PlayStation ditching physical games is "a bridge across the bad years" of high hardware costs, analyst says, but it means "casuals and youngsters will drift off to mobile, PC, and free-to-play even faster"

God of War Laufey.

Early this month, PlayStation briefly edged out Xbox in the race for most figurative rakes stepped on by announcing the end of physical game production in 2028, and a prominent industry analyst says there are more risks for Sony to worry about than its current PR crisis.

"PlayStation going digital in 2028 is more of a stopgap than a strategy, I reckon," says Alinea Analytics' Rhys Elliott on Twitter. "This is short-term margin harvesting during a rough period. It's PlayStation buying time. The bet is that today's cost squeeze is a phase and not a permanent state.