All articles tagged with #physical games
US July physical game spending fell to a record $85 million, reinforcing Sony’s plan to stop producing new PlayStation discs in 2028 as hardware spending slid 29% YoY; Nintendo led physical sales while Sony trailed, underscoring the broader digital shift and the financial strain of maintaining a disc distribution pipeline.
Circana data shows Nintendo accounts for 63% of new US physical game sales this year, with PlayStation at about 32% and Xbox just over 4%; July 2026 hit a record low for new physical software at $85 million due to fewer releases. Nintendo still led global physical software at 38.5% (61.5% digital), with digital revenue at 132.7 billion yen and a 90% YoY increase. The breakdown between Switch 2 and Switch isn’t provided.
US July physical software sales fell to $85 million—the lowest monthly total since Circana began tracking in 1995—while hardware spending dropped 29% YoY to $282 million; the average console price rose to $542 amid Switch 2 expectations and component shortages. Unit sales declined across PS5 (6%), Xbox Series (18%), and Switch 2 (51%), though Switch 2 led in units and PS5 led revenue. Content spending fell 10% to $4.5 billion despite six new Top 10 releases, with Pokémon Go up 230% YoY during its 10th anniversary; Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 topped July sales, followed by EA Sports College Football 27, and Circana published a projected top-10 for July 5–Aug 8, 2026.
A Circana report shows U.S. buyers are largely skipping Xbox physical discs this year, with Xbox at just over 4% of new physical game sales while Nintendo leads with 63% and PlayStation at 32%; analysts point to Xbox Game Pass digital access, cross‑platform releases, and production differences, and note July 2026 saw an all‑time low for new physical software amid broader declines in content spending.
During Take-Two’s Q1 2027 earnings call, CEO Strauss Zelnick said the company is over 90% digitally distributed and that discs don’t make sense for big titles like GTA 6, which will launch without a physical disc and may only appear in rare physical editions in the future.
Sony confirms it will end PlayStation discs for new games in 2028, citing ongoing digitalization, and says the move will proceed cautiously while acknowledging fan backlash; the company argues the disc is not a major differentiator from PC and outlines how retailers can adapt with code-in-box strategies, as some fans rally boycott efforts amid concern for physical gaming's future.
A recent Xbox outage locked players out of digital games and, for some offline consoles, prevented disc-based games from working due to entitlement checks. Microsoft says offline mode relies on saved entitlements, has fixed the underlying issue, and plans a future update to ensure disc-based play isn’t disrupted during outages.
Sandfall’s Clair Obscur team says Sony’s plan to end physical game discs by 2028 is 'super sad,' arguing physical copies are part of the art and give players a tangible, store-bought experience. They explain Expedition 33 had a physical edition despite cost because many players value holding the game, and they highlight how seeing shelves of discs makes games feel real. The article notes the broader industry swing to all-digital and—despite their hopes—unlikely reversal from Sony, with Automaton hosting the interview.
Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser and writer Lazlow Jones weigh in on the ongoing physical vs digital games debate at SDCC, saying publishers should offer physical copies if there’s demand and highlighting the value of digital updates; the piece also notes GTA 6 will not ship with a disc and Sony plans to stop producing physical game discs after January 2028.
Dan Houser, GTA V and GTA VI writer and cofounder of Absurd Ventures, says publishers should offer physical game discs if fans want them, even as GTA VI launches digital-only and the industry leans toward digital updates for quality.
Sony plans to end physical PS5 discs around 2028, and major retailers are discounting a slew of first‑party PS5 exclusives—Spider-Man 2, God of War, The Last of Us Part I, Death Stranding Director’s Cut, and more—giving collectors a prime chance to stock up on discs before physical media fades away.
Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot says Sony’s shift to disc-free PlayStation has pros and cons, noting that digital storefronts have helped grow PC gaming and could reduce hardware costs, but also bring downsides like lack of ownership and poorer game preservation; Ubisoft’s own digital strategy and ongoing restructuring are part of the broader industry move, with Assassin’s Creed Black Flag: Resynced performing well despite the transition.
Circana’s US market data show physical game sales have collapsed from a 2009 peak of 297 million units to just 37 million in the last year, helping explain Sony’s plan to stop selling physical discs in 2028. The analysis notes only a handful of PS games sold in physical recently (top title around 275,000 units so far this year) and a growing share of hardware sold as digital-only (about 27% of PS5 and 52% of Xbox Series sales), signaling a market-wide shift toward digital downloads that aligns with Sony’s disc-free strategy.
Disgaea creator Sohei Niikawa says physical game editions are valuable keepsakes fans can keep, sign, and display at events, even though Sony plans to move toward a disc-free future. He notes publishers may still ship boxed versions with download codes, and jokes that if discs go away, so might the hardware itself. Niikawa’s own Demons’ Night Fever will have a physical release later this year.
Circana data show US PlayStation physical game sales are increasingly marginal: only two PS titles sold more than 10k physical units in the week ending July 11, 2026, and seven surpassed 100k year-to-date, suggesting that even the top disc titles may not exceed ~300k copies in the U.S. This underscores a broader shift to digital, despite Sony’s ongoing disc-focused strategy; analysts say meaningful change would require broad action beyond fan backlash, while petitions to reverse course have stalled under ~400k signatures.