Sony is discontinuing both the PS3 and PS Vita stores as well as physical disc production come 2028. The secondary market will be impacted. Our GamesMarket Daily from 01 July 2026.
It’s hard not to see the PR angle, dear readers,
when a company decides to put out two big announcements that affect customers at the same time. Case in point: Sony Interactive Entertainment, who announced the discontinuation of PlayStation discs after 2027 at the same time they declared their second attempt to close down the PlayStation 3 and Vita stores in mid-2027. Both news will likely develop into quite the bad publicity avalanche over the next few days – or a shitstorm, as it is known.
The idea behind the double whammy is tried and true: I assume after a few days of backlash, commentary and press request, Sony will go back slightly or fully on one of the two topics. Maybe physical discs will not end in 2028, but only when the PlayStation 5 goes out of production. Maybe the Vita store will keep operational for another two or three years. In any case, going back on one of the two topics will calm the waves, on the consumer end as well as the reporting, and let the shitstorm die down. The other news will then slide through the calm and can be implemented according to plan. With this method, the blow of bad news can be softened on any scale, whether it’s in politics or about effectively ending the secondary market by stopping physical game production.
My wager in this case would be that we get another few years out of the PS3 store, or maybe a compromise solution in which promises to Sony transfer most PS3 and Vita games into the PS5 retro catalogue, while the end of physical discs is set in stone. But let’s look back at this in a few months and maybe prove me wrong.
And to think I initially wanted to tell you about our one year anniversary as an independent magazine and the big sale we are running on subscriptions before the Sony news came along... oh well!
Here are the news of the day!
Your Pascal Wagner
From January 2028 onward, no more physical PlayStation games will be produced, the console maker just announced. Games will then only be sold digitally in the PSN and through digital retailers, effectively eradicating the second-hand market.
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by Pascal Wagner
More on the topic:
Sony Announces Closure of PlayStation Store on PS3 and PS Vita
Subscribers to GamesMarkt have access to our extensive archive of GM+ content, including articles, interviews and background articles, as well as electronic versions of our print editions. Here are three examples from the archive:
To mark one year of independent publishing, we are offering the deepest discount yet: A full year of GamesMarket+ access for one euro a week. That's just 52€, more than half off!
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by Team GamesMarket
From indie to AAA, we periodically showcase a studio from the German-speaking development scene. This time: stillalive studios from Innsbruck (Austria).
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Wiebke Wiesner has become the new managing director of Medien- und Filmgesellschaft Baden-Württemberg (MFG). She succeeded Carl Bergengruen on July 1, 2026.
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Xsolla has launched the Xsolla Developer Scholarship Programme – Cologne 2026. Developers can apply until 15 July, provided they hold a visa for Germany or do not require one to enter the country. Xsolla will cover the cost of accommodation and gamescom tickets for 20 developers.
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Effective right now, EVE Online and EVE Frontier maker Fenris Creations, formerly CCP Games, has released their Carbon engine into open source.
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Godot is "adding barriers to low-effort slop": To protect the code and stop demoralising reviewers, the engine is banning vibe coding, autonomous AI agents and AI chats. New contributors will be restricted more, while at the same time taught better.
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A new funding round for the Swiss Work Grants for game developers begins on 1 July. The She Got Game programme will also enter a new round from September.
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17 studios from EU countries can showcase their game for free at Indie Arena Booth on Polaris 2026, thanks to Creative Europe Media. Additionally, 10 studios from low audiovisual capacity countries can get travel grants as well.
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On 3 July, Borussia Dortmund is launching its own map, ‘Bolzplatz-Liebe’, in Fortnite. This makes BVB the first club to release a football-themed map in Fortnite.
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Studios can now apply for both the editorial segment and the sponsored slots on the ‘gamescom awesome indies show’, which will be broadcast on 27 August. The show is being produced by IGN for the first time.
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Pascal Wagner
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