Despite widespread public backlash, Sony has reaffirmed its plan to transition PlayStation to an all-digital platform during the company's FY26 Q1 earnings call. The company is moving forward with ending the production of physical game discs in January 2028. After this date, the company will no longer manufacture physical media for new game releases. This decision gives PlayStation fans and retailers a little over a year and a half to prepare for the change.

When asked about Sony's decision to end production of physical game discs during the Q&A session, Lin Tao, Executive Officer and CFO for Sony, replied that:

"On this point, we announced that January 2028 onwards, we will no longer be manufacturing game discs. One and a half years ahead. We made this announcement at this time. There are various reasons we made this decision."

Tao further explains the rationale behind the digital paradigm shift, a move that was met with negative criticism from PlayStation fans and parts of the industry.

"The biggest being that the digitalization of content overall has been progressing. That’s the big factor. It’s not just for PlayStation, but for all kinds of contents; digitalization is progressing. When we think about the future, we put in a lot of thought and time; we cautiously considered this, we came to this conclusion, we’re going to cautiously move this forward.

To this decision, we have received various opinions; people have strong views. We understand that the community has put forth those views to us.

Games are loved by many people. It’s a form of entertainment that’s loved by people; it’s connected to people’s fond memories in many cases. We understand those emotions. We want to consider that."

According to Sony's financial results for FY26 Q1, which covers the period from April to June, the company raked in $1.2 billion in digital game revenue. In stark contrast, physical game sales brought in only $128 million for Sony, meaning digital revenue was more than 9X higher than physical sales. The growth in digital sales and the disparity with physical sales shows why Sony is eager to go all in on digital.

Sony was asked directly about the impact of discontinuing physical discs. In response, Ishii, a Corporate Communications executive at the company, provided the following statement:

"Well, up until 2028, well, at this point in time, well, we are not seeing any impact on our business as of now. Going forward, about the content sales, I think a large part is already digitized.

Therefore, as a result of the discontinuation of a disc, we don’t see that there will be any negative impact on our business. However, as I already said, the users, the players, have attachments, and we have to think about how to respond to that feedback."

Phasing out game discs will undoubtedly have a significant financial impact on gamers. Physical game discs not only provide ownership, but they also come with the benefit of resale. Gamers can recoup some of what they paid for it once they are finished playing. The extinction of game discs represents the loss of the ability to share physical games with friends and family. The PlayStation platform does not support sharing digital games, unlike services like Valve’s Steam Families or Nintendo’s Virtual Game Cards.

Game discs enable gamers on a tight budget to purchase second-hand copies of games at great prices at their local game stores or online marketplaces. For instance, used copies of The Last of Us Part I, which came out four years ago, go for as little as $25, while the digital version remains priced at around $69.99 on the PlayStation Store. Even during major promotional events like Days of Play or Black Friday, digital discounts have rarely brought prices below $29.99. Second-hand physical copies are simply a more affordable choice for many players.

Without game discs, PlayStation console owners will have to rely more on internal storage, and when that depletes, they will have to expand the storage with the best PS5 SSDs. The issue is that SSDs are ludicrously expensive right now due to the storage shortage, which could last way beyond January 2028.

The discontinuation of physical discs does not just affect consumers but also retailers. However, Sony expects limited business impact in that aspect since the digital transition has somewhat started a long time ago. Tao elaborated, "For the last 30 years, we have been selling PlayStation, and the retail partners have always been important to us. With the completion of the disc production, we communicated this at an early stage so that we have enough time to be able to listen to various partners’ voices.”

Tao continued, “In North America, this has already happened, but without discs. In the package, there’s a code. That’s how they sell in North America. About the retailers, there are regional characteristics. For each regional partner, we try to have thorough dialogues so that we can end up in a win-win situation. Now, the differentiation from PC. We don’t feel that the disc is the factor to differentiate from the PC."

Gamers are actively voicing their opposition to Sony’s move away from physical media. DoesItPlay, a community dedicated to game preservation, has organized a large-scale boycott dubbed #PSBlackout, urging PlayStation users worldwide to turn off their consoles for an entire week, from August 23 to August 30. The X post has amassed over 1.8 million views and 7,500 shares, but it is uncertain how many users will participate. In addition to this digital protest, a Change.org petition with more than 350,000 signatures is asking for Sony to reconsider its decision to end physical game production.

Sony has been winding down its physical media production over the years (for example, physical boxes with a download code), so it was just really a matter of time before the PlayStation ecosystem adapted to the changes. Unfortunately, the die is cast, and there are rumors that Sony has already started repurposing its factories for other endeavors. There is little to no hope that Sony will reverse its decision to discontinue physical game discs.

The state of PlayStation 5 emulation has been rapidly evolving, partially in response to Grand Theft Auto 6's release later this year. The latest milestone is the first 3D games being playable at very respectable framerates of around 30 frames per second.

The two emulators at the forefront of all this are KytyPS5 and SharpEmu, the former of which is intensely focused on expanding compatibility. KytyPS5 was already able to boot 3D titles and go until their loading screens, with at least two smaller games actually rendering graphics. Now, the same emulator can run two 3D games at around 30 FPS, though there are some glitches.

The first game is XIII, the 2020 remake of the 2003 classic, and it's "playable" at up to 30 FPS with real-time gameplay that accepts player input. We put playable in quotation marks because there are very obvious visual glitches that manifest in the environment not rendering correctly. The textures seem to be broken in multiple scenes, though they don't entirely kill the immersion. XIII is a relatively lightweight game but its cell-shaded aesthetic might be adding to emulation complexity.

The same person who tested XIII also tested Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Wrath of the Mutants and managed to run it at just under 25 FPS with real-time gameplay. The game crashes on the first launch, but once initialized, it's stable and does not seem to have any bugs or glitches like XIII. The framerate looks visibly choppy but is undeniably impressive, on a technical level. Kyty can run other 3D PS5 games as well, but not nearly at this level of performance.

KytyPS5 is advancing at a faster pace than SharpEmu, and that's true for the most part, but not out of stagnation. The team behind SharpEmu is busy tackling a different challenge: accuracy and infrastructure setup rather than game-specific compatibility, per its GitHub repo. In other words, it means fixing low-level issues that are preventing games like Astro Bot from currently reaching the gameplay state.

Both emulators are now part of an unexpected emulation race. With GTA 6 just a few months away and GTA 5 already booting in Kyty, it clearly has the better support for now, and its demos are very promising. SharpEmu's work will undoubtedly help the emulation scene at large, along with RPCSX and other independent developers. The craziest part is that you can try all of this at home for free, and just by doing that you're already contributing to the scene.