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

#731

Post by somenameforme » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 9:12 AM UTC

bhelkey wrote: post #704

somenameforme wrote: post #689

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the past you could build a reasonable one for $200-$300. When "we" were growing up - consoles used to offer huge performance at a tremendous discount. For instance the video card in the original XBox was worth significantly more than the entire system's retail cost. But that era ended at the PS4. Consoles since then are sold with midrange hardware, derivative of typical retail hardware, sold for or near profit on…

I linked both prebuilt and do it yourself builds. Neither resulted in a comparable machine to the PS5 for $600. Again, I think you are missing how much the price of components has increased. 16GB of DDR5 alone costs approximately $200 [1]. I challenge you to find a new case, motherboard, NVMe SSD, and PSU for the remaining $100 in the budget after $200 for ram and after your assumed $300 for a GPU. [1] https://pcpart…

Your comment made me go start deep diving US prices, and yeah there's something really odd. I've been abroad for sometime now in Asia, but that doesn't typically matter in these sort of discussions because the market's fairly efficient. But right now go check out prices on Alibaba for DDR5 [1] and compare that to what US retailers are charging. Those prices on Alibaba are not only very real (as I can order local stuff with ballparks around those figures), but it's also where many retailers in the US are going to be sourcing their hardware from.

So I don't really understand what's happening. Prices shouldn't be this high. That should be opening the door to huge arbs even for a drop-shipping middle man. Tariffs, shipping, something else?

[1] - https://www.alibaba.com/showroom/ddr5-ram.html

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

#732

Post by rldjbpin » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 9:21 AM UTC

time to short gamestop?

jokes aside, as someone who has never bought physical games, the landscape for physical ownership in this space was already shrinking.

there is a major chunk of playerbase who only plays online multiplayers, which are tied to always-online mode and constant updates. even if you could buy these titles on a disc, practically speaking they carried very little value of physical ownership.

we are just boiling the frog with little more intensity now. if it is possible to repurpose the bluray reader of ps5 to connect to pc, it might be a nice way to invest in one before they stop selling too.

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

#733

Post by Strom » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 9:42 AM UTC

Larrikin wrote: post #722

Strom wrote: post #716

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but that's just arguing over the morality of terms. On the one side you have people worried that their culture is being destroyed, on the other side you have people worried that their culture isn't represented. Both sides seem to think the other side is the devil. Having gamed for three decades now I'd say the shift has been very real. There's a much larger fraction of games that have representation of women, m…

I have no respect for this argument. It's similar to asking was the end of Jim Crow or slavery progress or the destruction of white spaces and to be sensitive to the people who wanted those to continue. I think a lot of the issues we have today are because people in both periods did not ostracize those people like Europe ostracized the Nazis. Having a main character that isn't a straight white male is so minor in com…

My argument isn't that one side is right and the other one is wrong. I'm not asking for sensitivity towards any side either. I'm talking about there being change at all. I'm hoping for more honesty in these discussions.

So when people, who don't like this change, point out their dislike of it, the reasonable reaction would be to argue that the change is good. Not that there hasn't been any change.

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

#734

Post by account42 » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 9:44 AM UTC

MindSpunk wrote: post #696

dogwalker5000 wrote: post #627

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you decide to buy into Sony’s future, make sure you do it with your eyes wide open. Unlike Valve who has never taken away what people have bought without a refund (to my knowledge), Sony doesn’t deserve that benefit of the doubt: https://www.techradar.com/streaming/entertainment/this-shoul...

Reminder that Valve's liberal refund policy only exists because they were sued by the Australian government.

And it isn't even all that liberal compared to physical stores.

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

#735

Post by account42 » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 9:49 AM UTC

mrandish wrote: post #298

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 orpha…

Don't forget that a lot of games these days are "live services" that significantly change over their lifetime. What's left to preserve after the developer/publisher gets bored with the game is not the same game that the initial players experienced.

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

#736

Post by account42 » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 10:03 AM UTC

canthonytucci wrote: post #601

Blackthorn wrote: post #398

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most art is garbage, doesn't mean it's okay to make it inaccessible by fiat.

Let’s take all these games as great artworks - why don’t their creators have the right to destroy them? All my own art is derivative schlock, so maybe I’m biased, but I don’t see how the viewer/consumer whoever has any say in the matter. The show is over when it’s over. Should be compel musicians to record every live performance and make those available to people who couldn’t make it to the show too? What if someone…

> Let’s take all these games as great artworks - why don’t their creators have the right to destroy them?

Because the only reason they received copyright protection in the first place (which is a severe limitation of everyone else's free speech) is to encourage them to contribute to our culture by making the games. You don't get to destroy artworks after the fact that were commissioned and fully paid for.

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

#737

Post by account42 » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 10:08 AM 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…

This is unfortunately also all too common with UHD blu ray releases of old movies. Everything is a limited edition resellers price gouge them even more.

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

#738

Post by chocochunks » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 10:31 AM UTC

irishcoffee wrote: post #666

chocochunks wrote: post #486

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but they're also monetizing a bunch of extra ways that they weren't in the past. In the PS2 era, Sony made money from the cut of physical games and accessories and maybe the console itself if it was purchased far enough into the console lifespan. These days they have online subs, cuts of DLC and microtransactions plus all the other stuff they had previously. And they get bigger cuts for DLC, microtransactions and…

IIRC, the PS2 was sold at a loss, most of the profits came from accessories like controllers and memory cards. I worked at circuit city at the time which is why I remember this. The employee discount (at cost, essentially) did not exist for the console. I was irritated so I did some digging and that was what I had found. Nope, no sources. That was like… 2 lifetimes ago.

The first few years. By the end it was supposedly profitable for Sony.

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

#739

Post by account42 » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 10:31 AM 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.

That's exactly why we need stronger legislation to curtail blatant attempts at circumventing the right of first sale.

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

#740

Post by account42 » Thu, Jul 02, 2026, 10:35 AM UTC

saturn8601 wrote: post #332

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…

IMO they should just release BDXL drives with open firmware. Then "security" is not their problem.

And I don't think 8K will ever take off. 4K is already at the point where much (but not all) of the additional resolution is just noise. Meanwhile 4K pixels are already small enough even for 70"+ TVs at fairly close movie viewing distances so where 8K will provide any advantage at all is exceedingly limited.