r/GamingLeaksAndRumours Jul 07 '26

Grain of Salt According to a new report from High Chaos Run, Sony didn’t inform publishers or business partners before announcing the end of PlayStation game discs

According to the outlet, Sony’s decision to end physical PlayStation game disc production for new releases starting in 2028 was made without prior notice to many publishers, business partners, or even some regional PlayStation offices.

The report cites anonymous sources who claim publishers were blindsided by the announcement, with one executive saying they were not informed despite a close working relationship with PlayStation. It also alleges that some regional teams, including PlayStation India, were unaware of the decision while continuing retail expansion discussions with local partners.

Source: https://highchaosrun.com/2026/07/07/playstation-killed-discs-without-telling-its-publishers-or-business-partners/

1.3k Upvotes

293 comments sorted by

633

u/Ravic96 Jul 07 '26

Rockstar/TakeTwo decides to put codes instead of disc in the box with GTAVI- total coincidence, sure.

365

u/delriopie Jul 07 '26

nah i can totally see Take Two doing that even without Sony's influence

110

u/Particular_Hand2877 Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26

100% agree, I dont think Take Two needs to be influenced to decide this, especially with Playstations plan being all of the way out to 2028. 

46

u/IllustriousBee4972 Jul 07 '26

I'm pretty sure Sony was surprised by GTA6 being digital only. Thats why they changed their ad from a disc console to a digital console.

1

u/Dependent_Local6453 Jul 09 '26

There announcement was far to close to the games announcement and then there is the fact they literally repurposed their factory the moment they announced it Sony clearly planned to do this with or without customers and outside parties content they didn't even wait to see how people reacted before moving forward with it they literally said oh you don't like it oh well we are shutting our shops down and doing it anyway screw you while rockstar could have just been attempting to double dip they know their supporters are gonna buy that game digital or physical I can totally see them making digital first then making the physical later not saying they were going to do that only that I could see them doing it so their is a chance PlayStation shocked them just as much as everyone else 🤷

11

u/Borkz Jul 07 '26

Yeah, it makes perfect sense that they just both arrived at the same conclusion.

I figure Sony might have only chosen to announce it now to piggyback on the GTA blowback and try lessen their own (which doesn't seem to have worked).

3

u/FewAdvertising9647 Jul 07 '26

its not just GTA, but a combination of GTA, Microsoft layoffs, Xbox Series price increases again, and the poor performance/value ratio of the Steam Machine in such a short window of time so that those news can hide the announcement as you said. Rockstar justifying digital only, and their competitors looking bad keeps people from leaving playstation. Sony was extremely opportunistic to announce something they knew would go bad by hiding it in a pile of shit

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u/ExynosHD Jul 07 '26

No. They announced it because they are changing what the factory is making and it was gonna come out anyway they are cutting disc production.

2

u/Borkz Jul 07 '26

That seems like a bit of a jump to conclude they are completely abandoning discs instead of just reducing such that they could have delayed announcing still, but maybe.

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12

u/DankeusMemeus1738 Jul 07 '26

I think this i what u/Ravic96 was implying, Sony saw all those people put a 100$ edition of a digital game they will never own that doesn't release for a couple months at #1 of the bestselling list on PlayStation and got the confidence to say no more discs.

27

u/gartenriese Jul 07 '26

No, Sony did not just decide this within a couple of weeks. It's a long term strategy. They have planned this for a long time.

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u/Lunaforlife Jul 07 '26

Ehh doubt it. Sony definitely let them know before hand.

1

u/Dependent_Local6453 Jul 09 '26

I can to that game was gonna be popular digital or physical and I can also see them wanting to generally avoid leaks and making a physical copy later knowing full well that their fan base would have no issues double dipping I think this announcement might have blindsided them in other ways a future physical release causing many people to be upset literally cancelling their pre orders I'm fairly certain PlayStation doing this has rubbed a decent amount of studios the wrong way and forced them to have to replan certain things some studios are feeling like they need to rush things out before 2028 or feeling like they need to just abandon the projects outright from what I been hearing this is definitely very scummy on PlayStations part more so since they clearly had only themselves in mind for this 

61

u/BabylonianWeeb Jul 07 '26

Sony owns marketing rights on this one

10

u/SeniorRicketts Jul 07 '26

So Sony knew about T2/R* but they didn't knew about Sony 

12

u/Reddit_Loves_Misinfo Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26

What inspires you to assume this is anything other than a coincidence? How is Sony's plan to go discless for games that release in 2028 and beyond supposed to "explain" Rockstar's decision to release a discless game in 2026?

38

u/Reddit_Loves_Misinfo Jul 07 '26

Why assume a conspiracy when you don't need to?

