Sony kills physical discs by 2028; Game fights back

Sony kills physical discs on PS: Game threatens commercial war

Sony’s push toward digital has been ongoing, but the deadline is now clear: starting January 2028, new PlayStation titles will only be sold as downloadable content. The announcement, confirmed on the company’s official blog, triggered a chain reaction. Game, with 70% of its business tied to physical video games, was the first to speak up: “We are not going to stand by.” The message sounds like a declaration of war in an industry where margins were already slim.

Sony’s decision is no whim. Removing optical media cuts production, logistics, and distribution costs, and instantly eliminates the secondhand market and peer lending. But the digital cake comes at a price for consumers: true ownership dissolves into a revocable license. The debate has split between those embracing digital convenience and those seeing the disc as the only guarantee of control over what they buy.

The business model that leaves retailers behind

The impact on Game is not speculative. In Spain, physical format sales still account for 60% to 80% of the total, well above the European average. When discs disappear, the retail chain loses its reason for being. The ecological argument, sometimes used to justify the digital shift, also falls flat: plastic video game cases make up less than 0.003% of total plastic waste, according to figures circulating in the analysis. The battle, therefore, is purely economic: Sony wants to keep 100% of the margin without sharing it with distributors or retailers.

Sony’s move is not pioneering. Xbox removed the physical format three years ago, though the impact in Spain was lower due to Microsoft’s smaller market share. Nintendo, meanwhile, maintains the physical cartridge for its consoles, partly because its young audience still demands a tangible gift. The question is whether the secondhand market will hold until 2028 or if current disc prices will already spike, as early movements on Wallapop suggest.

Digital ownership: the control that slips away

The underlying debate is not about convenience, but about who controls the transaction. On a console, the digital store is not an open market like PC: the manufacturer sets prices, access conditions, and, crucially, can remove content at any time. The experience of e-book readers, where mass account blocks have occurred due to ideological disputes, serves as a warning. As some analyses point out, the difference with discs is that physical media allows resale, lending, and, ultimately, preservation when the server shuts down. Streaming, the final step of the model, would turn users into permanent tenants without assets: “You will have nothing and be happy,” the skeptics joke.

The deadline until 2028 leaves time for Game and other retailers to attempt a conversion, but options are limited: vintage market, collecting, or closure. Meanwhile, Sony watches from its closed ecosystem. The disc war has begun, but the side defending physical media knows it is playing with a rope around its neck.