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Sony has already started repurposing its lone PlayStation disc factory, and the body of physical gaming isn't even cold
The Sony disc-making operation is already planning to retrain its 300 employees to make microlenses.
Sony’s PlayStation disc factory is already being repurposed
All 300 employees will be retrained, Sony says.
Upgrade Your Home Entertainment Experience and Save Big 45+ Fourth of July TV Deals
Shop unmissable Independence Day deals from big-name brands including Sony, LG and Samsung, with options starting at just $150.
Sony Discusses Potential Future PlayStation Plus Price Hikes
Sony says it continues to balance value and pricing for PlayStation Plus, addressing the possibility of future subscription increases.
"PS5 Will Be My Last Console": After 45K Votes, 86% of DF Viewers Say Sony Should Reconsider Killing Physical Games
That's just under 40,000 people writing in to oppose Sony's plans.
Report: Xbox Disc-to-Digital Feature in Testing, Microsoft "Likely" to Stop Disc Production Too
Both Sony and Microsoft look ready to drop disc drives from their next-gen consoles.
Sony is first console giant to stop making physical games
Move sparks angry response from some gamers
Bethesda Makes Clever Oblivion 'Physical' Post As Sony Scraps Discs
Bethesda Game Studios has made a post on social media that seems to be poking some kind of fun at Sony's recent PlayStation disc news.
Sony will stop making physical copies of PlayStation games in 2028
“We will own nothing, it's truly sad.”...
Sony to end physical PlayStation game discs for new releases starting in 2028
Sony says all new PlayStation games released after January 2028 will be sold digitally, reflecting changing consumer demand and the gaming industry's broader move away from physical media.
Sony says goodbye to discs for new PlayStation games in 2028
Sony said it will stop production of physical discs for PlayStation games in response to industry and consumer shifts.
Sony PlayStation Phasing Out Physical Video Game Discs
Sony PlayStation said it plans to end production of physical video game discs by January 2028.
Sony announces an end to the PS3 and Vita digital stores
The company describes it as "not an easy decision to make", and describes it as a resource allocation decision.
Sony is closing the PS3 and Vita digital stores
The virtual PS3 store will close in select markets this year, with global closures for PS3 and PS Vita following in 2027.
Sony Shutting Down PlayStation Store for New Purchases on PS3 and Vita
Sony has announced the closure of its PlayStation Store on the PS3 and Vita, beginning next month in certain countries.
Sony is killing all physical PlayStation game discs
New games released after January 2028 will be digital-only.
Sony will cease production of discs for new PlayStation games in 2028
New games sold for PlayStation consoles will only be available digitally and won’t be sold on discs effective January 2028, Sony has announced. The move applies to all PlayStation games released from that point on, including those made by Sony and those released by third parties. The PlayStation group calls the change “a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs,” according to a PlayStation blog post reviewed by Game File in advance of its publication. As movies, TV and music have shifted from physical media to an age of downloads and streaming, Sony’s move could speed the demise of physical media in a gaming. The industry has offered consumers games via cartridges, cassettes, floppy discs, CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays across a 50-year stretch. Sony has been reporting to investors in recent years that PlayStation games have been increasingly purchased as downloads, not as discs. The most recent figures show nearly four in five purchases of full games for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 were purchased digitally in the past year. Stats like that may cause today’s news to carry an air of the inevitable. But Sony’s declaration for 2028 is still likely to produce a shock, as the biggest gaming platform on the planet that uses game discs leaves them behind. Discs going away, but the fate of game boxes is unknown Sony is committing to still selling games in physical retailers even after they drop discs in 2028. Just how those games will be sold—in boxes with codes inside, as cards marked with digital redemption codes—is unclear. Digital games will also continue to be sold in the online PlayStation Store. New games released for PlayStation consoles prior to January 2028 will be unaffected by the policy change, Sony says. That means the PS5 games of 2027, be they a new Madden, a new God of War, a new Call of Duty, a new Sly Cooper (one can dream?), would still potentially be offered on disc. PlayStation 6 implications Sony’s timeline for a transition to a no-disc era will also spin up more speculation about the timing and configuration of Sony’s next-generation console, the probable PlayStation 6. “This pretty much guarantees that PS6 won’t arrive until 2028 at the earliest,” Piers Harding-Rolls, senior games research analyst at Ampere Analysis tells Game File. Harding-Rolls also concludes from today’s news that “the base version of a PS6 will not include a physical media drive,” as Sony looks to keep costs down on the device. Sony itself is saying nothing about the PS6 today: not its timing, nor how it might or might not support internal or external disc drives in order to run disc-based PS4 and PS5 games, should the console be backwards compatible. The many signs this was coming Industry support for games being released on physical media has been waning. As has consumer interest in them. PC games effectively went all-digital years ago, thanks to the popularity of playing games through Steam and other digital storefronts. The Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns that kept much of the global population home helped shift shopping patterns toward downloads. Sony’s own data shows PlayStation game downloads being an uncommon consumer choice a decade ago and now becoming the norm. On consoles, physical