The dustbin of history is about to get a lot shinier.
Sony said Wednesday it plans to stop releasing physical disc copies of PlayStation games starting in 2028.
"New games will be available on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only," the company said.
Sony said the change is a response to evolving industry and consumer trends and won't affect any titles scheduled for release before 2028.
Sony's PS5 is sold in two formats — one all-digital and one with a disc drive — with the disc drive model costing $50 more. Both offer nearly identical performance.
Last week, game studio Rockstar Games told the Hollywood Reporter that its hotly anticipated "Grand Theft Auto VI" will not include physical media and will only be available as a digital download.
The company earlier sparked confusion when it referred to a physical version of the game, which it said in a press release last week would be a download code sold in a box.
Physical media for some other games, including various Xbox and Nintendo titles, increasingly require users to download additional data to play. In other cases, the disc serves little more than as a download code for online content.
Big box retailers like Best Buy, Target, and Walmart have also devoted less sales floor space to physical copies of gaming and entertainment titles as streaming and downloadable options have become more common.
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Dominick Reuter is a senior retail reporter for Business Insider, primarily covering Walmart, Target, and Costco. His stories tend to focus on issues and trends that affect employees and customers.Prior to joining BI in 2019, Dominick worked for more than a decade as an independent photojournalist covering a wide range of stories for global wire services and newspapers, including Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, and Agence France-Presse.Dominick studied photojournalism at Boston University and later earned a Masters in business and economics journalism from Columbia University.If you're an employee or customer with a story to share, please contact me via email or text/call/Signal at 646-768-4750.
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