PlayStation will stop selling game discs by 2028, and the company is also shutting down the digital storefronts for the PS3 and PlayStation Vita. According to a report by Engadget, Sony had tried to close those storefronts five years ago, reversed course after public backlash, and is now moving forward again.
The numbers behind the decision are hard to argue with. In Sony's last fiscal year, running from April 2025 through March 2026, nearly four-fifths of all full game purchases for PS4 and PS5 were bought digitally. In just the first three months of 2026, that number climbed to 85 percent.
Third-party publishers are seeing even steeper shifts. Capcom reported that 93 percent of its game sales were digital copies over that same April-to-March period. The company expects that figure to reach approximately 95.4 percent in the current fiscal year.
Sony has been direct about its reasoning. Sid Shuman, senior director of Sony Interactive Entertainment's content communications team, explained the move in a post on the PlayStation Blog. "This is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs," Shuman wrote. "This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today."
The shift has been building for years. Sony released the digital-only PSP Go in 2009 and later the PS5 Digital Edition. Other signs have appeared across the industry. The first physical editions of Grand Theft Auto VI will include a code in a box rather than a playable disc, partly so developer Rockstar Games can prevent leaks ahead of the game's release. Nintendo has begun charging more for physical editions of some first-party games than for the same titles on its digital storefront.
Dropping disc manufacturing and distribution would simplify Sony's operations. It also makes the future shape of the company's next console clearer. It now appears nearly certain that the PS6 will not include a disc drive capable of running physical PS4 or PS5 games.
Critics of the move have pointed to game preservation as the central concern. When a digital storefront closes, purchases tied to that platform can become inaccessible. The PS3 and Vita store closures would cut off large libraries of older titles that exist only in digital form on those platforms, with no physical alternative available for many of them.
The disc phase-out is set to take effect in 2028.