media has been in such decline that Sony and Microsoft both launched their current gen Xbox Series and PS5 consoles in 2020 with cheaper versions that lacked disc drives. In early 2024, Phil Spencer, then head of Xbox, told me that ““[w]e ship games physically and digitally, and we’re really just following what the customers are doing.” He added that the game industry had become an outlier in still supporting disc-based entertainment, even as movies and TV have bailed on discs in favor of downloads and steaming: “Gaming consoles themselves have kind of become the last consumer electronic device that has a drive. And this is a real issue, just in terms of the number of manufacturers that are actually building drives and the cost associated with those. And when you think about cogs that we’re going to go put in a console—and as you have fewer suppliers and fewer buyers—the cost of the drive does have an impact.” Last year, the Nintendo’s Switch 2, which uses cartridges rather than discs, introduced the concept of game-key cards, which are physical media that contain no game, just a prompt for a download. Even disc-based games aren’t what they once were, now frequently containing just stubs of games rather than the whole thing. The website Does It Play has tested over 3000 games and found that, for example, that the disc version of this year’s hit 007: First Light, only contained the game’s first mission, with the rest needing to be downloaded. Beyond all that, last week brought the news that Grand Theft Auto VI, likely the biggest game launch this decade, will debut for PS5 and Xbox Series without a disc-based version. Today’s big news comes to you for free. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and ensure more of my work is possible, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Discs helped define PlayStation However the trends in entertainment may be going, it is still remarkable to see PlayStation ditch discs given their importance in PlayStation history: In the late 1990s, the first PlayStation’s support for games on relatively cheap CD-ROMs instead of traditional game cartridges allowed the upstart console to outmaneuver cartridge-based systems from Nintendo and Sega, as it drove down game prices down in the process. (The cheaper disc format even prompted Final Fantasy VII maker Square to taunt Nintendo in a magazine ad, saying that if the game was “available on cartridge, it’d retail for around $1200.”) PlayStation devices often doubled as machines for watching movies and TV on the latest disc-based formats. In the late 2000s, for example, Sony’s pricy PS3 gained traction as a go-to device for playing then-novel Blu-Ray discs. In 2013, Sony effectively roasted the digital game-sharing restrictions proposed by rival Microsoft for its upcoming Xbox One console by showing how games could be shared for the then-upcoming PS4. In a 21-second clip that has over 20 million views on YouTube, one PlayStation executive simply handed a game box—presumably with disc inside—to another, who said “thanks.” Sony’s possible motivations The PlayStation announcement today cites “consumer preferences” and a shift away from discs among “the broader entertainment industry,” but does not delve into the decision-making process that brought Sony to this point. Sony is not discussing the economics of this move (I asked!), but there are a number of potential factors: Abandoning discs will spare Sony the cost of manufacturing and shipping them, which analysts and industry veterans I spoke to said could account for $1 or so of a game’s retail price. For first-party games, that’s direct savings for Sony, though the amount is limited by the winnowing percentage of people who were even buying the disc-based versions. For third-party games, Sony could pass the savings on to partners or just retain the better profit margin for themselves. As the 2024 comments from Phil Spencer alluded to, leaving discs behind could mean leaving disc-drives behind, allowing Sony to produce consoles more cheaply. Switching to digital-only for games could diminish the risks of copies of new games leaking. It would also seemingly make second-hand sales of used games impossible, pushing more people to buy their own copies of games. These economic benefits for Sony could be boons for the games industry overall, Ampere analyst Piers Harding-Rolls tells Game File. Among other things, it could free publishers and retailers from having to worry about securing an inventory of game discs when trying to sell games, he noted. “If there is a way to streamline the business of games retail, I generally think it’s a good thing for the industry as it removes unnecessary costs,” Harding-Rolls said. “This will help offset pressure on margins from other directions – development and staffing costs for example.” Should the industry shift from game boxes that contain discs to smaller, cheaper game cards, Harding-Rolls said, that reduces pressure on publishers and retailers. “The advantage of everything going digital for the industry is that sales can be tracked much more easily and there is less commercial risk for publishers wanting to continue selling via retail,” he said. The shift to no discs will also likely impact game development timelines, as developers will no longer face the same urgency to have a build ready to submit to PlayStation for the production of a disc, as industry experts noted around GTA VI’s no-disc news last week. Instead, projects may gain weeks of development time, in the event delivery deadlines for platform approval move closer to release date. Preservationists’ likely worries While millions of gamers have shifted to digital, there are still people who associate game discs—and only game discs—with actual ownership of PlayStation games. That portion of the gaming community spoke up last week about wanting to buy a version of GTA VI that they could hold in their hands, could lend to a friend and could potentially pop into a well-preserved PS5 console three decades from now and still see it run. Such gamers didn’t want to worry that they’d merely purchased a digital copy that could lose access to the game if, say, the