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Sony will cease production of discs for new PlayStation games in 2028
New games sold for PlayStation consoles will only be available digitally and won’t be sold on discs effective January 2028, Sony has announced. The move applies to all PlayStation games released from that point on, including those made by Sony and those released by third parties. The PlayStation group calls the change “a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs,” according to a PlayStation blog post reviewed by Game File in advance of its publication. As movies, TV and music have shifted from physical media to an age of downloads and streaming, Sony’s move could speed the demise of physical media in a gaming. The industry has offered consumers games via cartridges, cassettes, floppy discs, CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays across a 50-year stretch. Sony has been reporting to investors in recent years that PlayStation games have been increasingly purchased as downloads, not as discs. The most recent figures show nearly four in five purchases of full games for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 were purchased digitally in the past year. Stats like that may cause today’s news to carry an air of the inevitable. But Sony’s declaration for 2028 is still likely to produce a shock, as the biggest gaming platform on the planet that uses game discs leaves them behind. Discs going away, but the fate of game boxes is unknown Sony is committing to still selling games in physical retailers even after they drop discs in 2028. Just how those games will be sold—in boxes with codes inside, as cards marked with digital redemption codes—is unclear. Digital games will also continue to be sold in the online PlayStation Store. New games released for PlayStation consoles prior to January 2028 will be unaffected by the policy change, Sony says. That means the PS5 games of 2027, be they a new Madden, a new God of War, a new Call of Duty, a new Sly Cooper (one can dream?), would still potentially be offered on disc. PlayStation 6 implications Sony’s timeline for a transition to a no-disc era will also spin up more speculation about the timing and configuration of Sony’s next-generation console, the probable PlayStation 6. “This pretty much guarantees that PS6 won’t arrive until 2028 at the earliest,” Piers Harding-Rolls, senior games research analyst at Ampere Analysis tells Game File. Harding-Rolls also concludes from today’s news that “the base version of a PS6 will not include a physical media drive,” as Sony looks to keep costs down on the device. Sony itself is saying nothing about the PS6 today: not its timing, nor how it might or might not support internal or external disc drives in order to run disc-based PS4 and PS5 games, should the console be backwards compatible. The many signs this was coming Industry support for games being released on physical media has been waning. As has consumer interest in them. PC games effectively went all-digital years ago, thanks to the popularity of playing games through Steam and other digital storefronts. The Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns that kept much of the global population home helped shift shopping patterns toward downloads. Sony’s own data shows PlayStation game downloads being an uncommon consumer choice a decade ago and now becoming the norm. On consoles, physical media has been in such decline that Sony and Microsoft both launched their current gen Xbox Series and PS5 consoles in 2020 with cheaper versions that lacked disc drives. In early 2024, Phil Spencer, then head of Xbox, told me that ““[w]e ship games physically and digitally, and we’re really just following what the customers are doing.” He added that the game industry had become an outlier in still supporting disc-based entertainment, even as movies and TV have bailed on discs in favor of downloads and steaming: “Gaming consoles themselves have kind of become the last consumer electronic device that has a drive. And this is a real issue, just in terms of the number of manufacturers that are actually building drives and the cost associated with those. And when you think about cogs that we’re going to go put in a console—and as you have fewer suppliers and fewer buyers—the cost of the drive does have an impact.” Last year, the Nintendo’s Switch 2, which uses cartridges rather than discs, introduced the concept of game-key cards, which are physical media that contain no game, just a prompt for a download. Even disc-based games aren’t what they once were, now frequently containing just stubs of games rather than the whole thing. The website Does It Play has tested over 3000 games and found that, for example, that the disc version of this year’s hit 007: First Light, only contained the game’s first mission, with the rest needing to be downloaded. Beyond all that, last week brought the news that Grand Theft Auto VI, likely the biggest game launch this decade, will debut for PS5 and Xbox Series without a disc-based version. Today’s big news comes to you for free. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and ensure more of my work is possible, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Discs helped define PlayStation However the trends in entertainment may be going, it is still remarkable to see PlayStation ditch discs given their importance in PlayStation history: In the late 1990s, the first PlayStation’s support for games on relatively cheap CD-ROMs instead of traditional game cartridges allowed the upstart console to outmaneuver cartridge-based systems from Nintendo and Sega, as it drove down game prices down in the process. (The cheaper disc format even prompted Final Fantasy VII maker Square to taunt Nintendo in a magazine ad, saying that if the game was “available on cartridge, it’d retail for around $1200.”) PlayStation devices often doubled as machines for watching movies and TV on the latest disc-based formats. In the late 2000s, for example, Sony’s pricy PS3 gained traction as a go-to device for playing then-novel Blu-Ray discs. In 2013, Sony effectively roasted the digital game-sharing restrictions proposed by rival Microsoft for its upcoming Xbox One console by showing how games could be shared for the then-upcoming PS4. In a 21-second clip that has over 20 million views on YouTube, one PlayStation executive simply handed a game box—presumably with disc inside—to another, who said “thanks.” Sony’s possible motivations The PlayStation announcement today cites “consumer preferences” and a shift away from discs among “the broader entertainment industry,” but does not delve into the decision-making process that brought Sony to this point. Sony is not discussing the economics of this move (I asked!), but there are a number of potential factors: Abandoning discs will spare Sony the cost of manufacturing and shipping them, which analysts and industry veterans I spoke to said could account for $1 or so of a game’s retail price. For first-party games, that’s direct savings for Sony, though the amount is limited by the winnowing percentage of people who were even buying the disc-based versions. For third-party