Peace out for your PS6 backwards compatibility hopes
In a move that shouldn’t shock anyone, yet it still will and should, Sony has announced that it is ending product of physical discs for all first party and third party games. Starting in January 2028, the company will end its run of physical media and push the platform to go all digital.
While the majority of games purchased are already done through digital storefronts, and both Sony and Microsoft themselves using the digital-only versions of their consoles as their cornerstones over the last couple of years, it’s a bit sad to see the almost instant and complete end to physical media especially when we don’t really own the digital games we pay money for. This is hot on the heels of Grand Theft Auto VI only selling a digital version (and code in a box) and Valve’s Steam Machine coming without a disc drive BECAUSE WHY WOULD IT.
What this means for the greater landscape is perhaps more interesting because of the notion that if this is set to happen in 2028 then we might have our first inkling of an idea of the launch window for the PlayStation 6. You wouldn’t want to sell a platform with a drive if you were going to not make physical games for it, and you’d likely want to ease people into the idea of being digital first. More importantly, perhaps, is what happens to those PS5 discs we own that we won’t be able to insert into a PS6. Will Sony release a separate disc drive (or a version with a drive) just to let us play those games on the platform? Or worse: does that mean they’re not compatible at all? I personally have stacks of PS5 discs and wouldn’t want to have to keep yet another console attached to my TV just to be able to finish a backlog.
On top of the announcement, Sony has ALSO just stated that it’s shutting down the PS3 and Vita digital stores starting later this year and into 2027, meaning that we’d no longer be able to buy games on those platforms. The claim is that our games will still be downloadable for “the foreseeable future” and this only relates to new purchases, but who knows any more. I don’t!
Our rights as owners of media just got a little worse. Or rather, a lot worse.
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