The gaming console Playstation sparked more customer backlash on Wednesday when the company announced that it will no longer produce physical disc games come January 2028.
Playstation announced the news in a blog on Wednesday.
“As consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital, physical game disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January 2028,” it announced. “Following this date, new games will be available on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only. This transition has no impact on games that already released, or will be releasing, prior to January 2028 in disc format. “
The company added that the decision is a “natural direction” due to consumer trends that will “align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today.”
“We’ll continue to prioritize our resources to drive innovation in how players can access games and provide choices as to where players prefer to purchase new games, whether that’s at retailers or PlayStation Store,” it said.
Fans immediately expressed outrage online, noting that it will end the market for resale, used, and borrowed games, while also forcing fans to become entirely dependent on internet access and server functionality to access their games.
The announcement could not come at a worse time for Playstation after the company angered customers this week when it revealed that over 500 movies that people already purchased would be deleted from the platform, per Coming Soon:
Due to a licensing agreement with Studio Canal, PlayStation users will lose access to over 500 of their purchased movies after September 1, 2026. Sony’s recently released legal notice confirmed this news. The total number of titles affected by this update is 550.
Sony’s official notice reads, “From September 1, 2026, due to our content licensing agreements, you will no longer be able to access your previously purchased content from Studio Canal, and it will be removed from your video library.”
All Studio Canal titles purchased by PlayStation account holders will be removed after the said date. Movies such as A Bigger Splash, A Dangerous Man, A Date for Mad Mary, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, A Good Man, Big Eyes, Big Game, and Blood Alley won’t be part of users’ library of purchased content.
As Breitbart News reported last week, Rockstar Games also stoked controversy when it announced that the long-awaited Grand Theft Auto VI will be offering a “physical” edition that contains no physical media of any kind – just a code to access the game digitally.