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[Badlucktroll]

So is, “i like to own my games”, a thing of the past, and physical media is on its death bed?

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

The OP and article are talking $$$ split. The ratio line you're talking about is units.

Reread my post since I've included the relevant slides from Sony and you can do the math yourself. That % from OP is derived from ALL the revenue brought by the PlayStation division which also counts PS5 HW, Accessories, PS+ subs revenue besides Game Software.

If we take all the game software sold on the platform then physical sales represent 7.4% of the total software revenue which again includes stuff like MTX, DLC and digital only games that can only be bought from PSN. And now to make it apples to apples revenue wise we will compare only game software that's available both digitally and physically which gives us 17.6% physical vs 82.4% digital. OP is wrong on both accounts and is misleading us by not including all the relevant parts of the article.

 

[Sleepwalker]

Oh yeah, the same usual folks.

Every week like clockwork, only elder legend is missing.

 

[Mr Reasonable]

I wonder when the physical game crew are going to accept that next gen is unlikely to feature discs.

So is, “i like to own my games”, a thing of the past, and physical media is on its death bed?

At some point wanting to own your games must give way to asking what the point is in owning a game where the main character turns into a cube, people's bodies disappear, and the game crashes for no reason.

 

[mckmas8808]

Thank you for the real numbers.

 

[Lord Malachite]

I'm in the proud minority! Dead Space (2023), Hogwarts Legacy, Resident Evil 4 (2023), Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 1, and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 all purchased by me this year for PS5, all physical. And I have Alone In The Dark (2024) on order physically.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Reread my post since I've included the relevant slides from Sony and you can do the math yourself. That % from OP is derived from ALL the revenue brought by the PlayStation division which also counts PS5 HW, Accessories, PS+ subs revenue besides Game Software.

If we take all the game software sold on the platform then physical sales represent 7.4% of the total software revenue which again includes stuff like MTX, DLC and digital only games which ofc can only be bought from PSN. And now to make it apples to apples revenue wise we will compare only game software that's available both digitally and physically which gives us 17.6% physical vs 82.4% digital. OP is wrong on both accounts and is misleading us by not including all the relevant parts of the article.

How is OP and article lying?

Physical game sales are 4% and digital game sales are 21% of revenue dollars (give or take a fraction of a %).

Your row is talking unit ratio sales.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

How is OP and article lying?

Physical game sales are 4% and digital game sales are 21% of revenue dollars (give or take a fraction of a %).

Your row is talking unit ratio sales.

The article premise on itself is dumb since it's trying to make it like physical sales are dying when it's far from it. I already provided you with all the math for both revenue and units of software sold. Can't do anything more than that.

And again from your own slide, the revenue for physical software is in line with same quarter of last year so all of this is a nothingburger anyway.

 

[BoxFresh123]

 

[midnightAI]

I always buy discs, it's just cheaper, I got Spider Man 2 on launch day for £56, that's £14 cheaper. I haven't bought a digital game at all for a while. Digital future is still inevitable though, but I'll continue to buy cheaper discs for as long as I can.

 

[Gambit2483]

Im also all digital now,me and my brother stay together and we both have PS5,so its easier to buy digital where we both can share and play at the same time.

Good luck once one of you decides to move out.

 

[Woopah]

Reread my post since I've included the relevant slides from Sony and you can do the math yourself. That % from OP is derived from ALL the revenue brought by the PlayStation division which also counts PS5 HW, Accessories, PS+ subs revenue besides Game Software.

If we take all the game software sold on the platform then physical sales represent 7.4% of the total software revenue which again includes stuff like MTX, DLC and digital only games that can only be bought from PSN. And now to make it apples to apples revenue wise we will compare only game software that's available both digitally and physically which gives us 17.6% physical vs 82.4% digital. OP is wrong on both accounts and is misleading us by not including all the relevant parts of the article.

It's even worse than that.

For physical sales, Sony only counts their 30% cut as revenue. For digital and microtransactions, they count 100%.

So it means someone downloading MK1 on PS5 generates more than double as much revenue for Sony as someone who bought it in store ($70 vs. $21).

Once you remove the money that ends up with third parties, the figures will be much closer.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

It's even worse than that.

For physical sales, Sony only counts their 30% cut as revenue. For digital and microtransactions, they count 100%.

