When Sony announced its plan to discontinue physical games by January 2028, players responded by orchestrating a week-long boycott. Meanwhile, I went out and bought a PS5 disc drive.
Boycotts can and do work, but this one felt futile. An analyst confirmed that the boycott made “no significant change at all” in PSN’s player count numbers over the course of the blackout. In fact, Sony’s stock price mostly trended upward during the period.
Players’ hearts were in the right place, but it’s time to accept that we’re going to see the end of physical games for PlayStation. But as I move toward acceptance myself, I’ve decided to return to my hard copy roots in 2026 to see what I’ve been missing.
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Physical upbringing
When we were kids, my brother and I would visit GameStop together. We had no particular games in mind that we wanted to pick up, but the promise of finding something new always drew us back. We almost exclusively played used games, emblazoned with the pre-owned GameStop price sticker. Every game we had was on a disc or cartridge, kept in well-loved cases that were popped open and clicked close so often that I could still recognize the sound from a mile away.
I grew up in the GameCube era, with physical memory cartridges you could swap out, CD-ROMs to play on the family computer, and VHS tapes that required you to be on channel three to watch. I have the majority of The Sims 3 expansions in a box with no disc drive to ever return to, original Xbox games that are no longer backwards compatible with the current generation, and a handful of Xbox One games collecting dust on a shelf. Physical media is in my DNA, but somewhere along the way, I traded it in for the convenience of digital gaming.
Nowadays, the majority of my gaming library is on Steam, and until recently, I hadn’t purchased a single physical game for this current generation. I bought a PS5 Pro right after the God of War Laufey announcement; I have no intention of missing out on the next God of War instalment now that PlayStation will stop porting PS5 exclusives to PC, and was more than ready to retire my near-obsolete Xbox Series X (the big boy simply can’t fit in my room alongside the PS5).
It wasn’t until I was in the car, PS5 Pro buckled into the passenger seat, that I was informed of one crucial detail. My friend asked me if I had also bought a PS5 disc drive, to which I responded similarly to Jennifer Lawrence in her infamous Hot Ones meme: “What do you mean?“
I laughed, because the thought hadn’t occurred to me that, even in an age where physical media is being pushed out, a current-gen console wouldn’t include a disc drive. I bought one a few months later, because I still wanted to use it as a media player – I have the 10th anniversary edition of Interstellar, after all.
When I finally put in that order for a PS5 disc drive, I was excited, and not just because I could use the physical media I already owned. I had just unearthed muscle memory that had been buried in the instant gratification of digital media.
Back to my roots
We can still embrace collecting and playing hard copy games while they’re here.
So I went out and performed my years-old ritual. I found a local used games store, filled to the brim with old and new games, hardware from every generation, countless DVDs and CD-ROMs. The place was a testament to the preservation of physical media. Suddenly, I felt like a kid again.
I walked out of that store with Ghost of Tsushima for $35, as well as two more spontaneous purchases. . All said, I spent $79 on three games – just $3 more than what I spent on my pre-order copy of Marvel’s Wolverine. As I got into my car, I remembered being a kid in the backseat, opening up the case of the game I’d just purchased just to stare at the disc or cartridge, look through the booklet, anything to keep me satiated until I got home and could play it.
It’s a lost tradition nowadays, especially since now I’m the one driving the car and games rarely come with any sort of booklet. But holding a physical game in my hands, I experienced a level of fulfillment you just don’t get when you buy digital.
We can’t sway a multi-billion dollar company by pointing out that we’re losing true ownership, more affordable options for games, and the age-old tradition of sharing copies of games with friends and family. Those responsible for pruning physical media don’t measure it by the same values. But we can still embrace collecting and playing hard copy games while they’re here. I certainly intend to make the most of the time I have left with physical games, and you should too.
Check out all the best GameCube games to pick up and play while you’re reminiscing.
