Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that starting from January 2028, new PlayStation game releases will stop producing physical game discs, officially moving toward a fully digital future. This decision has naturally sparked pushback from many players, since physical games involve not just collector’s value, but also second-hand trading, game preservation, and the question of whether players really “own” their games.
However, not all industry figures feel pessimistic about this policy. CyberConnect2 CEO Hiroshi Matsuyama has publicly stated that a full shift to digital distribution is “only good” for developers, with a rather straightforward reason — optical discs have already become hard to compete with digital downloads in terms of convenience.
GTA 6 is a Living Example!
Matsuyama believes that modern game sizes are becoming increasingly massive, making physical discs themselves an increasingly awkward existence. Even when a game comes on a disc, players typically still need to download updates, patches, or additional content, so “buying a disc means you can fully play the game” is no longer as matter-of-fact as it used to be. GamesRadar also pointed out that Grand Theft Auto VI,about to release, is itself a representative case of ever-expanding game file sizes, potentially making traditional disc distribution even more troublesome. Simply put, as games get bigger and bigger, while discs are still struggling to fit the data, it’s a bit like insisting on using only a small suitcase when moving.
The Biggest Advantage of Digital Is Actually “No Waiting”
Beyond the storage issue, going fully digital also has certain benefits for the development process. Physical games need to be produced, pressed, packaged, and shipped to retail channels well before the official launch, requiring the version to be finalized before release. Digital distribution, however, allows development teams to be more flexible with updates and patches. This is also why many developers have supported digital distribution in the past, especially since ongoing post-launch updates have become the norm for large games — the disc version is likely just the “starting version” when players first launch the game. Of course, this isn’t necessarily all good news for players either, because the gap between “buying the game” and “finally being able to play after downloading a bunch of stuff” has become increasingly short.
What Players Care About Might Not Be Convenience
The real controversy behind Sony’s full digital shift isn’t really about disc convenience, but players’ perception of game ownership. Physical games can at least be collected, resold, or played again in the future, while digital versions are more dependent on platform stores and account services. Even if developers think digitization reduces production and distribution headaches, players will still worry about whether games they paid for can still be accessed normally after a platform shuts down.
Sony has already committed to this path, and titles like GTA 6 are fueling the discussion on whether “digital-only is the end game.\strong> For players, discs might indeed not be convenient enough, but at least they won’t suddenly become just a line in account history because a server sneezes.