GameStop Is Not Hurting After Sony Kills Discs, And There Is A Good Reason Why
Overview & Key Takeaways
After Sony announced that it would stop supporting physical discs starting in January 2028, many expected GameStop's stock price to take a hit. After all, the company is known to drive revenue from new and used game sales. However, GameStop is not hurting today. Actually, GameStop's share price is up.
Why is that? Whereas GameStop's business was once mainly focused on selling game software, that's no longer the case. The store still sells new and used games, of course, but for GameStop's latest reporting period, software sales were actually the smallest part of the company's overall business.
For the 13 weeks that ended May 2, 2026, GameStop reported software revenue of $152.7 million, making up just 18.3% of GameStop's total revenue for the period. This includes new and pre-owned games, along with digital games.
For the same period the year prior, software sales were $175.6 million, or 24% of GameStop's total revenue for the quarter.
GameStop's business is much less focused on software these days.
During the latest quarter, GameStop's biggest revenue-driver was collectibles, which amounted to $348.9 million, or 41.8% of total revenue. Next behind it was hardware and accessories, which came to $333.7 million, or 39.9% of revenue.
Sony killing off physical, disc-based PlayStation games is not good news for GameStop, but it's also not the worst, and won't have an immediate impact in any event. After all, the changes do not go into effect until January 2028.
Ahead of that, Rockstar's GTA 6 won't be sold on a disc, but you can still buy a physical copy at GameStop (with a code in the box).
Another factor at play here is that GameStop's stock price got a jolt recently after CEO Ryan Cohen re-committed to his plan to buy eBay and abandoned his $35 billion pay package incentive.
PlayStation said it was abandoning physical discs because the majority of its users prefer digital. Given the announcement, experts believe the PS6 will be a digital console and won't launch until 2028 at the soonest.
After Sony announced that it would stop supporting physical discs starting in January 2028, many expected GameStop’s stock price to take a hit. After all, the company is known to drive revenue from new and used game sales. However, GameStop is not hurting today. Actually, GameStop’s share price is up.
Why is that? Whereas GameStop’s business was once mainly focused on selling game software, that’s no longer the case. The store still sells new and used games, of course, but for GameStop’s latest reporting period, software sales were actually the smallest part of the company’s overall business.
For the 13 weeks that ended May 2, 2026, GameStop reported software revenue of $152.7 million, making up just 18.3% of GameStop’s total revenue for the period. This includes new and pre-owned games, along with digital games.
For the same period the year prior, software sales were $175.6 million, or 24% of GameStop’s total revenue for the quarter.
GameStop’s business is much less focused on software these days.
During the latest quarter, GameStop’s biggest revenue-driver was collectibles, which amounted to $348.9 million, or 41.8% of total revenue. Next behind it was hardware and accessories, which came to $333.7 million, or 39.9% of revenue.
Sony killing off physical, disc-based PlayStation games is not good news for GameStop, but it’s also not the worst, and won’t have an immediate impact in any event. After all, the changes do not go into effect until January 2028.
Ahead of that, Rockstar’s GTA 6 won’t be sold on a disc, but you can still buy a physical copy at GameStop (with a code in the box).
Another factor at play here is that GameStop’s stock price got a jolt recently after CEO Ryan Cohen re-committed to his plan to buy eBay and abandoned his $35 billion pay package incentive.
PlayStation said it was abandoning physical discs because the majority of its users prefer digital. Given the announcement, experts believe the PS6 will be a digital console and won’t launch until 2028 at the soonest.