company behind the game someday turns of the servers that transmit downloadable copies. Digital copies of games are inherently less long-lasting, because consumers aren’t actually buying a game (on a disc), just buying access to the game. The fine print in online gaming shops notes this, as does a recent law that went on the books in California in 2025. That lasw requires game publishers doing business in the state to refrain from words like “sell” when offering digital copies of games, unless they explicitly tell consumers that what’s being sold isn’t the game itself but a potentially revocable license to access it. A Sony spokesperson noted to Game File that “[w]ith all digital content, including games, movies, and music, players are purchasing a personal license for non-commercial use.” Regarding the fears of PlayStation games being lost to time in an all-digital era, the rep also noted that Sony remains “committed to delivering experiences from past generations to the new platforms our players are using.” They noted that PlayStation has used emulation and remasters to keep offering its classic games to modern gamers. It’s true that many consumers have become accustomed to not having physical copies of new music albums or movies, but the relative precariousness of digital copies of games is in fact being highlighted today by…. Sony’s other big announcement: the upcoming closure of the PS3 and PS Vita online stores Sony said today that it will be closing the online marketplaces for its PlayStation 3 console and PS Vita handheld in most countries in July 2027 (sooner elsewhere: August 2026 for the PS3 store Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua; late 2026 for PS3 in other Latin American countries and the Middle East). “We know this news may be disappointing to PS3 and PS Vita players who hold a special place in their hearts for this generation of gaming,” Sony said in its announcement, saying the move “was not an easy decision for us to make.” Sony said that PS3 and Vita marketplaces “are no longer able” to support modern commerce systems, prompting a “need” to close the shops and focus on more modern PlayStation platform stores. The news may spark some deja vu. Sony announced back in March 2021 that it planned to take the PS3, Vita and PlayStation Portable marketplaces offline that summer. The move would have caused some 2,000 digital-only games to become unavailable for new purchasers, according to a VGC analysis at the time. Fans complained loudly. By April 2021, Sony walked back the PS3 and Vita shop closures, with then PlayStation boss Jim Ryan saying “it’s clear that we made the wrong decision here.” This time around, Sony is giving a longer notice period in most regions. The closure of those stores is still likely to cut off access to new purchases of digital-only PS3 and Vita games. The current PlayStation 5 marketplace sells PS5 and PS4 games, as well as a selection of PS1 and PS2 games. It does not sell PS3 games, because games for that platform can’t run on the system (some are offered via a PlayStation Plus streaming option). Vita games also aren’t sold via PS5. Sony says digitally purchased PS3 and Vita games will be downloadable after the stores’ shutdowns “for the foreseeable future.” Sony’s move contrasts with Microsoft’s Xbox platform, which continues to sell and support games from all four Xbox console generations. But it puts it in line with Nintendo, which disabled purchases in the marketplace for its Wii console (a contemporary of the PS3) in 2019. Nintendo discontinued purchases in the online shop for its 3DS portable (a contemporary of the Vita) in 2023. The big questions about Sony’s 2028 post-disc era Will Microsoft follow suit, ending support for new disc-based games on Xbox platforms and therefore all game consoles, too? Whether Microsoft does or not, will third-parties that can no longer release games on discs for PlayStation, simply ditch the disc options across the board? Given the GTA VI no-disc experiment launching this November, will more game publishers decide to forgo disc-based offerings even in 2027? How will no-disc PS5/6 games be packaged and sold in brick-and-mortar retail stores? What becomes of game sharing in an all-digital era? Will Sony modify its current set-up, which currently allows some sharing of digital games across a pair of consoles, to allow more casual lending? (See for example, Nintendo’s year-old system of letting players lend a digital game to another player in a “family group” for up to 14 days.) Will there be a version of a PS6 with a disc drive? Or will a drive be offered as an add-on? And how will gamers who want to retain access to PS4/PS5 disc-based games react to whichever configurations Sony chooses to offer? What will the final disc-based PlayStation game be?
The PlayStation Stores On PlayStation 3 And Vita Are Shutting Down
Starting this year and into 2027, Sony is sunsetting the digital storefront for two of its oldest online store platforms.
I Tried Sony's $260 Wearable AC. Here's Why I Turned Around Before Leaving the Block
Sony's Reon Pocket Pro Plus delivered on its promise of keeping me cool—but one major flaw made wearing it in public surprisingly difficult.
Sony’s Cooling Neck Device Is Coming to the US, and I Got a First Look
I spent a few days testing the Reon Pocket Pro Plus ahead of its US launch. Here's how it went.
'I Don't Know What They're Thinking': Ex-PlayStation Boss Weighs in on Sony's PC Port Backtracking
Porting is all about "mindshare"
No more selling PlayStation hardware at "significant" loss, says Sony, as everyone braces for a PS6 console that costs over $1,000
Sony is seemingly no longer interested in subsidising the cost of its hardware to reduce the price for the end user.
Sony Spurs $1,000 PlayStation 6 Rumors
Rumors of sky-high next-gen consoles have been floating around for about as long as the next-gen consoles have been confirmed as in development, but it seems as though Sony CEO, Hideaki Nishino has all but confirmed $900+ pricing for the PS6 in a recent Q&A session following an official Gaming & Net...
Netflix and Superheroes Are Having a Rough Stretch on Streaming....
