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So…is this it? Is this finally the fabled death of physical games we’ve been wondering about for years now? Maybe. If so, it’s a death one could have seen coming a mile off, said Elliott. “This didn’t come out of nowhere,” he said. “Just last week Rockstar confirmed that GTA 6 would ship with no disc, just a digital version and a code in a box at retail. We argued that the biggest game in the world going disc-less was less a one-off and more a starting gun. Seven days later, Sony fired it. Not a coincidence…” When I asked analysts about this specific question, I phrased it as “the final nail i

With Sony preparing to end physical disc production in 2028, analysts say there will be quite a few knock-on effects beyond just the straightforward “no more physical PlayStation games.” For one, analysts say the PlayStation 6 and Xbox’s Project Helix are almost certain to launch with no disc drive at all. That will leave players with large libraries of physical games for previous consoles totally unable to play them on the new systems. Daniel Ahmad, director of research and insights at Niko Partners, said that 70 million physical PlayStation games were sold last year, and around 500 million h

So, uh, speaking of that second-hand market! It’s, uh, not looking good. If neither Sony nor Microsoft includes a disc drive in their next-generation consoles, that’s going to hurt the retail games market something bad. And over time, it will also likely fully undermine the pre-owned market. Not that either of those markets were doing well to begin with. “Many of these chains have massively reduced in size compared to two decades ago and have diversified their businesses to deal with the shift to digital sales,” said Harding-Rolls. “Calling time on physical media will mean innovating around di