Sony will stop producing and selling physical discs for PlayStation games in early 2028, and the company says it does not intend to reverse course.

Chief Financial Officer Lin Tao — whose legal name, registered in Sony's family records, is Lin Imaizumi — addressed the decision during a Q&A on Sony's earnings call held on 31 July 2026. He said Sony had "cautiously considered" the move and would "cautiously move this forward," according to Eurogamer. Tao pointed to "the progressing digitalization of content" as the biggest factor behind the decision.

The announcement has drawn sharp pushback. A petition urging Sony to reverse course has reached 300,000 signatures, VGC reports. The UK's Entertainment Retailers Association, the trade body for physical and digital entertainment sales, publicly condemned the plan. CEO Kim Bayley called it "a triumph of corporate convenience over consumer choice," arguing that physical games "continue to bring people into shops and give consumers real value through gifting, collecting and resale."

Tao acknowledged that the gaming community has expressed strong views and emotions opposing the decision, and said Sony wants to explore how to engage gamers in the future digital ecosystem.

On the retail side, Tao said Sony has been in discussions with retailers worldwide about the transition, and communicated the end of disc production "at an early stage" to allow time to listen to partners. He noted that in North America, "code-in-a-box" releases — retail packages that contain a download code instead of a disc — are already how games are sold. He said there are "regional characteristics for each regional partner" and that Sony will aim for a "win-win situation," VGC reports.

Behind the scenes, the shift is already underway at the hardware level. Sony's largest PlayStation disc production site, in Austria, is preparing to move away from disc manufacturing. The company has invested roughly €30 million in new equipment there for making optical microlenses instead of discs, and has begun training staff on the new production lines, according to VGC.

The disclosure came alongside Sony's Q1 FY2026 earnings, covering the three months ended 30 June 2026. Sony sold 1.6 million PlayStation 5 consoles in that quarter — roughly a third fewer than the same period a year earlier, Reuters reports. Cumulative PS5 sales stood at 93.7 million units as of 31 March 2026. Despite the hardware decline, first-quarter profit beat analyst forecasts, and Sony raised its full-year guidance.

Sony expects the business impact of ending disc production to be limited, though the company acknowledges it could draw criticism from some users and retailers, Investing.com reports.

For players who have built shelves of physical games — and the retailers who sell them — early 2028 is now the working deadline for a format that has defined console gaming since the original PlayStation in 1994.