games, Sony could pass the savings on to partners or just retain the better profit margin for themselves. As the 2024 comments from Phil Spencer alluded to, leaving discs behind could mean leaving disc-drives behind, allowing Sony to produce consoles more cheaply. Switching to digital-only for games could diminish the risks of copies of new games leaking. It would also seemingly make second-hand sales of used games impossible, pushing more people to buy their own copies of games. These economic benefits for Sony could be boons for the games industry overall, Ampere analyst Piers Harding-Rolls tells Game File. Among other things, it could free publishers and retailers from having to worry about securing an inventory of game discs when trying to sell games, he noted. “If there is a way to streamline the business of games retail, I generally think it’s a good thing for the industry as it removes unnecessary costs,” Harding-Rolls said. “This will help offset pressure on margins from other directions – development and staffing costs for example.” Should the industry shift from game boxes that contain discs to smaller, cheaper game cards, Harding-Rolls said, that reduces pressure on publishers and retailers. “The advantage of everything going digital for the industry is that sales can be tracked much more easily and there is less commercial risk for publishers wanting to continue selling via retail,” he said. The shift to no discs will also likely impact game development timelines, as developers will no longer face the same urgency to have a build ready to submit to PlayStation for the production of a disc, as industry experts noted around GTA VI’s no-disc news last week. Instead, projects may gain weeks of development time, in the event delivery deadlines for platform approval move closer to release date. Preservationists’ likely worries While millions of gamers have shifted to digital, there are still people who associate game discs—and only game discs—with actual ownership of PlayStation games. That portion of the gaming community spoke up last week about wanting to buy a version of GTA VI that they could hold in their hands, could lend to a friend and could potentially pop into a well-preserved PS5 console three decades from now and still see it run. Such gamers didn’t want to worry that they’d merely purchased a digital copy that could lose access to the game if, say, the company behind the game someday turns of the servers that transmit downloadable copies. Digital copies of games are inherently less long-lasting, because consumers aren’t actually buying a game (on a disc), just buying access to the game. The fine print in online gaming shops notes this, as does a recent law that went on the books in California in 2025. That lasw requires game publishers doing business in the state to refrain from words like “sell” when offering digital copies of games, unless they explicitly tell consumers that what’s being sold isn’t the game itself but a potentially revocable license to access it. A Sony spokesperson noted to Game File that “[w]ith all digital content, including games, movies, and music, players are purchasing a personal license for non-commercial use.” Regarding the fears of PlayStation games being lost to time in an all-digital era, the rep also noted that Sony remains “committed to delivering experiences from past generations to the new platforms our players are using.” They noted that PlayStation has used emulation and remasters to keep offering its classic games to modern gamers. It’s true that many consumers have become accustomed to not having physical copies of new music albums or movies, but the relative precariousness of digital copies of games is in fact being highlighted today by…. Sony’s other big announcement: the upcoming closure of the PS3 and PS Vita online stores Sony said today that it will be closing the online marketplaces for its PlayStation 3 console and PS Vita handheld in most countries in July 2027 (sooner elsewhere: August 2026 for the PS3 store Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua; late 2026 for PS3 in other Latin American countries and the Middle East). “We know this news may be disappointing to PS3 and PS Vita players who hold a special place in their hearts for this generation of gaming,” Sony said in its announcement, saying the move “was not an easy decision for us to make.” Sony said that PS3 and Vita marketplaces “are no longer able” to support modern commerce systems, prompting a “need” to close the shops and focus on more modern PlayStation platform stores. The news may spark some deja vu. Sony announced back in March 2021 that it planned to take the PS3, Vita and PlayStation Portable marketplaces offline that summer. The move would have caused some 2,000 digital-only games to become unavailable for new purchasers, according to a VGC analysis at the time. Fans complained loudly. By April 2021, Sony walked back the PS3 and Vita shop closures, with then PlayStation boss Jim Ryan saying “it’s clear that we made the wrong decision here.” This time around, Sony is giving a longer notice period in most regions. The closure of those stores is still likely to cut off access to new purchases of digital-only PS3 and Vita games. The current PlayStation 5 marketplace sells PS5 and PS4 games, as well as a selection of PS1 and PS2 games. It does not sell PS3 games, because games for that platform can’t run on the system (some are offered via a PlayStation Plus streaming option). Vita games also aren’t sold via PS5. Sony says digitally purchased PS3 and Vita games will be downloadable after the stores’ shutdowns “for the foreseeable future.” Sony’s move contrasts with Microsoft’s Xbox platform, which continues to sell and support games from all four Xbox console generations. But it puts it in line with Nintendo, which disabled purchases in the marketplace for its Wii console (a contemporary of the PS3) in 2019. Nintendo discontinued purchases in the online shop for its 3DS portable (a contemporary of the Vita) in 2023. The big questions about Sony’s 2028 post-disc era Will Microsoft follow suit, ending support for new disc-based games on Xbox platforms and therefore all game consoles, too? Whether Microsoft does or not, will third-parties that can no longer release games on discs for PlayStation, simply ditch the disc options across the board? Given the GTA VI no-disc experiment launching this November, will more game publishers decide to forgo disc-based offerings even in 2027? How will no-disc PS5/6 games be packaged and sold in brick-and-mortar retail stores? What becomes of game sharing in an all-digital era? Will Sony modify its current set-up, which currently allows some sharing of digital games across a pair of consoles, to allow more casual lending? (See for example, Nintendo’s year-old system of letting players lend a digital game to another player in a “family group” for up to 14 days.) Will there be a version of a PS6 with a disc drive? Or will a drive be offered as an add-on? And how will gamers who want to retain access to PS4/PS5 disc-based games react to whichever configurations Sony chooses to offer? What will the final disc-based PlayStation game be?