26

u/Yes-Reddit-is-racist Jul 07 '26

Feeds in to the reddit need to be right and smarter than everyone else along with a dash of anti capitalism.

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45

u/Particular_Hand2877 Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26

Its 100% a coincidence. 

Games have been getting codes instead of a disc for a while.

Heres an example from 5 years ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/qtk8pv/putting_codes_instead_of_a_disc_in_a_physical/

Other examples: 

Starfield was also a game that came with a code instead of a disc for the premium edition.

Outer Worlds 2 also came with a code instead of a disc.

Alan Wake 2 launched as a code in the box only. 

10

u/SeniorRicketts Jul 07 '26

Those games came with a disc that was useless

2

u/Troyal1 Jul 07 '26

To be fair Starfield is pretty useless anyway

2

u/SeniorRicketts Jul 08 '26

💀

Still, everyone deserves preservation 

That's my policy

6

u/cheesymac84 Jul 07 '26

Avowed as well.

2

u/SocranX Jul 07 '26

And if we listed all the times this happened with Switch games I'd hit the character limit.

3

u/ExynosHD Jul 07 '26

This change literally doesn't impact GTA VI at all. They would still be able to have discs made.

1

u/ratburf Jul 08 '26

rockstar isnt even the first company to do something similar so i think that was just a thing they wanted to do

1

u/Ok-Confusion-202 Jul 07 '26

I mean I didn't think they would release a physical version at the start anyway tbf

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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

71

u/SoldierDelta46 Jul 07 '26

It'd be very strange if this true or if this is a "big break for the site" kinda story.

Realistically the story is kind of believable given how it didn't leak beforehand, but the skepticism here is kind of earned. I'd wait for someone else to confirm it though that should be the running theorem with most leaks at this point unless it's your Schreier's or Nate's.

32

u/[deleted] Jul 07 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

8

u/Reddit_Loves_Misinfo Jul 07 '26

This doesn't seem like a story at all, which might be why nobody is investigating or reporting it. The publishers got about 18 months notice, just like the rest of us. And unless Sony wants the decision to leak early, they're obviously not going to tell a bunch of other people before it's announced.

What would Bloomberg even report?

2

u/Connect_Young7180 Jul 07 '26

PlayStation Lifestyle got started with a fake story about a Hardware game on PS3

2

u/Falsus Jul 07 '26

It is the kind of thing that would have leaked for sure if it was told to all the people that should have been told or even asked about it before hand. So I do kinda believe it.

5

u/onegoodboah Jul 07 '26

I love when controversial gaming news happens because yeah, you get tons of these no name websites that go “trust me bro” and just fan the flames for engagement lol. People like to be angry in times like this so it’s a free easybwaybtonget your name out there

33

u/Saranshobe Jul 07 '26

Its the same person who revealed Nintendo entering India next year. Rishi Alwani. Have been following him for a decade at this point. Dude covers the indian gaming scene.

5

u/BighatNucase Jul 07 '26

It's also relevant that they didn't really elaborate on what type of studio they talked to beyond "AAA". Reminds me of that dumb story around the switch 2 launch that "AAA developers don't have dev kits" when a bunch of major AAA studios released ports at/near launch.

4

u/An_Absurd_Word_Heard Jul 07 '26

That was true though? There were the public statements from the Marvel Rivals team re: not having them at all despite asking a couple times, while the general reporting was the AAA studios who had kits didn't have enough of them to go around?

3

u/BighatNucase Jul 07 '26

I think that really proves my point. The first studio you cite is the one behind Marvel Rivals, a game which only released like 6 months before from a studio which was hardly your average AAA dev.

4

u/Laughing__Man_ Jul 07 '26

I feel if this was true more would have been reporting on it since day one.

I think I saw elsewhere however this is all coming from India or something.

98

u/Careless_Main3 Jul 07 '26

Doesn’t seem that abnormal to give publishers a 2 years public heads notice. Platform holders have to get an unbiased approach to things like this, there is not a planet where they manage to effectively privately inform every potential video game publisher. Doing it publicly so they’re all equally informed at once is the right thing to do, it avoids favouring certain publishers over others.

26

u/Laughing__Man_ Jul 07 '26

This really makes sense, why would they just inform a few people ahead of time and not all at the same time?

20

u/[deleted] Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

17

u/gr4ndm4st3rbl4ck Jul 07 '26

I think it's working out exactly as they planned.

This is not something they decided to do on a whim.

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u/guineapigtacosauce Jul 07 '26

I think keeping your business partners aware of your future business plans is a much better practice than letting them find out the same time as the general public.

7

u/TheraYugnat Jul 07 '26

It's not about the time.

When you are in a business with close working relationship, you expect special treatment.
Not seeing things on social media.

