Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot believes the industry's shift away from physical games has been a net positive for PC gaming, and he's not particularly worried about the prospect of PlayStation consoles eventually dropping disc drives. In a recent interview, Guillemot argued that the PC platform's early adoption of digital-only distribution was a key factor in its growth, and he sees a similar transition on consoles as inevitable and ultimately beneficial.
"It helped PC gaming a lot," Guillemot said, referring to the absence of physical media on PC. "And we think that for the industry, it's a good thing." He added that if PlayStation were to release a disc-less future console, it "won't disturb the industry much."
The Digital-First Argument
Guillemot's comments come as Sony reportedly prepares for a future without physical discs. Rumors of a disc-less PS5 Pro and a fully digital PlayStation 6 have circulated for months, and the company has already released a digital-only PS5 Slim. For Ubisoft, a publisher that generates significant revenue from digital sales and subscriptions, the writing has been on the wall for years.
The CEO pointed to PC as the proof of concept. PC gaming effectively abandoned physical retail over a decade ago, with AMD and Nvidia pushing digital drivers and Steam dominating distribution. The result? A PC gaming market that grew from $36 billion in 2022 to over $40 billion in 2024, according to industry estimates. Digital storefronts give publishers higher margins, eliminate manufacturing costs, and enable day-one global releases without regional shipping delays.
Why This Matters Now
Console gamers have been slower to embrace digital-only, but the trend is accelerating. In 2023, digital downloads accounted for 67% of console game sales in the US, up from 56% in 2020. Activision and other major publishers have already moved to digital-first strategies, with Call of Duty's recent entries offering physical copies as little more than license keys in a box.
The timing of Guillemot's remarks is strategic. Ubisoft is betting heavily on its subscription service, Ubisoft+, and wants to normalize a world where players don't own discs at all. If Sony removes the disc drive entirely, it removes the last physical barrier to that model. For Ubisoft, that's a feature, not a bug.
Who Benefits, Who Loses
The obvious winners are publishers and platform holders. Higher margins, no inventory risk, and the ability to charge full price indefinitely (without a used game market undercutting them). Players with fast, unlimited internet also benefit from convenience — no swapping discs, no trips to GameStop, no scratched media.
The losers are more visible: physical collectors, rural gamers with slow connections, and anyone who values game preservation. When a digital store shuts down, those games vanish. The ASUS ROG Ally and other handheld PCs already live in a fully digital ecosystem, and while that works for many, it leaves no fallback if servers go dark. Guillemot's confidence assumes infrastructure that not every player has.
The Broader Digital Rush
Ubisoft is far from alone. Microsoft has positioned Game Pass as its future, with Xbox Series S being digital-only by default. Sony's PlayStation Portal is a streaming device. Even Nintendo, long the holdout for physical cartridges, has seen digital sales climb to over 50% of its software revenue. The industry is converging on a single model: you don't own the game, you license access to it.
This shift also enables new monetization layers. AI-driven recommendation engines push higher-margin DLC and microtransactions directly to your console. Dynamic pricing, limited-time sales, and subscription fatigue are all easier to implement when every player is always online. For a publisher like Ubisoft, that's the real prize — not just eliminating discs, but controlling the entire purchasing experience.
A Legitimate Skepticism
But Guillemot's rosy outlook glosses over real problems. Digital-only consoles create a single point of failure: if your account is banned or your console dies without cloud save backup, your library is gone. Physical discs, for all their inconvenience, are independent of server status. The European Union has pushed for right-to-repair and digital preservation laws, but no global standard exists.
There's also the question of consumer trust. Ubisoft has a history of controversial DRM, including always-online requirements for single-player games. If the company is comfortable with a disc-less future, it's partly because it wants to enforce stricter license controls. Players who remember the Assassin's Creed 2 server shutdown fiasco might not share that comfort.
What Comes Next
Don't expect discs to disappear overnight. Sony and Microsoft will likely keep a disc-drive option for at least one more console generation, if only to avoid alienating the physical holdouts. But the trajectory is clear: every new console revision has fewer physical features. The PS5 Pro is rumored to have a detachable disc drive as an optional add-on, and the next Xbox may skip it entirely.
For PC gamers, the fight is already over. Steam, Epic, and GOG own the ecosystem, and physical PC games are a collector's curiosity. Guillemot's comments simply acknowledge what PC players have known for years: digital-only works, but it works best for the people selling the games, not necessarily the people buying them. The question isn't whether consoles will go disc-less — it's whether players will accept the trade-offs when they do.
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