The PlayStation Stores On PlayStation 3 And Vita Are Shutting Down
Starting this year and into 2027, Sony is sunsetting the digital storefront for two of its oldest online store platforms.
Physical disc production ending in January 2028 for new games releasing on PlayStation consoles
In response to shifting trends in consumer preference, new games will be released on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only.
The Sims 4 Update: Official Patch Notes (June 30th, 2026)
Maxis and EA have just released a brand new The Sims 4 Update across all officially supported platforms. Including PC, Mac, Xbox and Playstation platforms.
'I Don't Know What They're Thinking': Ex-PlayStation Boss Weighs in on Sony's PC Port Backtracking
Porting is all about "mindshare"
PlayStation PC Retreat Is A Mistake, As 18+ Months Late Ports Made Money Without Costing a Single Console Sale
Shawn Layden argues PlayStation’s PC port retreat is a mistake, proving late ports made cash without dropping PS5 sales
PlayStation Plus Adds Massive 2025 PS5 Adventure RPG
PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium catalog has dropped the final three PS5 games for June 2026, including a 2025 open-world adventure RPG.
No more selling PlayStation hardware at "significant" loss, says Sony, as everyone braces for a PS6 console that costs over $1,000
Sony is seemingly no longer interested in subsidising the cost of its hardware to reduce the price for the end user.
GTA 6 Could Skip 60 FPS Entirely, as Rockstar’s Insane Detail Forces a 30 FPS Lock Even on PS5 Pro
With GTA 6, Rockstar Games is set to raise the bar for what is possible to achieve on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S much like the studio did with Red Dead Redemption 2, but this is likely coming at a price. Although the highly anticipated next entry in the series is rumored to feature a performance mode running at 60 FPS, it is extremely unlikely this is real, as, according to the tech experts at Digital Foundry, the level of detail shown in the latest footage would make it very difficult to scale everything down to allow for 60 […]
Sony Spurs $1,000 PlayStation 6 Rumors
Rumors of sky-high next-gen consoles have been floating around for about as long as the next-gen consoles have been confirmed as in development, but it seems as though Sony CEO, Hideaki Nishino has all but confirmed $900+ pricing for the PS6 in a recent Q&A session following an official Gaming & Net...
Sony’s next-gen PlayStation will go ‘beyond the living room’
There could be new ways to play your games on the go.
A $1000 PlayStation 6 No Longer Sounds Crazy, As Sony Doesn’t Intend To Sell Hardware At Significant Losses
The PlayStation 6 is set to launch at one of the most challenging times for consumer tech, if not the most challenging. With the rising prices of components, RAM and SSDs above all, manufacturers are having an extremely hard time keeping costs down, and with a bill of materials that is now close to $1000, there's a very high chance the system will cost way more than most anticipated. Adding fuel to the fires of speculation is Sony itself, as the company heavily suggested in a recent investor Q&A session that it won't heavily subsidize the system. "We regard hardware as the base […]
It looks like PlayStation 6 is going to cost Sony about $1,000 to make, which likely means it will cost more than that at retail
The cost to make a single unit of the PlayStation 6 has gone up, according to new information from a reliable insider.
Grand Theft Auto VI Rumored to Offer 60 FPS Mode on PS5/Xbox Series X, But Maybe Not at Launch
One of the reasons Grand Theft Auto VI fans are eager to learn the currently missing details on PS5 Pro enhancements is that the most powerful console available on the market is expected to include a performance mode targeting 60 FPS. However, according to a credible source, there's a decent chance that even the base PlayStation 5 and Microsoft's roughly equivalent Xbox Series X will support 60 FPS in Rockstar's massively anticipated game. The rumor comes from the popular Polish gaming podcast Rock and Borys, which features Remigiusz "Rock" Maciaszek and Borys Nieśpielak. It is the latter who shared in […]
PS6 Hardware Cost Estimated at $900+
The upcoming Sony PlayStation 6 is slated to launch sometime in 2028, and with recent reports claiming that the ongoing RAM crisis likely won't end or ease up much before then, concerns are mounting about the price of next-gen gaming consoles. Those concerns are seemingly justified, with ubiquitous ...
Claims GTA 6 is selling 8 times as many copies on PS5 as Xbox "doesn't represent pre-order data", insists Microsoft
Microsoft has refuted claims that its rival system, the PlayStation 5, is outselling the Xbox edition of Grand Theft Auto 6 by a rate of 8-to-1.
PlayStation Plus Free Games July 2026: Predictions, Rumors, Leaks And More
PlayStation Plus free games for July 2026: predictions, rumors and leaks for PS Plus Essential, including possible PS5 and PS4 titles ahead of the official reveal.
Sony will pull Studio Canal purchases for European users
The trend of revoking access to digital purchases continues, this time affecting European customers of Sony's PlayStation Store.
Major PS5 Feature Down for the Last 2 Weeks, Sony Silent
A widely used PS5 feature has been down for the last two weeks on both the console and the PS App, and there's no sign of a fix.
The PlayStation 6 Reportedly Already Costs $960 in Materials to Manufacture
The PlayStation 6 reportedly costs $960 to build in materials, suggesting next-gen consoles' prices could be much higher than anticipated.
