Days later, PlayStation’s decision to stop manufacturing physical discs for new titles from January 2028 onwards continues to reverberate through the industry. It’s enough to shock professionals like Hideo Kojima and even former executives, including Shawn Layden, who led PlayStation Worldwide Studios before departing in 2019.
Having spent 32 years in the industry, he told Eurogamer that, “I had no idea it was going to happen. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but I don’t work in the business any more. Maybe it’s just too prohibitively expensive to stamp out discs.”
Plans have seemingly been in the works for some time, as a recent report reveals that Sony repurposed its disc factory in Thalgau. While it currently produces about 300,000 discs daily for PlayStation, the plan is to produce only 10 percent by 2028. And despite a sizable portion of consumers still purchasing physical games, Layden believes it’s “a straight spreadsheet decision.”
“What are disc sales compared to digital sales? And I’m old enough to remember when digital sales were like 10 percent – I’m old enough to remember when digital sales were zero percent because we didn’t have a digital market! And that number just grew over time.”
He also noted that while working at Sony, he was questioned about how long the company would continue with discs. “I’ve been asked this question every year for the last 20 years. When are you guys going to just give up on the disc drive? My feeling with that was always: well, when I get to a place where I’m comfortable enough to believe that worldwide, broadband throughput is good enough to support that download experience, good enough to reach the majority of customers.
“Majority does not mean entirety, so there is a point, a tipping point, where if I have 80 percent of the opportunity, which represents 95 percent of the revenue source, what’s my incentive to keep the lights on for the other 20 percent if it’s effectively only 5 percent of the business? See what I’m saying? At some point it just becomes obvious that we can’t keep this whole thing running just for this very small slice of opportunity.”
Of course, Layden argues that the rest of the world may not have the best internet, and, unlike Xbox, Sony has been “pretty good” at taking this into account. “PlayStation had a wider global fanbase, and not just in the numbers, but in the reach, because Sony Corp had reach all over the world.” He cited those on military bases without internet and how “the idea that they could still buy a PlayStation 4 game, throw it in a machine and play was important. You don’t want to leave those people behind.”
At the end of it all, he doesn’t know “what went on in those conversations, but it’s a fairly dramatic decision.” Which is an understatement, considering how much the internet has been dogging Sony ever since, to the point where it’s affecting other social media accounts under the company.
Combined with rumors that the PS6 has a $960 bill of materials, potentially resulting in a $1000 price, the next generation of console gaming is looking dicey. Stay tuned for more details and updates in the meantime.
