to change fast.

This is ridiculous, and not long after they've been updating their ToS to require you to sign in and phone home in order to continue to be allowed access to your digital library.

> In response to shifting trends in consumer preference.

I hate this corporate speak. If buying isn't ownership, then pirating isn't stealing.

> Sid Shuman (he/him)

Ironic to be excluding the same percent of the population as the population he is being inclusive for

I find this comment substantive in that it may spark introspection by the decision makers in his or similar positions

The sad thing is that the knee jerk reaction here is going to be “omg just vote with your wallet, don’t buy”

But the truth is it’s bullshit and this attitude that companies should be able to do whatever they want because it’s a free market is getting so tiresome

Clearly there is agreement that things can be taken too far - as soon as one single consumer protection/anti competitive/monopoly preventing law exists, you’ve admitted those types of laws are needed

So then you’re only arguing about degrees and companies shouldn’t be allowed to do shit that harms consumers this way

On the surface this seems reasonable - it’s inevitable - discs aren’t going to hang around forever

But this goes back to what it means to own something and we’re all being relegated to serfs who don’t own shit

You wanna get rid of discs? Fine, but give me an alternative so that I still own what I buy and can resell it at will

Aaaand I'm not going to buy a PS6.

On pc there is some competition at least between Steam, epic, gog (the odd one out but I like it) and such. I have no interest in buying a vendor specific computer with only one storefront and no competition.

I don't buy every game on a physical disc—I don't see the point for live service games, for example—but I do have a fairly large collection of physical PS5 games because I like that assurance that I can continue to play that game forever. I guess what we see here is that after 2028 I have no reason to own a PlayStation ever again.

You'll own nothing and be happy

We use M-disc for archival. Fuck Sony.

> As consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital

_Goddamn citation needed!_

"You'll own nothing, and you'll be happy."

Unsurprising. [0] This is even before 2030 and you will own nothing and be happy.

Get ready for your games to be delisted [1] as you never owned them in the first place (unless you have the disc)

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33362792

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32049626

Step by step...

Now Sony can take away your entire game collection at any time. If you get flagged by some random AI system and your account gets flagged you can kiss goodbye to hundreds of dollars worth of games you have.

I used to think this was bad, but honestly? It’s just games. Some people buy tons of digital games they literally never even play. If they were physical games, imagine all the e-waste.

And what’s the point of physical games? So you can play the game in 30 years from now on some retro console you’ve diligently maintained?

Get over it, you’re not going to do any of that. There’s no mythical third act where you go through some library of physical CDs and reminisce about an old ass game. There’s constantly new games coming out all the time, you will just keep buying and buying games, you play them for a bit, and then you move on. It’s not “buy it for life”, it’s buy it for right now have fun and move on. Live in the present, don’t worry about the future.

Even people who have retro consoles and collect physical copies seem to mostly do it for collector purposes. When they die, their kids will send all that to a dump or pawn it off. Pointless.