Support NeoGAF

[Hyper_hyper]

oh, I'm sure 4 years later that completely turned in the other direction... which is also why the disc drive was sold out everywhere when the Pro released.

4 years old data. You are out of date. But anyway, worth noting, yeah, it has changed

Sony Group Corporation - FY22 (April 2022 - March 2023) Financial Results:

• Digital accounted for 70% of Full Games Sales in Q4 FY22, flat YoY (71%) and up from 62% QoQ.

Here's a breakdown of the PS4/PS5 Full Games Sales Physical/Digital Split.

9.5m First-Party Games sold:

• Significant 34.4% YoY decrease: Down from 14.5m in Q4 FY21. (Horizon Forbidden West and Gran Turismo 7 launch Quarter)
• Significant 54.3% QoQ (!!!) decrease: Up from 20.8m in Q3 FY22. (God of War Ragnarok launch Quarter)
• First-Party Games account for 13.97% of the Total Full Games sold in Q4 FY22.

VERSUS

Sony FY 2025

Last quarter digital ratio is 85% and will only grow. Using a first party games sales as a PRIME example for some favorizing disc media narrative won't cut it. At all. Sony games are few, very few. Vast majority of game sales on consoles are 3rd party games, even AAA category.

 

[HeisenbergFX4]

My internet is pretty bad but even downloading full games has been manageable. Just leave it overnight or something. A day or two seems unrealistically slow.

The problem being their mom (my wife's sister) works from home so she uses some of their limited bandwidth and they have 4 kids in total so their terrible bandwidth is super strained

And they have a super nice million dollar+ home its just quite rural so its simply not worth companies running lines all over our counties that's mainly farmland

 

[yurinka]

85% of PlayStation game sales are digital.
Apparently.

That figure is being widely quoted as a simple one-liner rationale for the end of PlayStation disc production. It would be easy to accept it uncritically as just common sense, a fait accompli. Why support physical if gamers don't want it?
...but is that what it means?

The figure came from a Sony financial report, where for one single quarter, specifically FY25Q4, the ratio of digital to physical full game sales was 85%. It was a new high. The average over the two year period in that report is 77%, but what the figure really represents is worth considering.

You could be forgiven for misinterpreting the 85% as meaning for every 100 copies of GoW Ragnarok, AstroBot or GT7 sold that quarter only 15 were purchased on disc. Or you might assume it meant Sony made 85% of their software sales revenue from digital games. None of that is true.

The truth is that the vast majority of PS5 games are digital only. Less than 2000 PS5 games have been pressed on disc. How many PS5 games are for sale (not F2P) on the PSN Store? About 7,500.

That's where this percentage figure is misleading. It counts every sale as equal. If you bought Death Stranding 2 on disc and somebody else bought Anime Fantasy Uni 3 for $0.99, the percentage figure considers these as wholly equivalent.

To put it another way, let's say I spend $100 on games this month. I buy one physical AAA game for $69.99 and spend the rest on six little $5 digital only games. What percentage of my game purchases were digital? More than 85%.

The 85% figure does not truly represent 'consumer preference' and cannot in good faith be used to justify the end of PlayStation physical game distribution.

Don't be fooled. The push to a digital only market has nothing to do with what gamers want. It's only about maximizing profit through market control.

The percentage isn't misleading, if you don't read it properly, don't understand or don't want to understand it is your issue, not theirs.

They say it clearly, out of the full game UNITS (not revenue) sold (so not free dowloads like F2P, full game trials, demo or PS+ games) in Q4 for PS4/PS5 85% are digital and 15% are physical. It clearly shows that the player preference when buying full games on PS kept moving from physical to digital to the point that physical was only 15% that quarter.

It obviously counts all the PS games that can be / are bought. Obviously doesn't skip those that you don't personally like.

They also report separatedly the revenue they make with (1st+3rd party combined) selling games for PS physically, or digitally, or the revenue they get from addons (MTX+DLC+passes+digital deluxe upgrades), or with subs. So you can also see that only around 1.7% of the total revenue made by SIE this Q4 (also including hardware, accesories, subs, addons etc) was from physical games.

oh, I'm sure 4 years later that completely turned in the other direction... which is also why the disc drive was sold out everywhere when the Pro released.