(Welcome to my weekly streaming ratings report, the single best guide to what’s popular in streaming TV and what isn’t. I’m the Entertainment Strategy Guy, a former streaming executive who now analyzes business strategy in the entertainment industry. If you were forwarded this email, please subscribe to get these insights each week.) I have a quick prediction before we start today’s article: You might see this data in future news articles. Not my specific charts or analysis, but the core trend I’ve been monitoring—Netflix is having a lackluster Q2—will become inescapable. Often, folks want to know “What does the data say?” Well, that’s what it says. I haven’t seen this analysis hit the trades really yet, but I have a feeling some other outlets are going to start making this case soon. Remember, you read it here first. You probably have read about the problems facing superhero films at the box office this weekend. Well, this week, I explore whether superheroes are dying on TV as well! And the data says: definitely maybe! We have a lot to cover in today’s Streaming Ratings Report, which covers the two weeks of 18-May and 25-May. Today, I’m just looking at TV, like Netflix’s disappointing Q2, superhero shows underwhelming, a few TV shows dropping off the charts, The Pitt finally ending its epic run on the viewership charts (and whether “view counts” change its status as one of the biggest shows of all time), all the flops, bombs and misses, and a whole lot more. Tomorrow, I’ve got a great rundown of the film side of things. Let’s dive right in! (Reminder: The streaming ratings report focuses on the U.S. market and compiles data from Nielsen’s weekly top ten viewership ranks, Luminate’s Top Ten Data, Showlabs, TV Time trend data, Samba TV household viewership, company datecdotes, Netflix hours viewed data, Google Trends, and IMDb to determine the most popular content. While most data points are current, Nielsen’s data covers the weeks of May 18th to May 31st, 2026. You can find a link to my terminology here.) Subscribe Television - Netflix’s Q2 Slump Continues Having analyzed streaming ratings for going on half a decade, I have learned to trust my gut, but I’m always relieved when I can find actual data to back it up. For example, after a string of very popular shows like Stranger Things, Bridgerton, The Lincoln Lawyer and The Night Agent came out, week after week, in January and February, my gut wondered if Netflix had enough new and returning TV shows to sustain them throughout the year. Since then, Netflix’s post-March slate of shows has not impressed me. This week seemed to feature a potential new hit, but then, like a classic Duffer Bros. TV show, there was a twist. I speak of The Boroughs, Netflix’s latest (and last) Duffer Bros. produced show. The pitch is “Stranger Things with older actors”. And it topped the Nielsen charts: With just two weeks of viewership, The Boroughs would have been a top 25 debut show last year: But here’s the twist: Netflix has already cancelled The Boroughs! What happened? Likely a few things. First, the show didn’t do as well globally as it did in the US. As What’s on Netflix showed, it lagged behind several other shows that got cancelled. Second, its completion rate was likely low; after an initial burst of interest, it quickly dropped off on the Samba TV and Luminate charts. Third, the Duffer Bros. left Netflix for Paramount, and that may have factored into Netflix’s decision here. (Though I tend to believe that if a show is doing well, Netflix would have kept greenlighting seasons.) Still, just because I can explain why Netflix may have cancelled this show doesn’t mean I’m justifying it. In particular, as I’ve noted before, Netflix is losing a lot of their bigger shows as they reach their natural ends, and they need to replace those shows. This show had the hallmarks of a big new genre show, and it’s their biggest hit of the last few months (in the US at least), but now it’s done. Netflix’s other show this week—The Four Seasons, the second season of the “hit” show from last year—definitely disappointed. Its sophomore season had about half the viewership of the first, only 12.7 million hours. It also only had a two week run on Samba TV, and its numbers were all down on Luminate too. In other words, even with two successes, the Q2 slump for Netflix looks real: I could add to the list of disappointments: Both Lord of the Files and Man on Fire had short runs on the Nielsen charts. Running Point’s sophomore season also opened to about half its viewership, similar to The Four Seasons. A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder’s second season—see below—didn’t even make any of the three viewership charts I track, unlike the first season. Netflix is absolutely having a dismal second three months of 2026. If this Nielsen data is any indication, and I think it is, I think this will show up in Netflix’s engagement report, and maybe even their financial outcomes. And the rest of June doesn’t look much better. We have two hit shows coming back—Sweet Magnolias, one of their quietest big shows, and Avatar: The Last Airbender, a big hit for them in 2024—but the other big swings are limited series crime thrillers i.e. no future season potential. Like I said above, sometimes when I uncover a juicy nugget like this, other outlets end up writing very similar articles mimicking the data without credit. We’ll see if that happens this time! Share Television - The State of Superhero Shows on Streaming When I first heard the pitch for Spider-Noir—a Sony TV show on Prime Video that binge-released eight episodes first on MGM+ then on Prime Video two days later—I had my doubts. It’s a live-action Spider-Man show set in the 1930s, starring Nicholas Cage, based on a cameo of a character in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. No, seriously, that’s the pitch. That could either go terrifically well or horribly wrong. Great because, Spider-Man. He’s the biggest superhero we have. I’ve seen tracking numbers that put the new _Spider-Man: Brand New Da_y as the blockbuster of the year and initial pre-sales back that up. And yet this Spider-Noir pitch feels very esoteric. (Also, the eight-episode binge release feels very “Amazon copying Netflix” again.) So what’s the data say? And what does this say about the future of superhero shows?
