As consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital, physical game disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January 2028. Following this date, new games will be available on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only. This transition has no impact on games that already released, or will be releasing, prior to January 2028 in disc format.
This is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs. This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today.
We’ll continue to prioritize our resources to drive innovation in how players can access games and provide choices as to where players prefer to purchase new games, whether that’s at retailers or PlayStation Store. We remain committed to delivering a world-class gaming experience to our fans and we thank you for your continued support.
The tradeoff for PC was games are cheap and sold by (theoretically) multiple storefronts...
If consoles don't have physical game that can be sold/traded/rented, then a lot less people are going to buy consoles. You're still locked to PS store and are at their complete mercy on prices with no second hand market.
This could kill PlayStation when they release their next generation. People with ps5s will keep using them, but very few will jump to PS6 if it's still like this.