GameStop CEO Ryan Cohen sat down with Bloomberg on July 16th, and when the conversation turned to Sony pulling the plug on PlayStation discs, he didn't hedge. Physical games, according to the man running the world's biggest game retailer, no longer matter to GameStop's future at all.
"It doesn't matter at all," Cohen told Bloomberg's Ed Ludlow when asked what the death of the disc means for his company. "Software, it mattered in the past. Software today makes up less than 12% of the business, and collectibles makes up over half the business. So, it's totally, totally irrelevant."
His percentages run a little high when compared to GameStop's own filings, but they point in the right direction.
Last quarter, software brought in $152.7 million, roughly 18% of the company's sales. Collectibles and trading cards did $348.9 million, nearly 42%, passing hardware as GameStop's biggest segment for the first time ever. Net profit hit $389.6 million, which was a company record.
The retailer with "Game" right there in the name now makes more than twice as much money on cards and toys than it does on the games themselves.
Cohen was reacting to Sony's July 1st announcement that disc production for new PlayStation games ends in January 2028. Anything released on disc before that date is unaffected, and the wind-down rolls out in phases, starting in parts of Latin America this August before reaching most of the world by July 2027. Sony called the move a natural adaptation to consumer trends, with digital preference now far outpacing discs. We broke down the full rollout when the news hit.
The trade-in counter was the whole engine of the old GameStop: buy a disc, beat it, trade it toward the next one. No new discs after January 2028 means that pipeline slowly dries up. Cohen's answer this week says the company stopped counting on it a long time ago.
Cohen seemed more interested in talking about eBay. GameStop made an unsolicited $55 billion run at the auction giant earlier this year, eBay said no in May, and Cohen spent a chunk of the interview arguing the combined company could be a "$1 trillion business." When the conversation drifted toward the industry's biggest holiday release, he steered it right back to eBay.
So if the world's biggest game retailer is done fighting for physical, who's left? The very same day, an answer showed up.
Mortal Shell 2, the Souls-like sequel from developer Cold Symmetry and publisher Playstack, doesn't launch until August 20th. Its PS5-exclusive Revered Edition, a $70 steel-case disc version packed with a physical art book and other extras, is already spoken for.
"Demand for the PlayStation 5-exclusive physical Revered Edition of Mortal Shell 2 has exceeded expectations and unfortunately supply across a number of retailers has now been fully reserved," Playstack said in a statement. A standard physical version is still expected to be available at launch, so the sell-out is specifically the premium run.
That's a full month before the game is even out, and copies are already being flipped above retail price on eBay, of all places!
Niko Partners research director Daniel Ahmad called it the shape of things to come: "This is ultimately how I thought physical media was going to go. Limited edition physical disc at a higher price." The digital version runs $50. That's a $20 premium on the disc, and collectors cleared the shelves anyway, sight unseen.
The sell-out landed in the middle of a fan revolt that hasn't cooled since Sony's announcement. A "Don't Kill the Disc" petition pulled in roughly 40,000 signatures in its first 48 hours, and when PlayStation's official account finally posted again after the news, the replies were wall-to-wall disc outrage. Even Hideo Kojima went public with his disappointment.
The companies that built the disc business have moved on: Sony set an end date, and GameStop's CEO won't even pretend to mourn it. The people still fighting for physical are the ones without a revenue segment to protect - collectors, preservation-minded players, and smaller publishers like Playstack, who just learned a steelbook can sell out a month before launch.
If Ahmad's read is right, discs have a future as the premium collector's option: limited runs at higher prices, the vinyl records of gaming. The Mortal Shell 2 numbers suggest plenty of players are ready to pay for exactly that.
What about you? Do you still buy your games on disc? Would you pay a $20 premium if limited physical runs are what keeps them alive?
Sound off in the comments below!
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