A misunderstanding caused panic in the community. According to an official statement, rather than falling to 10 percent, production volume will decline by only 10 percent by 2028.
Sony has refuted reports claiming that disc production for the PlayStation is set to plummet by 90 percent. These reports followed statements by a Sony DADC manager that were apparently misunderstood.
As reported by Game magazine following a direct inquiry to the Sony Digital Audio Disc Corporation (DADC), production volume in 2028 is actually expected to decline by only10 percent—notto10 percent.
“To avoid any misunderstanding: In that statement, Dietmar predicted a 10 percent decline in total volume, not a drop to 10 percent,” a Sony DADC spokesperson clarified to Game. He was referring to remarks made by DADC CEO Dietmar Tanzer to an Austrian broadcaster in July.
The spokesperson left open what will happen after 2028. For further questions regarding reorders, he referred to the PlayStation PR team, which, however, left a request from Game unanswered.
No Drop to 10 Percent: What Will Really Happen to Disc Production Starting in 2028
The confusion stems from a PlayStation announcement in July: Starting in January 2028, the company will discontinue disc production for new games. However, titles that have already been released, as well as games released on disc before that date, are not affected. Reorders will still be available for them even after that.
Unlike Microsoft—where certified third-party providers, known as “Authorized Replicators,” press Xbox discs—Sony keeps production in-house. Production is handled entirely by DADC, rather than relying on external pressing plants.
Analyst Daniel Ahmad of Niko Partnersemphasizes that the end of discs will completely destroy the used market. At the same time, it will direct all spending directly to the PlayStation Store. There, Sony earns significantly higher margins than it does from sales in traditional retail.
The End of the Secondhand Market: Former PlayStation Head Shawn Layden Warns of the Consequences
Shawn Layden, former chairman of SIE Worldwide Studios, described a purely digital PlayStation future to Game as “depressing, but solvable.” However, he lacks insight into the details of potential licensing deals.
Layden compared the situation to other physical media that survived despite being declared dead: “No one predicted the comeback of the music cassette. And the vinyl record never really went away. The flame grew smaller, the fire faded, but the embers were always there—and they simply flared up again. It’s very similar to the book market. After all, we all thought we’d only be using e-readers today.”
For Layden, collecting is an essential part of gaming: “Have you collected all the diamonds in Crash Bandicoot? All the stars in Mario? We love collecting our games. We have a game shelf where we display all our cases. And if you’re really passionate, you buy a game twice, right? One copy stays sealed in its plastic wrap, the other gets played. We buy the Steelbook, the three-disc Final Fantasy set, and the collectible figure. None of that can be downloaded. What happens to it?”
Brand Value Versus Margin: Are Gamers Becoming Merely Renters of Their Games?
He criticized the fact that such strategic decisions are often viewed purely from a financial perspective, even though there’s much more to it than that.
“Someone in accounting has to ask, ‘Okay, but how does this move affect the brand?’” says Layden. “Financially, it makes sense, sure. That’s pure math. But what does that mean for the image? Do people say, ‘Great move!’? Or do they say, ‘We hate you for this. Stop it.’ And sometimes they just say, ‘We hate you.’”
He added: “I see so many companies making decisions where I just think to myself: I don’t know what you gained financially from this—but your brand value just plummeted by 30 percent. Hopefully it was worth it.”
Layden also had strong words about the general shift away from physical ownership: “What does ownership even mean anymore? That’s a serious question. Although, actually, it’s not really a question anymore. We’re moving away from ownership toward a pure access model. No one has ever been able to sell their iTunes library. And you can’t resell your PlayStation download library either. If you can’t resell something—does it really belong to you?”
The indie publisher iam8bit, known for high-quality collector’s editions, told Game that it would “love to find a way to continue producing physical PlayStation games.”
The article suggests Conectiv Supply Chain Solutions as a possible option. The Memphis-based disc manufacturer was founded in 2025 and recently acquired the distribution specialist SDS from Universal and Warner Bros. However, as Game reports, there had been no response from the company or its CEO as of press time.
“NO DISC NO BUY”: Backlash During the Livestream and a Double PR Debacle
This week, the YouTube live chat for State of Play was plastered from start to finish with messages like “NO DISC NO BUY” and “WE WANT DESTINY 3.” A glance over at Twitch revealed a similar scene: there, too, the community was relentlessly spamming the stream with Destiny emojis and calls for physical discs.
The discontent stems from a collision of two different PR disasters for Sony. The first concerns Sony’s announcement that it will discontinue support for physical discs starting in 2028. This means that, beginning in January of that year, only digital codes will be offered for games on the platform. The second source of outrage stems from the end of comprehensive support for Destiny 2, as well as the massive layoffs at Bungie.
