PlayStation has announced that it will end the production of disc releases after more than 30 years of physical games, confirming that everything that you buy will be digital-only from January 2028 onwards.
There will inevitably still be some new games on sale in stores, but likely only empty cases containing printed download codes. It’s devastating news for physical game collectors and those skeptical of digital ownership, but also likely to sting for all PlayStation fans.
There’s nothing quite like the feeling of getting your hands on a physical game and almost everyone will have a favorite, not to mention fond memories of scrounging money to buy them or receiving them as gifts as a kid.
That’s why I’ve asked every PlayStation gamer on the TechRadar team to look back on some of their favorite physical releases for a final, teary-eyed send-off.
Hidden secrets revealed
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I’m all for great cover art, but the PlayStation case I’ll always remember is that of the original Metal Gear Solid from 1998. That’s because the back of it contained a crucial clue for the game that stumped me for an embarrassing amount of time.
“You should contact Meryl by Codec,” Colonel Campbell says at one point during the stealth classic. “Wasn’t her frequency written on the back of the CD case?” It took a few hours (possibly days) for me to realise that he meant the game’s physical case, where a tiny screenshot reveals that life-saving frequency.
As much as I enjoyed fighting Psycho Mantis and creeping around under cardboard boxes, it was this moment that made me doff my cap to the game’s designers — and it’s sadly the kind of dovetailing between games and the physical world that just won’t be possible from 2028.
Mark Wilson, Managing Editor, News
Please insert disc 2
I’ve been on one PlayStation or another for around 25 years. I’ve got fond memories of unwrapping physical releases, poring over manuals and physical maps of digital locations, and I’m genuinely emotional at the prospect of the era of physical releases, buying resold games cheaply, and owning your own damn games (not just the license) coming to an end.
Perhaps my favorite physical disc memory is playing through Final Fantasy 9 while sharing a controller with my friend. I was around nine years old.
The party suffered Beatrix’s ultimate move, the screen went black… and up came the “Change to Disc 2” message. We freaked out – I think both of us had forgotten this was a multi-disc game.
Matt Evans, Senior Editor, Fitness, Wellness & Wearables
Pour one out for the creamiest PS4 cover
I have an entire bookshelf of PS5 and PS4 games, but there’s only one with cover art that looks like a guy drowning in… cream. (I have been reliably informed that I will get in big trouble for suggesting it looks like anything else, so I leave that entirely to your own imagination).
I’m, of course, talking about The Evil Within 2, with its striking front that depicts troubled detective protagonist Sebastian Castellanos immersed in a sea of milky fluid. He looks so peaceful, eyes shut as if asleep and his hands clasped together almost in prayer — a perfect reflection of the game’s dream-world setting and undercurrent of religious themes.
It’s the kind of cover art with layers that you can only truly appreciate if you have it in your hands. There’s a creepy monster looming just over his shoulder, reaching up to pull him deeper into the nightmarish stew, and the outlines of floating skulls to really emphasize the threat.
It tells you everything you need to know about the game inside: this man is in imminent danger, and you need to get him out.
Even so, my absolute favourite detail is one that most would miss. The artwork is entirely monochrome aside from Sebastian’s wedding band, which glows gold on his ring finger. A little symbol of familial warmth and hope among all the sterile, creepy white. It’s only fitting; this is a game about going through hell to save your daughter, after all.
Dashiell Wood, Gaming Editor
Flushed to bits with Balatro Special Edition
Balatro was easily my favorite game of 2024, and even now I’ll dip in to play more — either to see how deep into a run I can venture, or to slowly chip away at Completionist++.
I picked it up digitally a little after launch, but when the Special Edition debuted with a physical disc and a handful of real cards from the game it was an immediate buy for me. Even if it meant I’d own it twice on PS5.
Admittedly the box is a little lackluster — the jokers are an odd selection, and considering it’s more of a collectible I would have loved a retro-style book insert to have been included — but I do love the cover art despite its simplicity, and I mostly saw picking up the game again as just a way to show the LocalThunk-made masterpiece some well-deserved extra appreciation!
(P.S. Bonus shoutout to the holographic cover art of Kingdom Hearts 2 on the PS2, that, combined with the Tetsuya Nomura-drawn art, was peak 2006-cool).
Hamish Hector, Senior Staff Writer
RIP Rockstar’s iconic maps
Ironically, some of my favorite physical releases have been from one of the companies that’s being partially blamed for this disc-less future: Rockstar.
Rockstar’s move to not include an actual disc in the ‘physical’ release of GTA 6, instead just having a download code, means the biggest game of the generation, maybe even of all time, won’t really be having a physical release, and Sony’s announcement makes that seem especially bleak.
Buying a physical edition of a Rockstar game used to be a joy, as they often came with a fold-out map.
I used to love putting the disc in to install the game, then poring over the map, marvelling at the ever-expanding size of the titles and trying to figure out secrets and cool places to visit.
