PlayStation partially u-turns on physical media stance, more discs coming than originally said

Sony has issued an update following a misunderstanding over its plans to reduce production of physical discs for its PlayStation consoles.

From January 2028, PlayStation will no longer produce physical copies of new games released on PlayStation consoles.

That remains true and applies to both first and third-party games. Whereas Microsoft allows third-party partners to print discs for Xbox devices, Sony deals with PlayStation discs entirely in-house.

Sony’s new stance on physical media was then made worse when it was announced that all other physical media production would reduce by 90%.

Remember, it’s only new games that won’t have a physical presence from January 2028.

Those games already available in a physical format are expected to still be supported with new reprints, but Sony’s comments suggested this support would be cut by 90%, making existing physical games more scarce.

As reported by Game, Sony’s Digital Audio Disc Corporation (DADC) has since clarified that production of existing disc games is set to drop by 10%, not to 10%.

Existing PS4/PS5 physical games won’t scale back reprinting as intensely as feared

“To clarify and avoid any misleading information: in that statement Dietmar [DADC’s chief] anticipated an overall product volume decline by 10 percent, not a decline down to 10 percent,” a spokesperson of the company told Game.

That only concerns physical disc production up to and including 2028; no comment was offered concerning the years beyond this.

Again, what this means is that games that are already available in a physical format prior to January 2028 will, at least for the time being, continue to be supported.

Yes, production is scaling back by 10%, but you should still be able to comfortably pick up disc copies of titles like God of War Ragnarök, Bloodborne, and Astro Bot with production not scaling back as rapidly and quickly as many feared.

This doesn’t, however, affect Sony’s stance on new games with all titles released from January 2028 onwards expected to be available via traditional digital means or the controversial ‘code in a box’.

Sony likely will produce ‘code in a box’ games to supply to third-party retailers having previously been accused of monopolising the digital market.

There are physical game retailers who refuse to stock ‘code in a box’ games, arguing it's not a true physical copy - and they’re right, of course. It’s something we’ve seen with Grand Theft Auto VI.

What isn’t clear is whether Sony truly was misunderstood in its plans to reduce physical game production by 10% and not to 10%, or whether this is a panicked rewriting of the whole ordeal due to backlash.

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Sony continues to face criticism for the digital future it has outlined.

Every single tweet on its PlayStation Twitter/X account is flooded with backlash from PS5 users, even several months on from the all-digital announcement.

“Physical game option > digital only future,” read one recent example, while another user added, “No disc, no buy.”

A seven-day blackout was recently staged with some users committing to a permanent console blackout until Sony fully backtracks.

Unfortunately for those users, PlayStation continues to wait out this storm.