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GTA V physical disc is seen in PlayStation 5 console in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on July 1, 2026. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
NurPhoto via Getty Images<\/p>\n
The biggest story in the video game industry right now is the sweeping layoffs at Xbox<\/a>: 3,200 workers being let go over the course of the fiscal year, with 1,600 yesterday alone. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma is calling the brand \u201cunhealthy\u201d outright and begins a long, long journey to try to salvage it. This most recent step is brutal.<\/p>\n This comes after an enormous PlayStation news story, which was easily the most disliked decision in brand history, even past the eventually-fixed PS3 price, I\u2019d argue. That was the announcement that PlayStation would no longer make new physical discs<\/a> for its games starting in 2028, moving to an all-digital future that offers no benefit to consumers, rather ending the concept of true ownership, damaging game preservation and hampering game-sharing.<\/p>\n In the wake of that announcement, PlayStation abandoned social media for almost an entire week, a streak ended quite literally as I was writing this article, the account posting a tweet about the FlexStrike wireless fight stick. That tweet, in literally five minutes, has been ratioed with 2,000 replies and 500 retweets. Every comment on the post is about the disc-killing policy announced on July 1. This joins the previous tweet, which has 100,000 comments and 68,000 retweets, with nothing even close to that in the brand\u2019s history. That tweet has been peppered by at least a dozen community notes that keep coming and going, challenging PlayStation\u2019s assertions about digital adoption. The new tweet is at 2,500 now that I have finished writing this paragraph.<\/p>\n The problem for fans, however, is that unlike past decisions, Sony can\u2019t just reduce a console price or undo a PSN account-linking requirement for PC. This is an enormous issue for the entire industry with PlayStation being the tip of the spear to say that 75-85% digital sales is enough to move that to 100% for good. Sony has already re-tasked a disc-making plant to work on other components. And all of this, of course, feeds directly into the design of the PlayStation 6, which is almost certainly not going to have a disc version. A sold-separately disc drive attachment may be the best fans can hope for.<\/p>\n Play Puzzles & Games on Forbes<\/p>\n This is going to hang around for a long, long while. While gamers sometimes lack the attention span to stay with one controversy for long, this one is at a tier higher than others, and any PlayStation social posting is going to be met with this kind of response indefinitely.<\/p>\n Is it utterly impossible PlayStation reverses course? I suppose I won\u2019t say that, but it is extremely unlikely. And for all the drama at Xbox right now, it is probable that its upcoming Helix console will not use discs either, especially as a PC\/console hybrid. Then it\u2019s really over.<\/p>\n 5,000 comments now.<\/p>\n Follow me on Twitter<\/a>, YouTube<\/a>,<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series<\/a> and The Earthborn Trilogy<\/a>.<\/p>\n