BlazBlue: Central Fiction DLC character Trinity Glassfille revealed
Following an initial announcement earlier this week, Arc System Works has officially announced BlazBlue: Central Fiction new downloadable content character Trinity Glassfille for the PlayStation 4 …
PlayStation is pulling "previously purchased" digital movies from users' libraries
Sony has written to customers to advise that hundreds of "previously purchased" digital movies previously available via its online store will "be removed".
Sony is deleting over 550 purchased movies from PS5 users’ digital libraries
PlayStation says a licensing agreement means users will no longer be able to access some purchased videos…
PlayStation Is Deleting Terminator 2 And 550 Other Movies
Movies like Rambo: First Blood, Bridget Jones' Diary and The Deer Hunter are all being unceremoniously removed
PlayStation hardware sales fall to their lowest May total since 2000
Price rises hit Sony's console sales, but 007 First Light and Switch 2 help US game spending to grow 3%
Xbox Sales Are Its Lowest Ever This Month, PlayStation Its Lowest Since 2000
Xbox and PS5 sales have cratered due to skyrocketing prices based on skyrocketing component costs they have to pay.
PlayStation Removing Purchased Content From Your Library Again
Sony Interactive Entertainment is conducting another round of purchased content removal from the PlayStation library.
PlayStation encourages Blu-ray adoption by deleting purchased movies from customer accounts
PlayStation encourages Blu-ray adoption by deleting purchased movies from customer accounts
PlayStation Will Continue To Push Live Service Games Despite Evident Challenges, While Teasing A PlayStation 6 Handheld
Hideaki Nishino doubles down on live services like MARVEL Tōkon: Fighting Souls while teasing a PlayStation 6 handheld.
PlayStation Boss Says New Console Experiences Will Involve 'Leveraging Technologies That Can Be Used in Various Forms and Locations' — and I'm Convinced He's Teasing a PS6 Handheld
Recent comments from Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hideaki Nishino have suggested PlayStation may move towards more hybrid, Switch-like consoles in the future to match modern on-the-go players.
It's Xbox's turn (again), as console prices keep going up
Microsoft announced a price hike for the Xbox Series consoles today, the third in little over a year. Effective August 1, the Xbox Series S, which launched in 2020 for $300, will cost $500 in the U.S. The Xbox Series X, which launched in 2020 at $500, will go for $800. This follows a round of PlayStation 5 price increases from Sony this spring, and a slow-motion increase for Nintendo’s Switch 2, which will kick in in the U.S. in September. (Mind you, there were also eight video game industry price hikes in six months of 2025). The chart up top shows the sudden ascent of console prices over the past year, a sudden surge in an already unusual hardware generation. Prices had been flat for years, now “up” is the new “flat.” Game console prices used to go down across the length of a console generation, but not this time around. Microsoft’s explanation for the new price hike today: We hoped another price increase would not be necessary, and we have spent the last several months working with suppliers on options. Unfortunately, console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x and we expect another doubling by the fall of 2027. The entire consumer electronics industry is struggling with the current components crisis, but the effects are particularly hard on consoles. Unlike phones, computers, speakers, and other consumer devices, consoles are typically not sold at a profit, but instead for less than they cost to make. This is an issue well beyond game consoles. Apple announced price hikes on its computers and tablets today as well. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Item 2: Brutal Bungie cuts Bungie laid off “most” of its Destiny development team and some developers who worked on Marathon, the newest game from the struggling Sony-owned studio. A WARN notice issued by Sony to Washington State, where Bungie is based, tallied cuts impacting 292 workers, effective next month. That’s strictly for Bungie/Sony jobs in Washington and wouldn’t account for any elsewhere. The video I clipped below shows the redacted list of Bungie cuts filed to Washington State officials. As you’ll see, I had to scroll for a while… In a note emailed to PlayStation workers and published online, PlayStation game studios chief Hermen Hulst offered the following explanation for these latest cuts at Bungie: This is painful news, especially for talented colleagues whose roles have been eliminated. This decision was made only after extensive discussion and careful consideration, and I want to provide some context on how we arrived here. Over the past several months, together with Bungie leadership, we reviewed the studio’s long-term direction, development priorities, resource needs, and role within our broader portfolio strategy. We explored multiple alternatives before concluding that a reduction was necessary to align the studio’s resources with its current priorities and long-term goals. In 2022, Sony bought Bungie for $3.7 billion. The studio’s marquee game, the multiplayer live service shooter Destiny 2 was losing popularity at the time. Its next game Marathon, released earlier this year, has been well-reviewed but had a slow start. Bungie is renowned for making great shooter games, and Destiny fans have mourned the wind-down of Destiny 2. They’ve also expressed bewilderment over reports that Destiny 3 is not, per Bloomberg, immediately in the cards.
An Update from PlayStation Studios
Below is an internal email from Hermen Hulst, CEO, Studio Business Group, Sony Interactive Entertainment distributed today to SIE employees. ********************************************************************************** Dear Team, Today I want to share a difficult update regarding Bungie. We have made the decision to reduce Bungie’s workforce, affecting a significant number of employees, including most of the Destiny team and some Marathon team members. There are also reductions across SIE teams that support […]
PS5 ‘shovelware’ studio says all its games are being removed due to Sony’s ‘stricter guidelines’
Afil Games has more than 140 games on the PlayStation Store…
Notorious Xbox and PS5 shovelware publisher booted off PlayStation Store
Sony is continuing its crusade against low-effort shovelware titles and is now delisting close to 1,000 Afil Games titles from the PlayStation platform.
