Sony’s decision to phase out physical PlayStation games by the beginning of 2028 has drawn fierce criticism from UK retailers, who warn the move will hammer consumer choice and hit a market still worth hundreds of millions of pounds.
The Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA), whose members include Amazon, GAME and every major games outlet in Britain, condemned the plan as “a triumph of corporate convenience over consumer choice.” In a statement reported by The Game Business, ERA chief executive Kim Bayley said the decision ignored the millions of players who still buy discs.
“Sony plans to retire PlayStation discs by 2028; ERA calls it a blow to consumer choice, citing £300m market.”
According to Nielsen IQ/GfK data cited by The Game Business, 45 per cent of all physical games sold in the UK last year were for PlayStation 4 or PlayStation 5, accounting for nearly half of total revenue from boxed games. Bayley added that ERA’s own consumer data shows 25 per cent of under-25s still use discs for gaming, and that the UK disc-based games market was valued at more than £300 million in 2025.
“There remains a substantial and committed audience for boxed games,” Bayley wrote, pushing back against the notion that digital-only distribution is inevitable.
The announcement, which Sony has yet to officially confirm beyond reports, signals a historic shift for an industry built on physical media. For retailers like GAME, which has long relied on disc sales and trade-ins, the loss of PlayStation discs threatens a core revenue stream. The ERA’s intervention underscores the tension between a manufacturer’s push for digital control and the established high-street ecosystem that still serves a significant slice of players – especially younger ones who grew up with cartridges and discs.
With the phase-out set to begin in less than three years, the battle over the future of game retail is far from over. The question now is whether Sony will listen to the retailers, or press ahead with a digital-only future that Bayley warns leaves consumers with fewer choices.