While there has been plenty of criticism about Sony’s announcement that it would be ending the production of PlayStation discs in January 2028, Circana’s Mat Piscatella has noted that these criticisms won’t really amount to much in light of actual market conditions.
Commenting on a social media post about a recent trailer for Marvel’s Wolverine getting a lot of comments about including discs with the physical release, Piscatella noted that the entire week ending on July 11th saw only two games selling more than 10,000 physical copies in the US. Along with this, only seven games have sold more than 100,000 physical copies in the entire year.
“Commenting is cool, use your voice and all that,” he wrote. “But commenting is cheap, idk.” In yet another comment, Piscatella also brought up the fact that retail companies like GameStop weren’t pushing back against Sony’s decision. And without these businesses also stepping in, even 20-times more comments wouldn’t help sway Sony from its decision.
“Without a GameStop or other retailers willing to push back, you could have 20x the comments and it would still likely not matter.”
It is worth noting that retailers outside of the UK have spoken out against Sony. Among these is the UK’s Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) – a consortium of retailers from across the country. Its CEO, Kim Bayley, said in a statement that this decision would be bad for retailers as well as customers, since Sony will essentially end up taking the option of physical games away.
“PlayStation’s announcement that major games will no longer be available on disc is a triumph of corporate convenience over consumer choice,” she said in a statement. “Every year, millions of gamers still choose to buy physical copies because they value true ownership. A disc can be shared with family, traded in, collected, preserved, and crucially, still played years from now. A download licence often offers none of those freedoms.”
“Removing discs doesn’t represent progress – it simply removes choice. That’s bad for gamers, bad for retailers, and ultimately, bad for the long-term health and preservation of our games industry.”
Sony announced that it is going to end PlayStation disc production in 2028 earlier this month, and pointed to recent trends in the market as the main reason behind this decision.
“This is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs. This transition will enable us to align more closely with how most of our community prefers to access and play games today.”
Analysts have been quite vocal about how customer backlash wouldn’t result in Sony changing its mind. Among these has been Kantan Games CEO Dr. Serkan Toto, who sympathized with fans wanting physical releases but noted that Sony is likely just waiting for the “storm” to pass.
Similarly, Daniel Ahmad of Niko Partners has noted that, while Sony is unlikely to reverse course on the decision, the company might end up offering more clarification about how its future console hardware would support discs PlayStation users had bought during the PS4 era.
2 PlayStation video games sold more than 10k physical units in the US during week ending July 11, 2026. 7 have sold more than 100k physical units year-to-date.Source: Circana Retail Tracking Service
— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-07-20T17:37:40.577Z
Commenting is cool, use your voice and all that.But commenting is cheap, idk.
— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-07-20T17:39:39.676Z
Without a GameStop or other retailers willing to push back you could have 20x the comments and it would still likely not matter.
— Mat Piscatella (@matpiscatella.bsky.social) 2026-07-20T17:42:42.498Z
