Will PlayStation 6 Still Support Physical Games?

Last week, Sony announced that it is ceasing production of recordable Blu-ray discs. PlayStation fans immediately grew concerned. Could this really be the end of physical media? No need to panic right now: the announcement specifically concerns recordable media, so it doesn’t affect movies or games on discs. Nevertheless, this trend is still not a positive one. Let’s figure out what to prepare for in future if you enjoy buying physical copies of games.

For PC gamers who haven’t encountered disc-based games for about ten years now, as well as for younger people who grew up in the age of mass digitalization, the concept of a physical game may seem strange and archaic. You have to go to the store to buy a new release or order delivery to your home? Why bother? What’s convenient about that? Yet this format has plenty of benefits.

For instance, physical games allow you to save quite a bit of money, especially in regions with lower incomes. It’s one thing to buy a new game yourself for 70 euros, and quite another to purchase it, beat it, and then resell it for about 80% of the original cost.

It’s incredibly easy to share physical media with friends, which is why some gamers continue to buy new releases together. You can share digital games as well, but the process is less intuitive.

Discs are indispensable if you have a slow internet connection or connectivity issues. Today, game sizes can easily hit 100 GB or more, and downloading that much data is extremely time-consuming with poor internet. And no, day-one patches are by no means mandatory.

Physical copies are an important tool for game preservation. Unfortunately, releases of varying degrees of importance often disappear from online stores forever. For example, in March of last year in Japan, the digital version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection became unavailable.

Discs are the most reliable way to store and expand your collection of games for older consoles. In 2021, Sony planned to close the PS3 and Vita stores, but due to negative feedback from gamers, it reversed the decision. However, the company can always revert to its original plan at any time. And eventually, the PS4 store may face a similar fate.

Some gamers will argue that the aforementioned advantages don’t matter because disc-based games come out incomplete and require updates. Indeed, if you’re playing on Xbox consoles, almost all new first-party releases have to be downloaded from the internet. Fortunately, in the case of PlayStation and Nintendo Switch, most single-player games are complete on discs or carts. You can play by simply installing from physical media without going online.

According to statistics from Doesitplay.org, maintained by a group of enthusiasts who test physical games, nearly 70% of PlayStation 5 discs don’t require an internet connection and contain complete versions of the games. Of course, day-one patches improve a lot of things, but if you don’t have a stable connection, you can do without them.

By the way, many version 1.00 disc-based games have archival value for historical purposes: some older versions differ so significantly from newer ones that it’s interesting to explore them just to note all the differences. A good example is the disc version of the Silent Hill 2 remake. The build on the physical disc is dated as far back as April 2024, whereas the official release took place in October. If you install it without an internet connection, you’ll get a version that noticeably differs from the release one. And it’s not necessarily worse: in certain cutscenes, there are different angles, lighting, and visual effects, making them in some ways even more interesting than in the final release.

Essentially, for the same reasons many gamers prefer physical copies of games large corporations like Microsoft would, in theory, prefer to abandon the traditional format altogether. That way, they wouldn’t have to worry about the sales of used game copies: today, big publishers make no profit from transactions involving pre-owned discs.

Moreover, if physical console games were to disappear entirely, gamers would be forced to buy new releases only in a single place — the one official digital store installed on the console.

It’s an undeniable fact that digital formats are pushing out traditional media, but it’s important to understand that the share of discs is still so substantial that we’re talking about billions of dollars in revenue.

According to statistics, in Europe alone, in the first half of 2024, almost 25% of all new PlayStation games were still sold in physical form. In the case of the Nintendo Switch, that figure was significantly higher — 65%. And in Japan, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth sold more than a quarter of a million physical copies in just its first few days.

If you actively buy discs for PlayStation consoles, you’re probably worried whether you’ll still be able to do so when the hypothetical PS6 comes out. Naturally, no one has a definitive answer yet, but we can try to make an educated guess.

Many industry experts think the PlayStation 6 will arrive around 2027. In a couple of years, the physical media market will probably shrink even more, but it won’t vanish entirely. Consequently, it’s unlikely that Sony will completely abandon the disc format and the revenue it generates. Most likely, we’ll see a repeat of the PlayStation 5 Pro scenario: you’ll probably be able to connect a disc drive to the new console, but it probably won’t be included by default. By the way, the fact that the recently announced Nintendo Switch 2 supports cartridges is an important indicator that Japanese companies are not yet ready to go fully digital.

Naturally, as physical media’s market share declines, fewer games will be released on discs. But they likely won’t disappear entirely in the near future, though they may become more limited. Major publishers could opt out of manufacturing physical copies themselves and move to a collaboration model with third-party companies like Limited Run Games. LRG releases indie games on discs and cartridges in limited runs, and occasionally even AAA titles like Doom Eternal for Nintendo Switch or collector’s editions of Alan Wake 2.

***

Physical copies have so many advantages that their complete abandonment would inevitably be a tragedy for many console gamers. But even though the future looks somewhat grim, we still think it’s too early to worry.

What do you think about this scenario? Are you ready for a day when discs and cartridges disappear from store shelves forever?