Last week, Rockstar Games announced that Grand Theft Auto VI would not ship with a disc in the box. A week later, PlayStation confirmed that it would stop producing game discs starting in 2028. The message from both companies was clear: the future of gaming is digital. In response, the gaming community rallied, flooding social media and online forums to decry the death of physical media.
Hard data shows that digital video game purchases far outweigh spending on physical discs and cartridges. But for a community that prides itself on picturesque shelves filled with treasured memories, the reality differs from a company’s cold, unfeeling analytics.
According to Sony Interactive Entertainment’s announcement on the PlayStation Blog, “the general preference for digital media” was cited as one of the reasons behind ending disc production. Sony’s 2025 financial report tells a similar story, with 78 per cent of games sold on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 coming from its digital storefront.
This is the public-facing reasoning from PlayStation, but as games industry consultant Jon Cartwright says, there’s another clear factor behind the decision.
“Ultimately, it’s about revenue and profit,” Cartwright said. “Doing retail, doing physical, there are a lot of costs involved in terms of the manufacturing, the distribution, retail — everybody’s taking a cut.”
He added that there’s a long precedent established for PlayStation embracing a digital-only future. Steam, the digital PC game marketplace operated by Valve, was a major factor behind PC discs going the way of the dodo. Another reason, according to Cartwright, is the rise of subscription services, including many games launching on Xbox Game Pass.
2024 European retail data indicated that less than 20 per cent of Xbox game sales came from physical media. By comparison, Nintendo is something of an anomaly. 54.6 per cent of the company’s software sales were digital, according to the most recent annual report. Even so, Nintendo is leaning towards the digital distribution model, with its latest quarter reporting 67.2 per cent digital sales.
Again, data tells only one part of the story. There’s a lot of emotion related to PlayStation’s announcement, much of which is readily seen online.
“For the enthusiast, it’s a middle finger thrust in their faces from a corporation that feels they should only interact with its games and systems on its terms,” said David Smith, former managing editor of Kotaku Australia. “For Sony, it’s a rounding error on a spreadsheet being taken care of before it faces the shareholders. The player, the actual customer, isn’t even a consideration.”
So, while PlayStation’s assertion that it is following player habits is accurate, it doesn’t capture the entire picture of why its decision has sparked such fierce outcry.
What do we lose when physical media dies?
Among physical media buyers, a common argument for the format is a sense of ownership. Just days before PlayStation’s announcement that it would end physical disc production, it was confirmed that hundreds of StudioCanal movies would be removed from console owners’ libraries.
The move highlighted that purchasing digital media doesn’t grant ownership, only a licence to access the software. In the StudioCanal instance, PlayStation cited “content licensing agreements” behind the impending content removal.
Similarly, buying a disc doesn’t grant ownership. As outlined in the PlayStation End User Licence Agreement, game software of any format is “licensed to you, not sold”. However, there’s nothing PlayStation can do to prevent people lending or selling discs.
With more games going digital-only, there are concerns that players could lose access based on the whims of platform holders. As Seb Chan, ACMI CEO and Director, explained, it’s already happening with TV and film.
“If you think about the important community preservation role that VHS and then DVD rental libraries have historically played in preserving copies of less well-known TV and film,” Chan said. “Compare that with the complexities when TV series and films are produced by streaming companies like Netflix, Stan, and have no physical copy, you can get a sense of what will come with video games.”
Several high-profile examples of game delistings also reverberate strongly in the minds of gamers. Older versions of Forza Horizon, including the Australia-set third entry, are no longer available to buy digitally because of expired licensing. Those who already own the games can still download and play them, but any newcomers can only hope to stumble upon a pre-owned physical copy.
However, in the case of online multiplayer games, like Concord, platform holders can take the games offline entirely. This renders them unplayable and inaccessible to everyone. Concord did release on disc, though, which has since become a collector’s item and a warning.
“Though those discs no longer work now that Sony has pulled it from sale and shut its servers off, they are the only evidence the game ever existed at all, for those who bought it to hold onto it, and the only way anyone can preserve its game files for posterity,” Smith said. “Ironically, Sony’s most public embarrassment and its scramble to erase a PR own goal became a symbol of how physical media helps a work endure.”