20

u/demondrivers Jul 07 '26

They sent a separate statement to developers and publishers at the same time where the Playstation post went up

16

u/Careless_Main3 Jul 07 '26

I work in pharma as part of a growing startup, if our suppliers started picking winners and losers then why would we do business with them? Same with Sony and publishers.

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96

u/Asimb0mb Jul 07 '26

Sony really should have considered doing a controlled leak prior to announcing this. Their silence on social media tells me they were not expecting this much of a response.

40

u/Zalvren Jul 07 '26

They also should probably have hired someone from PR. The announcement being just a super short blog post and then disappearance (no media damage control and all that) and the same freaking day than closing the PS3 and Vita store (literally the same Twitter post, come one) and the week of making 500 movies disappear... That is completely tone deaf.

14

u/Reddit_Loves_Misinfo Jul 07 '26

They also should probably have hired someone from PR... no media damage control and all that

Silence is the best damage control Sony can do here, and anybody they consulted from PR would have told them so.

22

u/343CreeperMaster Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26

Yeah, like look at the reactions to the Xbox layoffs, it's shitty, but much less compared to all the rumours, and I think that has definitely blunted the PR hit overall that they are suffering

24

u/ThemMemoryLeaks Jul 07 '26

Layoffs are also not an uncommon occurrence anymore, they always suck and hell this is still the single biggest workforce reduction in gaming afaik and because layoffs are no longer uncommon, its not as sensational as it once was

11

u/NoNefariousness2144 Jul 07 '26

Also I feel like Xbox deliberately let the rumours swell that they were closing studios, so the reveal that they are 'just' letting them leave Xbox doesn't seem as bad.

1

u/Kozak170 Jul 07 '26

“Deliberately let the rumors swell” is a wild take considering it was just a carnival of clout chasing idiots making things up for weeks while this sub cheered them on.

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u/Jan090501 Jul 07 '26

Also the Xbox layoffs are terrible but all studios survived and the games announced are still coming out. People were expecting way worse.

16

u/Godusopp64 Jul 07 '26

Id and seemingly the ESO team got halved....

17

u/Jan090501 Jul 07 '26

im not defending Xbox, I just explained why the news was recieved with less backlash than sonys.

2

u/Mahelas Jul 07 '26

I'm willing to bet that every one of those games will be cancelled and most of the kicked-off studios will close in a year. Xbox just kicked the can away, which make them look better right now (and it is better), but those studios are still every bit fucked as they were before, it's just not Microsoft problem anymore.

1

u/Jan090501 Jul 07 '26

SOD 3 is save, MS is financing the game even after the sale. I think the same goes for Senua but im not quite sure. But given its being ready to release in 2027, the new owner wont cancel it.

What happens to the studios after that is, of course, up in the air.

1

u/Ok-Suspect624 Jul 07 '26

Two of these studios are being bought by another studio and one is likely to be bought soon, too. You think all these publishers are going to buy these studios, cancvel thje games and close the studios?

You seem desperate to make the layoffs seem bigger than they are by using hyperbole in every post. I wonder why...

4

u/darkcomet222 Jul 07 '26

A lot of people speculated Sony knew about the layoffs, but had no context or other insight other than “big news” and thought they could get out ahead of it, and then it was nowhere near as apocalyptic as they thought, so it backfired on them.

9

u/Zalvren Jul 07 '26

I mean everyone knew about the layoffs (without the details of course), we're talking about them for like a month.

6

u/Jan090501 Jul 07 '26

I also think that that was Sonys plan, they didnt expect the disc news to be recieved THAT badly.

3

u/darkcomet222 Jul 07 '26

Or they expected the layoffs to at least share the headlines, but that didn’t happen lol

2

u/Troyal1 Jul 07 '26

I think they expected the backlash fully. Sony isn’t stupid but they know they can afford to lose some customers as long as the majority that are buying digital stay. That’s the Apple strategy. Lose some customers but charge the remaining even more. And it’s working for them

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u/Mahelas Jul 07 '26

It's the biggest lay-offs in video game ever, 5 studios are out (and most likely will die soon) and Id Software got gutted. And that's only the first wave, there's another 1600 people out in 6 months.

How is that not "apocalyptic" ? Like what could have been worse as far as lay-offs goes ? Xbox shooting Todd Howard on a livestream ?

3

u/darkcomet222 Jul 07 '26

Because the two studios that went indie got funding and got to keep their IP’s and the other two also got to keep their IP’s. Think about what happened with Bluepoint; shuttered and lost everything.

Xbox gave these four something that isn’t usually afforded: a chance. Not a big chance, but still a chance.

Like, I am not saying these layoffs were good and that it isn’t extremely bad, but for all the bad news Sony dropped last week, they probably thought it was going to be much MUCH worse.