Sony’s next-gen PlayStation will go ‘beyond the living room’
There could be new ways to play your games on the go.
Sony Pictures Entertainment invests $100m in Cosm
As lead investor in Cosm’s Series C financing round, SPE will acquire a minority ownership stake in the operator of shared reality venues showing sports and films on 27m-wide, 12K+ LED screens.
Sony Tiptoes Over PS6 Release Date, But Insists It Won't Just Follow Xbox
Keep on guessing
A $1000 PlayStation 6 No Longer Sounds Crazy, As Sony Doesn’t Intend To Sell Hardware At Significant Losses
The PlayStation 6 is set to launch at one of the most challenging times for consumer tech, if not the most challenging. With the rising prices of components, RAM and SSDs above all, manufacturers are having an extremely hard time keeping costs down, and with a bill of materials that is now close to $1000, there's a very high chance the system will cost way more than most anticipated. Adding fuel to the fires of speculation is Sony itself, as the company heavily suggested in a recent investor Q&A session that it won't heavily subsidize the system. "We regard hardware as the base […]
It looks like PlayStation 6 is going to cost Sony about $1,000 to make, which likely means it will cost more than that at retail
The cost to make a single unit of the PlayStation 6 has gone up, according to new information from a reliable insider.
PS6 Hardware Cost Estimated at $900+
The upcoming Sony PlayStation 6 is slated to launch sometime in 2028, and with recent reports claiming that the ongoing RAM crisis likely won't end or ease up much before then, concerns are mounting about the price of next-gen gaming consoles. Those concerns are seemingly justified, with ubiquitous ...
Sony will pull Studio Canal purchases for European users
The trend of revoking access to digital purchases continues, this time affecting European customers of Sony's PlayStation Store.
Major PS5 Feature Down for the Last 2 Weeks, Sony Silent
A widely used PS5 feature has been down for the last two weeks on both the console and the PS App, and there's no sign of a fix.
Sony’s New Blu-ray & DVD Player Upscales DVDs to Near-HD Quality - Bring Your Old DVDs To Life Again
In a time when streaming services continue to raise prices, fragment content libraries, remove content, and push intrusive ads, many households are rediscovering the reliability and ownership of physical DVDs and Blu-rays. Sony has answered this shift with the release of its latest affordable disc player: the Sony BDP-S1700U. Priced at just $114.99, this sleek […]
PlayStation is pulling "previously purchased" digital movies from users' libraries
Sony has written to customers to advise that hundreds of "previously purchased" digital movies previously available via its online store will "be removed".
Engadget review recap: MSI Claw 8 EX AI+, Sony A7R VI, Ray-Ban Meta Optics and more
A roundup of recent reviews published by Engadget.
Sony is deleting over 550 purchased movies from PS5 users’ digital libraries
PlayStation says a licensing agreement means users will no longer be able to access some purchased videos…
PlayStation hardware sales fall to their lowest May total since 2000
Price rises hit Sony's console sales, but 007 First Light and Switch 2 help US game spending to grow 3%
Strictly Business Cannes Lions: Deloitte, AWS, Sony Execs on AI and Tech Adoption
Variety Strictly Business Podcast Live presented by AWS & Deloitte featured Deloitte's Michelle McGuire, AWS's Ruba Borno, and Sony Pictures Entertainment's Pete Wood.
Strictly Business Cannes Lions: Deloitte, AWS, Sony Execs on AI and Tech Adoption
Variety Strictly Business Podcast Live presented by AWS & Deloitte featured Deloitte's Michelle McGuire, AWS's Ruba Borno, and Sony Pictures Entertainment's Pete Wood.
PlayStation Removing Purchased Content From Your Library Again
Sony Interactive Entertainment is conducting another round of purchased content removal from the PlayStation library.
Bungie layoffs revealed to have affected nearly 300 jobs at Destiny 2 maker
Sony said this week it had cut nearly the entire Destiny 2 development team…
PlayStation Boss Says New Console Experiences Will Involve 'Leveraging Technologies That Can Be Used in Various Forms and Locations' — and I'm Convinced He's Teasing a PS6 Handheld
Recent comments from Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Hideaki Nishino have suggested PlayStation may move towards more hybrid, Switch-like consoles in the future to match modern on-the-go players.
