At the same time as killing off physical discs, Sony has to ration attachable disc drives sales due to "high demand"

Sony is still rationing its supply of attachable disc drives despite announcing plans to end production of physical discs for PlayStation games because of changing "consumer trends".

On 1st July, Sony announced plans to end the production of discs for PlayStation games, effective January 2028, after which point, PlayStation games will only be available digitally. Notably, PlayStation games will continue to be sold at retail, just without a physical disc, and the news all but confirms the PS6 will not have a disc drive.

Fast-forward just three days, however, and fans have noticed that PlayStation is still experiencing such a "high demand" for physical disc drives, it still has to limit sales on the PlayStation store to just "one per order".

The store has, however, updated the page listing with this "important notice": "From Jan. 2028, newly released games on PlayStation will be available for purchase on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital format only. Discs for games released before Jan. 2028 can continue to be played on this console".

As commenters on ResetEra point out, "this would be so funny if it weren't so sad".

To be clear, this isn't a new development – as a respondent pointed out, the notice has been there since at least November 2023. It does, however, intimate that there's still enough of a market for physical media that Sony has had to ration its supply of add-on disc drives for literal years.

ICYMI, Microsoft is also reportedly going to follow Sony's example with Project Helix and not include a disc drive with it, although it is rumoured that the company is working on a way to grant digital licenses for games to people who already own a game on disc.