Without physical discs, players miss out on choice, but developers also miss out on seeing their work in lights. Cartwright fondly recalled his time working on PlayStation 2 games, where on launch day, the entire team would visit the nearest games retailer to celebrate and bask in the glow of their game on retail shelves.
He added that with the discoverability issues of digital platforms, a retail presence remains an important marketing strategy, especially for smaller developers.
“I always look at retail like you’ve got a lot of little adverts in thousands of game stores around the world,” Cartwright said. “People might not have seen your game (before), and the retail store might be the first place they see it.”
Production costs associated with retail distribution mean that a physical release isn’t possible for all developers. However, for those that are able to produce a physical object, it’s seen as a significant achievement. Cult of the Lamb, Momento, and Untitled Goose Game are among some of the recent Australian-made games to make their way onto retail shelves.
Having worked with Australian and New Zealand developers on physical releases, including Dredge and Conscript, he believed that making a disc or a cartridge also adds a sense of “legitimacy” to the game, avoiding perceptions of “shovelware”.
Preserving games for future generations
Of the many arguments in favour of physical media, preservation is among the most common. According to a 2023 study by the Video Game History Foundation, nearly 87 per cent of games released in the US before 2010 are no longer available.
Museums and archives around the world are aiming to fill the gap left behind by video game companies, trying to ensure that history is not lost. Here in Australia, ACMI and Powerhouse are some of the organisations working to preserve games old and new for future generations.
However, with the rise of digital-only distribution, and PlayStation’s plans to cease disc manufacturing, there are fears that these preservation efforts will become more difficult.
“Without a physical copy – an ‘original’ – museums and archives have next to no options for preservation but to either breach DRM or negotiate directly with games companies who may no longer exist, in order to legally collect a ‘copy’ of a game for preservation purposes,” Chan said.
The growing trend towards digital-only media also impacts the culture surrounding games, according to Chloe Appleby, Program Curator at Powerhouse.
“The loss of physical media in games and the movement towards digital media only will greatly impact games culturally as we lose a form of identity for personal collecting,” Appleby said. “However, from a preservation perspective of the games themselves, this doesn’t affect these efforts in the way you think.”
She pointed to Powerhouse’s efforts in collecting several Australian-made games that didn’t have physical releases, including Fuzzy Ghost’s Queer Man Peering Into A Rock Pool.jpg, and Brandan Reville’s The Sydney Mystery.
In a statement posted to the Video Game History Foundation’s social media channels, director Frank Cifaldi expressed disappointment in PlayStation’s decision. But, like Appleby, Cifaldi explained that preservation issues stem from platform holders, not a game’s format.
“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.”
The future of physical
Data might tell you that a digital-only future is a logical step for PlayStation. To the contrary, data alone doesn’t capture the nuances of the many communities that congregate around the medium of games.
PlayStation’s decision to step away from physical media has unified many voices online who wish for a course correction. Appleby believes that there’s a tangible quality that comes with physical media that can’t necessarily be quantified.
“As a curator, I think there is something special about having a physical edition of a game you spend hundreds of hours with,” she said. “The game becomes a part of your self, your identity. It is a prized possession for many and a way to show their achievements to others and spark connections.”
“I think it’s imperative that companies should continue to support physical media due to its meaningfulness to the audience they sell games to. It’s more than a product for many, it is a memory.”
Despite PlayStation’s future plans, Chan expects physical media to remain a staple among enthusiasts.
“We have seen the generational return to vinyl collecting for passionate music fans as music evaporated first into downloads and then into streaming, and we have seen a smaller scale return to physical media for cinephiles too,” he said.
“Game players, and the games community needs to make it clear to video game distribution platforms like Sony, that physical media matters, and is valued, and that, yes, we are willing to pay a few dollars more for it.”
In the meantime, Appleby suggested that people support independent publishers like Lost in Cult and iam8bit that specialise in physical media of new and old games.
As someone who has been in the industry for decades, Cartwright was pleased to see such strong support for physical media.
“I’m kind of heartened to see that there’s a lot of consumer backlash to both Grand Theft Auto being digital-only and also to Sony’s announcement,” he said. “Whether they actually have any effect or not, I think we have to speak up and talk about the fact that we’re not happy about it.”
“I’m not saying that suddenly Xbox or Nintendo are gonna go, ‘do you know what, we’re doubling down on retail’, but if they did, I think they’d get a lot of love today.”
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