It's Xbox's turn (again), as console prices keep going up
Microsoft announced a price hike for the Xbox Series consoles today, the third in little over a year. Effective August 1, the Xbox Series S, which launched in 2020 for $300, will cost $500 in the U.S. The Xbox Series X, which launched in 2020 at $500, will go for $800. This follows a round of PlayStation 5 price increases from Sony this spring, and a slow-motion increase for Nintendo’s Switch 2, which will kick in in the U.S. in September. (Mind you, there were also eight video game industry price hikes in six months of 2025). The chart up top shows the sudden ascent of console prices over the past year, a sudden surge in an already unusual hardware generation. Prices had been flat for years, now “up” is the new “flat.” Game console prices used to go down across the length of a console generation, but not this time around. Microsoft’s explanation for the new price hike today: We hoped another price increase would not be necessary, and we have spent the last several months working with suppliers on options. Unfortunately, console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x and we expect another doubling by the fall of 2027. The entire consumer electronics industry is struggling with the current components crisis, but the effects are particularly hard on consoles. Unlike phones, computers, speakers, and other consumer devices, consoles are typically not sold at a profit, but instead for less than they cost to make. This is an issue well beyond game consoles. Apple announced price hikes on its computers and tablets today as well. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Item 2: Brutal Bungie cuts Bungie laid off “most” of its Destiny development team and some developers who worked on Marathon, the newest game from the struggling Sony-owned studio. A WARN notice issued by Sony to Washington State, where Bungie is based, tallied cuts impacting 292 workers, effective next month. That’s strictly for Bungie/Sony jobs in Washington and wouldn’t account for any elsewhere. The video I clipped below shows the redacted list of Bungie cuts filed to Washington State officials. As you’ll see, I had to scroll for a while… In a note emailed to PlayStation workers and published online, PlayStation game studios chief Hermen Hulst offered the following explanation for these latest cuts at Bungie: This is painful news, especially for talented colleagues whose roles have been eliminated. This decision was made only after extensive discussion and careful consideration, and I want to provide some context on how we arrived here. Over the past several months, together with Bungie leadership, we reviewed the studio’s long-term direction, development priorities, resource needs, and role within our broader portfolio strategy. We explored multiple alternatives before concluding that a reduction was necessary to align the studio’s resources with its current priorities and long-term goals. In 2022, Sony bought Bungie for $3.7 billion. The studio’s marquee game, the multiplayer live service shooter Destiny 2 was losing popularity at the time. Its next game Marathon, released earlier this year, has been well-reviewed but had a slow start. Bungie is renowned for making great shooter games, and Destiny fans have mourned the wind-down of Destiny 2. They’ve also expressed bewilderment over reports that Destiny 3 is not, per Bloomberg, immediately in the cards.
Sony files WARN notice for layoffs at Bungie in Bellevue
Sony Interactive Entertainment is reducing the workforce at Bungie, with layoffs affecting a significant number of employees.
Prime Day ends soon: We found 125+ deals from Apple, Lego, Sony, Kindle, and more
Kindle e-readers, Apple Watches, and Samsung TVs are all highlights on day three of the Amazon sale.
Sony A7R VI review: A huge speed boost makes this a nearly perfect high-resolution camera
Sony’s A7R VI finally serves up speed and resolution together thanks to the new 67MP stacked sensor.
An Update from PlayStation Studios
Below is an internal email from Hermen Hulst, CEO, Studio Business Group, Sony Interactive Entertainment distributed today to SIE employees. ********************************************************************************** Dear Team, Today I want to share a difficult update regarding Bungie. We have made the decision to reduce Bungie’s workforce, affecting a significant number of employees, including most of the Destiny team and some Marathon team members. There are also reductions across SIE teams that support […]
Gilbert-backed Cosm gets $100M Sony investment as immersive theater operator expands to Detroit
A Cosm location in downtown Detroit is expected to open in September as part of Dan Gilbert’s Bedrock LLC real estate firm’s Development at Cadillac Square project.
Bungie Is Laying Off "Most Of" The Destiny 2 Development Team
People who worked on Marathon, as well as some Sony Interactive Entertainment employees, are also getting let go.
Prime Day is here: We found 100+ deals from Apple, Lego, Sony, and more
Kindle e-readers, Apple Watches, and portable power stations are all highlights as we wrap day two of the Amazon sale.
Sony Pictures Entertainment Invests $100M In Cosm, Operator Of "Shared Reality" Venues
Sony Pictures Entertainment has made a $100 million strategic investment in Cosm, a venture-backed operator of "shared reality" venues.
Sony Pictures Invests in Cosm Dome Venues in Major Deal
Cosm venues feature a unique dome shape, delivering a fresh experience for live events and theatrical screenings.
Sony Pictures Invests in Cosm Dome Venues in Major Deal
Cosm venues feature a unique dome shape, delivering a fresh experience for live events and theatrical screenings.
Sony Pictures Entertainment Invests $100 Million, Takes Minority Stake in Cosm
Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman and CEO Ravi Ahuja will also join the immersive entertainment company's board of directors
PS5 ‘shovelware’ studio says all its games are being removed due to Sony’s ‘stricter guidelines’
Afil Games has more than 140 games on the PlayStation Store…
Prime Day has served up several great deals on 4K TVs
With the quality of TVs from each year getting so close, it’s a better idea to save big on last year’s models.
Notorious Xbox and PS5 shovelware publisher booted off PlayStation Store
Sony is continuing its crusade against low-effort shovelware titles and is now delisting close to 1,000 Afil Games titles from the PlayStation platform.
Prime Day deals are officially live: Shop the best tech sales from Apple, Sony, Bose, Anker and others for up to 54% off right now
Prime Day deals have discounted a bunch of our favorite tech from headphones to TVs to iPhone accessories and more.
