Sony just opened orders for PlayStation: The First 30 Years, a 400-page hardcover history. It lands the same year Sony confirmed new PlayStation games go digital only starting January 2028. Meanwhile, Xbox is hiring to launch physical games.
You can’t make this up. On October 27, the official PlayStation account announced that PlayStation: The First 30 Years is “available to order now, shipping in November.”
Here’s what it is, per publisher Read-Only Memory and Insider Gaming:
- 400 oversized pages (375 x 295 mm), hardback, about 5 kilograms
- Made with Sony Interactive Entertainment and British publisher Read-Only Memory
- Standard Edition: $125 (£95 in the UK)
- Deluxe Edition: $325, limited to 1,994 copies, with a clamshell box and a print signed by designer Teiyu Goto and photographer Benedict Redgrove
- Prototypes, concept sketches and insights from Ken Kutaragi, Teiyu Goto and Yujin Morisawa
Update 8:40 PM ET: Here’s the post that started it. PlayStation wrote: “400 pages of gaming history.”
Sony will sell you 400 pages of paper about discs, but not the discs.
What’s in the box
Per Read-Only Memory’s product page:
- Specs: 400 pages, 375 x 295 mm, hardback, 5 kilograms, CMYK plus silver ink, heavyweight matt art stock, shipped by courier in a custom heavy duty mailer carton
- Content: R&D prototypes, concept sketches and development models from Sony’s archive, from “experimental early mockups that never left the studio” through to the PlayStation 5
- Photos: Benedict Redgrove, known for his 2019 book NASA: Past and Present Dreams of the Future
- Design: art directed by Michael C Place, who worked on WipEout, WipEout 2097 and WipEout 3 at The Designers Republic, and designed by Nicole Motby at Studio.Build
- Deluxe Edition extras: exposed binding, a foil-stamped clamshell presentation box, a 5 colour neon ink box lining, and a 365 x 285 mm photographic print signed by Teiyu Goto and Benedict Redgrove
- Where to buy: exclusive to Read-Only Memory, shipping November 2026
It’s a nice looking book. The timing is the problem.
The disc part is not a rumor
On July 1, 2026, Sony said it on the PlayStation Blog: “physical game disc production for all new games releasing on PlayStation consoles will be discontinued starting January 2028. Following this date, new games will be available on PlayStation Store and at retailers in digital formats only.” Games already out on disc, or releasing on disc before then, aren’t affected. Sony’s reason, per the post from Sid Shuman, Senior Director of SIE Content Communications: “the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs.” Bloomberg reported the same that day.
There was chatter in late August that Sony might delay the cutoff, which traced back to a Eurogamer Spain podcast. Industry veteran Richard Browne shut that down on X, saying there was “NO talk of Sony changing strategy at GamesCom,” per Push Square. Sony hasn’t announced any change.
So yeah, the fans noticed. Dexerto rounded up replies under PlayStation’s post, including “Does it come with a disc?” from the official LimeWire account and “Will I own this or is it just a license?” Another reply: “Discs made you successful. They are a fundamental part of your history.”
Meanwhile, at Xbox
Microsoft posted a job for an Xbox Games Supply Strategist who will “coordinate the launch of physical Xbox games across all platforms” and manage inventory, sales and retail channels for them, per the listing and Pure Xbox. To be fair and straight with you: the listing says “physical Xbox games,” not discs specifically, and Windows Central’s Jez Corden thinks the next Xbox might use some other physical format instead of a traditional disc drive.
OnPoint’s take: Xbox is out here hiring people to put physical games on shelves, and PlayStation is putting its physical history on a shelf for $125. That’s the whole story. The disc built PlayStation, and Sony is selling a museum piece about that era right as it shuts the door on it. Whatever shape Xbox physical games take next gen, the message is clear: if you want to own your games on a shelf, Xbox still wants your business. Join this side.
Sources
- PlayStation on X (Oct 27, 2026)
- Insider Gaming on the book
- Read-Only Memory product page
- Read-Only Memory Standard Edition (£95)
- PlayStation Blog, disc production ending January 2028
- Bloomberg
- Push Square, Richard Browne on reversal rumors
- Dexerto, fan reactions
- Pure Xbox, Xbox Games Supply Strategist job
- Windows Central on the job listing
Image: OnPoint 4 Gamers
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