There is no stopping Sony’s all-digital future for video games. I don’t mean to sound pessimistic, but the company’s decision to kill off physical game discs in 2028 and effectively turn the PlayStation Store into the only place in town where you can grab a new PS5 title won’t be stopped by an endless barrage of memes in the replies section. Like Thanos preparing to snap the universe into a 50% discount on life, it’s inevitable.
Sony has said as much in recent comments, carefully tiptoeing around the subject with polite, investor-friendly language and stats that seemingly reinforce the plan, as the company said that 82% of games sold during the April-June quarter were digital sales. We’ve written about the topic, how it’s the end of an era, why people are so (justifiably) upset, and the response from some of the biggest names in the industry, but now is the time to look forward and focus those energies where it counts.
If Sony wants to increase its profits and sell games in a digital-only format, then it also needs to ensure that the consumer process is safe and fair, because it’ll have healthy competition from other platforms. And one way it could do that is by taking a page out of Steam’s book, as Valve’s digital platform helped usher in an end to physical PC game sales decades before Sony was catching flak for following in those footsteps.
