Live data from Hacker News

Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation

blog.playstation.com

21–30 of 833 posts

Re: Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation

#21
post #8

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…

It's a weird trajectory to see because with the music industry people have started catching on and either support sites that offer more durable forms of ownership or have straight up reverted to physical ownership.

Re: Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation

#22
post #9

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

> unless you have the disc Is that really enough? AFAIK many PC games with SecuROM won't ever work without crack, as that entire DRM is incompatible with modern OSes.

It's enough on consoles.

On PC, discs (when they even exist, which is rare) have basically just been digital keys for a long time.

Re: Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation

#23
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...

Re: Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation

#24

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 w…

I’m not sure if Sony has been pushing their video disc formats with PlayStations for a while. PS4 Pro was the “4K” upgrade over PS4, but didn’t support UHD Blu-Ray. And there’s been a disc drive-less PS5 since launch. Stuff like Blu-Ray seems to be becoming a Laserdisc like enthusiasts niche system, I don’t think it’s been a big thing for Sony for a while.

[deleted]

Re: Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation

#26

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.

[dead]

Re: Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation

#27
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.

Re: Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation

#29
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..

Re: Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation

#30

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.

[dead]
Post reply on HN