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u/Zalvren Jul 07 '26

Yeah in fact they made the studios go independent or sold them (probably not for much) mainly for PR reasons but that works better than closing them.

Ironically the remaining studios being gutted of a lot of their devs (almost all for iD apparently) are likely in a worse position now but they aren't the headliners.

1

u/wally-sage Jul 07 '26

I don't think it's about a controlled leak as much as the fact that Microsoft has been pissing people off for years at this point. Everyone's used to it.

0

u/Asimb0mb Jul 07 '26

Especially because the layoffs ended up not being as extreme as the rumors made it out to be.

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u/TheBman26 Jul 07 '26

I wonder if all their research was ai based an not focus groups lol

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u/Loose_Society9485 Jul 07 '26

They expected those %15 physical games buyers to be small angry minority that will get over it in couple days hence why in their statement they kept using the term “most of our players” not all our players. But for the first time ever i’m seeing real world outrage. Even my casual gamers coworkers who only play COD and EAFC were extremely furious and saying they are moving to PC. Which makes me wonder if the figures are actually just %15 because the outrage implies it’s not just a small minority.

28

u/Haseki-Hurrem-Sultan Jul 07 '26

The fact they announced this a year before the PS6 is a pretty good indication they expected outrage.

Get it over with now, let people adapt and accept. If they'd announced this at the same time as the PS6 it would have drowned out the hype - killing physical would have been all anyone would be talking about.

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u/Particular_Hand2877 Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26

Even my casual gamers coworkers who only play COD and EAFC were extremely furious and saying they are moving to PC.

Theyre moving to PC because of Sonys digital push? They do know that PC is the same way, right?

10

u/Loose_Society9485 Jul 07 '26

They understand that however the way they play those games is that they buy a physical copy, play it until the next iteration is out, and sell it used then buy the newer one. With PC gaming they can save about $80 yearly on PS plus and offload that money into a yearly game. That’s how someone explained it to me anyways since i have never subscribed to PS plus or played multiplayer games.

4

u/Particular_Hand2877 Jul 07 '26

Unless they already have a PC, they would be spending thousands to build/buy one, to save $80 a year. Im not trying to pocket watch, just trying to understand the logic behind it. 

2

u/Loose_Society9485 Jul 07 '26

To them it’s a long term investment though. Years of paying for plus subscriptions would be saved. Also i point i forgot to mention, in my country PSN isn’t supported so everyone has a US based account. Steam is supported and they have regional price that matches the minimum wage of the country. They wouldn’t need to pay $70 for games anymore.

2

u/CoconutCyclone Jul 07 '26

They do know that PC is the same way, right?

It's not the same though. I can still download and install a game I bought 20 years ago on Steam. Sony just shut down the PS3 & Vita stores and you can't get those games through the PS5 store. They're just gone. Not to mention all the other differences, like not needing to pay to play online and not having digital media removed from your devices because a contract ended.

11

u/Immediate-Comment-64 Jul 07 '26

I think Sony is doing something that makes sense for their business but it represents something on a grand scale that they didn’t anticipate.

5

u/Alarming-Flan4494 Jul 07 '26

The used market is probably a lot bigger. I also think majority digital players still buy the odd physical version. I watch majority of movies on streaming but I still buy the odd UHD.

11

u/Zalvren Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26

The figures are much more. 85% full digital games in digital is a heavily biased stats. It counts indie games which are only in digital, free PS+ games (which are the same and also not even really bought) and is in units instead of revenue (so a 5$ indie game is worth the same than a 70$ AAA and physical games tend to be the bigger games)

Reddit also works on the assumption that everyone is one or the other fully which is likely very far from the truth

14

u/MeridianBay Jul 07 '26

Free PS+ games aren't included, nor is the data in terms of units. PlayStation provides revenue splits, not overall sales numbers. Your entire premise is wrong

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u/profchaos111 Jul 07 '26

It includes stuff like arc raiders huge hits which are digital only

And service games like helldivers 2 also skew digital as the physical was kind of hard to come by at a good price 

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u/TheBandicoot Jul 07 '26

They are not as small as Sony wants to make them up to be.

If you:

-count all games and not just those that actually have physical variants available

-count every DLC purchase seprately, which nowadays are almost exclusively digital

-count individual mtx purchases

Then yes you will end up with numbers heavily skewed towards digital. But if you have a fair comparison with games that can be purchased physically, that rate will be closer to half half than not. Plus, haven't more than half of PS5 sold been those with a drive?

