Sony Interactive Entertainment announced Wednesday that it will stop producing physical game discs for all new titles releasing on PlayStation consoles starting in January 2028, marking the end of a 50-year tradition of physical video game media and drawing immediate and intense backlash from players, collectors and game preservation advocates worldwide.

Sony Interactive Entertainment's content communications senior director Sid Shuman said: "As consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital, physical game disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January 2028. Following this date, new games will be available on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only."

The announcement, published simultaneously on the official PlayStation Blog and previewed by Game File ahead of its public release, represents one of the most consequential decisions in Sony's gaming history, effectively closing the door on a format that the company helped define with the original PlayStation's shift to CD-ROMs in 1994 and then championed through subsequent generations of hardware using DVDs, standard Blu-Rays and eventually 4K Blu-Rays in its disc-based consoles.

Sony noted that the transition has no impact on games that already released or will be releasing prior to January 2028 in disc format, citing upcoming PlayStation game "Marvel's Wolverine" as among the titles that would still receive a physical disc edition. Shuman cited the move as "a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical........

© International Business Times