The future of physical games is not looking great

Players and game preservationists might need to prepare for a world without discs.

How it started

As a kid, I relished trips to Best Buy, GameStop, and the nearby mall so that I could browse video games. I loved sifting through games and chatting with my friends at the store about upcoming releases. On the lucky days I actually got a new game from the store, I treasured reading through every page of the manual on the drive home. Over the years, I built up a collection of games that I was proud of.

That was a long time ago. Shortly after college, I sold my collection of older games and hardware because I wasn’t using them and wanted the money for other things. (Probably weekends out.) Starting with the Nintendo Switch in 2017, I started buying games digitally because it was easier to just download stuff, and I wouldn’t have to accumulate physical game cases. Now, I don’t own any physical games: My Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam libraries are all digital.

For better or worse, video game players overwhelmingly buy and play digital games. But in the span of a week, two industry giants put nails in the coffin of physical games — or perhaps even poured concrete into the grave.

How it’s going

On June 24th, Rockstar Games finally put a price tag on Grand Theft Auto VI ahead of its scheduled November 19th release on PS5 and Xbox Series X / S: $79.99 for the base edition and $99.99 for the Ultimate Edition. The prices themselves weren’t too unexpected, as even Nintendo has dabbled with $79.99 games for its biggest titles. But what was more shocking was something buried in Rockstar’s post : The physical version of the game won’t have a disc, instead containing a download code in the box.

The announcement was a worrying sign for physical games . Selling games as codes in a box isn’t a new concept, but GTA VI will be the biggest game to do it so far. Rockstar’s choice could push more publishers to do the same for their future titles. By making the game only available on digital storefronts, players can’t easily share it with a friend or sell the game when they’re done with it.

It’s also becoming increasingly clear you can’t rely on digital storefronts. Titles can get pulled for things like licensing or the store closing down . This may not be a problem for GTA VI , as Rockstar will almost certainly make sure the game is easily available on many digital platforms for the foreseeable future, especially if it wants to give the game the same kind of legs as the 13-year-old GTA V . But with digital storefronts, you also have to hope that you aren’t locked out of your account, even by mistake, and lose access to your games. (In 2023, some PlayStation users were unexpectedly banned through no fault of their own, though Sony eventually restored access to their accounts.)

Speaking of PlayStation, just days after Rockstar’s news, Sony dropped an even bigger bomb: It announced that, starting January 2028, it would not make physical discs for any new PlayStation games.

The decision led to widespread criticism online. Sony and PlayStation got yelled at everywhere online, as Kotaku reported , and the PlayStation account didn’t make a new tweet until six days after its announcement about dropping discs. The comments section of Sony’s famous 2013 PS4 game sharing ad where one person just hands a disc to another — an ad made after Xbox announced restrictive DRM plans for the Xbox One — is filled with new comments taking jabs at Sony. Heck, Sony itself showed why killing discs is a terrible idea by, on the same day as the disc news, saying that it would be closing the digital stores for the PS3 and the PS Vita .

Sony’s announcement also drew criticism from retailers and games preservationists . “This is unfortunate news for those who still prefer buying games on physical media, and is certainly a significant hit to consumer rights, the resale market, and game creators whose businesses rely on the physical market,” said Frank Cifaldi , executive director of the Video Game History Foundation.

Sony’s own statement was clear as to why it’s making the change. “This is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs,” Sony said in its announcement . “This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today.” The company’s numbers prove it, too: In the fourth quarter of its 2025 fiscal year, Sony reported that the “Full game software digital download ratio” of games on PS4 and PS5 was 85 percent.

What happens next

We have to see if Grand Theft Auto VI actually releases on November 19th and if it will ever come out on disc. Despite two major delays , it seems likely the game will at least launch as planned, especially because Rockstar gave the game a price and is pushing preorders.

We’ll also have to see what Microsoft and Nintendo might do. Xbox hasn’t announced what it’s thinking about for discs for Project Helix, its next generation console, but The Verge ’s Tom Warren reports that Xbox will “likely soon” stop making physical discs for Xbox games. However, Warren reports that the company is testing a feature that would let you digitize your physical game collection .

Nintendo will probably stick with physical games for a while. According to its last fiscal year report , digital makes up 54.6 percent of game sales, so physical is still a big part of its business. The Switch 2 is also only a year old, and it seems extremely unlikely that Nintendo would stop making physical games for hardware it will be supporting for a long time to come. However, with the Switch 2, Nintendo gives developers the option to sell game-key cards, which are physical carts you can borrow and resell but don’t actually have a game’s data on them. Instead, they serve as keys to let you download a game to your system.

Game stores and preservationists also have to adjust to the fact that physical games are going to be harder to come by. Cifaldi noted that museums and archives have already been preparing for this kind of future “with the expectation that putting discs on a shelf isn’t going to be a long-term solution for preserving new games.” But he called on trade groups to offer solutions to legally preserve digital content for research — efforts that the Entertainment Software Association has previously opposed . “The industry needs to meaningfully come to the table on this issue, because asking museums to download a copy of Grand Theft Auto VI and hope it’ll run in 50 years is not a preservation solution,” Cifaldi says.

Sony now has to navigate an awkward period where it’s launching new games but dealing with pushback from players wanting physical discs. While Sony has been subject to severe blowback after its announcement, it seems unlikely it will reverse course. It’s already repurposing its last PlayStation disc-making factory , after all.

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