Sony to Stop Making PlayStation Game Discs in 2028

Physical media for PlayStation has received an official expiration date. Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that it will halt physical disc production for new games starting in January 2028. After that deadline, all newly released titles will be sold exclusively through the PlayStation Store and authorized digital retailers.

According to Sony, the phaseout will not impact games pressed onto discs prior to January 2028. The company framed the decision as an inevitable alignment with consumer habits, citing overwhelmingly dominant demand for digital downloads over boxed copies. The move also follows the closure of Sony's optical disc manufacturing plant in mid-2024, cutting manufacturing and logistics overhead as physical sales steadily shrank.

The transition toward an all-digital ecosystem comes with an uncomfortable footnote for preservation. Concurrently, Sony outlined a phased shutdown of the digital storefront for its older hardware. The PlayStation Store for the PlayStation 3 (released in 2006) and PlayStation Vita (released in 2011) will stop allowing purchases in select markets starting August 2026, culminating in a worldwide shutdown by July 2027.

Sony attributed the legacy store closures to the inability of aging hardware to support modern operational updates. The simultaneous announcements leave players with a stark contrast: physical discs are disappearing in favor of digital licenses, even as the company winds down the servers required to purchase legacy digital titles.

Source: habr via PlayStation Blog (Physical Discs) and PlayStation Blog (PS3 & PS Vita)