A game industry analyst responded to this Sonythe decision to end the release of physical discs, saying that the industry has an opportunity to further reduce production costs. In July, Sony officially announced that it will stop releasing new video game discs for PlayStation consoles from January 2028.
The decision led many to believe that Sony's next-gen console would be digital-only or include a separately sold disc drive. However, it is not yet clear how the removal of the discs will affect the release of physical games. The expert now believes that although the future is not entirely certain, one thing that seems clear is that companies like Sony can now achieve better sales margins by cutting costs.
The biggest server for making PlayStation discs has already been redesigned
While PlayStation disc games will still be released until 2028, Sony is already starting to cut back on physical copy production.
Prepaid game cards may soon replace physical boxes
“There is an opportunity to further reduce costs,” says Piers Harding-Rolls, games industry analyst at Ampere Analysis. He suggests this could come via prepaid game cards or similar alternatives. Harding-Rolls says publishers are currently forced to take on additional risk by investing in disc production and paying royalties to Sony “before any payments are received”. The analyst therefore believes that removing the costs associated with physical media production could potentially help publishers achieve better profit margins, ultimately offsetting increases in other areas such as development and staffing budgets.
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According to Harding-Rolls, the decline in physical game publishing poses a direct threat to retailers that specialize in selling video games. He believes that to reduce this risk, companies need to develop more creative ways to still offer some form of physical product. “Calling time on physical media will mean innovating in-store digital game sales to try and replace lost business,” he says. One such “solution” could be the transition to prepaid game cards, which are already familiar to many players and whose production is cheaper.
Even the game boxes can shrink after the discs are lost
Harding-Rolls believes that in addition to Sony's disc-free policy, Take-Two's decision to replace GTA 6 discs with boxed codes will likely encourage other major video game publishers to follow suit. “[The] this move will accelerate the trend toward selling digital codes at retail over physical media,” he says. However, it remains uncertain whether publishers will continue to issue these “physical digital game codes” in full-size cases. If the primary motive behind the discless movement is to reduce production costs, it would make sense for publishers to either abandon physical boxes or reduce their sizes to reduce costs.
In theory, an all-digital, disc-less gaming industry should be more sustainable given how ongoing RAM shortages and similar production bottlenecks have negatively affected video game companies. But the worrying aspect is that the digital-only ecosystem threatens ownership rights and, as Harding-Rolls explains, “undermines the market for pre-owned games”. Sony's record of removing users' digitally owned products without notice or refunds also doesn't help inspire optimism about how things are currently going.
Unsurprisingly, gamer reactions to Sony's announcement have been largely negative, and there's even a petition calling for Sony to reconsider ditching the discs. However, many experts, including Harding-Rolls, believe that “the importance of the physical product is declining” and see a shift to disc-free policies as inevitable for major companies such as Sony.
Source: Ampere Analysis
