We all knew it was coming eventually, but Sony pulled the plug on physical games a lot quicker than many were expecting. Announced earlier today, Sony will halt all physical game production starting in January 2028, and new games released past that date will remain digital only. It's essentially killed off the physical market, and people aren't pleased.

However, while it absolutely blows and is a detriment to the entire industry as a whole, this does give us a pretty good insight into what Sony's plans are for the next generation of consoles. For example, industry analysts at Ampere believe that this "almost certainly guarantees that the PS6 won’t arrive until 2028 at the earliest."

We're Probably Not Getting The PS6 Until Late 2028

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This is according to analyst Piers Harding-Rolls, who also claimed when talking with VGC that we're probably not going to get a PS6 until at least late 2028, despite earlier claims consoles may launch in 2027. He also states that the PS6 will not have a disc drive "at a minimum", as Sony will be looking to cut production costs of its next-gen console wherever it can.

"Sony will be looking for all the ways it can reduce the cost of its next-gen console, and this is an easy win," says Harding-Rolls. "It’s possible that an add-on disc drive could be made available to play older PS4 and PS5 games on disc."

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Harding-Rolls also believes that Sony could implement some kind of physical to digital backwards compatibility program to alleviate concerns from upset fans, allowing people to use physical discs of existing games to acquire digital licenses. It's an idea that's been floating around a lot, and could be made a necessity once physical media has been wiped out.

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While none of what Harding-Rolls has said is confirmed, it all makes sense. It's difficult to see Sony releasing a new console just before it phases out traditional physical media, and we know PlayStation and Xbox both aim to release consoles in the holiday period. It all but confirms a late 2028 release for the PS6, though whether people will actually be excited about a $1,000 plus console with no disc drive whenever that rolls around remains to be seen.

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PlayStation 5

Brand Sony Original Release Date November 12, 2020 Original MSRP (USD) $499, €499, £449, ¥49,980 (Base) // $399, €399, £359, ¥39,980 (Digital), Operating System Orbis OS Processor Custom 8-core AMD Zen 2 Resolution 720p - 8K Expand Collapse