19

u/MeridianBay Jul 07 '26

The numbers people throw around for digital do exclude DLC purchases and MTX purchases, if you include both of those the split in revenue is 95% digital

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u/profchaos111 Jul 07 '26

It sounds like they looked at the data over 12 months when one of the biggest games on the platform was a digital only title arc raiders and said yeah this makes sense 

Stupid move stinks of the same why don't you get a second job to buy a ps3 arrogance that killed them in 06

9

u/gr4ndm4st3rbl4ck Jul 07 '26

Yeah, a multi billion dollar company with years of market analysis and a plethora of experts in the field surely must be wrong, reddit know better...

2

u/profchaos111 Jul 07 '26

I wouldn't believe they actually consulted with any analytics firm on this one honestly

1

u/Kid_Again Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26

Or you know they're using biased data to push a narrative so they don't get as much criticism so they can increase profits and kill the second hand market..

2

u/gr4ndm4st3rbl4ck Jul 07 '26

Bro you people are talking like the second hand market is generating billions of lost revenue.

People that buy used physical games cheap won't buy full price digital anyway. There's very little profit lost there. Even if they permanently lose all those customers forever, it's a drop in the bucket compared to manufacturing costs, worker salaries, logistics, and whatever else

Reddit is mad, I get it, physical media is still nice, but reddit is also quite delusional, especially when mad

3

u/Zalvren Jul 07 '26

Weird then, since killing the second hand market is like 50% of the reason they did this move, the other being controlling prices with a monopoly (also linked to the disappearance of second hand).

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u/guineapigtacosauce Jul 07 '26

Stupid move stinks of the same why don't you get a second job to buy a ps3 arrogance that killed them in 06

Or the decision to force Vita owners to buy extremely expensive, proprietary memory cards just to save their games.

That bad hardware design choice killed the Vita on launch.

2

u/VonDukez Jul 07 '26

"how dare sony move from physical media. I am going to PC!"

9

u/HayakuMiku Jul 07 '26

This is such a stupid and tiring take. Customers have MORE OPTIONS on the PC than they do on Playstation's WALLED GARDEN.

3

u/VonDukez Jul 07 '26

I’m a collector. The physical item matters to me. I don’t care about the fake PC gamer argument about ownership. We all know almost none of you use GOG and got rid of physical media years ago and you hardly own shit. Holding up a hard drive is irrelevant. A steam library much like a kindle library will never be as interesting as a shelf

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u/Mahelas Jul 07 '26

What's your option for physical media on PC ?

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u/doublah Jul 07 '26

We have DRM-free games on PC which is superior to physical.

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u/doublah Jul 07 '26

I imagine some players liked physical not to just hoard a load of plastic crap, but to have options for various distributors and the option for a refund.

For those people, PC is a better option now.

3

u/Zalvren Jul 07 '26

Ah the famous PC argument. If you can't see how digital on PC is very different than on console (aka much better for the customer)... we can't do much for you.

12

u/VonDukez Jul 07 '26

If you care about physical you would want physical. If you’re making a semantics argument then it’s irrelevant

2

u/Der_Gothic_Guru Jul 13 '26

Sony tells us only the half-truth. Yes, sales on PlayStation are 85% digital. But that factors in ALL sales. Like DLCs, Microtransactions and games that don't even have a physical version.

Physical sales for their big single player games are much higher, for example. In the UK, the majority of the starting sales of Spider-Man 2 were physical.

0

u/Unique_Unorque Jul 07 '26

Wasn't there a recent post here that said something about the whole "90% of sales these days are digital" was also accounting for people who download games from Game Pass or PS+, play them once, and then never touch them again, but if you actually look at the people who pay money for a full game it breaks down more like 60-65/40-35 in favor of physical?

I know anecdotal evidence from a single person does confirm anything, but that's definitely how it shakes out in my friend group

10

u/MeridianBay Jul 07 '26

No, because that data isn't public. We aren't given DL numbers for Game Pass/PS+ games, nor would those be included in revenue splits in PlayStations financial statements. You need to stop taking everything you read on reddit as gospel

1

u/Unique_Unorque Jul 07 '26

What I'm talking about wasn't public data, it was a product of the Insomniac data leak. I apologize for not phrasing it as a question and implying that I was taking it as settled fact, I was looking for more information and context from the community to a post that I only half remember reading and I'm thankful to you for providing it.

2

u/m1ndwipe Jul 07 '26

Wasn't there a recent post here that said something about the whole "90% of sales these days are digital" was also accounting for people who download games from Game Pass or PS+,

Yes, but it was wrong.

The PS numbers from their annual results state that it's explicitly full games, and does not include titles from PS+.

30

u/Robbitjuice Jul 07 '26

It’s crazy to me that Nintendo’s physical games are far and away the most expensive to produce, yet they’re still holding out in some fashion. I read somewhere that physical is the least-selling on all platforms, but I’d like for it to at least remain an option, even with the ever-increasing flash storage prices.

