No new disc games on PlayStation from January 2028

AlphaJohn said:
Thats not even it for me. Its the lack of competition that is the problem.

On PC you can go to Steam, Gog, Xbox PC marketplace, Uplay, EA or even Epic store to buy/rent digital games. They all have an incentive to make you happy else you move on.

On the console space Microsoft seem to have shot themselves in the foot so many times that they barely have a leg to stand on. Nintendo is doing their own thing with lower spec'ed devices. Sony is noticing the lack of competition and now, move to become a monopoly where they can do and charge as they please and there is nothing the end user can do about it.

Fun times ahead indeed.
Click to expand...
But there never was 'competition'. On PS you always had to go through Sony, same with Xbox and the other consoles. The competition was between platforms, not on the platform itself.
 
Syphonx said:
But there never was 'competition'. On PS you always had to go through Sony, same with Xbox and the other consoles. The competition was between platforms, not on the platform itself.
Click to expand...

BT Games, Game4U and Koodoo for a physical vs Online Store = Competition

If Xbox was big enough, and/or Nintendo Strong enough, you could have had them compete but more and more games come out on Sony only cause of lack market share on others eg: Stellar Blade...
 
AlphaJohn said:
BT Games, Game4U and Koodoo for a physical vs Online Store = Competition
Click to expand...

Yep. Second-hand market in competition with physical releases at retail in competition with the digital storefront. What is going away is the ownership aspect of it all, aka, the second-hand market. Less competition is only good for sony.
 
AlphaJohn said:
Thats not even it for me. Its the lack of competition that is the problem.

On PC you can go to Steam, Gog, Xbox PC marketplace, Uplay, EA or even Epic store to buy/rent digital games. They all have an incentive to make you happy else you move on.

On the console space Microsoft seem to have shot themselves in the foot so many times that they barely have a leg to stand on. Nintendo is doing their own thing with lower spec'ed devices. Sony is noticing the lack of competition and now, move to become a monopoly where they can do and charge as they please and there is nothing the end user can do about it.

Fun times ahead indeed.
Click to expand...

This made-up hysteria is what I differ with.

Sony is a business. They supply a demand. PS already charges more for digital than disc. They already have most of the upmarket console market share. But they will still have Xbox as competition next gen, as well as Nintendo.

Not offering discs will not suddenly make them a monopoly, nor will they be able to charge what they want, because demand will dwindle and they will lose money. And lose customers and enable their competition. Economics 101.

People are fully entilted to vote with their wallets and walk away from Sony now.

But this manufactured hysteria and wild assertions of a monopoly and Sony-will-be-able-to-charge-what-they-want-to- because-there-is-no-disc-drive is just ridiculous.
 
AlphaJohn said:
BT Games, Game4U and Koodoo for a physical vs Online Store = Competition

If Xbox was big enough, and/or Nintendo Strong enough, you could have had them compete but more and more games come out on Sony only cause of lack market share on others eg: Stellar Blade...
Click to expand...

Xbox couldn't even bother having a proper BR drive in their current consoles, it's limited to 50GB which is why a lot of "discs" on Xbox are purely download codes or only contain half the game. Not to mention many games don't even bother having a physical edition on XB. Their digital ratio is over 90%, I don't understand why you think they would have been some bastion for physical games, it's literally the opposite (remember this leaked doc?):

F6XMIQebEAAa75X.jpg

As for Stellar Blade: it was published by Sony, so they paid at least for part of the development, it again had nothing to do with market share - companies are surely allowed to prioritise their platforms when they pay for stuff? How is it different than MS paying for Stalker 2 which only came much later to PS5?

I actually think they regretted their partnership with Stellar Blade though, but since you might have missed it, it was announced for SW2 anyway...
 
Syphonx said:
But there never was 'competition'. On PS you always had to go through Sony, same with Xbox and the other consoles. The competition was between platforms, not on the platform itself.
Click to expand...

There was competition in price though.

A few years ago Sony killed the ability to sell and buy SONY PSN digital games on 3rd party sites, whether Amazon, Play Asia or G2A. You could score digital games at a big discount.

Upon killing that, Sony claimed that there still was competition and that was the physical disc which often goes on sale at department stores or online stores.

Now they're killing that disc, there will no longer be any price competition. It will be a complete walled garden.

CleanShot 2026-08-01 at 09.57.18@2x.pngCleanShot 2026-08-01 at 09.57.05@2x.png
 
People forget that Humble Bundle and others also had PS digital games in the bundles, eg:

CleanShot 2026-08-01 at 10.08.55@2x.png

Note how Sony has regressed their offering. Their store was far more open in the past. You could buy discounted keys online or in department stores or you could buy physical discs which sometimes came with their own special bonus codes and were sometimes cheaper or went on sale more often.

Sony fanboys here who defend them are anti-consumer and anti-gamer.
 
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