Sony on Wednesday announced that PlayStation will end physical disc production for games on its consoles from January 2028.

In a statement on PlayStation’s blog, the gaming giant said the decision was taken “as consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital formats”.

“Following this date, new games will be available on the PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only. This transition has no impact on games that have already been released, or will be released prior to January 2028 in disc format,” the statement added.

Sony noted that the move was “a natural direction” to adapt to consumer trends, where demand for digital media has surpassed physical discs.

“This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today,” the statement read.

“We’ll continue to prioritise our resources to drive innovation in how players can access games and provide choices as to where players prefer to purchase new games, whether that’s at retailers or [the] PlayStation Store.”

The announcement came days after Rockstar Games, the developers behind the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto VI, announced that there would be no discs in the physical version of the game, but rather a code to download the game digitally.