Key facts
- Sony's plan to stop making physical game discs from 2028 would end the discounted used-game market, experts told Decrypt.
- Joost van Dreunen, a professor at NYU Stern, said the change will not immediately show up in major game makers' financials.
- Isa Muhammad of Bijetic said the PlayStation Network is officially supported in one African country, South Africa.
- Muhammad said a Nigerian buying GTA 6 digitally would pay $80 for the game plus $25 to over $60 for data.
- Muhammad said a 450GB broadband bundle cost him 75,000 naira, more than Nigeria's minimum monthly wage.
- Sony and PlayStation did not respond to Decrypt's request for comment.
Sony's plan to stop producing physical game discs from 2028 will fall hardest on low-income gamers by removing the cheap used-game market, experts told Decrypt in a report published November 7, 2026. Sony and PlayStation did not respond to Decrypt's request for comment.
Joost van Dreunen, a professor at the NYU Stern School of Business and author on the video game business, told Decrypt that players at the bottom of the economic spectrum lose access to physical distribution through retail and, more importantly, discounted used sales. He said the change will not immediately show up in the financials of major game makers, whose focus he described as premium experiences for a luxury class of gamers. A spokesperson for UK advocacy group Gamer's Voice told Decrypt the move will likely affect people on lower incomes more.
Isa Muhammad, founder of Africa and Middle East-focused games industry platform Bijetic, told Decrypt the PS5 is already out of reach for most Africans, and that those who can buy a console rely on the second-hand market. He said the PlayStation Network is officially supported in only one African country, South Africa, so a gamer in Nigeria must register an account in the US or UK and pay with foreign gift cards or a dollar card. Sony's terms require an account to be registered in the country where the user lives, and Sony can suspend or close accounts created with false information, Muhammad said, adding that a disc-free future could mean losing accounts holding every game purchased.
Muhammad said he paid 75,000 naira (around $55) for a 450GB broadband bundle, more than Nigeria's minimum monthly wage. With GTA 6's pre-load file expected to be 212GB, he said a gamer in Nigeria would spend $80 on the game and then $25 to over $60 to download it. At Nigeria's median download speed of 36.77 Mbps, per Speedtest by Ookla, the download would take nearly 13 hours, Decrypt reported. Van Dreunen said roughly one in four rural American households has no wired provider offering 100/20 Mbps, and that at 10 Mbps a 50GB download takes about 11 hours.
Decrypt reported that Sony raised PS5 prices in March, citing pressures in the global economic landscape, and that the next generation of Xbox is expected to cost up to $1,800, according to Fortune.