Ubisoft CEO Says PlayStation Ending Physical Discs Won't 'Disturb' the Industry Much - News

by William D'Angelo , posted on 23 July 2026 / 3,075 Views

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot during the company's earnings call with investors was asked his thoughts on PlayStation ending physical game discs in January 2028.

"What we saw on the PC is that it helped to grow the market," Guillemot said. "There's also some pressure for the future on the cost of machines, and being able to be only digital will help to have a more accessible machine, I would say. As you said, there are pluses and minuses. But we think it will not disturb, too much, the industry."

PC has essentially been digital only for well over a decade, however, the nature of it being an open platform means there are multiple storefronts to choose from. While on PlayStation consoles the only place to buy digital games are on Sony's PlayStation Store.

The number of physical games sold have fallen dramatically since the peak in 2009 in the US, according to Senior Director and Video Game Industry Advisor at Circana Mat Piscatella. There were 292 million physical games sold in the US for the 12-month period ending June 2009, which has since fallen to 37 million for the 12-months period ending June 2026.

Other entertainment industries - music and movies - do still sell physical media, however, it has become a small fraction of the overall market.

Thanks, Gamesradar.

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.

16 Comments

2zosteven (on 23 July 2026)

sure it will, the Ps5 is my last playstation

V-r0cK (on 23 July 2026)

Just like how not buying Ubisoft games won't disturb my gaming experience.

G2ThaUNiT (on 23 July 2026)

What a shocking conclusion for the company whose execs have stated that gamers should get comfortable with not owning their games, to come to.

trunkswd G2ThaUNiT (on 23 July 2026)

You are the one who sent me this :P

G2ThaUNiT trunkswd (on 23 July 2026)

Still gotta support with a comment ;)

TheRealSamusAran G2ThaUNiT (on 24 July 2026)

People always quote that without context to dunk on Ubisoft, but the context is even more important than dunking on Ubisoft:

"The question remains around the potential of the subscription model in games. Tremblay says that there is "tremendous opportunity for growth", but what is it going to take for subscription to step up and become a more significant proportion of the industry?
[...]
"One of the things we saw is that gamers are used to, a little bit like DVD, having and owning their games. That's the consumer shift that needs to happen. They got comfortable not owning their CD collection or DVD collection. That's a transformation that's been a bit slower to happen [in games]. As gamers grow comfortable in that aspect… you don't lose your progress. If you resume your game at another time, your progress file is still there. That's not been deleted. You don't lose what you've built in the game or your engagement with the game. So it's about feeling comfortable with not owning your game."

So, what he is saying is actually true, because he was talking about subscription models. If you have a problem with not owning your games, you shouldn't be using subscription models.

HebrewGamer TheRealSamusAran (on 25 July 2026)

The transition from CD/DVDs to digital worked because you can download your music and movies to your hard drive and keep them in perpetuity so long as your hard drive doesn't die. We don't have that for videogames yet outside of Piracy.

I agree with what Louis Rossman said that digital only isn't the issue. DRM and having access to your games tied to a server is the issue. Under such conditions, even having a physical copy will be meaningless if the game won't run without some online check.