Local Game Shops Brace for Impact as Sony Plans to Kill Physical Discs by 2028

Saskatoon’s independent game retailers are staring down a future without the product that built their businesses, after Sony confirmed it will stop manufacturing physical copies of PlayStation games in 2028.

For shops that have spent decades selling boxed titles off their shelves, the announcement lands as more than just a corporate policy shift it feels like the beginning of the end for a hobby built around ownership.

Umair Khan has run Hi-Tech Gametraders in Saskatoon since the store opened in 1998. He says Sony’s move fits a pattern he’s watched develop over years, one where the company’s connection to its original fan base has quietly given way to spreadsheets and shareholder value.

“It just used to feel a lot more like ‘for the fans’ kind of thing, whereas now, it’s just you know it really feels like it’s bottom-line, bottom-line, bottom-line,” Khan said. “That’s what it feels like their focus has become, and it’s really unfortunate because I think for gamers, even from yesterday and today, there’s a passion to gaming.”

Khan isn’t alone in feeling the squeeze. He says competitors around the industry have already started leaning harder into merchandise that has nothing to do with consoles or discs at all and he may soon have to follow.

“Pokémon trading cards and Funko Pops and Plush and, you know, limitless kind of collectibles and merch,” he said, listing the categories other shops are turning to. “So, hopefully speaking, we’re going to be okay. But our bread and butter is still our video games that’s the main reason people know us, that’s the main reason people come to us.”

That’s what makes Sony’s decision sting in a way ordinary industry shifts don’t: physical games aren’t a side offering for stores like Gametraders. They’re the whole identity.

Sony’s shift toward an all-digital future also reopens a debate that’s followed the industry for years the difference between buying a game and licensing one.

When a copy exists only as a download tied to an account, the customer isn’t purchasing the game outright. They’re paying for permission to access it, permission the publisher can revoke.

Khan points to a recent example that hit closer to home than a hypothetical. Sony pulled roughly 550 movies from the PlayStation Store, erasing them from libraries of customers who had already paid for them.

“We just saw this recently with movies through Sony, through the PlayStation Store. I believe it was about 550 movies just got delisted,” Khan said. “So even if you had spent your money on that movie, whether it was $8 or $15 or whatever, they’re delisted now, so you don’t get to own that movie anymore and you’re not getting a refund on that movie either.”

It’s the kind of scenario Khan worries becomes far more common once physical backups disappear from the equation entirely.

Digital-first gaming isn’t new Khan notes Microsoft has been steering Xbox in that direction for years. But he says that comparison is exactly why Sony’s announcement caught him off guard.

“We’ve seen like Xbox has really, you know, kind of gone towards the digital side of things,” he said. “Xbox has been on really shaky waters too. They haven’t had success this generation, and they’re making a lot of changes with their company as well. And that’s what really surprised me about Sony’s decision.”

In Khan’s view, PlayStation has spent this console generation as the stronger of the two brands which makes following Xbox’s playbook now, rather than doubling down on what’s worked, a harder decision to square.

The reaction from Gametraders’ regulars has been immediate, and largely negative. Khan says the topic has come up again and again at the counter in just the last two days.

“Even today, I had four or five conversations. Everyone’s just disappointed,” he said. “They’re like, ‘What’s Sony doing?'”

For now, Hi-Tech Gametraders remains open and focused on the discs, cartridges and consoles that have defined it for 27 years. But with 2028 on the horizon, Khan and shops like his are already rethinking what “game store” might have to mean next.