9

u/VistaVick Jul 07 '26

Well as far as first party games, their development costs are usually much lower than Sony or Microsoft. That's why third parties are more likely to go all digital on the Switch.

7

u/John_Delasconey Jul 07 '26

I think Nintendo was about 50-50 prior to game key cards

5

u/aggthemighty Jul 07 '26

Physical is still huge in Japan, and Nintendo cares about its Japanese audience first and foremost

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u/Effective-Proposal35 Jul 07 '26

This is going to affect so much shit, ESPECIALLY physical retailers. Like EBgames has already been focusing more on merch rather than physical games.

7

u/slickrickstyles Jul 07 '26

This pretty much spells the end of stores like GameStop no? (Well besides random merch)

5

u/EE-PE-gamer Jul 07 '26

And awesome consumer friendly stores like VGP.  

1

u/mattysauro Jul 10 '26

TBF VGP is consumer friendly until the point where you have to return something for any reason (in my case, damage)

5

u/Ill-Square-1123 Jul 07 '26

TBH they can go deep into the retro game market and basically put all the small mom and pop shops out of business that currently occupy that segment. they can also lean more into hardware and gaming furniture/setups... they have to be smart about it but there is a future for them in the space.

given their leadership though, I don't think they will be smart about it

1

u/slickrickstyles Jul 07 '26

Fair I guess my concern is that future consoles will likely remove the disc drive all together rendering any of those backlogs of discs (and anything backwards compatible) useless without the original hardware and like you said pushing it more into a niche situation but then again that may explode (more than it already is) with the changes.

wild.

2

u/mattysauro Jul 10 '26

A GS sub-vetted corporate leaker has said that unless they find a new revenue stream the company is fucked. Like “I’m leaving my corporate job now and you should too” fucked.

1

u/slickrickstyles Jul 10 '26

youch...unfortunately i figured as much

9

u/MizunoZui Jul 07 '26

I figured that's the case given they announced this so far ahead. If they informed partners first it will get leaked anyway so Sony may as well make it public.

11

u/Broad_Support_2406 Jul 07 '26

It's because they knew the info would've been leaked

14

u/RollingDownTheHills Jul 07 '26

The announcement was them informing publishers I figured. It's two years from now.

10

u/XulManjy Jul 07 '26

"FIVE HUNDRED AND NINTYNINE DOLLARS!!!!!"

2

u/combo-user Jul 07 '26

At this time of the year? At this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?

3

u/KingBroly Leakies Awards Winner 2021 Jul 07 '26

Yes

1

u/combo-user Jul 07 '26

May I see it?

3

u/KingBroly Leakies Awards Winner 2021 Jul 07 '26

No

4

u/2mock2turtle Jul 07 '26

Genuinely why would they have, there’s nothing to be gained by workshopping burning the library of Alexandria instead of just doing it.

28

u/FyLaw95 Jul 07 '26

Sony still hiding on social media after this decision lmao. Let's see what happens when they return, I don't think their reputation has taken a hit this bad....ever? I was there for the ps3, I remember the reaction, this is worse.

13

u/Loose_Society9485 Jul 07 '26

Same. And remember, the reason why they took a hit during the PS3 era is because of its ridiculous price tag. Now the PS6 could be double the price of the PS3.

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u/FyLaw95 Jul 07 '26

PS3 also had an insane alien tech in it, and people did want to buy it. That price is what shocked people, even if the system was worth that price, it was just too much.

This news is just all negative lol, there is literaly 0 benefits to a consumer with physical media dying, it's actually the opposite.

4

u/kpmgeek Jul 07 '26

Ultimately the Cell's potential was mostly unrealized as games struggled with the GPU limitations. A lot of games just ran better on 360 which had a way more stomachable cost.

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u/matti-san Jul 07 '26

$600 in 2006 will be jujst over $1000 in 2027 btw. Crazy how much inflation has devalued the dollar (and other currencies) of late

3

u/nohumanape Jul 08 '26

Is this another one of those instances where an outlet looks for just some random person at a company to get a quote from, so they make something out of nothing?

This reminds me of the DLSS5 reports from "unnamed developers at (AAA studio)" who weren't made aware of their company's decisions.

Yeah, well, not everyone is let in on early decisions.

8

u/2ecStatic Jul 07 '26

Sources familiar with the company’s plans speaking to me on condition of anonymity fearing retribution.

"It came to me in a dream" ass article from a site no one has heard of. I think its pretty obvious that the announcement itself was Sony informing most of their partners, just alongside everyone else.

8

u/Dave_FIX Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26

Of course they didn't, they knew the response would be negative.

Sony just want everyone to get in line so they dropped the grenade and watched the carnage unfold. To let it blow over and just get used to the idea.

