Sony Stocks Rise Following Announcement It is Ending Physical Game Sales - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 02 July 2026 / 5,258 Views
Sony stock has risen following the announcement it would be ending the production of physical game discs for PlayStation consoles starting in January 2028 and all new releases after this date will be in digital formats only.
The stock price for Sony rose 3.2 percent to 3,354.0 yen, according to Investing.com. This is in contrast with technology stocks on the Nikkei 225 index dropping by one percent. Sony stock on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has grown nearly five percent over the last week.
For the quarter ending March 2026, digital game sales accounted for 85 percent of all software sold on PlayStation consoles. This percent has grown significantly from just 13 percent when the PlayStation 4 launched in 2013.
Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hideaki Nishino also recently stated, "it is not realistic for us to absorb all component cost increases."
This suggests PlayStation is looking to protect its hardware profitability ahead of the upcoming launch of the PS6 sometime in the next few years.
Sony has increased the price of the PlayStation 5 multiple times with the Digital Edition going from $400 at launch up to $600 now, while the model with a disc drive has gone from $500 to $650. The PS5 Pro has increased from $700 to $900.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can follow the author on Bluesky.
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You may hate it but it makes financially sense
We have seen the same effect after companies lay people off and even after price increases.
But I sure am happy that Sony is making money.
Makes sense. Shareholders only care about wealth and greed.
I can't speak for others but... me? I'd give you the shirt off my back right now if you needed it. We're all going to die. The things we amass can't go with us and will not fulfill us. If they could, the rich and/or rich and famous would be the happiest, soberist, most non-suicidal people to ever exist. They aren't. In fact, they're frequently more unhappy than the rest of us.
Kurt Cobain (depressed/suicide), Elon Musk (depressed), Donald Trump (miserable), Eddie Vedder (depressed, suicidal ideation), Chris Cornell (depressed/suicide), Layne Staley (depressed/OD'd), Axl Rose (depressed/attempted suicide), Robin Williams (depressed/suicide), Jim Carry (depressed)... I could go on, and on, and on to the point where this comment would take up hundreds of pages of length.
Wealth is not a magic bullet. Happiness is found elsewhere.
They definitely exist. Just look at Robin Williams, he was Hollywood B lister rich (estimated net worth between $50-100m) and committed suicide. He brought others so much joy with his comedy but was secretly suffering all the while in his final several years, after he had been diagnosed with Parkinson's and never announced it publicly.
While having enough money to live comfortably is of course ideal and takes alot of stress out of your life by no longer worrying about making ends meet, it's not the end-all cure-all of all life's woes, you never know what is going on behind the scenes in someone's life, health issues, spousal abuse, etc. And some go beyond just merely living comfortably and get greedy for more and more, get lost in the desire for more and more mansions around the world, more private jets and yachts, etc.
Of course investors like it! No physical games mean more games sold through the PSN store, meaning a bigger cut for Sony, plus the end end of the second hand market, which also means more new games sold, at least in theory.
For investors there's no downside.
Time to sell if you recouped your money back since it's still down 33% from last August.
I would wait after the release of GTA6, people "complain" and then they are going to buy it anyway.
Also all japanese companies are suffering the same, Nintendo is 50%+ down from last August.
Stocks will fall more than 3% when 10-20% of PS users refuse to adopt the PS6, due to it being digital only.
time to sell gamestop stock
Money is betting on digital.
Makes sense ironically.
Players should take a reserve from Sony, at least most of them.
Glad to see there’s still some comment sense within Sony. Shareholders are happy so why panic.
Ofcourse it did,now iam NOBODY but the couple hundreds euro i had in shares just for "lol i have a 0.00000001 piece of sony "i sold.
