Sony’s PlayStation disc decision threatens $7 billion resale market

In June 2013, sonyPlayStation has released a short video showing how easy it is to share games on PlayStation.

Shuhei Yoshida, a Sony executive at the time, handed the disc to his colleague Adam Boyes and that was that. However, it was seen as an attack on a rival, not just a directive. microsoft Xbox’s strict game sharing policy.

At a conference that year, Jack Tretton, then president and CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment America, said, “You trade games at retail. You sell them to other people. You lend them to friends, you keep them forever.” “When a gamer purchases a PS4 disc, they are entitled to use that copy of the game.”

The line drew a standing ovation and helped intensify the backlash that prompted Xbox to reverse its restrictive policies.

Now, in the eyes of some, Sony is becoming the very villain it was ridiculed for.

PlayStation has announced that starting in January 2028, it will no longer produce physical discs for new games released on the console, and new releases will be digital only.

If a retail version is sold in a box, it will include a download code instead of a disc.

One of the first games to use this model is reportedly take-two interactiveThe long-awaited Grand Theft Auto 6 is published by Rockstar Games and is scheduled for release this year.

Sony has an economic advantage. By selling more games digitally, the company will reduce the need to manufacture physical boxes and eliminate physical discs altogether, increasing profit margins.

Michael Pachter, managing director of strategic planning at Wedbush Securities, told CNBC that while the move will save Sony some money, “there’s no question that consumers are paying taxes in terms of less choice.”

Discs can be resold, traded, lent to friends, given as gifts, placed on a shelf, or stored after closing. You can’t do that with a download code.

Without physical discs, gamers won’t be able to buy cheap used games or recover money from finished games. The changes will give Sony more control over where its games are sold, when they are discounted, and for how long consumers can access them.

“This is a really ironic turn of events,” Kazunori Ito, director of equity research at Morningstar, told CNBC. He said Sony gained goodwill in 2013 by presenting physical discs as a “simple, consumer-friendly option.”

On YouTube, gamers are replaying old Sony clips and leaving scathing comments: “This is like watching a wedding video after a divorce.” “Oh, how the mighty have fallen,” wrote another.

Existing physical games and titles released on disc before the end are not affected.

Michael Futter, founder of video game industry consultancy F-Squared, told CNBC: “This is an extremely anti-consumer decision that has no good reason and conveys disdain for the players in the ecosystem.”

The problem for Futter is that consoles are closed ecosystems controlled by platform owners. On PC, players can purchase games through other marketplaces such as Steam and Epic Games Store.

“Sony wants us to believe that the PC market’s transition to digital is exactly the same way that consoles will go down that path, but that’s simply not the case,” Fattah said.

Sony and PlayStation did not respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.

Sony’s move has a direct impact on the used game economy. Dataintelo estimates that the global used gaming platform market, which includes used games, consoles, accessories, and peripherals, was worth $7.2 billion in 2025 and will reach $13.8 billion by 2034.

“The reality is that historically at least a third of games were sold used, and games sold used also provided currency to gamers who traded them in for cash to pay for new games,” Wedbush’s Patcher said. “Brick-and-mortar game retailing is doomed.”

Older games may remain in circulation even after disc production has ended, but this is not possible with digital games.

Morningstar’s Ito predicts that the used game market will “continue to shrink and eventually disappear.”

Futter said developers have less flexibility when it comes to discounts compared to the PC platform, where games can be sold on stores like Steam, Epic Games Store and GOG.

But Sony’s defenders may argue that the market has changed since 2013. Sony’s full-year 2025 results showed that revenue from physical PlayStation 4 and 5 games was nearly one-tenth of revenue from digital downloads of full games.

Sony said in an announcement that the decision is “a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends, as the general preference for digital media has significantly outpaced physical discs.”

Ubisoft executive Philip Tremblay said in 2024 that gamers should be comfortable “not having to own the game,” sparking a massive backlash from gamers.

Sony recently announced that PlayStation Store purchases on PS3 and PS Vita will end in most countries in July 2027.

Separately, the licensing agreement will see more than 500 previously purchased movies removed from users’ PlayStation libraries, but Sony’s notice does not mention any compensation.

Still, some were wary of what the measure would ultimately lead to.

“What can we do to prevent PlayStation from taking the same action with the games we buy?” Fattah argued.

Mr. Ito also expressed concern.

“There’s an important difference between a player finding value in a shift and accepting it, and effectively forcing a shift by taking away an alternative option,” he said.

“Most people want to migrate in their own way and at their own pace, rather than having their migration driven by the demise of physical disks,” he added.