Quote of the day by former Nintendo President Satoru Iawata

The way that consumers buy video games is changing, with Sony recently announcing that it would cease the production of new PlayStation game discs in January 2028 in a bid to push consumers towards more profitable digital purchases.

It's a big shift for the $500+ billion dollar video game industry, which once had a significant retail presence in the US, but one that has been predicted for some time.

A matter of time

Speaking in an investor Q&A session all the way back in 2009, then Nintendo president and Satoru Iwata correctly stated that it would take "20 years or so" for digital distribution to render physical copies in stores obsolete.

Quote of the day

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He dismissed notions that it could happen sooner as "radical" and argued that it would take a significant number of years for consumer behaviour to change.

His belief has been proven correct by empirical data as Nintendo's latest financial report revealed that the proportion of digital sales have just surpassed physical ones for the first time in the company's 137 year history.

While it seems safe assume that Sony's next console will not feature disc reader, and credible reports suggest Microsoft-owned competitor Xbox headed the same way, Nintendo is ironically the last major industry player that seems fully committed to physical releases — at least for the time being.

Part of a wider trend

Digital game sales are even more dominant on other platforms, hence the Sony decision to ditch physical formats entirely.

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According to data from market research firm Ampere Analysis, when the PlayStation 4 originally launched in 2013 just 13% of games sold for Sony platforms were digital.

12 years later in 2025, and the share of digital game sales had steadily grown to almost 80%. Unless plans change, this will presumably be 100% come 2028 — almost exactly two decades since Iwata's 20 year prediction.

Dash is an experienced tech journalist who specializes in video games, electronic entertainment products, and the wider industry that surrounds them. He currently serves as the Gaming Editor at TechRadar, leading our review, preview, feature, and news coverage of the latest and greatest releases.

Before joining the team, he was Contributing Writer at PLAY (formerly Official PlayStation Magazine UK) and has written articles for many of the UK's other biggest gaming magazines including the likes of Edge, PC Gamer, and SFX.

Now, when he's not getting his greasy little mitts on the newest hardware or gaming gadget, he can be found listening to J-pop or feverishly devouring the latest Nintendo Switch otome.