A Third Of PlayStation 5 Game Discs Don't Fully Work Without A Download

Sony's July 2026 announcement that it will halt all physical PlayStation game releases in January 2028 for both first- and third-party developers was met with outrage from gamers. That was particularly true for proponents of buying physical video games over digital for reasons like long-term access and historical preservation. However, even having a game disc doesn't necessarily ensure permanent access. According to DoesItPlay, 34% of PlayStation 5 (PS5) games require a download before you can play them, even if you buy physical discs.

Of those, 12% of PS5 discs cannot be played at all without at least an initial Internet connection, usually because the game file itself is too large to fit on a PS5 Blu-ray disc, which has a capacity of around 100 gigabytes (GB). The rest have significant bugs and/or extra content locked behind updates that impact the overall experience. Those figures for PlayStation titles are a little above those for physical games overall: 27% of games need a download, and 9% of those are completely unplayable without one.

While it's true that digital game sales have been rapidly increasing across platforms and publishers, there are plenty of physical media loyalists who detest being forced into an all-digital future. Unfortunately, this is a reminder that buying physical game discs can only do so much to protect access to something you bought.

Needing to download a day-one patch or extra content might not seem like a big deal for now, but it ties PS5 games to the Internet, PlayStation's servers, and your PlayStation Network (PSN) account. As we've already seen with older consoles and defunct online games, digital storefronts and the servers aren't going to be around forever, so once they go away, you lose any games you don't already have downloaded. It also means you can't share your disc with someone else the way you still can with an old PlayStation 2 disc or NES cartridge.

At the same time, physical media isn't forever, either. Game discs can last decades, but they'll eventually start to degrade no matter what you do, and that's assuming they don't get lost or damaged. Still, that doesn't make up for the biggest issue opponents have with downloaded digital games: lack of ownership. When you buy a PS5 game, you're purchasing a license to play the game, which could be revoked at any time.

It's enough of an issue that it's even made it to the House of Representatives. In October 2026, Congressman Ritchie Torres introduced the Power To The Players Act, which would give buyers ownership of their digital games and require developers to release an offline version before shutting down servers. Torres uses the example of NBA 2K25 — a game that was released in 2024 at between $69.99 and $99.99 and whose online servers will be shut down at the end of the year — to highlight the consumer-unfriendly practices around digital games as they are currently handled.