Like New PlayStation 5 Slim Disc Edition Consoles Are Going for $499 for Amazon Prime Day. Blink and They Might Be Sold Out.
Blink and they might be sold out.
Walmart Just Slashed 50% Off the PlayStation PULSE Explore Planar Magnetic Wireless Gaming Earbuds. You're Getting the Best PS5 Earbuds for Under $100..
You're getting the best PS5 earbuds for under $100.
This Week’s Japanese Game Releases: Star Fox, Villion: Code, more
Star Fox for Switch 2, and Villion: Code for PlayStation 5, Switch 2, PlayStation 4, and Switch are the highlight of this week’s Japanese video game releases.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 Listings Have Fans Fearing Pricey PlayStation Ports
PlayStation fans are fearing the worst after Microsoft set the price of Call of Duty: Black Ops 1 and 2 at $40 without DLC.
Should You Buy A PlayStation 5 Now Or Wait For The PS6?
Sony will likely continue supporting the PlayStation 5 well after its next console is released, so there's no real reason to wait for a PlayStation 6.
Xbox Forces PS5 Players To Jump Through Hoops To Play ‘Halo: Campaign Evolved’
PlayStation and Xbox players are getting a look at just how many hoops they or their friends have to jump through in order to play Halo: Campaign Evolved together.
Sony files DualSense login patent for PSN: an extra security layer
On May 21, 2026, Sony filed a patent called “Controller-Driven Video Game Console Login.” It describes a PlayStation Network sign-in system that would
PlayStation May Be Interested in Buying Xbox and Bethesda Studio
PlayStation may be interested in buying an Xbox and Bethesda studio following reports Xbox is about to have a "reset."
Report: PlayStation changed first-party single-player PC strategy due to lack of revenue
But CEO Hideaki Nishino has confirmed that live-service titles will continue to come to the platform
Sony drops “PC”, adds “AI” to official PlayStation business strategy summary
Sony had made some conspicuous edits and updates to its description of PlayStation’s “business environment and strategy,” in a new annual report filed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today. These changes are part of a 379-word overview of Sony’s strategy for its Game & Network Services (G&NS) division, which is another name for PlayStation. The chunk about PlayStation strategy is part of a voluminous financial report filed by Sony each June. This year’s is 229 pages long. Differences to any part of the filing—word changes made from year to year, as Sony provides a breakdown of its business for investors—can be illuminating. For example: A line from 2025 about how the PlayStation team “aims to achieve sustainable and profitable business growth” has been changed in the 2026 version to “aims to achieve sustainable business growth.” Notice which word they cut? That’s a pretty clear tell about how Sony expects its profit margins to be squeezed this year, due to rising chip costs for its hardware, among other things. A line from 2025 that stated “Sony plans to continue its efforts to deploy its first-party titles to multiple platforms such as PC” had been cut from the 2026 version. That appears to be Sony’s admission by omission that it has backed off releasing its biggest games on PC. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reported in March and again in May that Sony’s big single-player marquee games are no longer planned for time-delayed release on PC.1 A whole new chunk has also been added about how “Sony is utilizing AI to unleash the creativity of studios and further enhance the PlayStation experience.” A full breakdown of the changes made from the 2025 version to the 2026 version is below. I’ve redlined them for you…
Glover, Street Racer Collection getting free Nintendo Switch updates to add PS1 version
As announced by QUByte today, Glover and Street Racer Collection will both be receiving free updates on Nintendo Switch to add their PlayStation versions. The two will have their patches arrive in 2027. Glover on the PlayStation 1 came out after the N64 version. There were quite a few changes on PS1 because the hardware was less powerful. It resulted...
Digimon Story: Time Stranger free update launches July 9, adds Terriermon Assistant, Graphics Mode options, more
Publisher Bandai Namco and developer Media.Vision will release a free update for Digimon Story: Time Stranger on July 9 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC, and at launch for Switch 2 and Switch…
Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Endless Ragnarok demo now available
A demo for Granblue Fantasy: Relink – Endless Ragnarok is now available for PlayStation 5, Switch 2, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam, publisher Cygames and developer Cygames Osaka announced.
Xbox is porting two classic Call of Duty games to PlayStation — and they're coming very, very soon
Call of Duty: Black Ops and Black Ops 2 will soon finally be playable on modern PlayStation systems.
Sandisk 8TB PS5 SSD launches for $2,959.99, almost five times the PS5 price
Officially licensed Optimus GX PRO 850P tops out at 8TB. Sandisk has launched the Optimus GX PRO 850P NVMe SSD for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Pro consoles.
SanDisk’s new PlayStation 5 SSD will cost you more than three PS5 Pros
You can max out your PS5 Pro’s storage for the price of three consoles.
The Relic: First Guardian launches July 31 for PS5 and PC, later this summer for Xbox Series and Switch 2
Dark fantasy Soulslike action RPG The Relic: First Guardian will launch for PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam on July 31, followed by Xbox Series and Switch 2l later this summer, publisher Perp Games …
Following Gears of War: E-Day's declaration of Xbox exclusivity, Halo: Campaign Evolved is already climbing PlayStation pre-order charts
Halo: Campaign Evolved's shocking commitment to a multiplatform strategy could pay off big time, as PS5 pre-orders are ramping up.
Forgotlings for PS5, Xbox Series launches June 18
The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series versions of 2D cinematic side-scrolling action adventure game Forgotlings will launch on June 18, publisher Hitcents and developer Throughline Games announced.
