Anything released after 2028 will still be digital-only.

Sony's move to abandon physical game discs may have elicited the "Everyone disliked that" response from the gaming world, but there's a small consolation for game developers. As reported by Game File, Sony shared a private message to PlayStation developers and publishers that said they "will still be able to place re-orders for existing PlayStation disc games."

Sony's post on the PlayStation blog mentioned that its discontinuation of physical game discs would have "no impact on games that already released, or will be releasing, prior to January 2028 in disc format," but this latest report makes clear that publishers can still continue ordering physical versions of their PlayStation games so long as it's released before the cut-off date. According to Game File, Sony said that its ordering process for discs will change, but didn't yet detail how. However, this is expected considering Sony has reportedly already invested millions of dollars into repurposing its disc factory in Salzburg, Austria to manufacture optical microlenses instead.

Game File also reported that Sony said in its message to publishers that it will "provide publishers with the opportunity to release new games at retail using digital codes," but similarly didn't reveal details yet. While that does address the concern of gamers being limited to purchasing games through Sony's online store ecosystem, the overall loss of physical discs is still expected to have major implications for the industry.