The Last of Us Part 2 will get multiplayer later this year, but not from Sony, and sadly not on PS5 either
Modder Specilizer has released a 25-minute gameplay trailer for their multiplayer Last of Us Part 2 mod, which shows PvP matchmaking in-action.
Sounds Like a Steal: 40+ Apple, Sony and Bose Deals Are Live With Prime Day Starting Tomorrow
Whether you want the best of the best or a budget pair, these are our favorite deals.
Should You Buy A PlayStation 5 Now Or Wait For The PS6?
Sony will likely continue supporting the PlayStation 5 well after its next console is released, so there's no real reason to wait for a PlayStation 6.
Sony files DualSense login patent for PSN: an extra security layer
On May 21, 2026, Sony filed a patent called “Controller-Driven Video Game Console Login.” It describes a PlayStation Network sign-in system that would
Sony’s ‘Destiny 2’ Obliteration Has Almost No Precedent In The Industry
Destiny 2 is not just ending, its support is being liquidated. What Sony is doing here is almost entirely unprecedented in the industry.
Savage Entertainment Announces June 26 AWAL/Sony Music Release Featuring PO1300, Albee Al and WayG
Camden, NJ, June 18, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Savage Entertainment announced today that its founder and recording artist PO1300 will release a ...
AI is turning Nintendo and Sony products into accidental luxury goods
With component-makers busy supplying data centres, console prices are rising as demand outstrips production capacity
Savage Entertainment Announces June 26 AWAL/Sony Music Release Featuring PO1300, Albee Al and WayG
Savage Entertainment founder and rising New Jersey artist prepares for the June 26 release of his latest single, bringing together one of the state's most respected voices and the next generation of Camden talent.Camden, NJ, June 18, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Savage Entertainment announced today that its founder and recording artist PO1300 will release a new single on June 26 featuring New Jersey artist Albee Al and fellow Savage Entertainment artist WayG. The upcoming release marks a significant
Sony drops “PC”, adds “AI” to official PlayStation business strategy summary
Sony had made some conspicuous edits and updates to its description of PlayStation’s “business environment and strategy,” in a new annual report filed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today. These changes are part of a 379-word overview of Sony’s strategy for its Game & Network Services (G&NS) division, which is another name for PlayStation. The chunk about PlayStation strategy is part of a voluminous financial report filed by Sony each June. This year’s is 229 pages long. Differences to any part of the filing—word changes made from year to year, as Sony provides a breakdown of its business for investors—can be illuminating. For example: A line from 2025 about how the PlayStation team “aims to achieve sustainable and profitable business growth” has been changed in the 2026 version to “aims to achieve sustainable business growth.” Notice which word they cut? That’s a pretty clear tell about how Sony expects its profit margins to be squeezed this year, due to rising chip costs for its hardware, among other things. A line from 2025 that stated “Sony plans to continue its efforts to deploy its first-party titles to multiple platforms such as PC” had been cut from the 2026 version. That appears to be Sony’s admission by omission that it has backed off releasing its biggest games on PC. Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reported in March and again in May that Sony’s big single-player marquee games are no longer planned for time-delayed release on PC.1 A whole new chunk has also been added about how “Sony is utilizing AI to unleash the creativity of studios and further enhance the PlayStation experience.” A full breakdown of the changes made from the 2025 version to the 2026 version is below. I’ve redlined them for you…
Shunsuke Muramatsu of Sony Music Japan: Global Power Players Interview
Shunsuke Muramatsu, chairman and representative director of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan), was selected for the first time on the list.
'There's No Ambiguity in Sony's Strategy': Trusted Journalist on PS5's Exclusivity Approach After Wishy-Washy CEO Statement
"There's no case by case here"
No, Sony Did Not End ‘Destiny 2’ To Get ‘Revenge’ On Bungie
New reporting says that Sony closed down Destiny 2 as a sort of revenge for Bungie's influence on its live service plans. That is not the case.
Radial Entertainment Hires Former Sony Exec Carrie Ferman as Chief Operating Officer (EXCLUSIVE)
Radial Entertainment has tapped former Sony exec Carrie Ferman as the company’s new chief operating officer. The news was revealed on Wednesday at the StreamTV Show in Denver during a keynote intervie...
Radial Entertainment Hires Former Sony Exec Carrie Ferman as COO
Radial Entertainment has hired former Sony exec Carrie Ferman as its new chief operating officer.
Sony unveils the Lytia 910, its first LOFIC sensor, and it boasts 100dB dynamic range
With Triple Conversion Gain, this sensor will snap HDR photos in one exposure - and it will record 4K 60fps HDR videos too.
Former Sony Boss Says Xbox Is 'Misunderstanding' The Industry
'The last couple weeks have been a real roller coaster. Feel bad for the dev teams'
Deadline Hollywood
Sony Pictures Entertainment will handle the international theatrical release of Greta Gerwig’s 'Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew.' Read more below.
Sony to Handle International for ‘Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew’
Sony Pictures Entertainment will handle international distribution for the theatrical release of Greta Gerwig’s "Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew."
