Gaming’s Digital Shift and Nintendo’s Sales Slide

Digital gaming is taking over faster than expected. Sony plans to drop PlayStation discs by 2028. That means no physical games for PS5 users in just two years.

The upcoming PS5 Pro won’t change that—its disc drive sells separately. Sony is clearly betting on digital-only play. Meanwhile, the PS5 hardware is built tough. It can last well into the PS6 generation if maintained properly. The console even shuts down automatically if it overheats.

PlayStation’s older sibling, the PS4, launched in 2013, still gets firmware updates. Sony supports it 13 years after release. The last big first-party game for PS4 came in 2022 with God of War: Ragnarok.

Canceling PlayStation Plus subscriptions has never been simpler. Users can unsubscribe through the website, console, or app. After canceling, they keep benefits until the payment period ends. But once it’s over, goodbye online storage, multiplayer access, free games, and the entire game library.

Nintendo’s Switch 2 faces a tougher road. Sales fell 34.4 percent in the last quarter to 3.82 million units. That’s a sharp drop. Still, total Switch 2 sales stand at 23.68 million, outpacing the original Switch’s lifetime sales. Nintendo expects 16.5 million units sold by March 2027, unchanged from earlier forecasts.

Last year, Nintendo sold 19.86 million Switch 2 units. Even with slower sales, the system remains a solid performer. Nintendo blamed the decline on market saturation but noted, “Although Switch 2 sales volume declined… many consumers continued to adopt the system, encouraged by the release of new titles and other factors.”

Nintendo will raise the Switch 2’s US price from $450 to $500 on September 1, 2026. Meanwhile, the game-key cards Nintendo uses for Switch 2 hold no data—they only act as access keys. This keeps the consoles leaner but locks users into digital downloads.

Software sales show mixed success. Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream shipped 7.96 million copies in just three months. Pokémon Pokopia sold 1.27 million copies outside Japan. Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong Bonanza also performed well. Nintendo’s game-related media is booming too. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie crossed $1 billion globally since its April 1 release, second only to the first Mario movie among game-based films.

Indie games are making waves during the Steam Cyberpunk Fest, running through August 10. Cyberpunk 2077 is 70 percent off, with the Phantom Liberty expansion bundled at 60 percent off. Other deals include RoboCop: Rogue City at 90 percent off, Ghostrunner 2 at 80 percent off, and Boyfriend Dungeon at 70 percent off.

New indie releases keep the variety fresh. Big Walk is a co-op puzzle game supporting up to 11 players with crossplay. ReStory: Chill Electronics Repairs focuses on restoring retro gadgets. Echobreaker challenges players with fast-paced precision platforming. Akatori, a Metroidvania, lands on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S August 12, then Switch 2 later.

Other upcoming titles include Pigeon: A Love Story, where you play as a pigeon looking for love with up to eight friends in co-op, and Ladder Lad, a platformer set for 2027 on Steam and Switch. Mr Trippy is a management sim about running an ice cream truck, developed near Manchester.

Not all planned releases make it. JandoSoft had a Switch 2 version of Turnip Mountain ready, but Nintendo declined to approve it. JandoSoft promised, “If enough people want it, we’ll definitely try again and see if we can make a Switch 2 Edition happen.”

Despite setbacks, Nintendo’s franchises remain massive. The Overcooked series passed 100 million players worldwide. The hardware shift toward digital access, even with physical media fading, is reshaping the gaming landscape. The Switch 2’s unique game-key cards and Sony’s disc phase-out mark a clear industry trend: physical games are on the way out.

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