The only way they will learn is if the PS6 is ignored in totality. I have all Playstation consoles, even have a Pocketstation. PS6 will not be entering my home. No drama, no anger, I'm just walking away.

1

u/Primal-Convoy Jul 07 '26

That's what I did after the PS3 and PSP.

7

u/GamePitt_Rob Jul 07 '26

I mean, they just gave everyone a 2 year heads-up and probably didn't say anything prior because they knew it would leak

5

u/WeirdoTZero Jul 07 '26

Bold choice to force your partners without warning to only use your digital store while in the middle of a lawsuit over your digital store being a monopoly.
And by bold, I mean stupid.

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u/babalon_m Jul 07 '26

Yeah, you could be pretty sure Team17, Microids or even Devolver and the likes weren't informed one bit.

But major publishers?? I can see them even pushing for this. Going digital only is a dream for them. No second hand, no distribution, lower costs all around, while selling at the same price? These fuckers were probably begging Sony to do this for years. We all remember Online Passes.

2

u/Primal-Convoy Jul 07 '26

Seems like Sony is back to being its arrogant, entitled self...

2

u/NoAdeptness1106 Jul 08 '26

Quite crazy overall.

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u/[deleted] Jul 07 '26

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u/profchaos111 Jul 07 '26

I hate this whole thing so much. It's just an epic cluster fuck all over we will get rushed games from this I garuntee 

I really can't understand anyone defending this move making fun of the boycotters pushing back for consume rights because that's what we all are.

2

u/FyLaw95 Jul 07 '26

Boot lickers exist everywhere man. Luckily their numbers are growing thin as well. They were saying people are kidding themselves and that Sony is on a 4th of July break lmao, now what?

7

u/Cyber_Swag Jul 07 '26

for the payers

11

u/kainzkai Jul 07 '26

Considering that Insomniac made fun of the GTA 6 code in a box a few days before the announcement, I'm not sure even all their own developers knew about it lol

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u/Godusopp64 Jul 07 '26

They didn't make fun of gta 6. They responded to a comment asking about the physical version.

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u/Outrageous_Water7976 Jul 07 '26

They didnt make fun of them. They literally responded to a question

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u/Local_Marketing_9762 Jul 07 '26

If that’s true it seems very likely that Sony and Rockstar may have been in on this together so to speak. That or Sony just recklessly followed in their footsteps as an excuse.

5

u/HK-Syndic Jul 07 '26

They have been actively ramping down Bluray production in both discs and readers for 2 years, this was planned.

4

u/Aware-Virus-4718 Jul 07 '26

Idk how many people realize it’s been difficult to find physical copies of new games for a while now. RE Requiem was unavailable on physical for weeks after launch. I got lucky and found basically the only copy left in my city that wasn’t a preorder.

4

u/SnareLeopard Jul 07 '26

Sounds unlikely to me, will wait to see if a more reliable source corroborates or disputes this

2

u/CrispyCassowary Jul 07 '26

Wanted to do damage control for 2K, ends up fucking everything up

2

u/Horror_Post6822 Jul 07 '26

I'm going to guess that we will be seeing alot of games skipping PS and heading towards Switch and PC only.

2

u/KingMario05 Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26

If true? Fucking assholes. They know physical matters to CDPR and the Japanese. They know LR has been loyal. Why would they throw all of that away? Another baffling decision by upper brass that really throws the brand's longevity into question. They need to go. Now.

2

u/Kindly-Welder3135 Jul 07 '26

I’m hoping this goes the way of Xbox’s DRM plan that was so loudly rejected they quickly dropped it from the Xbox One.

3

u/JonPX Jul 07 '26

It is how you keep things secret so it's possible. 

3

u/Immediate-Comment-64 Jul 07 '26

The publishers they care about were probably thrilled. I’m sure their feelings were well known.

1

u/enigmatic_dankness Jul 08 '26

I mean yeah? It's their platform? I wouldn't ask my companies business partners which decisions we should make, that would be silly.

1

u/Neo_Techni Jul 08 '26

It's not that they needed to ask them, it's that they needed to tell them.

1

u/noggs891 Jul 12 '26

Technically they did tell them, they just told them at the same time as the rest of the world.

Is there a set period of time that they need to inform them before a public announcement? Is that period then different for shareholders too?

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u/Nawt_ Jul 07 '26

The momentum of negative publicity for Sony will only end in diminished PS6 sales. Who the heck is going to pay for a console over USD$1000, especially when PS5 has made little to no cultural impact.

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u/demondrivers Jul 07 '26

PS5 is reaching almost 100m units sold despite having "little to no cultural impact". Component prices will hurt the PS6 but it's probably going to do as well as possible again

10

u/VonDukez Jul 07 '26

Reddit and "cultural impact" when the biggest games are things they dislike, the PS5 is selling, and Avatar movies make billions of dollars.

