A gaming industry analyst reacted to Sonys decision to suspend physical disc releases by saying that the industry has an opportunity to lower production costs further. On July 1, Sony officially announced that they will stop releasing new video game discs for PlayStation consoles starting in January 2028.
The decision has led many to believe that Sony's next-gen console will be digital-only or include a separately sold disc drive. However, it is not yet clear how outgoing discs will affect physical game releases. One expert now says that while the future is not entirely certain, one thing that seems clear is that companies like Sony can now achieve better margins on sales by cutting costs.
PlayStation's main disc-producing site is already being repurposed
While disc-based PlayStation games will still be released until 2028, Sony is already starting to cut back on its production of physical copies.
Prepaid playing cards may soon replace physical boxes
“There is an opportunity to further reduce costs,” said Piers Harding-Rolls, a gaming industry analyst at Ampere Analysis. He suggests this could come through prepaid playing cards or similar options. Harding-Rolls says publishers are currently forced to take additional risks by investing in record production and paying a royalty fee to Sony “before any payments are received.” Therefore, the analyst believes that removing the costs of producing physical media could potentially help publishers achieve better profit margins and ultimately offset increases in other areas, such as development and staff budgets.
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According to Harding-Rolls, the decline in physical game releases poses a direct threat to retailers that specialize in selling video games. To reduce that risk, he believes companies need to develop more creative ways to still offer some form of physical product. “Calling time on physical media will mean innovation around in-store digital game sales to try to replace lost business,” he says. One such “solution” could be a shift to prepaid playing cards, which many players are already familiar with and which are cheaper to produce.
After losing discs, music boxes can also shrink
Harding-Rolls believes that, aside from Sony's no-disc policy, Take-Two's decision to replace GTA 6 discs with boxed codes is likely to encourage more major video game publishers to follow suit. “[The] move will accelerate a trend toward digital codes being sold at retail versus physical media, he says. However, what remains uncertain is whether the publishers will continue to release these “physical codes for a digital game” in full-size cases. If the primary motive behind the no-disc movement is to reduce production costs, it would make sense for publishers to either abandon physical costs to reduce their size or reduce their size.
In theory, an all-digital, disc-less gaming industry should be more sustainable given how ongoing RAM shortages and similar production hurdles have adversely affected video game companies. The worrying aspect, however, is that a digital-only ecosystem compromises ownership, and as Harding-Rolls explains, “also undermines the used game market.” Sony's track record of removing users' digitally owned products without warning or refunds also doesn't help inspire optimism about how things are progressing right now.
Unsurprisingly, gamer reactions to Sony's announcement have been largely negative, and there's even a petition calling for Sony to reconsider abandoning discs. That said, many experts, including Harding-Rolls, believe that “physical product has declined in importance” and see the move to no-disc policies as inevitable for big companies like Sony.
Source: Ampere Analysis
