Physical disc production ending in Jan 2028 for new games on PlayStation • Hacker News Board

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

#331

Post by somenameforme » Wed, Jul 01, 2026, 5:30 PM UTC

VectorLock wrote: post #302

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.

I don't think this is really comparable at all. Sony is trying to kill off the used game market in hope of being able to coerce people into paying more. Steam is basically one giant used game market in that you get stuff constantly for 50-90% off.

And pirating stuff off Steam is generally extremely trivial, so it's a largely coercion-free business-customer relationship, and I think that's a large part of why they're doing so well. People like to support businesses that treat them well. And for those that don't? Well I think there's a reason that video game piracy is plummeting, while film/media/streaming piracy is surging.

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

#332

Post by saturn8601 » Wed, Jul 01, 2026, 5:31 PM UTC

phire wrote: post #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 blu…

The PC burners/readers are disappearing. We had like ASUS, LG and Pioneer manufacturing. Pioneer had thrown in the towel last year (they were heads above the best in quality). I think ASUS might be gone as well. LG's drives are super hit or miss and I wouldn't be surprised if they give it up eventually.

This is probably due to the fact that they relied on Intel SGX security which has been busted wide open and itself been discontinued by Intel so instead of redesigning the security model, just depreciate the entire format on PC.

I don't think there is that much of a market left for set top players either.

Of all the companies you'd think are committed to the format, it would be Sony right?

Well they currently list one model of set top player on their website and it is the same design since at least the pandemic(when I bought my player). The SKu has changed since then but after looking at the differences, the only design update they have done in those ~6 years is upgraded menu software and removing built-in smart or networking features.

8K hasn't taken off as far as I know but eventually it might and right now there is no transition path to that for physical media.

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

#333

Post by Jigsy » Wed, Jul 01, 2026, 5:33 PM UTC

xp84 wrote: post #246

giwook wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've illustrated exactly why Sony is getting rid of physical media. Money.

Also, remember the marketing idea of the "Disney Vault"? In the 90s, Disney would take all their movies in and out of print basically, only selling tapes some of the time, and they'd charge top dollar for them, because you couldn't just walk into Walmart and grab a copy of "Cinderella" anytime. They created scarcity easily this way, since before ebay, finding specific things like a certain videotape at a thrift store…

> I can see this happening with games more after the death of physical media.

I saw a screenshot of something like this recently with the pre-orders of GTA VI.

They apparently "ran out of digital copies..." of something that doesn't exist yet.

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

#334

Post by amlib » Wed, Jul 01, 2026, 5:33 PM UTC

rhinoceraptor wrote: post #305

mikestew wrote: post #271

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ever compare a Blu-ray to the same content over streaming? It's not even close. Unlike vinyl records, Blu-ray is vastly superior in quality to alternatives. In case you're asking "why", it's because your "4K" stream is compressed to hell and back. Your home internet connection doesn't even have the bandwidth to stream the quality of a BR.

A UHD Bluray tops out at about 150Mbps, most home internet is capable of that. It would just cost too much for the streaming services to support it.

But also the reality is that most people have their devices connected through a shitty wi-fi connection and may be effectively limited to 50 or even less mbps, specially if you consider the unpredictability that comes with it.

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

#335

Post by angoragoats » Wed, Jul 01, 2026, 5:34 PM UTC

somenameforme wrote: post #308

exitnode wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's sadly not stupid from their perspective

Except it really is. I don't see how businesses don't understand how this sort of anti-customer predatory behavior, MBA stuff, is directly driving reduced sales. The PS5, for instance, has only managed 96 million sales. For contrast the PS2 managed 160 million sales to a smaller market with much fiercer competition. And I'm one of those tens of millions opting out. The PS2 felt like a great consumer-focused value. Mo…

I feel this in my bones and it's a great way to frame it. My last Playstation console was a PS2 and I've also opted out of recent generations. Historically, for me, one of the benefits of a console was that you could just pop the game in, and it would always work, simply and easily.

