Come January 2028, Sony will be out of the physical games market, ceasing production on new discs for PlayStation consoles. There's been fervent outcry since this was announced, with studios across the industry reacting to the shift. As loud as the pushback seems, one analyst believes it's really the smaller half of the overall audience.
In a newsletter examining Sony's push toward digital, Rhys Elliott, head of market analysis at Alinea Analytics, examined the market forces that led to the choice. He looks at the sales percentages across a number of best-sellers on the PS5.
Resident Evil: Requiem and Marvel's Wolverine boast strong disc sales: the former saw just over 30% of its copies shift through physical on PlayStation 5, while the latter saw over 32%. Pragmata and Onimusha: The Way of the Sword are above 40% in physical sales, whereas 007: First Light, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, and Crimson Desert all come in under 30%.
There's a spectrum, but the point is disced games do account for a lot of copies sold for single-player releases. Multiplayer is a different story. Discs for FC 27, Madden 27 and MLB The Show 26 are all below 10% on PS5.
Those may not seem as prominent, but they're huge money-spinners, and the disparity points to differing behaviours across particular communities. People who enjoy big single-player experiences are buying more discs, but sports fans and live-service players are almost completely digital in how they pick up games.
That matters significantly to Sony's bottom line, Elliot points out, because producing discs requires a pricy pipeline, from manufacturing through to the final purchase. Digital negates all of that, on a marketplace Sony has much more control over.
"The backlash is mostly a vocal minority of a revenue minority," he writes. "But it’s a minority that really matters, and a minority that spends a lot of money on PlayStation." You're talking about longtime fans and fervent collectors here. People who actively pre-order, often on collector's editions, and who remain engaged in the months and years after a game's release.
He points out "some will walk," but the corporation knows many will just buy their games through the PS Store, however begrudgingly. The big issue, he believes, is an underlying cynicism because of the messaging.
"Sony is usually quiet and doesn’t talk much, which can sometimes be a strength. It hasn’t been a strength here," he adds. I'd agree. Physical forever - keep buying PS5 discs while you can.
