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While it seems likely that the next-generation of video game consoles will eschew physical discs entirely judging by PlayStation's recent announcement about physical media, other industries are watching the pendulum swing the other way. A new report suggests that physical music CDs are surging in popularity, thanks in part to a new generation of fans.

"In a much-discussed physical-media pivot, CD sales surged 16% to 16.3 million units in the first half of 2026, vastly outpacing vinyl's modest 2.4% growth," according to a new report from Luminate. "Driven by collection building, price accessibility, massive albums such as BTS’ ARIRANG and a strong K-pop release schedule, this revival belies an unexpected development: Approximately half of Gen Z and Millennial CD buyers do not actually own a CD player."

These stats specifically reflect the US market, so take them as you will for the broader industry, but it does all suggest people are once again seeing the value in physical media – particularly as we all grow increasingly understanding of the limitations of digital ownership.

The surge in CD sales is driven by some major K-pop releases, but with that genre stripped out the growth would still be a notable 6.7%. Luminate suggests that these stats indicate "that the CD has been recontextualized from a functional audio format into an affordable collectible. This behavior underscores that for younger generations, the act of buying physical music is as much about aesthetic ownership and direct financial support for the artist as it is listening to the music on the product itself."

Admittedly, the music market and the game industry are very different. While buying a CD is a way of more directly supporting your favorite artist than simply streaming their music, most digital game sales generate just as much revenue as their physical counterparts – and that revenue isn't being cut down with retail overhead.

But the other benefits of physical media, like its collectable nature, the connection of holding an actual object, and the fact that it can't be taken away from you on a publisher's whim, all hold true across both industries. The vast majority of modern game sales are digital, but the physical games market actually had some minor growth recently. Whether that growth would be enough to turn the tide back towards physical media is a question it'd probably take years to answer, but Sony certainly isn't waiting around to find out.

Sony killing physical PlayStation games is "the latest attack on our diminishing rights," leading digital rights group says: "The end goal is to turn the customer into a renter."

Bethesda unceremoniously dropped a cache of news about its upcoming games today as the wait for The Elder Scrolls 6 drags ever closer to 10 years. In a lengthy Twitter post, we learned that Fallout 5 is in pre-production, Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas remasters are in the works, and buried in the middle of the reveal blitz is the next Fallout 76 expansion, titled Raven Rock.

"Fallout 76 continues to be home to millions of players exploring Appalachia together," reads Bethesda's announcement. "With nearly 70 free updates released to date, the journey is far from over.

"In fact, we have a major Fallout 76 expansion planned for next year: Raven Rock, a prequel story to Fallout 3."

Unironically, this is one of the most exciting new Bethesda announcements in a long while. The Fallout 76 team has proven itself capable of telling compelling stories at the scale of mainline Fallout games with substantial narrative expansions like Steel Dawn and Steel Reign, which together tell one of my favorite interpretations of the Brotherhood of any game in the series. I'm thrilled about the potential to see the same development team explore that faction even further in a Fallout 3 prequel story.

We also have a writeup on everything that was announced about the future of Fallout as well as The Elder Scrolls, which is all relatively exciting if you can get past the stink of Xbox's recent layoff bloodbath, which definitely impacted Bethesda proper as well as many other Xbox studios. For what it's worth, the labor union representing Bethesda Game Studios employees in the US and Canada suggested in the wake of the company's announcements that it was simply a distraction from the bad news, and that fans would do well not to "fall for it."

Bethesda says The Elder Scrolls 6 is going great, actually: "We're where we planned to be, loving how it looks, and playing it every day"

Two months after the release of Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, the followup to its stunning detective RPG Disco Elysium, Studio ZA/UM says the game hasn't sold as well as needed, and as a result it's laying off employees.

"While Zero Parades: For Dead Spies was released to critical acclaim, its commercial performance has not enabled us to sustain a studio of our current size," ZA/UM wrote in a message shared on social media. "We have served redundancy or at-risk notices impacting up to 32 of our colleagues across all departments at ZA/UM Studio. Their work has made a lasting difference and left its mark on Zero Parades: For Dead Spies, and the studio has a whole."

Zero Parades is not as universally beloved as Disco Elysium: Some reviewers found it outstanding, but others, including our own, felt it didn't quite come together. "No matter how fun or well-designed individual aspects of the game are, they all swirl around Hershel's fundamentally nonsensical approach to international espionage," Maddi Chilton wrote in her 66% review.

"Unfortunately, it seems like a consequence of transplanting Disco Elysium's structure directly onto Zero Parades without considering how it actually plays. It's jarring to have little sister spy walking around rambling and blustering in exactly the same way as big brother cop."

Some on social media have also pointed out Studio ZA/UM's unfortunate history of layoffs and firings, which meant that most of the key figures behind Disco Elysium were gone by the time Zero Parades launched. Some of those splits have been bitterly acrimonious, and that made things tougher for Zero Parades: As our Studio ZA/UM expert Ted Litchfield said in 2025 ahead of the game's full reveal, "it will have to be spectacular to win back a hostile fanbase."

He wasn't wrong. Some of the reactions to the layoff announcement on social media are less sympathetic than you might expect, although the vitriol is clearly directed at the studio's leadership, which managed to shatter the team behind one of the most groundbreaking RPGs of all time after releasing just one game. Some also shared speculation similar to Ted's: that Zero Parades' failure to sell better was at least partially the result of that fallout.

Imagine deciding to stick with ZA/UM because you genuinely believe in the team and it's artistic vision only to be among 32 people rewarded with layoffs after managing to make a game that stands on its own feet despite looming shadow of Disco Elysium Every dev from Zero Parades deserves better

— @bestyoutuber69.bsky.social (@bestyoutuber69.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-07-17T21:56:25.707Z

zero parades likely failed to perform to their desired financial standards because the key audience that would've given it a chance were disco elysium fans - an audience already primed to hate za/um and too principled to give them money for a game that is built on what was stolen from disco elysium

— @gnarlyanimal.bsky.social (@gnarlyanimal.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2026-07-17T21:56:25.600Z

The way Zero Parades exists culturally not as a video game but as a signifier of specific industry practices and drama and is engaged with exclusively through that lens is incredibly disheartening to me.

— @errant-signal.com (@errant-signal.com.bsky.social) 2026-07-17T21:56:25.787Z