- Sony corrected reports claiming its disc production would collapse by 90%
- The company’s final disc plant will reduce output by 10%
- Sony still plans to stop producing new physical games in 2028
Sony has denied reports suggesting it plans to abandon physical disc manufacturing entirely, despite widespread speculation surrounding its future operations.
The company instead confirmed that its sole remaining disc-making plant will simply reduce output by 10%, not the previously reported 90%.
Sony DADC clarified the figure after earlier remarks caused considerable confusion among industry observers.
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Clearing up a misread statement
“To clarify and avoid any misleading information: in that statement Dietmar anticipated an overall product volume decline by 10 percent, not a decline down to 10 percent,” said a Sony DADC spokesperson.
The correction arrived roughly two months after earlier reports claimed the plant was already being repurposed away from discs entirely.
Sony has consistently maintained that new physical game production will still end entirely in January 2028, despite this week’s clarification.
The clarification means Sony’s Thalgau plant will still operate at nearly full capacity beyond the original 2028 cutoff for releases.
Sony DADC did not respond to a separate fact-check request regarding whether all 300 plant employees face retraining toward alternative roles.
Reports from earlier this year suggested employees were being shifted away from discs toward microlens production at the same facility.
Discs survive, but ownership questions remain
Sony confirmed publishers may continue reordering existing disc-based games even after new physical production formally ceases in January of 2028.
PlayStation disc games already on shelves will remain available to buy for the foreseeable future.
This arrangement suggests the transition away from physical media will happen gradually rather than through an abrupt cutoff for publishers.
Even so, wider industry trends continue pointing toward digital distribution gradually replacing physical discs across most major platforms.
Several major publishers remain notably absent from Microsoft‘s own separate disc-to-digital initiative, raising questions about industry cooperation levels.
Sony recently argued in court that consumers cannot reasonably believe they truly own purchased games, since copies can exist simultaneously.
This legal stance, combined with the recent production clarification, still leaves genuine uncertainty around long-term disc availability for players worldwide.
Sony’s carefully worded statement corrects one misunderstanding but does little to settle deeper doubts about ownership rights among consumers today.
Whether the Thalgau plant continues producing discs well beyond 2028 also remains unclear, given how quickly assumptions were proven wrong.
Consumers hoping for full clarity on Sony’s long-term disc strategy will likely need to wait, since key details remain unconfirmed.
For now, the disc format appears to be shrinking gradually rather than disappearing suddenly, as many observers had initially feared.
Via The Verge
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