That data was from FY21Q4 and included data from older years, where the percentage of physical sales was higher.

In any case, that FY21Q4 29% of the PS game units sold were physical. Now 4 years later, this FY25Q4 15% of the game units sold were physical. That decline isn't something new or recent, in case of PS and Xbox it started in the PS3 generation (in PC it started before).

Even in that leaked doc shows the decline, it shows a recap of the first party releases in FY21, FY20 and before FY20 and shows that the percentage that came from physical in both units and revenue was:
games released before FY20 > games released in FY20 > games released in FY21

In FY22 they acquired Bungie, and later they had the record release of Helldivers 2 and released many games more in PC. So make sure that for first party their percentage of units and revenue from physical kept declining since then.

 

[Bojji]

There are rural areas of my hometown in Southern Indiana that their only access is over the air broadband or a satellite type of internet

My nephews for one, who all game, their home is not is some remote part of the world and it literally can take them a day or two just to download an update to a game

No way they could even go all digital if they wanted until some company wants to run miles of line for a few potential customers

I have 1Gb/s fiber connection for like ~10 years at this point, but there are millions of people in the situations that you described.

My friend living few KM from me has to use some shitty internet because his neighborhood still isn't connected to fiber network. Many people also have data caps, good luck with 200GB+ next gen games.

 

[Rocco Schiavone]

Proof or trust me bro?

https://www.reddit.com/r/PhysicalMediaMatters/s/tz5mrzoW4V

 

[consoul]

The percentage isn't misleading, if you don't read it properly, don't understand or don't want to understand it is your issue, not theirs.

They say it clearly, out of the full game UNITS (not revenue) sold (so not free dowloads like F2P, full game trials, demo or PS+ games) in Q4 for PS4/PS5 85% are digital and 15% are physical. It clearly shows that the player preference when buying full games on PS kept moving from physical to digital to the point that physical was only 15% that quarter.

I understand what it is. It's the split of sales.
It's not player preference. That's the topic.

When the percentage of physical sales is 1% in 2029, that won't 'clearly show player preference', it will simply show the split of sales. Behaviour and preference are not the same. I'd prefer to have bought Romeo is a Dead Man physically, but it was only available digitally. Everyone who bought it digitally wasn't expressing a preference for digital.

Sony (and your post) would have us believe the figure represents consumer preference. It doesn't.

 

[bishopcruz]

The split is a lie and also:

The revenue split is an even bigger lie.
In fact I don't even believe their record profits at all.
Same hardware sales with smaller margin, less first party sales with 3+ times the cost, billions lost in gaas shit... The subscriptions alone brought the record profits??? Then they should sell cheap consoles and go for the throat.

Physical is still too big for their preference and that's the only reason they kill it not the other way around.


Speak with your wallet and send them to the grave along with Microcrap.

The split isn't a lie, they flat out tell you how it works in the footnotes. It's also not the win people think it is. Let's say that physical really is closer to 50% of sales, then the sales revenue split would be even worse per copy sold. Instead of making about double physical on each digital sale, they'd be looking at like 5x profit difference.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Stats like this are misleading because digital sales involve games where there arent even discs to begin with.

It's like a store selling orange juice in both cartons and frozen.

It only sells orange juice for decades in cartons, so sales are 100% cartons. Then it sells both and it's 50/50 at some point. Then the company has a strategic decision to influence gamers to buy it frozen if possible and any suppliers making OJ often make it frozen concentrate only too because it's more cost efficient.

So at some point sales skew closer and closer to frozen. And now the store says in 2028 it's frozen only going forward. Of course sales will skew to frozen.

And then in 2028 the store says all new stock of OJ sales are frozen format. Were doing that because customer sales show it's now 100%. Of course it is. lol

 

[bishopcruz]

https://www.reddit.com/r/PhysicalMediaMatters/s/tz5mrzoW4V

That post is hot garbage. Still no actual link to those specific insomniac numbers, the ones we have are FY2021, more than willing to be proven wrong, because I literally cannot find the primary source on those supposed insomniac numbers anywhere.

