Sony’s announcement that all new PlayStation game releases will be exclusively digital beginning in 2028 doesn’t feel all that surprising really, nor a bold leap. If anything, it feels like the next logical checkpoint.
History tells us: every medium eventually evolves toward better accessibility, practicality, and convenience. Music, books, films, TV. Gaming is simply following the same path.
The real questions now are: what this means for future console designs, pricing for both consoles and games, ownership (subject that’s getting increasingly trickier to discuss), and whether competitors like Nintendo and Xbox (who are already well on their way with their Game-Key Cards and Game Pass technologies) will accelerate the industry’s march toward an all-digital future.
As someone who grew up collecting physical media (our house still has stacks of DVDs, audio CDs, books, arcade sticks, controllers, and VCDs—remember those?—much to my wife’s frustration), I understand the nostalgia of seeing physical media fade away.
The disc may be disappearing, but the ecosystem around gaming has never been richer, more connected, more alive.
Judging from online reactions and parodies from a variety KFC to Dominos and physical media stores, the news hit a significant chord across online communities — some hilarious, some actually getting tedious.
But nostalgia has never stopped progress. If anything, gaming has consistently shown that the best experiences come from embracing new ways to play, connect, and participate.
The disc may be disappearing, but the ecosystem around gaming has never been richer, more connected, more alive. For players, for brands, for marketers, for peripheral communities.
Perhaps this is also why I find myself thinking beyond this particular gaming news. Watching this year’s Cannes Lions festivities, I couldn’t help but notice our own industry standing at a similarly significant crossroads, albeit one that has been going on for years now.
AI, creators, communities, participation: these are no longer emerging trends; they are becoming the new foundations of marketing itself. Yet many of us still seem hesitant to let go of familiar ways of working. And judging by my feed during Cannes week, this camp is still surprisingly huge.
Gaming isn’t abandoning discs because it wants to. It’s doing so because player behavior has already changed. Maybe the better question for advertising is the same one facing every industry today: if change is already here, why are we still so reluctant to embrace it?
