As PlayStation Announces The End Of Disc-Based Releases, Will Xbox Follow Suit?

So they are confirming 2028 as the release year of PS6. It doesn't surprise me because PS5 had a digital-only model, like Xbox One S years earlier, and PS5 Pro doesn't have a disc reader. Helix won't either, so I'll keep my Series X, not for my Xbox games that are digital, but for CDs, DVDs and BDs. 😁

On second thought, considering how important physical games are for some PS fans and that PS5 games will be released beyond 2027, with many of these users rejecting digital-only releases, this must be terrible news.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say yes 100%.
To be honest they are on that road a good while now!
A shame for some people but then again some of them people have been gloating a lot lately about things so for that person in particular I hope this news brings them back down to ground!

lol at that twitter post. xbox basically went full digital already with the few titles it is still releasing. I can't find games or even xbox consoles anymore.

@fabio1 Cex dude there's literally loads in those shops 👌

Absolutely grim news and a genuine open goal for xbox to take here. Although as much as i hate the all digital future, it is inevitable. I imagine if asha is looking to reduce costs of helix a disc drive will sadly be the easiest cost to cut out.

Grim grim news though

So it begins...

No wonder the machines will rise in 2029

@Banjo- it all started when games started getting released on disc with download codes.

Tbf to Sony's credit it did and still does now in the main release the full game on disc while others don't. But we have seen with others and Switch 2 having key cards with codes, this coming for a while.

Like you say what Sony are first being vocal about the others will be doing the same.

Now it's all going to be about who backs digital game preservation the best. Ironically I think Sony will be at the back of that queue.

Xbox 100% were already going in this direction, at least Playstation took the bullet for them this time. That said, both as digital only, I'd say Helix is infinitely more appealing because of Xbox play anywhere, so you're not locked into their hardware

I had hoped that at least Nintendo would keep physical alive into the future but those key cards are rubbish and why I haven't gone into the Switch 2 ecosystem yet.
I guess all that is really left is the Evercade. All hail Evercade

If but that is a big if these days Microsoft wanted to recoup some of it's userbase from Sony they should go all out on physical media. Spearhead the feature with the pettieness Sony showed during E3 2013. But the numbers show that the vocal online minority is just really loud and the sales don't back it up.

@fabio1 Gears of War E-Day is still getting released physically

@acmiguens I've been reading about the memory crisis and it's more complicated that it seems, a multi-layered problem that will probably last until 2030. A combination of manufacturers wanting the best prices, not that many suppliers and demanding skyrocketing and requiring more advanced modules. It affects computers and mobile phones, but we were used to subsidised consoles, so the difference is more noticeable. Better start saving now for our next-gen console.

The answer is yes, they will, but it would be really funny if they kept physical releases around for a few years longer than Sony has.

The irony of all this, though, is that many PlayStation guys were adamant that Sony cared about physical media and that Xbox didn't at all. They thought, because Sony releases their games completely on-disc unlike Microsoft, that physical media would be around way longer for PlayStation than it would be for Xbox. How the turns table.

@Mr-Cage
His bio says he lives in Brazil. Good luck finding a CEX there.

Give me disc games for Helix and I'm buying

Though that would depend if likes of SEGA would make discs, as they don't now for Series X.

Certainly. They've already got spotty track record on this and if the Helix has a disc drive it's almost certainly going to be for backwards compatibility not new releases

@beartank That would explain a lot then haha 😆

I wonder how Sony will deal with following worldwide competition laws when it comes to competitive pricing. As they banned retailers from selling digital content for PSN on the cheap. Will they open up like Helix was rumoured to have Steam, Epic & GoG support.

I can't wait to the Playstation podcasters have a meltdown over the PS6 being all digital.

This is a real blow for PlayStation players, because even though there’s a global trend toward digital, the proportion of disc purchases is still higher on PlayStation — not the majority, but noticeably higher.

What makes this even more problematic for PlayStation users is that digital games come with several disadvantages compared to digital games on Xbox:

PS requires you to connect every 30 days or the game becomes unusable

Xbox has a far more advanced backward compatibility system

Xbox Play Anywhere lets you play on multiple devices with a single purchase — completely absent on PlayStation

free optimization of older games with FPS Boost or Auto HDR, also absent on PS

a persistent library that doesn’t depend on hardware

a dedicated preservation team

the Muse AI project

the disc‑to‑digital project, making it easier to launch games you own even without a disc drive

Overall, Xbox is clearly much more committed to game preservation, which sharply contrasts with PlayStation — a company that offers none of these features and recently removed 500 purchased movies from users’ libraries without any refund. So the question becomes: how long until they do the same with purchased PS games?