I understand what it is. It's the split of sales.
It's not player preference. That's the topic.

When the percentage of physical sales is 1% in 2029, that won't 'clearly show player preference', it will simply show the split of sales. Behaviour and preference are not the same. I'd prefer to have bought Romeo is a Dead Man physically, but it was only available digitally. Everyone who bought it digitally wasn't expressing a preference for digital.

Sony (and your post) would have us believe the figure represents consumer preference. It doesn't.

Consumer preference is a metric; it doesn't mean YOUR personal preference; it's an aggregate based on the data. Most of the best-selling games each year are available both physically and digitally on PS5; there might be rare exceptions, but last year every one of them also had a physical release:

On average, these games account for about 40-50% of all sales of PS5 software, and if there were a large percentage of physical, it would show in the numbers.

 

[bishopcruz]

Stats like this are misleading because digital sales involve games where there arent even discs to begin with.

It's like a store selling orange juice in both cartons and frozen.

It only sells orange juice for decades in cartons, so sales are 100% cartons. Then it sells both and it's 50/50 at some point. Then the company has a strategic decision to influence gamers to buy it frozen if possible and any suppliers making OJ often make it frozen concentrate only too because it's more cost efficient.

So at some point sales skew closer and closer to frozen. And now the store says in 2028 it's frozen only going forward. Of course sales will skew to frozen.

And then in 2028 the store says all new stock of OJ sales are frozen format. Were doing that because customer sales show it's now 100%. Of course it is. lol

That's not how it works. Aggregate sales of physical games are at their lowest in 30 years. Not just Sony, everywhere. And those digital-only games aren't enough of a market mover to account for that drop.

 

[polybius80]

Thanks.

Sony can also make add on money even from users that buy used games, but it looks like they don't give a shit.

who knows maybe the PS5 disc drive can be attached to PS6

I think Sony forgets that people having physical collections are their most hardcore consumers that would buy PS6 day one for 1200$, normal people won't do it.

the thing is we are not highlander we are less and less, I started playing atari 2600 so I have collected physical games since I was a kid and value the medium because I traded games, but most of players now are kids that started playing android games, they buy micro transaction stuff and think I am referring to a toyota SUV

 

[German Shocks]

No one's buying physical media these days.

You can look at all of the major retailers:

Best Buy, Target, Wal Mart, Circuit City, Toys R Us...

Shelf space for vidya has been rapidly decreasing for the past two decades.

Gamers no longer care.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

That's not how it works. Aggregate sales of physical games are at their lowest in 30 years. Not just Sony, everywhere. And those digital-only games aren't enough of a market mover to account for that drop.

No one's buying physical media these days.

You can look at all of the major retailers:

Best Buy, Target, Circuit City, Toys R Us...

Shelf space for vidya has been rapidly decreasing for the past two decades.

Gamers no longer care.

That can be true for both of what you say.

But there's a key issue, and it goes beyond disc gamers and collectors in 2028.

If next gen systems are BC (which they surely are), how does someone on Helix or PS6 play any discs they do have if the new systems dont have optical drives or external drives aside from keep your old console?

At least for PC gamers, any new PC or laptop with no drive (mine included), I can always hook up an external DVD drive. I can buy one right now from Best Buy for $30. So even if the hardware maker doesnt care there's always companies making gadgets for PC users. Consoles peripherals are hit and miss. They might be available, they might not be.

 

[bishopcruz]

That can be true for both of what you say.

But there's a key issue, and it goes beyond disc gamers and collectors in 2028.

If next gen systems are BC (which they surely are), how does someone on Helix or PS6 play any discs they do have if the new systems dont have optical drives or external drives?

At least for PC gamers, any new PC or laptop with no drive (mine included), I can always hook up an external DVD drive. I can buy one right now from Best Buy for $30. So even if the hardware maker doesnt care there's always companies making gadgets for PC users. Consoles peripherals are hit and miss. They might be available, they might not be.