One of fall's coolest games has been delayed to October to avoid a September crush
Last Sunday, a trailer that aired during an online Xbox event showed Valor Mortis, an upcoming action game that re-imagines the age of Napoleonic wars as a conflict with the plague-ridden undead. It’s a first-person game that mixes Dark Souls-style combat with parkour—it’s from the developers of the acclaimed, fast-paced cyberpunk wall-running Ghostrunner games—and a setting like nothing else that’s out there. Valor Mortis’ trailer concluded with a release date: September 24. But by the time it aired, the teams behind the game knew that was no longer Valor Mortis’ release date. Days ago, they’d learned the hard way that September 24 would be untenable and that they’d have to change it. Today, they’ve announced a new one, October 13, after speaking to Game File about getting out of the bind they recently found themselves in. “When we picked September 24th, it looked like a very, very clear date,” Blake Rochkind, head of publisher Lyrical Games, told me during an impromptu interview on Monday in Los Angeles. “Very quickly it became not such a clear date.” Lyrical and development studio One More Level had a feeling the deate might need to change, Rochkind recalled. But they had to lock in September 24 “many, many weeks” ago. Really, though, who could know if that was the right call when they made it? “There were so many unknowns,” Rochkind said. “This was before Sony State of Play, before Xbox Showcase, before Nintendo Direct, before Summer Games Fest.” Then on Tuesday, June 2, during a PlayStation showcase held just five days before their planned release date reveal, things changed. “As soon as Control announced September 24th, we knew we were moving the date.” It wasn’t just the PlayStation showcase reveal of the release date for Remedy’s upcoming third-person thriller. There were others. And changing their own trailer this close to its airing, Rochkind would later tell me, wasn’t possible.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero and The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure for PS5, Switch 2 launch September 10
The PlayStation 5 and Switch 2 versions of Falcom-developed story RPGs The Legend of Heroes: Trails from Zero and The Legend of Heroes: Trails to Azure will launch on September 10, publisher NIS Am…
PlayStation Plus Quietly Rolls Out Controversial Change Alongside June Free Games
Don't expect bumper monthly drops anymore.
PlayStation Plus Drops 8 More Free Games For June
PlayStation is dropping a fresh batch of new games for you to play this month!
Kingdom Hearts IV confirmed for PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, and PC
Kingdom Hearts IV will be available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, and PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, and Microsoft Store when it launches, Square Enix announced.
Kingdom Hearts Collection [I ~ III] announced for PS5, Xbox Series, and Switch 2
Square Enix has announced Kingdom Hearts Collection [I ~ III] for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and Switch 2. It will include Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 ReMIX, Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8 Final Chapter Pr…
Valheim launches September 9
Viking survival game Valheim will leave Early Access and launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, Xbox One, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store on September 9, Coffee Stain Publishing and …
Xbox's Strategy On Console Exclusives Just Got More Confusing
Some first-party games will never come to PlayStation 5 but lots of others will
Persona 6 announced for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC
ATLUS has announced Persona 6 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC (Steam, Microsoft Store). A release date was not announced.
Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse launches October 15 for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC, later in 2026 for Switch
Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store on October 15, followed by Switch later in 2026, publisher Konami and developers …
Crazy Taxi: World Tour announced for PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, and PC
After an initial tease in December 2023, SEGA has announced Crazy Taxi: World Tour for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, and PC (Steam, Microsoft Store). It will launch in 2027.
Senua announced for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC – action adventure game set in Hellblade universe
Publisher Xbox Game Studios and developer Ninja Theory have announced Senua, a new action adventure game set in the Hellblade universe. It will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Ste…
Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember announced for PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, and PC
Publisher Koei Tecmo and developer Team NINJA have announced action RPG sequel Wo Long 2: Wings of Ember for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, and PC (Steam, Microsoft Store). It will launch in…
METRO 2039 launches in February 2027
METRO 2039 will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam, Epic Games Store, and Microsoft Store in February 2027, publisher Deep Silver and developer 4A Games announced.
Persona 4 Revival launches February 18, 2027
Persona 4 Revival will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store on February 18, 2027, ATLUS announced. Pre-orders will be available today. It will also be availab…
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy launches August 27
Resonance: A Plague Tale Legacy will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store on August 27, publisher Focus Entertainment and developer Asobo Studio announced. It…
Fable launches February 23, 2027
Fable will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store on February XXX, 2027, publisher Xbox Game Studios and developer Playground Games announced. The PlayStation 5…
Bloober Team announces psychological thriller Star Trek: Shadow Frontier for PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, and PC
Publisher Paramount Games Studio and developer Bloober Team have announced Star Trek: Shadow Frontier, a science-fiction psychological thriller. It will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Switc…
Godzilla vs GTA 6: Retro Remake Makes PlayStation Debut on PS5 This November
Someone has to
HITMAN Classic Trilogy Remastered announced for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC
Publisher and developer Saber Interactive, and developer IO Interactive have announced HITMAN Classic Trilogy Remastered for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC (Steam). It will launch in 2027.
