Sony’s disc-free 2028 plan may kill bargain used discs, but Store sales still win

Sony announced it plans to stop producing physical PlayStation discs in 2028, and the immediate worry is ownership. If discs disappear, what happens to the cheap used-game ecosystem that lets players buy, resell, and keep access long term without paying full price?

Ars Technica’s answer is more specific and, frankly, more complicated than the fear. Using price comparisons across 19 current top-selling PlayStation games, Ars found that while used discs are often the cheapest option for most games for most of the year, frequent and periodic deep discounts on the PlayStation Store often undercut the cheapest game disc options. In other words, even before 2028 removes discs entirely, digital promotions already compete aggressively with the bargain bin.

Here’s how Ars ran the analysis, because the methodology matters if you are an executive trying to translate this into real strategy. Ars started with Sony's list of the bestsellers on the PlayStation Store. Then it eliminated any games that weren't available on a physical disc. For the remaining titles, Ars used the database over at PlatPrices.com to determine both the “Standard” price and the lowest “Discount” price offered for those games on the PlayStation Store in the last year, along with the total number of days the discount price was offered.

On the physical side, Ars compared those digital prices against physical disc pricing that included both new and used copies. The core question being stress-tested was simple: if used discs are typically cheaper than even deep digital discounts, then disc-free could permanently remove a major consumer value lever. Ars’ results did not deliver a one-note conclusion. Instead, the disc value proposition looks seasonal and title-specific. Used discs are often the cheapest option for most games for most of the year, which explains why the used market became a default strategy for bargain-hunters.

But digital’s periodicity is what cuts into that bargain logic. Ars found that frequent and periodic deep discounts on the PlayStation Store often undercut the cheapest game disc options. That matters for the “disc-free” conversation because it suggests the consumer benefit most people associate with discs, the ability to buy low, is not entirely unique to physical media. If the store can repeatedly drive prices down below what the cheapest used disc would cost, the practical difference between “owning” and “renting” gets fuzzier in day-to-day purchase decisions.

Now bring it back to incentives. Sony’s decision to stop producing physical discs in 2028 is not happening in a vacuum. Physical media involves manufacturing and logistics, and digital distribution lets platforms tighten control over pricing, availability, and catalog dynamics. Meanwhile, used discs create a parallel resale channel where revenue is captured by retailers and secondhand sellers rather than by the platform on each transaction. When discs go away, that secondary market shrinks or disappears, and the platform shifts a bigger share of transactions toward direct store purchases.

Regulatory and policy context is already moving in the background of these shifts. Across markets, there has been recurring scrutiny of digital storefront terms, ownership language, and how long access lasts. Even though Ars’ analysis is about prices rather than legal control, the practical stakes overlap: if a consumer can buy a game cheaper through a used disc today, disc-free could force more purchases through store terms. Ars is essentially showing that today, the “cheap used discs” advantage is real most of the time, but store discounts frequently claw back ground enough to change how much consumers rely on the used channel.

Second-order for decision-makers: if Sony’s 2028 plan lands and the used disc price floor disappears, digital pricing power could rise. Ars’ data, however, implies that Sony may not need full pricing power to attract buyers. Store discounts already demonstrate an ability to move consumers toward digital even when used discs are cheaper for much of the year. That means the post-2028 world could be shaped less by one-time price jumps and more by how often the platform chooses to run deep promotions.

For executives and boards tracking this space, the takeaway is not just “discs end, prices change.” It is that promotional cadence can soften or amplify the impact of removing a resale channel. Sony’s disc-free plan would eliminate the market for cheap used PlayStation discs, which are often available for well below the price of a digital download. Ars’ findings suggest that, even if the used market is removed, periodic digital discounts can still determine whether consumers feel like they lost the bargain bin or just switched checkout lanes.