The same way a Series S or PS4 digital player does. They don't. Xbox is at least planning some sort of digital transfer, which is ironically based on their original XBONE plans. That and BC isn't as big a draw for the average consumer as we often wish it was. I love my XSX BC, and play 20-year-old discs on the fucker. The average gamer doesn't do that. Or much care that they can't. Sony has even less to worry about, since their BC will likely still ignore PS3 and earlier consoles.

 

[SportsFan581]

BC of the previous generation is extremely important to most players, LOL. That's what made the 8th-gen consoles so sticky.

 

[bender]

Stats like this are misleading because digital sales involve games where there arent even discs to begin with.

It's like a store selling orange juice in both cartons and frozen.

It only sells orange juice for decades in cartons, so sales are 100% cartons. Then it sells both and it's 50/50 at some point. Then the company has a strategic decision to influence gamers to buy it frozen if possible and any suppliers making OJ often make it frozen concentrate only too because it's more cost efficient.

So at some point sales skew closer and closer to frozen. And now the store says in 2028 it's frozen only going forward. Of course sales will skew to frozen.

And then in 2028 the store says all new stock of OJ sales are frozen format. Were doing that because customer sales show it's now 100%. Of course it is. lol

More than just gamers buy orange juice though.

 

[German Shocks]

If next gen systems are BC (which they surely are), how does someone on Helix or PS6 play any discs they do have if the new systems dont have optical drives or external drives aside from keep your old console?

I'm sure there's a way. Maybe online check for the disc on a PS5 or XS and allow the user to download the digital equivalent on the new hardware?

Lol, who am I fooling. Sony or MS would never do that.

 

[Effigenius]

That post is hot garbage. Still no actual link to those specific insomniac numbers, the ones we have are FY2021, more than willing to be proven wrong, because I literally cannot find the primary source on those supposed insomniac numbers anywhere.




Consumer preference is a metric; it doesn't mean YOUR personal preference; it's an aggregate based on the data. Most of the best-selling games each year are available both physically and digitally on PS5; there might be rare exceptions, but last year every one of them also had a physical release:

On average, these games account for about 40-50% of all sales of PS5 software, and if there were a large percentage of physical, it would show in the numbers.

Except we don't see the numbers. They lump it all in and give the figure that send the message that just so happens to be the one they want to send. Like, I'm sure it's not 50-50, but it's not 85 either, and it doesn't count used which would make that number drop significantly.

 

[Rocco Schiavone]

No one's buying physical media these days.

You can look at all of the major retailers:

Best Buy, Target, Wal Mart, Circuit City, Toys R Us...

Shelf space for vidya has been rapidly decreasing for the past two decades.

Gamers no longer care.

Physical games are bought online genius.

Do you seriously think people are wasting their time driving to a store and having to find a parking spot, instead of just making a few clicks and getting the game delivered to their home for free?

I tell your something 99% off the physical media that I bought was online. Games ,CD's 4k Uhd's. Bands/artists even release their newest albums on cassette because their is a market for.

Nobody buys physical these days is complete bullshit.

 

[German Shocks]

Physical games are bought online genius.

Do you seriously think people are wasting their time driving to a store and having to find a parking spot, instead of just making a few clicks and getting the game delivered to their home for free?

I tell your something 99% off the physical media that I bought was online. Games ,CD's 4k Uhd's. Bands/artists even release their newest albums on cassette because their is a market for.

Nobody buys physical these days is complete bullshit.

That's stupid.
Why wait 2-3 days shipping when you can drive 5 minutes.

Face it , no one buys physical anymore.

Just like CDs , vinyl , and vhs, it's completely dead.

 

[Topher]

No one's buying physical media these days.

You can look at all of the major retailers:

Best Buy, Target, Wal Mart, Circuit City, Toys R Us...

Shelf space for vidya has been rapidly decreasing for the past two decades.

Gamers no longer care.

Then why haven't publishers stopped printing discs? They don't have to. They can just sell digitally, but they don't. You are saying these publishers are printing all these discs for nothing?

Come on man

 

[German Shocks]

Then why haven't publishers stopped printing discs? They don't have to. They can just sell digitally, but they don't. You are saying these publishers are printing all these discs for nothing?

