No Game No Disc Manufacture Needed
“You don’t have to manufacture discs when you don’t actually have any games.”
Summary
Disc manufacturing is only required when there are games to be released on physical media. Developers and publishers order discs for specific titles, and with Sony ending new disc production after 2028, no discs will be needed for games that do not exist. Consequently, if you have no games, there is no need to manufacture discs.
Sources 60 searched
- Creating discs - Microsoft Game Development Kit | Microsoft Learn
You can do this before you mass-produce the discs. When your binaries and media are ready, order the discs by selecting the Disc menu item on the Request management page in Partner Center. After your request is submitted, your Microsoft account manager reviews the request. If the request is approved, they submit the request to the Test Disc Printing sites to begin printing.
- Sony will cease production of discs for new PlayStation games in 2028
The shift to no discs will also likely impact game development timelines, as developers will no longer face the same urgency to have a build ready to submit to PlayStation for the production of a disc, as industry experts noted around GTA VI’s no-disc news last week.
- Sony tells developers they’ll still be able to make discs - but only for older games | VGC
PlayStation has told developers that they will still be able to place orders for disc games beyond January 2028 – as long as they’re for titles released before its all-digital cut-off. The PS5 firm will also offer developers ways to release their games as physical retail products with download codes, according to a report.
- Goodbye Discs: Digital Game Sales Continue To Grow At PlayStation, As Well As Many Other Big Players - GameSpot
Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad has reminded people that while physical software is not a dead market–almost 70 million new disc-based PlayStation games were sold in 2025–but the shift toward digital keeps growing.
- PS5 Disc Drive purchase cap predates Sony's disc cutoff — 'high demand' order limit has been on the store page since at least March 2025 | Tom's Hardware
PlayStation output accounts for roughly half of the volume at Sony DADC's plant in Thalgau, Austria, with new game disc orders making up around 20% of that share, CEO Dietmar Tanzer told Austrian broadcaster ORF in comments reported by Wccftech.
- Sony PlayStation Transition to Digital-Only Games Impacts Op
The Sony DADC facility in Thalgaau, ... head Dietmar Tanzer reports that PlayStation production currently accounts for roughly half of total volume but expects this to drop to 10% by 2028....
- Sony Will Have Capacity to Continue Manufacturing Some Game Discs Beyond 2028 Cut-Off Date | Push Square
A letter to publishers from the platform holder reveals they “will still be able to place re-orders for existing PlayStation disc games” after the January 2028 cut-off date. The tidbit, shared by GameFile’s Stephen Totilo, confirms the company will still have capacity to manufacture some discs after the previously communicated date.
- Why Sony wants to kill its PlayStation discs for good.
In a blog post, Sony’s comms people write that “consumer preferences and the broader entertainment industry continue to shift away from physical discs to digital,” thus making this a “natural direction” for PlayStation’s future. As a result, the sleek, high-definition Blu-rays that have held so many iconic titles over the years—God of War, The Last of Us, Marvel’s Spider-Man—will still be produced for games released prior to the 2028 cutoff, but not for anything after.
- Dutch consumer group suing PlayStation argues the end of physical discs just proves its point: 'Sony alone decides what a game costs and even how long you are allowed to use it' | PC Gamer
"No discs means no second-hand market and no alternative to the PlayStation Store, so from 2028, Sony alone decides what a game costs and even how long you are allowed to use it. "That is exactly the harm our Fair PlayStation claim is about: ...
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