From 2028, Sony will no longer produce PlayStation games that physically reach players in packaging. MeinMMO editor Jasmin once researched what price difference this would make on the PS5.
The news that in just 2 years only digital PlayStation games will be produced hit me hard, like many other players. I prefer to buy retail packaging. There are several reasons for this:
- It just looks much nicer when your game shelf is filled with several packages.
- I am not dependent on whether servers or shops might be shut down someday, and I can still play games even after years.
- If I don’t like a game at all, I can simply sell it on second-hand platforms and thus finance my next game.
Since I don’t need to play the majority of games right on their release day, it has become a wonderful habit for me that also saves me money. At least, it always seemed to me that by purchasing from second-hand platforms, I end up with more money in my pockets at the end of the year. Yet, I never knew for sure.
For MeinMMO, I have now researched how much money I would really save if Sony decides to offer all games only digitally and thus second-hand platforms would fall away.
Here’s how I proceeded:
- I picked 10 different PS5 games that cover several release periods and also come from different genres.
- I considered both the current price in the PlayStation Store and the all-time low listed on psprices.com.
- Additionally, I compared prices on Geizhals.de with the cheapest offers from commercial retailers.
- I used 2 different selling platforms: once eBay and once Vinted. The selection was made randomly; you can also look on other selling platforms. I only considered the buy-it-now options with shipping.
After that, I totaled the individual prices and compared how much one really saves if Sony continues to offer physical games.
One purchasing option outshines the others
The prices I found on the used item platforms are valid as of July 3, 2026, at 1:00 PM. Prices may vary at different dates and times depending on supply and demand.
The same applies to the PlayStation Store. I considered both the current price and the all-time low of each game. However, to really get every game at the all-time low, it requires quite a bit of patience and waiting since you have to wait for certain sales, and you might not get each of these games so cheaply during every sale.
Nonetheless, the following table already shows a good trend why it is a bad idea to offer games purely digitally starting in 2028. Here we have listed the prices in Euros on each sales platform (cheapest offer) and rounded for easier overview without decimal points:
| PS5 Store now | PS5 Store All-time Low | Used (eBay) | Used (Vinted) | Geizhals.de | |
| Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 | 50 | 40 | 32 | 29 | 42 |
| One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 | 40 | 6 | 35 | 21 | 42 |
| Battlefield 6 | 70 | 40 | 33 | 23 | 44 |
| Story of Seasons Grand Bazaar | 50 | 50 | 55 | (50)* | 50 |
| GTA 5 | 40 | 20 | 20 | 15 | 15 |
| Diablo 4 | 30 | 0 | 27 | 17 | 36 |
| Monster Hunter Wilds | 70 | 30 | 16 | 16 | 15 |
| Elden Ring | 60 | 35 | 28 | 24 | 33 |
| God of War Ragnarök | 70 | 30 | 23 | 22 | 28 |
| Tales of Arise | 40 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 20 |
| TOTAL [€] | 480 | 261 | 279 | 228 | 325 |
The current pricing in the digital PS5 store is by far the highest. Here you need to expect nearly 500 € for the ten selected games. Only one of these games, Diablo 4, is currently on sale.
Directly behind are the offers on Geizhals.de. Here you do not have to deal with private sellers, but you also pay a higher price than on second-hand and digital sales.
In third place is eBay, closely followed by the respective all-time lows in the PS5 Store. The cheapest platform turns out to be Vinted. However, we had to include a game from a third-party seller here since the title is currently not for sale on Vinted.
Yet even with the current cheapest offer on Geizhals, the inventory from Vinted is still significantly lower than the all-time lows from the PS5 Store, not to mention the current prices. Although one game is missing, which we could not find on the platform, even with the additional 50 €, it is by far the cheapest option.
It may be that on other selling platforms or with mix-and-match buying, you end up finding even cheaper deals at the end of the day. If price is important to you, make sure to keep an eye on other selling platforms!
The selected selling platforms have buyer protection, which usually protects you from damaged goods. However, they also come with the drawback that the game packages may occasionally be international and therefore may not be in German. However, this has nothing to do with the game on the disc.
Also, keep in mind that PS Plus can create additional offers and the games may be reduced by several percent again. However, you will also have to spend a monthly amount for this subscription.
At this point in time, it is therefore not a good idea from a player’s perspective to completely forego second-hand purchases and only buy digitally in the PlayStation Store. It looks different if you want to play every game immediately upon release.
What do you think of our mini-test? How do you buy your games, and what do you think the prices will develop into in the future? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments! MeinMMO demon Cortyn already predicted months ago that gaming will become a luxury: Gaming will become a luxury and is a bigger problem than many think
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