So it means someone downloading MK1 on PS5 generates more than double as much revenue for Sony as someone who bought it in store ($70 vs. $21).

Once you remove the money that ends up with third parties, the figures will be much closer.

Oh yeah, I totally forgot that. So the entire premise of this thread is based on misinterpreted data.

 

[Sleepwalker]

Good luck once one of you decides to move out.

Works the same, i share plus and some games with my bro and we are in different countries lol

 

[ArtHands]

New PS5 Slim disc drive is selling out already as Sony pushes revamped model out

If you were considering buying the new PS5 Slim model, be wary, as Sony's PS5 Slim disc drive is beginning to sell out online quickly.

www.theloadout.com

Many people saw it. Giving physical folks the illusion of choice while limiting the supply, silently forcing them to switch to digital.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

The article premise on itself is dumb since it's trying to make it like physical sales are dying when it's far from it. I already provided you with all the math both revenue and units.

Sony Interactive Entertainment had a record-breaking second quarter in terms of revenue, pulling in ¥954.1 billion — up 32.38 per cent year-on-year. Of that total, physical games accounts for about ¥35.5 billion, which comes out to roughly four per cent. For comparison's sake, digital sales of full games on PS Store represents 21 per cent of total revenue.

As I said, the OP and article are talking revenue. You are talking unit split. So they arent lying.

Physical is dying because the revenue split is getting smaller and smaller so more companies will focus on digital. eve in gaming company earnings reports, what do they brag about? Digital sales and mtx. Nobody tells Wall Street what a good job physical sales are doing.

Sony and MS even have digital only consoles. Thea digital portion of sales has been increasing bit by bit since console eco-systems offered all their games digitally with good deals when Xbox One and PS4 launched. It was slow at the beginning but really picked up steam soon after as gamers realized discs need to be installed anyway. So unless someone is a collector or a guy who really cares about trading in games, tons of people transitioned to digital.

Here's a chart I made even just comparing Q1-Q2 revenue from the Sony charts.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

As I said, the OP and article are talking revenue. You are talking unit split. So they arent lying.

Physical is dying because the revenue split is getting smaller and smaller so more companies will focus on digital. eve in gaming company earnings reports, what do they brag about? Digital sales and mtx. Nobody tells Wall Street what a good job physical sales are doing.

Sony and MS even have digital only consoles. Thea digital portion of sales has been increasing bit by bit since console eco-systems offered all their games digitally with good deals when Xbox One and PS4 launched. It was slow at the beginning but really picked up steam soon after as gamers realized discs need to be installed anyway. So unless someone is a collector or a guy who really cares about trading in games, tons of people transitioned to digital.

Here's a chart I made even just comparing Q1-Q2 revenue from the Sony charts.

You forgot this. Sony is counting digital sales as 100% their revenue for this reporting while for physical they only count their cut from the sale. OP is very misleading since it's based on misinterpreted data hence why it's always best to just stick to full game software split.

It's even worse than that.

For physical sales, Sony only counts their 30% cut as revenue. For digital and microtransactions, they count 100%.

So it means someone downloading MK1 on PS5 generates more than double as much revenue for Sony as someone who bought it in store ($70 vs. $21).

Once you remove the money that ends up with third parties, the figures will be much closer.

 

[WitchHunter]

I’m part of the problem.
If discs didn’t get damaged so easily I would probably have stuck with it. We shouldn't have strayed from cartridges.

You snort cocaine from those discs or how does your unique use case looks like?

 

[WitchHunter]

PS5 with bluray drive owner.....cant recall the last physical game i purchased.

Ive been buying all digital since its more convenient or me tbh

Burn the heretic! Fucking consumerist corpogroupie!

 

[WitchHunter]

That is 2300 million USD. They not gonna throw that away, yet. And after that everyone can rejoice because people in developing countries will more likely to share their consoles with each other. Of course the question remains, for how long. After physical gets annihiliated games gonna be tied to accounts, then it will be restricted to gameplay time and people gonna shrug their shoulders on that too. Then, 150 years from now, you have to lend your body for whatever to the corp in order to get the magical sword to kill the dragon. Everyone will be happy.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

You forgot this. Sony is counting digital sales as 100% their revenue for this reporting while for physical they only count their cut from the sale. OP is very misleading since it's based on misinterpreted data hence why it's always best to just stick to full game software split.

