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PlayStation 5 owners prefer boxed games to downloads

MiguelItUp

Gold Member
As someone that's approaching 40, I just don't think I'll ever be comfortable going fully digital on console. When I think of consoles, I think of physical games, and if the prices are the same I feel like having something physical makes much more sense.

How the fudge are PSN prices higher than boxed prices on Black Friday?

It's stupid.
Right?! Returnal is $30 via Walmart.com but on the PS Store I think it's $47/50? Lmao.
 
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Kenpachii

Member
They would go digital and want digital if digital prices aren't obnoxiously high.

80 euro's for a game is rip. i really want to see there sales in my country on day 1. Just to see its baren. I honestly don't believe anybody pays 80 euro's for a game ever.
 
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How the fudge are PSN prices higher than boxed prices on Black Friday?

It's stupid.
Indeed. Well this is the reason many prefer buying discs on PS5. It's ususally less expensive for recent titles and you can resell the game later. My guess is many PS5 players are also buying used discs, notably for those stupidely expensive exclusives games.
 
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SkylineRKR

Member
I think digital is more convenient, you don't have to switch discs and you can download a game overnight. You don't have to store your cases as well.

But the prices are fucked up. At launch there isn't much difference, though I could get Village physical for 59 day one. In the store it was 69. And the deals are fucked. My friend bought Demon's Souls for 29 in December last year. A toy store temporarily offered that deal. You won't see this price on PSN for the upcoming 2 years. Its unfortunate that there isn't competition with digital downloads.

And resell value is a thing I guess. The games I kept for too long I couldn't really sell for more than a few bucks each but games I sold straight after I finished fetched over 50% of the purchase price back. I guess you'll keep digital games which means buyback is never needed but then again I have a handful of PS3 digital games I can never play anyway unless I get a PS3.

Outside of all this owning physical took away all the charm it once had. No manuals, and the disc is just an ID check. Its almost like owning nothing. Perhaps with the exception of limited editions but I stopped buying those ages ago.
 
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SkylineRKR

Member
To be fair, £38.99 for Guardians Of The Galaxy is pretty good.


33 euros physical in Holland, domestic free shipping. Its almost always the same, digital game is cheap.. physical is even cheaper.
 
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Topher

Gold Member
I bought Guardians of the Galaxy brand new on disc. Paid $64.19 after tax. Completed the game, got the plat, and then sold it for $38 (after fees) on eBay.

Net cost of the game: $26.19
 
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LordOfChaos

Member
I thought I'd be mainly digital because I already was on PS4, but the disk PS5 was what I could find to buy unscalped, so I'm actually getting more physical games this gen to recoup the cost
 

Putonahappyface

Gold Member
Do they also prefer boxed DVD movies to streaming?
I do both. I buy 4k ultra films because they still visually surpasses streaming. But I still get Netflix, Prime and Disney Plus as they come as part of a package when my mobile network provider bribe me.
 
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I'm more on the digital side but I have bought tons of physical copies too. Problem with digital is, you can't sell or trade a game so once I'm completely done with it, it's useless. Also you can get ps5 games for reasonable prices off ebay instead of the full whack off the PS store.
 
i can't take people seriously who buy physical games. i look forward to when consoles are all digital and you have no option but to buy digitally. the sooner MS/Sony abandon the disc drive the better.

This is fucking stupid. Why would you want less choices? So you want me to be forced to pay the digital prices and lose the ability to sell or easily borrow to someone? Please explain the logic behind this.
 
Which country? That pricing is brutal.
I live in scandinavia. yeah its brutal, i dont understand why they dont have the same price as in the us. I think i only have bought one game this entire year for consoles and that was the super monkey ball collection, but that never launched at full price either.

They cost 80$ here. Sony knows and give 0 fuck because people are so lazy to move their butts to buy from a store 20$ dollars cheaper or simply ignorant thinking this is the official price which is far from it compare to physical.
the truth right here
 

Topher

Gold Member
Online physical sellers know that they are competing with the digital marketplaces.

Exactly. And publishers are going to incentivize physical stock sales as physical inventory has actual money tied up in it.

This is fucking stupid. Why would you want less choices? So you want me to be forced to pay the digital prices and lose the ability to sell or easily borrow to someone? Please explain the logic behind this.

