The gamble is whether people jump ship, and given that the next Xbox won’t have a disc drive, it’s probably a safe bet for Sony overall.

Ceasing disc production eliminates the substantial second-hand market, and resultantly also massively reduces the pressure to reduce prices on older games to compete with that market, especially for AAA titles.

The loss of customers will probably be negligible compared to the amount of money they’ll rake in. It’s totally contemptuous in terms of the consumer, but it makes sense for them economically – and they would have done it years ago if they thought they could get away with it.