It was part of the experience, almost like you were preparing to vacation in the world. I remember doing it with the first ever GTA game on PC, right up to Red Dead Redemption 2 on PS4, which, sadly, is likely to be the last time I open a physical Rockstar game…
Matthew Hanson, Managing Editor, Core Tech
Even the ugly covers can be winners
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Ico is a truly gorgeous game. The art style is absolutely perfect as an accompaniment to leading Yorda through the game’s world and fighting off the shadow monsters trying to kidnap her. And the box art in Japan and Europe nailed its atmosphere to perfection.
I owned the original cardboard case, which featured this gorgeous sleeve, an inner case with Yorda contrasted against a black tunnel and a range of art postcards conveying stunning moments from the game. Any time I slipped it open and removed the disc to place into the PlayStation, it was like I was entering the game’s mysterious castle step-by-step and made it feel like a living artwork.
Which is why it will never not be funny to me that this is the artwork Sony used to promote the game in the US. Rather than the tender, minimalist puzzler you’re actually getting, it looks like it’s advertising a straight-to-video 90s horror about a haunted windmill.
It’s the kind of embarrassing thing you whip up when you first discover Photoshop, decidedly not the kind of thing you release to a market of 300 million people, and for that I will always find it highly amusing.
Josh Russell, Reviews Editor
The best things in life are freebies
Cyberpunk 2077 is my favorite physical PlayStation game I own.
Outside of clocking hundreds of hours exploring Night City, I love it because it came with so much more than just the game’s disc, meaning my copy of Cyberpunk 2077 is a real collectors item for fans of the beloved RPG.
I enjoy collecting video game artwork and this release came with crammed with postcards, stickers, a game map, and a world compendium full of important lore. There’s something just so satisfying looking through all that whilst a game downloads, you’ve got everything you need to know about Night City in there without needing to even get out your phone.
This is a sad day for those of us who love physical video game collectibles, and even a freebie as small as a stack of postcards can make you feel like you’re buying something special. Cyberpunk 2077 has truly gorgeous aesthetics and so I’m glad I was able to get my hands on some free artwork back when I bought the game.
It’s a shame that future games might not get the same treatment.
Lucy Buglass, Senior Entertainment Writer
The last of these?
Having missed out on picking up any special editions over the PS3 and PS4 generations, it’s the PS5 where I have really been able to treat myself to some special, and now favorite, physical editions of games.
Chief among them are both the collector’s editions of The Last of Us titles on PS5: the WLF Edition of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, and the Firefly Edition of The Last of US Part 1.
Not only are these spectacular editions in their own right with wonderfully arranged boxes and layouts, fantastic steel books and a host of physical goodies to peruse, they mean more to me because I couldn’t get special editions of both when they first came around.
They’re in a box right now due to an impending house move, but these will be front and centre in my new office shelving units when I get the chance to display them in all their glory.
Hopefully, Sony finds a way to keep collector’s editions like these going, though a large part of me will be very sad that there’s no actual disc inside…
Rob Dwiar, Managing Editor, Gaming & Streaming
Unboxing a beating
I’ll admit I’m not really a big collector of physical copies of games these days thanks to the ease of digital downloads.
This was different back when games used to come in cardboard boxes or stuffed DVD cases, and had things like maps or chunky manuals with extra lore in them. There is a caveat though, as throughout the PS3 and PS4 eras digital downloads for games often cost much more than their physical counterparts, leaving me with a small selection of boxed PlayStation titles — my favourite being Bloodborne.
There’s nothing more than the disc and a leaflet touting Until Dawn and The Order 1886 inside, but it’s the stark cover art that stands out, with the ‘hunter’ facing away from the viewer, saw cleaver and blunderbuss in hand, against a contrasting white-grey background.
To me this represents the grim, dark journey Bloodborne takes you on: a blood-soaked path that marked a distinct departure from the Dark Souls series while still feeling like a game only FromSoftware could nail.
The physical box gained an almost ritualistic feel for me. In the odd event that the disk wouldn’t be in my PS4, I’d have to take it out of the box with the cold, grim hunter on the front greeting me with the familiar feeling that I’ll have to slash, parry, dodge my way through Yarnham time and time again as Father Gascoigne gives me a pasting. How I hated it, how I loved it.
Roland Moore-Colyer, Managing Editor, Buying Guides
Still hanging on to this one
Without a shadow of a doubt, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves is my favorite video game cover of all-time. It will forever sit at the forefront of my memory when reminiscing about the PS3.
Not only is the game itself an all-time great, but its cover art represents so much of the game’s excellence, with the very train sequence that it’s depicting later inspiring games like and Stellar Blade and even movies such as Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (even though its director swears it’s not, it definitely is).
It’s sad to say goodbye to physical games, and here’s hoping that the backlash forces Sony to rethink its choice — but I’ll never forget the Uncharted 2 cover art for encapsulating just how amazing the PS3 era of gaming was.
Isaiah Williams, Staff Writer, Computing
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dash.wood@futurenet.com (Dashiell Wood)
