PS5 Owners Alarmed as PlayStation Plans to End Physical Game Discs in 2028
The era of physical PlayStation releases is drawing to a close, and the timeline is closer than many players expected. Starting in January 2028, PlayStation says it will stop putting out new physical games on discs. That announcement has already sparked plenty of debate in the industry, and now PS5 owners are starting to ask a practical question: what happens to major upcoming titles that may not land before that cutoff?
Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet Is One of the Biggest “May Not Make It” Bets
When you look at PS5 games that could struggle to arrive before 2028, one name keeps coming up: Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet. Naughty Dog’s next project was shown off during the 2024 Game Awards, and roughly 18 months later, there still hasn’t been much additional information. For many fans, that slower trickle of details was easy to accept—at least in theory—since it seemed like Neil Druckmann and the team were still in the “making the game” phase.
That patience started to wobble after Sony revealed its physical-disc plans. With PlayStation’s social channels being flooded by requests to reverse the decision—and with those reversals looking unlikely—Naughty Dog supporters have begun to conclude that Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet may not reach shelves in time.
One post that captured the growing worry came from EatSleepRe1, who wrote on social media that Sony’s parent company reportedly wants to phase out physical PlayStation releases by January 1, 2028. The player asked whether Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet will arrive before then, adding that they don’t purchase digital games. They also claimed that if the title launches after the date, The Last of Us Part II would sadly be the final Naughty Dog game they ever play.
Players Are Also Worried About God of War Laufey
The response to that message is full of people echoing the same fear, along with additional concern aimed at God of War Laufey. Laufey was only recently revealed, and the presentation leaned heavily into gameplay—much of it—rather than relying on the kind of cinematic reveal style that Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet received when it first surfaced.
There are also suggestions that Laufey could be closer to release than players might assume, which has some fans hoping it lands before physical PlayStation games become a thing of the past.
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For players who still prefer discs, Laufey could end up being the first-party PlayStation title to effectively mark the end of more than 30 years of disc-based games on the platform. It’s also an ironic detail that Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet might not get a physical release, given what we’ve seen so far: the lead character Jordan appears to have a huge collection of CDs even though the story is set in a distant, theoretical future. Ideally, the game makes it through the deadline—without forcing Naughty Dog to rush—though the newly highlighted 2027 incentive is now hard to ignore.
