Sony’s PlayStation disc shift puts $7bn used-game market under pressure

Sony Interactive Entertainment will stop producing physical discs for new PlayStation games from January 2028, moving new releases to digital distribution and download-code retail boxes. The decision could reshape a second-hand gaming market that Dataintelo valued at $7.2 billion in 2025, with implications for retailers, publishers and consumers who rely on resale.

Under the change announced by PlayStation, new games released on Sony consoles will no longer be manufactured on disc after the end of 2027. Existing physical games and titles released on disc before the cutoff will continue to be unaffected, according to the company’s announcement.

The commercial logic is straightforward. Digital sales remove disc manufacturing and packaging costs, while concentrating transactions inside the PlayStation Store. Sony’s full-year 2025 results showed revenue from digital downloads of full PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 games was almost 10 times revenue from physical games.

Sony said the move reflects a “natural direction” for Sony Interactive Entertainment as consumer preference for digital media outpaces physical discs. Sony and PlayStation did not respond to CNBC requests for comment.

Ownership and resale concerns

The change reverses a consumer-friendly stance Sony highlighted during the 2013 console cycle, when PlayStation contrasted its disc-sharing policies with Microsoft’s then-restrictive Xbox approach. At the time, Sony Computer Entertainment America chief Jack Tretton told a conference that players could trade, sell, lend or keep a PS4 disc, adding that buyers had rights to use that copy of the game.

Analysts and industry observers told CNBC that the 2028 policy reduces consumer choice. Michael Pachter, managing director of strategic planning at Wedbush Securities, said the shift would save Sony some money, while consumers would face “less optionality.”

A disc can circulate after the first sale. Players can trade it in, lend it, give it away, sell it, or keep it as a collectible item. A download code does not carry the same practical resale or lending options once redeemed.

Kazunori Ito, director of equity research at Morningstar, called the move “an extremely ironic turn of events,” saying Sony had built goodwill in 2013 by presenting discs as the easier and more consumer-friendly format.

Michael Futter, founder of video game consultancy F-Squared, told CNBC the console market differs from the PC market because console platforms are closed systems controlled by the platform owner. PC players can buy through multiple stores, including Steam, Epic Games Store and GOG, while PlayStation users depend more heavily on Sony’s storefront.

Retail market impact

Dataintelo estimates the global second-hand game platform market, including pre-owned games, consoles, accessories and peripherals, will reach $13.8 billion by 2034. Pachter said at least one-third of games had historically been sold as used, and that trade-ins gave players cash to buy new games. He told CNBC that brick-and-mortar game retail is “doomed.”

Ito said he expects the second-hand market for games to keep contracting and eventually disappear as new releases cease to enter the resale channel. Older disc-based titles can continue to trade, but digital-only releases cannot feed the used-game supply.

The shift also comes as Sony narrows older digital services. PlayStation has said purchasing on the PS3 and PS Vita stores will close in most countries in July 2027. Separately, Sony has notified users that more than 500 previously purchased movies will be removed from PlayStation libraries because of licensing agreements, with no compensation mentioned in the notice.

GameSpot has reported that Take-Two Interactive’s Grand Theft Auto 6, published by Rockstar Games and slated for release this year, will be among the early high-profile titles using a boxed download-code model rather than a disc.

This story draws on original reporting from CNBC.