Final Fantasy VII Revelation announced for PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, and PC
Square Enix has announced Final Fantasy VII Revelation, the third and final game in the Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy. It will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, and PC via Steam, …
The Wolf Among Us Remastered announced for PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, Xbox One, Switch, and PC
Telltale Games and co-publisher PM Studios have announced The Wolf Among Us Remastered. It will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, Xbox One, Switch, and PC via Steam and Epic Games St…
The Wolf Among Us 2: A Telltale Series launches in 2027 for PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, Xbox One, Switch, and PC
The Wolf Among Us 2: A Telltale Series will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, Xbox One, Switch, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store in 2027, developer Telltale Games and co-publish…
Palworld launches July 10
Open-world survival crafting game Palworld will leave Early Access and launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Xbox One, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store on July 10, developer Pocketpair announc…
Guild Wars 3 Officially Announced, Set 1,000 Years Before Original GW, Coming to PC and PlayStation 5
ArenaNet has officially announced Guild Wars 3, set 1,000 years before the original game, and coming to PC and PlayStation 5.
Even the RuneScape Spinoff Is Coming Out in September
Add another game to the September pileup: RuneScape: Dragonwilds is due out on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S on September 15, 2026.
Guild Wars 3, Modern Evolution of the MMORPG, Announced at Summer Game Fest for PC and PlayStation 5
/PRNewswire/ -- Critically-acclaimed game development studio ArenaNet® tonight announced Guild Wars 3™, the third entry in the legendary and beloved Guild...
Guild Wars 3, Modern Evolution of the MMORPG, Announced at Summer Game Fest for PC and PlayStation 5
/CNW/ -- Critically-acclaimed game development studio ArenaNet® tonight announced Guild Wars 3™, the third entry in the legendary and beloved Guild Wars®...
STRANGER THAN HEAVEN launches January 15, 2027
STRANGER THAN HEAVEN will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam and Microsoft Store on January 15, 2027, publisher SEGA and developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio announced. It will also …
Fumito Ueda, legendary developer behind Shadow of the Colossus and Ico, announces single-player epic Gen Atlas for Xbox, PlayStation, and PC
"We hope to share an experience that inspires moments of quiet wonder and discovery.”
Alien: Isolation 2 announced for PS5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, and PC
Publisher SEGA and developer Creative Assembly have officially announced horror first-person shooter sequel Alien: Isolation 2 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Switch 2, and PC (Steam). A release da…
Sony, Amazon Unsure If Their Supply Chains Funded Armed Conflict In 2025
Do PlayStation 5s and Amazon Basics headsets fund armed conflict? Who knows!
God Of War Laufey's Director Talks Fan Skepticism, New Ideas, And Phranque The Cube
The showstopper at PlayStation’s State of Play was a new entry in the God of War franchise. However, instead of introducing Kratos’s newest adventure, Santa Monica Studio revealed God of War Laufey, which, as indicated by the title, shifts its focus to Faye, a hero and warrior in her own right, to tell a tale...
ACT Entertainment’s DisplayStations support CMU School of Drama
Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama utilised several MA Lighting grandMA3 consoles for lighting control and DisplayStations for designer stations on its latest production, Stephen Sondheim’s iconic musical Company, staged in the Philip Chosky Theater. The CMU School of Drama produces a dozen or more shows annually, at least one of them a musical,
‘Destiny 2’ Fans Drown PlayStation’s State Of Play In ‘Destiny 3’ Demands
Destiny 2 players are pulling out all the stops to try to get Sony to listen to them that they want Destiny 3 made.
May's top PlayStation games by copies sold
Yesterday’s State of Play gave us an idea of where PlayStation’s heading next. But we’ve had our May estimates for a couple of days now (we always update our data daily for clients), so it’s time to look at what performed best on PlayStation last month. We’ve got a new IP at the top, two evergreens doing their evergreen thing, FC26 smashing it ahead of the World Cup Plus pivot, and a quiet but promising result for Lego Batman. Let’s have a look at the state of Play…Station’s top games for May. 007 takes #001 007 First Light sold 1M copies on PS5 in May, easily making it the month’s top PS5 game by copies sold. Over 80% of those May copies were digital, which is broadly in line with where PlayStation’s digital share has settled for new releases this year. To date, 007 First Light has sold through 2.2M copies across platforms (so no unsold retail copies in that figure). The platform split is 55.1% PS5, 33.1% Steam, and 11.8% Xbox (console, Windows, and cloud combined). In gross revenue terms, 007 First Light has generated $150M. Owing to regional pricing and audience composition differences, the consoles make up a higher share of revenue than they do copies. Of the $150M, 60.5% came via PlayStation, 27.6% via Steam, and 12.9% via Xbox. Part of this is because over two-thirds of 007 First Light‘s PlayStation audience is in North America (43.4%) or Western Europe (23.2%), where local currency means the game generates more revenue per player. On Steam, under half of First Light‘s audience is from those same regions (31.8% North America, 15.1% Western Europe). As we covered in last week’s 007 Steam piece, the Steam version is pulling in higher-than-expected numbers in China, which now accounts for 17.3% of First Light‘s Steam audience. 007 is the equivalent of $44 USD in China, which is roughly 37% cheaper than the US price and about 44% cheaper than Western Europe. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe The crossover data backs up what we’ve seen all year about launch-window cohorts. 