Physical sales revenue includes all first party sales in full. A good chunk of disc sales are going to their own first party games.

 

[dcx4610]

I like how people raged and fought tooth and nail when Microsoft announced Xbox One was doing to be digital only. Queue 1 generation later and people don't care...

I'm a diehard physical movie collector but honestly, outside of deals and selling/trading, I can't find a purpose for physical games anymore (Xbox/PS5 at least). They are essentially just CD unlock keys and you are just playing the digital version anyway. Nothing is playing off the disc. I'll still a champion physical games for older systems that DID play off the disc/cart but for modern games, it's basically shelf collecting.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

OP I still did not get an answer here. This is the whole article you've used in your OP, but you copy/pasted the parts that you'd know will cause some ruckus with people around here. You've left out some some important things mentioned there like for example the part where they say that the physical/digital sales split is 67% towards digital which is in line with previous quarters post pandemic. How so?

Sony's financials for Q2 of 2023 are here, and the report illuminates that physical games are a drop in the bucket for PlayStation these days. Sony Interactive Entertainment had a record-breaking second quarter in terms of revenue, pulling in ¥954.1 billion — up 32.38 per cent year-on-year. Of that total, physical games accounts for about ¥35.5 billion, which comes out to roughly four per cent. For comparison's sake, digital sales of full games on PS Store represents 21 per cent of total revenue.

This actually isn't an unusually low stat; physical games have been a small percentage of PlayStation's revenue stream for a good while now. However, what's interesting about it is that, in this record-breaking Q2, physical games is the only sales category that has decreased year-on-year. By that same measure, all other areas saw significant growth.

Zooming in on PlayStation's physical/digital sales split (which looks at units sold rather than cash), just over two thirds (67 per cent) of software sales were digital in Q2 2023. This is a slight increase year-on-year, but down compared to Q1 2023.

There's obviously still a market for physical games, albeit a small one. ¥35.5 billion isn't nothing, of course, but the main source of sales has definitely shifted, if it wasn't already clear. Anyway, do you still prefer buying your PlayStation games on disc? Is your collection digital only these days? Discuss in the comments section below.

 

[Destruction-1002]

When you push mandatory digital release at day one, that what happen.



In comparison, on 7th gen it wasn't mandatory to have games with digital releases.

 

[Sleepwalker]

Physical sales revenue includes all first party sales in full. A good chunk of disc sales are going to their own first party games.

They still have to give amazon walmart et al a cut from spiderman 2 sales. Thats what he meant. So a disc copy of spiderman 2 would count as $50 (guess) vs digital at $70

 

[Woopah]

Physical sales revenue includes all first party sales in full. A good chunk of disc sales are going to their own first party games.

Both of them include first party in full. Its third parties (the majority of software units) that are treated differently.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Physical sales revenue includes all first party sales in full. A good chunk of disc sales are going to their own first party games.

I've already mentioned that we don't have the full picture as the physical and digital full software revenue are actually closer than the math you did there. There's really no point in continuing this discussion any further.

 

[Sleepwalker]

When you push mandatory digital release at day one, that what happen.



In comparison, on 7th gen it wasn't mandatory to have games with digital releases.

 

[Oddvintagechap]

What's so bad about discs that doesn't allow you to be a digital muppet?
You can spend more money on new releases on psn. Physical existing shouldnt stand in your way

I could careless.

but it I did. They should make disc cases CD sized and thinner.

 

[Neff]

If discs didn’t get damaged so easily I would probably have stuck with it. We shouldn't have strayed from cartridges.

In 30+ years of playing optical format platforms I've only ever scratched one disc, and that was because I put my copy of Viewtiful Joe in my Wii upside down.

Don't be like my brother and keep your games/movies in their cases, they'll be fine.

 

[Unknown?]

Edging up every year. 85% is around the corner. Give it another year or two and it'll be 90%.

And when it's that high, say byebye to any hope of PS1-4 backwards compatibility.

 

[Unknown?]

I’m part of the problem.
If discs didn’t get damaged so easily I would probably have stuck with it. We shouldn't have strayed from cartridges.

BluRay takes a lot to scratch, you have to be trying. Welcome to 2006. These aren't DVDs or CDs.