Serenity Forge Bets Bigger on Physical Games as Sony Kills PS Discs

Sony confirmed on July 1 that new PlayStation games will stop shipping on physical discs after January 2028. Within the week, at Anime Expo 2026, indie publisher Serenity Forge told Gamers Heroes its physical games business had never been busier.

Founder and chief executive Zhenghua Yang, who goes by Z, said the company’s physical release of Doki Doki Literature Club! moved 200,000 units on its first day and became the best selling physical game on Amazon. That claim comes from Yang himself, and outside retail trackers have not independently verified the figure. Fresh sales data released this month shows why it stands out at all.

The Bet Nobody Else Was Making

Serenity Forge did not start as a physical publisher. Yang told Gamers Heroes that when the company began pushing games into mass retail, big chains were already backing away from the format.

“Physical is dying,” Yang said, recounting the mood among retailers and publishers at the time. Shelf space still existed, he said, but the content filling it was not connecting with buyers. He joked that typical retail filler like “your Pro Bass Fishing 2 or whatever” was not resonating with the people actually walking into stores.

Serenity Forge brought Doki Doki Literature Club! into that gap instead. Once the numbers came in, Yang said retailers changed their tone fast. “Whoa, Doki Doki was the best selling physical game on Amazon!” he recalled them saying, before asking what else the small publisher had in its catalog.

Sony Just Confirmed the Bear Case

Sony Interactive Entertainment, the PlayStation maker, made the physical skeptics’ argument for them. In a post on its official blog, the company said physical disc production ending in January 2028 applies to every new PlayStation release, first party and third party alike. Sid Shuman, the company’s senior director of content communications, called it “a natural direction” given that digital access now “significantly outpaces physical discs.”

Circana’s retail tracking data, shared by the firm’s director of game research Mat Piscatella, backs that up in blunt terms. Only two PlayStation games sold more than 10,000 physical units in the US during the week ending July 11, 2026. Just seven titles have crossed 100,000 physical units on PlayStation all year.

Sony’s own fiscal filings tell a similar story. Digital made up 78% of software purchases for the fiscal year, up from 76% the year before, and hit 85% for the quarter ending March 31, up from 80% a year earlier. EA reported $528 million in digital full game downloads against just $81 million in packaged goods for its latest period. Nintendo, meanwhile, said its digital game sales climbed 25% year over year.

Physical is not extinct. Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad has noted that almost 70 million disc based PlayStation games still sold in 2025. But that number is falling fast, and Sony just told the industry where the floor is heading.

• What we know: Sony has confirmed a January 2028 cutoff for new PlayStation discs, and Circana’s tracked data shows only seven PlayStation titles topped 100,000 physical units through mid July 2026.
• What’s unconfirmed: Serenity Forge’s specific claim that Doki Doki Literature Club! sold 200,000 physical units in a single day, a figure that comes from the company itself and has not appeared in independent retail tracking data.

The gap between those two data sets is the whole story. One side is measured by an outside firm. The other lives in a founder’s retelling at a fan convention.

Which Consoles Still Sell the Most Physical Games?

Nintendo carries the heaviest physical weight in Serenity Forge’s own catalog, Yang said, followed by PlayStation, with Xbox as a smaller but devoted slice. That lines up with the platform holders’ public positions: Sony has now set an exit date for discs, while Microsoft and Nintendo have made no equivalent announcement.

Yang said Xbox’s smaller physical audience is still one of his favorite parts of the job. “You’re really engaging with some of the most excited people,” he said of the platform’s collector base.

A Roster Built From Phone Calls to Friends

Once retailers wanted more from Serenity Forge, Yang said he did not have a second title ready. So he called people he already knew in the industry.

That contact list became the publisher’s retail slate, distributed with the help of longtime partners Fellow Traveller and Chorus Worldwide. The lineup now includes:

• Doki Doki Literature Club!, the title Yang credits with proving mass retail could work for narrative indie games.
• Coffee Talk, one of the first titles Yang says he brought into the retail push after DDLC’s breakout.
• A Space for the Unbound, another narrative title added to the same distribution network.
• Paradise Killer, rounding out the catalog Yang describes as chosen from games he personally loves.

Yang framed the whole approach as personal rather than corporate. “This is a really valuable opportunity for us to spread meaningful games,” he said, describing the pitch he made to friends before any contracts existed.

Cosplay for a Game That Is Not Out Yet

Anime Expo 2026 was the first time Serenity Forge had an official presence at the convention, and Yang called it “phenomenal.” The publisher ran panels with Yara, the creator of Needy Girl Overdose, and with Dan Salvato, the original creator of Doki Doki Literature Club.

One moment stuck with Yang more than the packed panels. A cosplayer showed up dressed as a character from Fractured Blooms, a Serenity Forge title that has not been released. “The game is not even out yet,” Yang said, still visibly surprised by it during the interview.

Everyone Gets to Be Their Own News Anchor Now

Asked about content creators, Yang traced a longer arc than most publishers bother with. He described how television once set the terms for how information spread, shaped as much by technology limits as by cultural ones. Cheaper tools changed that.

“Anyone can go out there and do their own videos,” Yang said, framing that shift as a redistribution of power away from centralized media. He was careful to separate that from writing off the press. Serenity Forge, he said, still values its relationships with journalists and gives them direct access, alongside a growing creator apparatus built for streamers and YouTubers.

The company’s YouTube activity supports that split approach: Serenity Forge announcing panels with Yara and Dan Salvato ahead of the show drew a crowd large enough to fill the room on day one of Anime Expo.

Bullets, Then Cannonballs

Yang traced his retail philosophy back to college, when he read The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. One idea from the book stuck: fire small shots before committing big resources.

You have to first shoot the bullets, and then see what hits.

Yang, Serenity Forge’s founder and chief executive, explained the metaphor as a naval battle fought in fog. Limited gunpowder means testing before committing. Once something lands, that is when a company loads the bigger shot, he said.

Applied to Serenity Forge’s retail business, the pattern tracks. One indie visual novel tested mass retail shelves first. Only after it landed did Walmart, Target, Best Buy and GameStop become a standing distribution network for a slate of games most large publishers would never risk printing to disc.

That is the bet Serenity Forge keeps making even as the shelf it depends on keeps shrinking. Yang’s own Anime Expo send off, posted the day the show wrapped, was already pointed at the next stops: COREBLAZER and ChinaJoy. The plastic keeps getting rarer. Serenity Forge is still ordering more of it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will Existing PS5 Discs Stop Working After 2028?

No. Sony’s policy only affects new game production after January 2028. Games already released, or releasing before that date in disc format, remain unaffected and playable as normal.

Is Microsoft Planning to Drop Physical Xbox Games Too?

Not according to any public announcement. Reporting on Sony’s decision has repeatedly noted that Microsoft and Nintendo have made no equivalent commitment to end physical game releases on their platforms.

Will the Next PlayStation Console Even Have a Disc Drive?

It is uncertain. Industry analysts have speculated that Sony’s move pushes back the timeline for its next console and raises the odds that a base model ships without a physical media drive at all, mirroring the cost-driven design choices already seen on recent hardware.

What Is Sister Other Paranoia?

It is Yara’s follow up to Needy Girl Overdose, and Serenity Forge revealed a playable demo of it during Anime Expo 2026. The reveal came alongside a joint panel appearance with Doki Doki Literature Club creator Dan Salvato that drew a packed room on the convention’s first day.