During Ubisoft’s latest earnings conference call for FY2027 Q1, CEO Yves Guillemot commented that he does not believe Sony ceasing production of physical games will “disturb the industry too much.”
Much has been written about Sony’s decision to drop physical game production in January 2028. While we still don’t know if the upcoming PlayStation 6 will be an entirely digital machine, the only way to purchase first-party Sony games will be through the PlayStation store in the very near future. As far as Yves Guillemot is concerned, however, Sony leaving physical media behind is unlikely to change the games’ industry much.
“What we saw on the PC is that it helped to grow the market,” Guillemot explained. “There’s also some pressure for the future on the cost of machines, and being able to be only digital will help to have a more accessible machine, I would think. As you said, there are pluses and minuses, but I think it will not disturb the industry too much.”
This response is not too surprising coming from Guillemot. Just two years back, Ubisoft’s director of subscriptions Philippe Tremblay stated that players need to get “comfortable with not owning your game.” Ubisoft has been big on pushing its subscription service, Ubisoft+, which is partially included alongside Xbox Game Pass and allows subscribers to access a rotating catalog of Ubisoft releases. To Guillemot, it would be preferable if you continually handed money over rather than owning a copy of something permanently.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