Come on man

It's happening as we speak.
Disc pressing facilities are shutting down daily.

 

[Topher]

It's happening as we speak.
Disc pressing facilities are shutting down daily.

Oh yeah? Which ones closed today?

 

[German Shocks]

Oh yeah? Which ones closed today?

The one on ShutYourMouth Avenue

 

[Rocco Schiavone]

Just like CDs , vinyl , and vhs, it's completely dead.

Vinyl Sales Surpassed $1 Billion In 2025: Report

Vinyl sales grew nearly 10% in 2025 to reach $1 billion in sales for the first time this century, according to a new industry report.

www.forbes.com

Stfu you obviously don't know what you are talking about.

 

[German Shocks]

Vinyl Sales Surpassed $1 Billion In 2025: Report

Vinyl sales grew nearly 10% in 2025 to reach $1 billion in sales for the first time this century, according to a new industry report.

www.forbes.com

Stfu you obviously don't know what you are talking about.

That article was generated by A.I.
Fake news.

 

[Topher]

The one on ShutYourMouth Avenue

Is that in KissMyAssVille?

 

[dcx4610]

It represents Sony and their investors interest. Their stock rose 6% after the announcement. It doesn't benefit the consumer in ANY way. The prices aren't going down, they are taking options away from, and locking you to one ecosystem. Even if you don't buy physical media, you should be upset. It's beyond anti-consumer, and one of the most disgusting things I've ever see a company do in video game history.

 

[consoul]

Consumer preference is a metric; it doesn't mean YOUR personal preference; it's an aggregate based on the data. Most of the best-selling games each year are available both physically and digitally on PS5; there might be rare exceptions, but last year every one of them also had a physical release:

Consumer preference could be a metric if Sony surveyed a statistically significant number of users on their preferences.

The metric you're talking about is just the digital/physical sales split metric. It is not consumer preference. If a game is sold out physically, a consumer might buy it digitally even though that wasn't their preference. Calling this metric something like 'buying habits' would be closer to the truth. Presenting it as consumer preference is spin, plain and simple.

 

[nick776]

85% of PlayStation game sales are digital.
Apparently.

That figure is being widely quoted as a simple one-liner rationale for the end of PlayStation disc production. It would be easy to accept it uncritically as just common sense, a fait accompli. Why support physical if gamers don't want it?
...but is that what it means?

The figure came from a Sony financial report, where for one single quarter, specifically FY25Q4, the ratio of digital to physical full game sales was 85%. It was a new high. The average over the two year period in that report is 77%, but what the figure really represents is worth considering.

You could be forgiven for misinterpreting the 85% as meaning for every 100 copies of GoW Ragnarok, AstroBot or GT7 sold that quarter only 15 were purchased on disc. Or you might assume it meant Sony made 85% of their software sales revenue from digital games. None of that is true.

The truth is that the vast majority of PS5 games are digital only. Less than 2000 PS5 games have been pressed on disc. How many PS5 games are for sale (not F2P) on the PSN Store? About 7,500.

That's where this percentage figure is misleading. It counts every sale as equal. If you bought Death Stranding 2 on disc and somebody else bought Anime Fantasy Uni 3 for $0.99, the percentage figure considers these as wholly equivalent.

To put it another way, let's say I spend $100 on games this month. I buy one physical AAA game for $69.99 and spend the rest on six little $5 digital only games. What percentage of my game purchases were digital? More than 85%.

The 85% figure does not truly represent 'consumer preference' and cannot in good faith be used to justify the end of PlayStation physical game distribution.

Don't be fooled. The push to a digital only market has nothing to do with what gamers want. It's only about maximizing profit through market control.

I have not bought a physical game since Xbox started digital distribution back during the 360 days. I have never bought a PS5 game physical, never even had a disk drive for my PS5. During all the time I owned a Series X, never bought a physical game there either--ditto for Switch 1 and 2. I think it is a minority of people who buy physical and is likely the same crowd who tends to "trade" their games to Gamestop to get new ones when they beat the ones they have.

 

[TheLikou]

I don't know how credible Alinea is but they claim Ghost of Yotei is 77% digital, 23% physical

Alinea is not credible at all.