11% of PS5 players who played 007 First Light in May also played Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, which launched just a few days before. Last month was a great month for Denmark! IO Interactive is Copenhagen-based, and Lego Group is headquartered in Billund (TT Games is UK-based but produces work under Lego Group licence and direction). Speaking of which… A very blocky #2 and #3 Minecraft sold another 788K copies on PlayStation consoles last month. Business as usual, since Minecraft hasn’t sold fewer than 760K copies in a single month all year. With over 350M copies sold across all platforms, Minecraft is the best-selling game in history and one of the strongest brands in the world. Every month, a new cohort of children reaches Minecraft age, which guarantees a constant volume of new sales regardless of what the broader market is up to. The demographic refresh rate is truly impressive, with the audience renewing itself faster than it’s churning. Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight shifted 757K copies on PS5 last month, bringing its lifetime total on the platform to over 800K. Across all platforms, Legacy of the Dark Knight has now passed 1.5M sold through, so PlayStation accounts for over half of the game’s players. The May crossover data for Legacy of the Dark Knight on PS5 is also useful. 27% of those players also played Fortnite, 16% Roblox, 16% FC 26, and 14% NBA 2K. That’s the household-and-family cohort showing up, plus the launch-window cohort of core gamers who buy practically everything. FC 26 gets players through the door ahead of the World Cup FC 26 sold 411K copies on PlayStation last month (90% via PS5), the fewest copies FC 26 has sold all year and down heavily from April’s 700K. Part of this dropoff is because FC 26 has been available as a PlayStation Plus monthly game since 6 May, cannibalising premium sales. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe The strategic logic is straightforward for EA, which is sacrificing premium unit sales in May to build up the player base ahead of the FIFA World Cup, which kicks off on 11 June. Obviously, a bigger player pool going into the tournament means a bigger pool of potential Ultimate Team spenders during the period when football attention is at its peak. The early returns are around what you’d expect, with 4.4M new players accessing FC 26 via PS Plus last month – a substantial new spender pool. Anecdotally, a few of my mates who were ‘’skipping FIFA and Ultimate Team this year’’, were drawn back in via PS Plus. Lo and behold, one of them is buying packs like it’s going out of fashion. Whether this is all a smart trade for EA depends entirely on the Ultimate Team conversion rate over the next six weeks. Either way, the short-term engagement impact on the game as a whole is evident. FC 26‘s MAUs hit a record 24M on PlayStation in May, up 30% from the previous record set in April. GTA V does what GTA V always does Rounding out the top five is another evergreen title. Grand Theft Auto V shifted another 387K copies on PlayStation last month. No matter what else is happening in the industry, GTA V keeps pulling players in. It’s sold another 1.8M copies on PS5 in the first half of this year alone, helping the franchise pass the 230M-sold milestone across all platforms. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe I have a theory that Minecraft and GTA V are doing the same thing at different demographic levels. Both are functioning as generational gateway games that the audience ages into faster than it ages out of. Minecraft captures kids around age 6-10, GTA V captures much of the same audience around age 12-15 (unofficially, of course). The crossover data suggests this: 40% of GTA V‘s monthly PlayStation players typically play Fortnite in any given month, while 30% play Roblox. Household accounts aside, that’s not the original GTA V audience from 2013. Of course, the under-12 audience would love to get their hands on GTA, too. It’s always been the way of things, and some parents are happy to oblige. Mine did too back in the day, and I turned out just fine. Right? Right!? Want to get your hands on our data for yourself – for free? We’re offering a free trial of our platform for games companies. Send us a message here, or reply to this email, and we’ll set you up. The last word Reply to this email – or reach out here – if you have any feedback for the newsletter – or want to request a game for us to cover. [Alinea Analytics boasts the most accurate PC and console estimates in the business. Game makers use our platform to understand their audience, keep an eye on the competition, monitor sales trends, and spot new opportunities. We equip game studios and financial institutions with accurate data and the confidence to make smarter, data-driven decisions. Want to talk about all things games market data? We’d love to chat!]
grandMA3 And ACT Entertainment’s DisplayStations Support CMU School Of Drama’s Production Of “Company”
Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama utilized several grandMA3 consoles for lighting control and DisplayStations for designer stations on its latest production, Stephen Son | Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama utilized several grandMA3 consoles for lighting control and DisplayStations for “Company.”
The leaks were real: God of War Laufey is all about Faye, and it's coming to PlayStation 5 'soon'
Sony Santa Monica's next God of War game is known as NAME, and is set for release in YEAR.
Wolverine Video Game Creators on Trailer, X-Men Cameos and Gameplay
The 'Wolverine' video game developers break down the new trailer, X-Men cameos, gameplay and more.
Wolverine Video Game Creators on Trailer, X-Men Cameos and Gameplay
The 'Wolverine' video game developers break down the new trailer, X-Men cameos, gameplay and more.
PlayStation Showcase Twitch Chat Spammed By Destiny 3 Fans
#wewantDestiny3 was a ceaseless battle cry on the Amazon-owned platform's livestream of the event
Kratos is Out, Faye is In: God of War Laufey Creators Explain Why Kratos' Wife is the New Star
The biggest news to come out of PlayStation's State of Play wasn't just that there was a new God of War game, but that Kratos was sitting this one out and his wife, Faye, was taking the starring role.
RuneScape: Dragonwilds Launches on Consoles Later in 2026, Sony Picks Up Spinoff for PS Plus
RuneScape: Dragonwilds launches on PlayStation 5 later in 2026, developer Jagex has announced, marking the first time the RuneScape IP has made the jump from PC to consoles in its 25-year history.
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve launches October 2
Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam on October 2, publisher Bandai Namco and developer Bandai Namco Aces announced.
Silent Hill: Townfall launches September 24 on PS5
More on the horror’s narrative driven puzzles, characters, and PS5 features as pre-orders go live.
Onimusha: Way of the Sword launches September 25, demo now available
Onimusha: Way of the Sword will launch for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store on September 25, Capcom announced. Both pre-orders and a free demo are available now.