DRM, online checks, DLC that should have been part of the base game, digital-only games, etc have ruined all that, and if that's going to be the trend everywhere I'll just stick to a PC and Steam where I have a library of games built up over the decades.

I have a Switch and feel that Nintendo provided a decent experience on their recent systems, but with the advent of "game keys" or whatever they call it on the Switch 2, they've flipped to being even worse than the digital-only systems. At least Sony isn't (yet?) trying to sell you a license on a disc to try to fool you into thinking you own a physical copy.

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

#336

Post by lelandfe » Wed, Jul 01, 2026, 5:35 PM UTC

palmotea wrote: post #321

lelandfe wrote: post #38

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/

> 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] Yeah, Sony is stupid to be leaving money on the table like that. Lucky for us, we live in a market system that we can trust to optimize for maximum consumer benefit (like Sony is doing here). It's our revealed choice that we want to pay more for old games.

Although it's just anecdata, after spending $600 on the console, I certainly was dismayed to find 10-year old games only being sold at their original prices. Surely they should at least track inflation?

Perhaps Sony could add an optional tipping screen before digital checkout for the good customers.

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

#337

Post by mywittyname » Wed, Jul 01, 2026, 5:36 PM UTC

CM30 wrote: post #165

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 simpl…

Counter-argument: I have a Steam account associated with a day 1 purchase of Half Life 2 (so, 25 years or so). Every game I've ever purchased is still available for me to download, while I lost probably 50% or more of my physical games collection.

If I'm renting those games, it sure seems like a good deal.

I do appreciate that console online market places have not historically been as well managed as Steam.

But also, GoG exists: you can buy a PC game and get a DRM-free download that you can play offline and store forever.

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

#338

Post by kuu » Wed, Jul 01, 2026, 5:38 PM UTC

buran77 wrote: 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…

"The side-effect most people didn't consider is that you never really own a digital copy."

I understand that this is the reality we live in, but I don't know how we have accepted it.

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

#339

Post by eska » Wed, Jul 01, 2026, 5:39 PM UTC

Telaneo wrote: post #194

eska wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t think that you guys should be debating compressed vs uncompressed, but lossy compression vs lossless compression. Your math seems to derive from a naive storage format.

Blu-ray is lossy too. All video codecs of note that aren't for professionals are lossy, so the point mostly still stands. Lossless compression doesn't go very far when it comes to video. An uncompressed 24 bit 1080p image is just under 6 MB. If you save it as a compressed PNG, you cut that down to roughly 2.5 MB. Now, PNG compression isn't very efficient, and you can probably do some interframe magic if you really wa…

I just looked up the compression rate of FFV1 because I never thought about this. It’s apparently 4x. More would be possible, but increase computational requirements.

Another use cases seems to be archival of historical footage.

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

#340

Post by saturn8601 » Wed, Jul 01, 2026, 5:39 PM UTC

TFNA wrote: post #316

Taikonerd wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> With this news, I have to wonder how much longer bluray will live. I hope that physical media sticks around. DVDs and Blu-rays often include something that digital releases don't: director's commentaries, "making of" featurettes, and other extras. For me, it adds a whole new layer of fun to movies I already like.

The heyday of commentary tracks and extras was long ago, over a decade ago. Except for a few boutique labels like Criterion, distributors found that adding such extra features often wasn’t worth their while in the face of declining physical media sales. So, increasingly one just got the film and little else.

I am very annoyed by this with the recent surprise smash hit of the movie 'Obsession'. This is a new director made popular by his devoted fan base and they just announced the blueray. One director commentary, a tiny 'featurette' and then just the film.

I remember back in the heyday of physical media(2010s) directors like Edgar Wright took curation of physical media extremely seriously: Multiple commentaries by not only the director but with the cast, production crew, sound designers etc. Deleted scenes, multiple featurettes and even picture slideshows.

I wonder how much the design of Blueray menus is hampered by the tech choices used in the format. DVDs were video files that repeated with tiny overlays that the player would just draw. Bluray seem to be entire Java applications of which most studios develop one generic version and reuse for every release.