Of course, this kind of issue could theoretically happen anywhere, but given PlayStation’s policies and Xbox’s strong commitment to preservation, I feel my game library is much safer on Xbox than on PlayStation. That said, I also appreciate GOG for offering DRM‑free games.

It’s an easy, big PR win to confirm the continuation of physical media and permanent ownership, but Xbox has been worse than PS for a long time in this regard anyway. I have 0% confidence Xbox will put the end user ahead of profits here; they’ll go all digital too.

@Banjo- Yeah, we're in deep ***** in this one as well. I finally managed to stop paying developing country prices for hardware and this happens. At least I got a Switch 2 and a PS5 before the storm.
I'll be quite interested to see how both Sony and MS will promote their new hardware. I'll likely get a PS6 eventually, but the next Xbox has got to do a lot for me.
I got my Series S as a Game Pass machine + to catch up on previous gens exclusives. Now I'm down to the latter only (besides 3 free months of GPU I'm getting soon) and that's fine by me to keep the SS, but not nearly enough to spend almost 1000 euros on new hardware.

Oh yeah Xbox studios are about to get shafted hard today cause Xbox like too follow Sonys bad news with worse news

@Jaxx420 I didn't have an Xbox 360 or PS3, so my physical collections are for N64, GC, Wii, Wii U, DS, 3DS, Switch, some PS4 games and a few limited Xbox One editions. I didn't see the point in physical since 2013 because games need patches and to be installed, although I keep my Rare Replay as new.

You make very good points. I also find ironic that Xbox is ahead in gaming preservation because PS and Nintendo users appreciate physical much more and, in the case of Nintendo, many claim to not buy digital games, yet they are stuck on game key cards which are codes in a fake cartridge that can be played on another Switch 2, but need an online server verification. Some PS5 users that visit this site daily have also claimed that they reject digital. I'm seeing some contradictions already.

PS5 has been supporting physical games more than Series X so, although this doesn't really surprise me because I was expecting it, I can see why Sony fans that want physical media would be shocked or disappointed, because I assume PS5 games will be released beyond 2027.

As long as digital libraries are respected on subsequent hardware like on Steam and Xbox, I'm fine with them.

Sony's biggest problem with this decision is that they may well have to open that walled garden and start allowing the sale of digital keys on 3rd party websites.

100% xbox does the same. We're on the doorstep of an era of $80 games you don't even really own...

I have decided to go back to coping tapes like I did on the C64 might take a little while longer to load modern games but it's clearly the way forward. I'll show them!

An inevitable end. Physical games were always a necessity from the beginning. Now they're meaningless. They're an element that unnecessarily increases costs. Moreover, unlike cartridges, we don't even see the discs while playing. I don't understand the insistence on physical discs when there's a cheaper and more convenient version. The market already shows its pointlessness.

Xbox Could have such fun and revenge with this.

ASHA standing next to Matt.
Asks how to play a Xbox Helix game.
Matt replies like this and hands her a disc.

@Scummbuddy 'ecosystem' LOL. You're talking about a toy.

@themightyant Nope, I sometimes do research to enrich my arguments, but I don’t copy‑paste anything. I translate my posts into English using Copilot (on Edge), because English isn’t my native language. I guess sometimes the translation picks words that don’t necessarily sound very natural.

The narrative will now change to digital being superior and physical being outdated and useless.

As I said on push. Scummy and anti consumer. Even if you are all digital you shouldn’t be happy with this.

And just as anti consumer it sounds like they are f****** us over with back compatibility

I don't think this is a smart move at all.

With games becoming increasingly expensive and disposable incomes falling, people need to see the value in something they buy more than ever. If, for example, you're able to purchase a game for £50, play it for a year and then sell it for £20, that brings the buy-in cost down and makes it a more likely purchase.

I also think this is worrying from a preservation point of view. As someone who loves racing games, it's important to buy them digitally when you can, given that licenses expire and they get delisted within a few short years. Yet, games like the Forza Horizon series are all still accessible, despite being delisted, because of the discs (regardless of how much data is actually on the disc).

We also see digital prices often be much, much higher than physical releases (especially on games that are 1+ years old), so consumers will have to pay higher prices to play games, which links back to my first point - it just isn't justifiable for many!

I'm sure that Sony will have looked at the number of digital VS physical PS5 console editions that have sold, the percentage of games played via disc VS digital, and the cost of implementing disc drives into consoles, but this just feels so anti-consumer.

If I were Xbox or Nintendo now, I would release a public statement committing to physical media because gaming should be as accessible as possible for all.

@Banjo- the launch ps5 had a disc based model and a digital maybe you are thinking the slim model

Its not good for consumers with digital only, but I’ve been digital only for years so I’m part of the problem creating this situation to begin with…

@FraserG @Scummbuddy And the SNES and Mega Drive Mini, especially here that we had PAL back in the day. 😁

@hoffa007 "PS5 had a digital-only model" does not mean that "PS5 had only a digital model", so I assume this is a misunderstanding.

