Sony killing PlayStation discs could gut the $7.2bn used-game market
A new analyst report warns that Sony ending disc production by 2028 threatens the entire second-hand games scene - the shelves, the trade-ins, the lending. Here's why that matters more than Sony admits.
Ivan Novak
Wednesday, July 22, 2026
Think about the last time you finished a game you didn't love enough to keep. You sold it, traded it, or handed it to a mate. That whole quiet economy - the one that lets people afford this hobby - is now on the clock.
Sony has decided to stop manufacturing PlayStation discs by January 2028. And according to a new analysis from Dataintelo (via CNBC), that move could take the entire second-hand market down with it. The report pegs the global pre-owned scene - used games, console hardware, accessories - at around $7.2 billion in 2025, projected to nearly double to $13.8 billion by 2034. Consoles alone made up 42.3 percent of that revenue.
No disc, no resale. Simple as that. A digital license is yours and yours only - you can't sell it, can't lend it, can't leave it to your kid brother when you upgrade.
The affordability timing is brutal
What gets me is the timing. Sony is pulling this at the exact moment everyone is worried about the cost of gaming. New releases keep creeping up in price, and the used shelf has always been the pressure valve - the place you go when the full price is just too much. Take that away and a lot of people simply play less, or wait for deep sales that may never come for the games they actually want.
There's a knock-on effect too. If the used market shrinks, the value of your existing collection drops. All those cases on the shelf become worth less the day resale gets harder. And the small local shops that survive partly on pre-owned trade? They feel it first.
Sony will frame this as progress, as the natural drift toward all-digital. Maybe it is where the industry is heading anyway. But there's a difference between the market moving that way on its own and a manufacturer forcing the door shut. One of those leaves you a choice. The other doesn't.
I'm not going to pretend discs will vanish overnight - existing stock sticks around, and this is 2028, not next month. But the direction is clear, and it's worth being honest about what we're losing: ownership. The ability to actually own the thing you paid for, and do what you want with it.
Image: PiaCarrot / CC BY-SA 3.0, source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CD-ROM_for_PlayStation2.jpg