Sony to Stop Making Physical PlayStation Game Discs for New Releases from January 2028

Sony is not backing away from its plan to stop making physical discs for new PlayStation game releases starting in January 2028.

During Sony Group’s fiscal 2026 first-quarter earnings announcement on Friday, Chief Financial Officer Lin Tao acknowledged criticism of the decision but said the company would still proceed. Speaking through an interpreter during the July 31 Q&A, Tao said Sony had weighed the move carefully before setting a firm course.

The policy is narrowly defined. It applies to new games releasing on PlayStation consoles from January 2028 onward. Under the plan, physical game disc production for those new releases will end, while games already on the market, or titles that arrive on disc before the cutoff, are not affected.

That means the change is not retroactive. Sony has said it “has no impact on games that already released, or will be releasing, prior to January 2028 in disc format.” Instead, the shift applies to future releases after the cutoff date, which Sony says will be sold digitally.

Tao said Friday that the company had spent significant time considering the decision. “When we think about the future, and we put in a lot of thought and time, and we cautiously considered this, and we came to this conclusion. And we’re going to cautiously move this forward,” she said through an interpreter.

She also tied the move to broader consumer behavior. “Digitalization of content overall has been progressing,” Tao said.

Sony Interactive Entertainment first announced the policy on July 1 in a PlayStation.Blog post by Sid Shuman. In that post, Sony said that “physical game disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January 2028.”

The company also spelled out how those games will be sold after the cutoff. “New games will be available on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only,” the July 1 announcement said.

Sony’s own financial data helps explain why the company is making the change. In materials released with its earnings, Sony said the full-game software digital download ratio was 85% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025 and 82% in the first quarter of fiscal 2026. In other words, digital purchases already account for the large majority of full-game sales on PlayStation.

Tao, who became Sony Group’s chief financial officer on April 1, is the latest executive to publicly reinforce that direction. Friday’s comments made clear that the July 1 announcement was not a trial balloon or an analyst projection, but a policy Sony still intends to carry out.

For players, the practical effect is straightforward. If a PlayStation game is released before January 2028 and comes out on disc, that release is unchanged. But for new PlayStation games launching from January 2028 onward, Sony says there will be no newly produced physical discs. Those titles will be sold digitally, including through the PlayStation Store and through retailers offering digital formats only.