Greta Gerwig’s ‘Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew’ to Be Distributed Internationally by Sony Pictures
Sony Pictures Entertainment will handle international distribution for the theatrical release of Greta Gerwig’s “Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew,” Netflix said Tuesday. The epic adventure will be releas...
Sony: The Market Is Mispricing Its Entertainment Transformation
Sony’s record FY2025 shows Music & image sensors driving profits.
Sony 'Hopes' to Launch PS5's God of War Laufey in the First Half of 2027
But plans could change
Amid Marathon slump and Destiny 2 player resurgence, former Bungie employee claims studio was "very close" to shutting down before Sony's acquisition
The fight to keep Destiny 2 going has been a long one, according to a former member of staff.
PS5 Controller's Best Features Are Finally Working Over Bluetooth on PC
Devs do what Sony won't
"It was an emergency acquisition": Former Destiny 2 dev says if Sony didn't buy Bungie, the studio would have been "very close to shutting its doors"
Sony's acquisition of Bungie likely saved the Destiny 2 developer from closure, says one former dev.
'The Only Way to Keep Bungie Alive Is to Support Marathon,' Ex-Destiny Community Manager Says
As Destiny 2 fans mourn the game's final update, Bungie's former community manager has blasted players fixated on comparing its player count with fledgling extraction shooter Marathon — and said that the company's current issues began long before its arrival, as well as Sony's acquisition.
One of fall's coolest games has been delayed to October to avoid a September crush
Last Sunday, a trailer that aired during an online Xbox event showed Valor Mortis, an upcoming action game that re-imagines the age of Napoleonic wars as a conflict with the plague-ridden undead. It’s a first-person game that mixes Dark Souls-style combat with parkour—it’s from the developers of the acclaimed, fast-paced cyberpunk wall-running Ghostrunner games—and a setting like nothing else that’s out there. Valor Mortis’ trailer concluded with a release date: September 24. But by the time it aired, the teams behind the game knew that was no longer Valor Mortis’ release date. Days ago, they’d learned the hard way that September 24 would be untenable and that they’d have to change it. Today, they’ve announced a new one, October 13, after speaking to Game File about getting out of the bind they recently found themselves in. “When we picked September 24th, it looked like a very, very clear date,” Blake Rochkind, head of publisher Lyrical Games, told me during an impromptu interview on Monday in Los Angeles. “Very quickly it became not such a clear date.” Lyrical and development studio One More Level had a feeling the deate might need to change, Rochkind recalled. But they had to lock in September 24 “many, many weeks” ago. Really, though, who could know if that was the right call when they made it? “There were so many unknowns,” Rochkind said. “This was before Sony State of Play, before Xbox Showcase, before Nintendo Direct, before Summer Games Fest.” Then on Tuesday, June 2, during a PlayStation showcase held just five days before their planned release date reveal, things changed. “As soon as Control announced September 24th, we knew we were moving the date.” It wasn’t just the PlayStation showcase reveal of the release date for Remedy’s upcoming third-person thriller. There were others. And changing their own trailer this close to its airing, Rochkind would later tell me, wasn’t possible.
Gears of War: E-Day Is Not Coming to PS5, Xbox Confirms Console Exclusivity
Purportedly was planned for Sony's console until recently
Rumour: Gears of War: E-Day Was Coming to PS5, Xbox Only Just Cancelled Port
Update: PS5 retail SKU exists, game was rated for Sony console
Sony, Amazon Unsure If Their Supply Chains Funded Armed Conflict In 2025
Do PlayStation 5s and Amazon Basics headsets fund armed conflict? Who knows!
PS5 vs Pepperoni Pizza: New God of War Sparks Tense Exchange Between Sony and Domino's
A pizza the action
Destiny 2 Ending New Content Is "Unthinkable," Warframe Dev Says
Bungie recently announced that it is ending ongoing content releases for Destiny 2 on June 9, with the Sony-owned studio shifting to new projects. The end-of-service announcement was upsetting to many, including Warframe creative director Rebecca Ford. She said on the OnlyFrames podcast that there is “no world where it makes sense.” “Obviously, that news...
Kratos will return in future games, God of War developer assures fans following the Laufey reveal
Making a new God of War game that doesn't star Kratos has caused some surprise. But Sony Santa Monica reassures us that our favourite sad dad will return.
‘Destiny 2’ Fans Drown PlayStation’s State Of Play In ‘Destiny 3’ Demands
Destiny 2 players are pulling out all the stops to try to get Sony to listen to them that they want Destiny 3 made.
Sony's State Of Play Showed That Every Publisher Is Terrified Of GTA 6
Call of Duty, Wolverine, Rayman, Control 2, The Blood of Dawnwalker, and Star Wars Galactic Racer all arrive in the span of about 8 weeks
Stuntman Hollywood revealed at Sony State of Play, coming soon to PS5
Cars from The Fast and Furious, Back to the Future, and more present.
The leaks were real: God of War Laufey is all about Faye, and it's coming to PlayStation 5 'soon'
Sony Santa Monica's next God of War game is known as NAME, and is set for release in YEAR.
Control Resonant's release date revealed in bombshell Sony State of Play story trailer
More looks at what Dylan is up to floods the trailer, for our pleasure.