Physical Game Discs To Be Phased Out By 2028

Physical discs for PC games disappeared well over a decade ago, but have persisted for console games for numerous reasons. First, for large installation reasons, it would take several hours to download a large digital game; second, the disc contains a license key; third, discs can be traded, and fourth, discs are more secure against piracy, as far as I know. I’ve never owned a console, so I had to discover this information for myself. But more than just the technical side of discs is the emotional side for collectors, so when Sony announced that physical discs would be phased out in 2028, the console gaming community quite rightly reacted fiercely.

From what I can gather, back in the early days of console gaming, you just slotted the disc into the console and started gaming. Naturally, hardware progressed, and clearly, SSDs are much faster than optical drives, so games got copied from the discs to the SSDs. In a sense, this signalled the end of optical discs, especially since game data for AAA titles often exceeds 100GB which is the maximum for PS5 Ultra HD Blu-ray discs. The average size of a console game today is 60-120GB with some now exceeding 250GB which is way beyond the capacity of a Blu-ray disc. I already know this for PC gaming because Forza Horizon 6 comes in at over 160GB.

We Love To Collect

There is an emotional, nostalgic attachment to collecting stuff. The above is my collection of PC games, and when I look at them, I remember where I was when I bought the game, which PC I first installed it on, and how I felt when I fired it up for the first time. I don’t get that from my Steam library, so for me it’s the physical act of placing the CD into the tray and playing the game, which I still do from time to time on my retro PCs.

What Console Gamers Are Saying

Most consider this to be anti-consumer, giving Sony a monopoly because a PlayStation game listed in the Sony store for $70 could be picked up on eBay for half that price (on a used disc). As we PC gamers already know, when a game is delisted, you can no longer buy it, but at least with a physical disc, you will always ‘own’ it. Many movies bought by gamers for viewing on their consoles have been removed due to licensing agreements – another reason for gamers to be pissed off. And then we have backward compatibility, a huge issue with consoles, so if games are digital only, many will be unplayable.

The last physical boxed game I bought for PC was probably Half-Life 2 back in 2004, and even then, the disc contained only part of the game and required a Steam account to download the rest. Naturally, console gamers are up in arms about this development, but I can’t see Sony changing its mind. The same goes for Xbox games, even though Microsoft has yet to confirm that it will follow suit, it’s bound to happen as it already has with Rockstar’s GTA VI.

What are your thoughts? Please comment below.

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