Physical has to stay on Xbox. If Xbox stops supporting discs and new physical releases, I would rather switch to a living room PC box with Steam. Games are too expensive at launch on the Xbox and PlayStation digital stores and I love physical media anyway.

And regarding Sony, this is what happens when you almost have a monopoly on powerful consoles. Anti consumers as usual.

I think the industry is going through what music went through (not sure about film or TV with this) CDs and Vinyls are now classed as collectible whereas back in the day they were day to day. Spotify etc came in all of a sudden they are vintage.

Not sure if it's happened already to DVD and Blu Ray but same thing will happen with game discs now.

There is the other perhaps more sensitive argument around plastic cases and the environment and I don't want to touch that. I think those who do go physical tend to keep their collections rather than dispose so it's kind of a moot point.

@Sindayl when they all inevitably follow this will you call all of them anti consumer?

Sony were one of the only ones keeping all content on the disc and not just download codes. One of them had to come out first. Just because Sony did doesn't make them anti consumer. 12 months from now all the others will have followed.

Pricing will be important when this comes into effect. And none of them will be considerate of it either so it's going to be vital more than ever for the relevant authorities in all countries to ensure pricing remains as reasonable as it should be when it all moves to digital only.

Time will tell whether that ends up being the case.

PS sorry all for the post spam I feel like an edit that's more than one paragraph should be a separate post 😂

I was never expecting a disk drive in next gen and with GTA being only digital and now Sony stopping physical it's officially gone.

Nintendo will have physical for a while longer, grudgingly mind you. Everyone wants just digital as you can't share it it resell it. More money on their pockets, less in yours.

I just want to be able to resell the games that are 80$ if I decide I don’t actually like them that much.

Cept that’s the thing that they actually don’t want so. It’s over lol oh well

@Daniel1221 @Jaxx420 It's not a simple issue as you both say, but I draw the line at digital "ownership" which translates to the right to re-download indefinitely. Google removed Stadia, but they refunded everyone, so fair enough. Removing access to digital content and not refunding should be illegal and it will probably be soon, at least in EU. It's like selling a disc or cartridge and taking it away from you without refunding.

I'm sure that Sony will have looked at the number of digital VS physical PS5 console editions that have sold, the percentage of games played via disc VS digital, and the cost of implementing disc drives into consoles,

Actually, I think it's more related to turn the whole business into a digital store which they already control 100%, but that also might trigger some anti-trust laws, as others have said and as has happened before.

@Jaxx420 this is a legend. The vast majority of my Xbox discs (some even coming as two disc sets) contain fully playable data without patches, except for the latest first-party crap. And yes, it will be anti-consumer when Xbox and Nintendo eventually follow suit.

I won’t debate online again why Sony has a long history of rather bad consumer practices because we won’t agree and we won’t change our stances on this anyway. And that’s okay.

@Banjo- I worry about people being able to play what they want, when they want, and how they want in the future. This decision by Sony takes something away from all three. I'm surprised no action has been taken regarding the removal of purchased movies (which has recently happened with StudioCanal titles, yet no refunds were issued). As I say, if I'm one of Sony's competitors, I'm marketing the fact that my console is more accessible for everyone

@Sindayl you are wrong I would actually agree with you. I should apologise I am only referring to the last couple of years when I stated that since the whole download code/keycard debacle started. All Sony first party games had the full file on disc at the time.

Reality is they will all do it. We can phrase it as anti consumer which is subjective but it will end up applying to all. Sony just came out with this first.

I didn't mean my reply as combative and if it read that way I apologise. We are definitely singing from the same hymn sheet. But it is going to be a trend across the industry from 2028 it seems.

If XB wants to gain market share they have to do things like waiting for the other console vendors to spring the bad reality news on gamers.

The reality is that disc based game distribution has been dying slowly since the game stores popped up on consoles and more people are able to get fast internet.

Gamers tend to jump on top of the company that brings the bad news first. In this case, finally, XB is not that console vendor.

And this also clears the path that next generation none of the consoles will probably have disc media drives to save money on console costs going forward. I expect there will be an disc media purchase option that will be expensive instead for people that want to play games they have boughten physically.

@Daniel1221 I agree 100% with that and I'm also surprised that nothing has happened yet regarding the removal of digital content without refunding. Microsoft stopped selling new movies and TV content, but you can still access your previously purchased content on Windows and Xbox devices. Google cancelled Stadia, but they refunded everyone. That's how it is supposed to be. One of those two options. Any other option is unacceptable and should be illegal.

Regarding physical games, I also hope that physical remains an option even if the disc reader is available separately and that would be a win Xbox. I would fully support the idea.