 

[German Shocks]

I have not bought a physical game since Xbox started digital distribution back during the 360 days. I have never bought a PS5 game physical, never even had a disk drive for my PS5. During all the time I owned a Series X, never bought a physical game there either--ditto for Switch 1 and 2.

This reflects the behavior of 90% of gamers out there.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Alinea is not credible at all.

Funny thing is it's actually a 100% forecast error.

 

[bishopcruz]

Consumer preference could be a metric if Sony surveyed a statistically significant number of users on their preferences.

The metric you're talking about is just the digital/physical sales split metric. It is not consumer preference. If a game is sold out physically, a consumer might buy it digitally even though that wasn't their preference. Calling this metric something like 'buying habits' would be closer to the truth. Presenting it as consumer preference is spin, plain and simple.

They aren't doing a random poll of potential customers. They don't fucking need to. They have the sales data themselves. Every purchase a consumer makes is a data point. People lie in polls; they tend not to lie with their wallets. Gamers en masse prefer digital games for whatever reason: convenience, availability, or a deadly fear of fucking optical media. It doesn't matter; they are buying more digitally. You can accept that, or not; that's on you.

But hey, let's say you're right and consumers do, in theory, prefer physical over digital. They clearly don't prefer it enough not to buy digital when it is available or when a physical version doesn't exist, or is sold out, whatever. That is recorded behavior with hundreds of millions of data points over years.

If consoles were open platforms, you could probably still get physical releases for the niche market that wants them, but consoles aren't. That means it is on the platform holder, and them alone, to decide whether to keep physical going. For Sony, the revenue clearly isn't there to include it on their next-gen systems.

 

[bishopcruz]

Except we don't see the numbers. They lump it all in and give the figure that send the message that just so happens to be the one they want to send. Like, I'm sure it's not 50-50, but it's not 85 either, and it doesn't count used which would make that number drop significantly.

Used is also a shrinking market, and before you jump on that statement, know I am NOT talking about Retro, which is growing as prices fly through the fucking ceiling. There is a reason GameStop barely sells games anymore.

And why would Sony count used sales? It is generally considered in their best interests, even by those who hate them, to minimize or eliminate those sales.

 

[OGM_Madness]

I've always advocated for digital releases, simply because there's a convenience that physical media simply doesn't have. I've had to move houses a few times and moving my discs games is always an issue. Also, having brothers when young and now kids, there's a risk involved too in conserving your collection.

Unfortunately Sony has proven they have little to no concern of preservation and customer service. Their policies suck. At this point in time, they need to show how they are embracing the all-digital future to convince us this is the best path.

Currently, I'm not amazed and regret building a digital library on my PS4/PS5. Until Sony can demonstrate that I can play my PS4 games in a PS7 and how i can easily refund games I bought by mistake or simply regret buying something that went on sale a week later, just anything to show us that they have a plan that makes physical obsolete. Currently it's just for them to make their pockets fat and have all the control.

 

[bishopcruz]

I've always advocated for digital releases, simply because there's a convenience that physical media simply doesn't have. I've had to move houses a few times and moving my discs games is always an issue. Also, having brothers when young and now kids, there's a risk involved too in conserving your collection.

Unfortunately Sony has proven they have little to no concern of preservation and customer service. Their policies suck. At this point in time, they need to show how they are embracing the all-digital future to convince us this is the best path.

Currently, I'm not amazed and regret building a digital library on my PS4/PS5. Until Sony can demonstrate that I can play my PS4 games in a PS7 and how i can easily refund games I bought by mistake or simply regret buying something that went on sale a week later, just anything to show us that they have a plan that makes physical obsolete. Currently it's just for them to make their pockets fat and have all the control.

And all of those are fair complaints. Sony has horrible business practices when it comes to things like this.

 

[cripterion]

Ask 10 year olds about CD/DVD/Bluray .
With a generation hooked on Fortnite, Roblox or phone games it's pretty natural for physical to be retired whether you like it or not.

And agreed about Sony having poor customer service. Simply looking at their refund policy, that's when govermnent policies gotta get involved to protect the customer.

