Image credit: Em Stonham for Kyusai
2026 has been a weird year for gaming as a whole, but if you’re someone who falls into both the PlayStation userbase and physical media community, chances are that you’re having an especially rough time as a fan.
As announced on July 1st in an official PlayStation blog post, the company is planning to ditch physical copies of games from 2028 for new titles on PlayStation consoles. I’m gutted as a PlayStation geek to see this, and it’s got me reconsidering just how much I care about future consoles.
PlayStation is pulling the plug on physical copies
The PlayStation team put out a blog post on the official site on July 1, 2026, detailing the plans to ditch physical discs for new games on PlayStation consoles from January 2028.
“Following this date, new games will be available on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only,” the article clarifies, meaning any games that release on PlayStation post-January 2028 will not be available in disc format.
Learning this directly after the Grand Theft Auto 6 code-in-a-box debacle had me feeling utterly dismayed as someone who games almost exclusively on PlayStation consoles.
I’m a huge physical media lover from a collector’s point of view, sure, but I also find it to be much more convenient. Games feel like they’re getting larger and larger nowadays, and to put it politely, storage has never been much of a strong suit for the PlayStation 5, based on my time with it.
Not being able to pick up physical discs for new releases or, eventually, find them at second-hand stores down the line sounds miserably inconvenient, and I’m worried about how this may price some players out of gaming as well.
It’s not the first time PlayStation has been in the limelight when discussing physical media lately, either.
The company had a recent content licensing agreement change with Studio Canal, leading to scores of movies being deleted from paying customers’ accounts as of September 1, 2026. Play has no limits, after all, except defined limits on ownership.
The state of physical media support from PlayStation looks bleak, to be frank, and I urge folks who haven’t started collecting their own physical copies of games to start looking into this.
If there’s a movie or a game that you truly love and want to be able to access at all times, check out your local thrift, secondhand stores, or game stores to see how a copy is priced. It’s worth looking at the collections of sites like Lost In Cult and Fangamer to see if they have special editions of any favorites, too.
The best time to start a physical media collection is yesterday; the second-best time is today. Can it be a bit clunky sometimes? Sure. Is there a scalping problem for some games? Absolutely. But having an actual copy of your favorite media means you’ll always be able to access it and enjoy it.
2026 has been an utterly odd year for PlayStation fans and physical media lovers so far, and I’m personally hoping to see further comment on the matter – or even a change in decision. Even limited runs of physical copies would be better than ditching discs for good.
FAQs
Local game stores and markets are always great to scour for physical copies of games, along with specialist suppliers like Fangamer or Lost In Cult.
Physical copies – be that games, movies, books, music, or something else entirely – mean you’ll always have access to your favourite media. They can also be wonderful collector’s items, particularly if it’s a copy of a game that holds significance for you; my Resident Evil copy is an item that I cherish dearly.
If you’re just getting started with a physical media collection of any kind, start small and look for a physical copy of a game/piece of media that you truly love. Shop around on different platforms and at different stores, and spend some time looking into the best pricing.
Yes – I’m biased as a games collector myself, but I think physical game copies are worth it. You’ll never run the risk of losing a game you love to licensing issues, digital storage price hikes, or server problems.
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