Well......first, you are responding to someone making judgements about others over their choice of format of a video game. Expectations of logic at that point should be extremely low.
 

TexMex

Member
Agree. I’m all digital on PS5 but it’s a hard pill to swallow when you see boxed versions with 10% or 20% discounts at launch day. I wish they would discount pre-orders on PSN for instance like they did with DEATHLOOP. It’s something at least.

Deathloop is a good example. It’s the only PS5 game I bought digitally (that offers a physical release anyway) for this exact reason. I think digital was 10% cheaper at launch.
 

CitizenZ

Banned
i can't take people seriously who buy physical games. i look forward to when consoles are all digital and you have no option but to buy digitally. the sooner MS/Sony abandon the disc drive the better.

Whats funny is, until yesterday, who knew PS5 had a sku that was digital only? I completely forgot about that.
 

Irobot82

Member
i can't take people seriously who buy physical games. i look forward to when consoles are all digital and you have no option but to buy digitally. the sooner MS/Sony abandon the disc drive the better.
I'll be more than happy if they have a way to let my kids play their physical PS4 games on the PS5.
 

The Shepard

Member
Returnal £40 ao
Demons souls and sackboy £30 at currys
Rachet and clank £25 at tesco

You won't find them that price on the PlayStation store for quite some time.

That's just what I've seen today. I've gone back to disks again this gen with the overpricing of games on the store, the £70 price increase put me off.
 

AJUMP23

Gold Member
I prefer whatever is cheaper. I buy boxed when they cost less. I do buy all digital on the Switch though.

I was going to buy the Guardians of the Galaxy box, but it was only $3 more BF on the digital store, so I saved some gas.
 

MacReady13

Member
I currently have about 12 physical games on PS5 and just yesterday in some early Black Friday deals here in Australia I picked up the Nioh collection, Deathloop, Fifa 22 and NBA 2K22. All were heavily discounted and I'm happy to keep my games forever.
 

Holammer

Member
I question the numbers, all the big publishers report steadily increased digital downloads every year.
Activision sold more digital than physical last year and refuse to believe PS5 owners in particular are unusually big brained compared with other markets.
 

HeisenbergFX4

Gold Member
I do not want full digital as games like Ratchet once I beat them I never play them again plus games like MLB The Show I buy the new version every year and don't care if I get $5 in return thats fine with me.

Plus I remember when my son was in college and worked he often bought used games
 
I haven’t touched a physical disc since halfway through the 360/PS3 era.

been digital ever since. Fuck boxes and discs, it’s clutter and a waste of space. Grateful not to have shelves of games and blu ray movies anymore.
 
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A.Romero

Member
I prefer physical for PS for 2 reasons:

- I only get first party games on PS5 (multiplats I rather get them on PC and have a higher chance of being able to play them in years to come plus better performance)
- I can't charge my credit card directly from PSN because when I joined PSN I was living in Canada and 15 years later I still can't change my region. I have to go through online retailers to get pre-paid PS+ cards. I could get pre-paid but I don't feel like paying more just because Sony can't give me the option to change regions. I only care about my history. I''m willing to forfeit previous purchases (but not my plus library)
 

KAL2006

Banned
i can't take people seriously who buy physical games. i look forward to when consoles are all digital and you have no option but to buy digitally. the sooner MS/Sony abandon the disc drive the better.

Can you clarify why you can't take people seriously who buy physical, and why you look forward to a full digital future and less options for the consumers. I'm sure you will have a nice logical repsonse that makes sense thanks.
 

WitchHunter

Member
Been all digital for over 10 years. I'm not meeting some random people out in the street to sell them a used game nor am I willing to sacrifice the convenience of digital for physical.

Physical media is useless and it will be obsolete in the near future.
It has future, it's tangible, better than NFT by 123x.
 

Duchess

Member
I bought Demon Souls, AC Valhalla and Spiderman Miles at a buy 2 get 1 sale at Target. They cost me only $45 each. Then I traded them in after 2 months for around a $100. So they only cost me around $50.
Oh yeah?

Well, I bought Red Read Redemption 2 for £46, sold it 3 weeks later for £40, so it ended up costing me £6.

Which, in my humble opinion, was still too much ;)
 
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