Haven't purchased a single physical game on either Xbox or PlayStation this gen and have no regrets.

Sony & Microsoft have to find cost saving somewhere for next gen and this is an easy way for them to do so. It seems inevitable to me that we will see a similar announcement from team green at some point.

@Banjo- It depends how you look at it. There are definitely going to be some arguments where people say if we purchased something digitally or otherwise we own that as we paid our hard earned for it.

That's going to be something that all the companies will have to navigate over the next few years with no doubt a few bumps and government interventions along the way.

@Jaxx420 💚

@Jaxx420 It doesn't really affect me because my physical collections are Nintendo games. They would not be playable if it wasn't for the fact that I still own all those consoles. However, I respect and agree 100% with what Daniel says about physical games.

You have proven many times that preferring a certain platform does not translate to being a *******, so I wanted to publicly thank you and acknowledge that! That's the reason why I'll always respect and reply to you whether we agree or not. This is how a community should be.

So the only place you will be able to buy PlayStation games is on the PS Store? Isn't that a Monopoly or am I being dumb?

@Banjo- @Sindayl I think overall it's just a sad time when we all realise physical media is about to die a slow sad death.

And it is sad.

I remember a master system game not playing ball with me. I took the cartridge out. Blow of air. Job done.

I do feel like what Sony has announced today (others will follow) is the death of that joy I felt with physical gaming is just gone.

What I don't want is it being turned into console war nonsense. Like what happened with Music and I assume Film/TV we are all moving to a digital only future it'll be all about who can preserve our content in the best way.

The real console war seems to be which one can achieve the most negative press.

Every awful news from one platform is countered with awful news from the other. It's a race to the bottom for both xbox and playstation.

@ZeD not if all the other platforms do the same.

@Tasuki I spent a little time cleaning up my How Long to Beat account with games I want to play and ones that I would like to replay. This is a mixture of owned and on a sub service (with the majority being owned) and it is nearly 3 years worth of games. 😂

@Scummbuddy Nintendo has published 1 of its so far 9 games Switcy 2 games on a GKC and even then it's probably because it's Pokémon-related so they don't control every decision there. Splatoon Raiders and the newest FE are all full physical, as well. So I'm not sure what you're talking about when everyone insists the main draw for Nintendo consoles is exclusives and those are mostly "real" physical releases.

@ZeD they say in the statement that they will be available to purchase digitally through other sellers.

@Jaxx420 All of them will comply with the law eventually. PS is the dominating video game console in EU where consumer and antitrust laws are more common. Sony has removed third-party codes and has been accused of abusive practices in EU already, but of course these laws will apply to all the storefronts, Xbox, Nintendo and Apple included, and that will benefit all consumers.

@Banjo- they will have to. But I'll always miss the old ways. I still look at my master system and go "even if you had a firmware update you would still do my head in" 😂

The old school gaming mentality has been deleted. And it is that which is sad.

@Weebleman just sat down a read through the full blog post and saw that. My concern is that we may not see individual retail sales on the digital products because they take up no space.
For example, in Argos in the U.K., they have crazy clearance sales in games because they don’t want them taking up space.

The worst part of all this is folks on sites like these who buy physical (myself included) are such a drop in the ocean compared to digital, it won't make a jot of difference. PushSquare just put an article out say physical accounts for 15% of all sales.

The casual market won't care and younger generations dont either.

All the things we bicker about and discuss mean absolutely nothing to the majority of folks buying consoles. We are the tiny majority and its only gonna get smaller as years go on.

I was shot down only just the other day for saying that physical media on consoles was coming to an end and well, here's another slice of evidence that this is what's happening.

It was always an inevitable outcome.

@Weebleman

The casual market won't care and younger generations dont either

This ☝️

@NishimaruX prime example of this (generation not caring about physical) is the Steam store. There is a generation (or two) of PC gamers who never knew of physical PC games with their multiple floppy discs or multiple cd roms 👨‍🦳

@ZeD I suppose if they do codes in boxes like GTA we may still get that if they are available through amazon, argos, etc... Otherwise all we can hope for is places like loaded to give offers.

Until they explain plans then we will just have to wait.

Its not something I want but I also understand its inevitable. This will very likely be the same for all next gen consoles. Sony are just throwing all their bad news on the table now as they know very well that it will be buried in the news out of MS when they announce their reset plan next week.

@Jaxx420 I think that Nintendo's older games are better than the new ones anyway, so I still play like back then quite often. There's SNES Mini, a RGB-modded PAL N64, an original GC with the digital video output, a Wii that I barely touch because of Wii U and also the Mega Drive (Mini) that I always wanted to have. You could also get Evercade, that I don't have but many here do. The future seems digital, but there's more than the future.