 

[IDKFA]

I don't care what the gap is. We shouldn't let them take away an option that is beneficial to consumers only for their own greedy gain. Everyone should be pushing back against it regardless of your preference for how you buy games.

Agreed.

I personally prefer digital, but I don't want to see physical options dissappear because I believe in consumer choice.

You can still buy physical films and music, and although streaming is dominant, the choice is still there for consumers. The same choice should still exist for video games.

Although I prefer digital, this situation has made me consider buying more physical games for the Switch 2. In fact, I've just pre ordered the Godzilla remaster on that console, a game I was planning to pick up digitally.

 

[Fabieter]

It's happening as we speak.
Disc pressing facilities are shutting down daily.

Thats not what Topher meant. Alan Wake 2 didnt have a physical game at release. They tried digital only even lowered the pricd for it and after ir bombed they brought it back anyway. Every publisher could do the same but they choose not to.

Sony is destroying it now because they think the transition doesnt go fast enough. It is not growing anymore but it stabilized and sony hates it. So what the fuck are you taking about.

 

[Bojji]

Ask 10 year olds about CD/DVD/Bluray .
With a generation hooked on Fortnite, Roblox or phone games it's pretty natural for physical to be retired whether you like it or not.

And agreed about Sony having poor customer service. Simply looking at their refund policy, that's when govermnent policies gotta get involved to protect the customer.

That F2P crowd is also not buying any games.

 

[Fabieter]

That F2P crowd is also not buying any games.

It is exactly my thought, the might bring in some money but they aint exactly valuable to the platform. If devs know Playstation is just a f2p Maschine why bother developing games for it.

 

[VitoNotVito]

Those arguments always make me chuckle.
"I don't believe millions of data points collected by emotionless machines. Me and my 4 mates were always buying physical. It can't be right!"

 

[Fabieter]

Those arguments always make me chuckle.
"I don't believe millions of data points collected by emotionless machines. Me and my 4 mates were always buying physical. It can't be right!"

 

[MetalRain]

I bought maybe 10 physical games for PS3, 1 for PS4 and 0 for PS5. Trend has been clear since PSN was introduced.

 

[Fabieter]

I bought maybe 10 physical games for PS3, 1 for PS4 and 0 for PS5. Trend has been clear since PSN was introduced.

Trend is also clear to kill all cash worldwide by the end of this decade. Do you agree that we have to go with the time there too?

 

[cripterion]

That F2P crowd is also not buying any games.

I'm doing the buying for my kids but hard to get them out of their comfort zone.

 

[Radical_3d]

Were it real Sony wouldn't need to announce shit. They'd be already maximising 85% of the revenue of its player base and they could keep the disk drive as an add-on. The thing is that they are loosing big margins in about half of the big money releases (not 6 bucks Meccha Chameleon). And they wouldn't pissing half of their best customers if they didn't thought it was absolutely necessary for them to have a next gen. The thing is: I think they are wrong. This smells like Totoki all over it. A decrepit old man that understand nothing about the core business that is keeping the whole holding afloat. He probably got presented with a scenario where a PS6 is 2000$ in BOM and after some research by the experts there were several solutions presented (never go to your boss with a problem without going with the solutions as well). And instead of delaying next gen until the storm has gone he choose to gaslight us and death.

Death it is, Totoki. Death it is.

 

[Xion_Stellar]

I never liked how they are stuffing the numbers in order to push the narrative that people are abandoning physical media so they can push their digital agenda to completely control their ecosystem.

Comparing Physical Media revenue VS Digital Game Sale Revenue, Game Add On Revenue, and their 30% cut on every purchase isn't a fair representation of reality.

And even breaking it down further comparing Physical Media revenue VS Digital Game Sale Revenue isn't a straight forward answer either because there's a bunch of digital only games that never got a physical release.

The only thing they should be comparing here is the sales of a game that has both a digital and physical version of the game available for sale Day 1 but I'm sure Sony isn't willing to do that because it would invalidate their 85% digital sales claim.

I feel like that number should be closer to 65% - 75% instead.