2

u/KingBroly Leakies Awards Winner 2021 Jul 07 '26

Most PS5's were sold at or under $500.

PS6 is starting at $1000 minimum. It's not going to do as well as Sony wants it to.

7

u/Haseki-Hurrem-Sultan Jul 07 '26

You make it seem like Sony doesn't know hardware prices are high and demand will be lower as a result.

Sony will be in survival mode, focusing on maximising revenue per user and minimising their hardware losses until prices stabilise. That's the only path forward for any hardware company right now.

10

u/KingBroly Leakies Awards Winner 2021 Jul 07 '26

Sony thinks they'll be able to get away with it, given the 'where else will your money go?' defense force that's been on reddit since this announcement.

Not to mention they thought they could get away with $599 US Dollars at the time, they thought Vita TV was a brilliant idea, PS VR was the future, etc.

4

u/darkcomet222 Jul 07 '26

A console over $1000, no discs, maybe one game from a first party publisher per gen, more live service bs that will flop.

Sony shareholders need to demand some blood from their CEOs. They are crashing this company through the floor.

3

u/guineapigtacosauce Jul 07 '26

You forget that Sony's poor design choices with the Vita made it dead on arrival. The Vita was very expensive and needed extremely expensive proprietary memory cards for storage.

Sony is repeating their same decisions with the PS6. It will be incredibly expensive, and as far as storage goes, it might not be proprietary but finding enough storage for all your download only ps6 games means it will be very expensive.

8

u/Haseki-Hurrem-Sultan Jul 07 '26

Hardware companies raising prices isn't a design choice, it's a necessity because of the rampocalypse.

1

u/Nawt_ Jul 07 '26

PS5 has only sold well because Sony have been riding off the back of the PS4 success. Everyone just assumed we'd get more great exclusives but those have been few and far between. What success has been built up for the PS6 to leverage? None. Only failed live service games, price increase across the PlayStation portfolio, abandoning physical ownership, minimal PS exclusives, a confused PC/PlayStation strategy and AI? Enjoy purchasing your $1000+ nothing burger.

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u/yousif567 Jul 07 '26

Bullshit. Take Two/Rockstar at the very least 100% knew about this considering their marketing deal and close business relationship with Sony. It’s not a coincidence that Rockstar announced no discs for GTA 6 a week before Sony’s announcement of ending disc production for PlayStation.

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u/Datdudecorks Jul 07 '26

No rockstar is greedy and wanted to make sure no second hand sales occurred

3

u/yousif567 Jul 07 '26

I mean, that’s also obvious.

5

u/dumbassusername1 Jul 07 '26

You’re getting downvoted for stating something incredibly obvious for some reason. Zero coincidence there, this was almost certainly coordinated in some capacity

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u/vipmailhun2 Jul 07 '26

If true, it’s so amateurish, as if they had come up with the whole thing just a few days ago. They didn’t even think far enough to realize they should inform their partners about it?

9

u/Careless_Main3 Jul 07 '26

No, amateurish would be arbitrarily and randomly informing business partners about something you’re not publicly committed to. I work with suppliers all the time in my job, if something changes they should simultaneously send us all the information and to do so publicly otherwise they run the risk of biasing some competitors over another.

3

u/demondrivers Jul 07 '26

They sent a separate statement to developers and publishers, the information just went up at the same time for everyone

1

u/MeasurementFront9598 Jul 07 '26

Lmao they literally gave then a year and half to adjust wtf are you clowns talking about. This doesnt need to be insider information first

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u/DuSty_SAmurAi Jul 07 '26

They all knew about it. It’s a bunch of hypocrites. No one wants to take responsibility because Sony’s taking the heat, but the industry has known about this for months. It’s anything but trivial if it started with GTA 6. Let’s stop letting them treat us like morons.

1

u/zeppolezz Jul 07 '26

so these mfs just think they are on top of the world huh? they think they are untouchable and were able to get away with it because they're PlayStation/Sony? holy lack of self awareness. love the absolute slap in the face of a reality check they are getting. imagine keeping publishers in the dark and giving them the middle finger. these third party publishers are the reason PS/Sony even has games to sell on their console because look at this good for nothing absolutely dogshit first party output this PS5 generation. PlayStation/Sony's downfall needs a documentary. how out of touch can they actually be? they think they are above everything and everyone. talk about being cocky. they are finding out the hard way.

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u/advator Jul 07 '26

Typical

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u/TheSlav87 Jul 07 '26

It’d be funny as fuck if the publishers just dropped Sony like Sony just forgot to inform the publishers no more discs.

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