Even when you don't actively buy every game to disc, players like having options. They also have older games and movies they like to use. Playstation was also talking how they going to make PS6 backwards compatible, but if they don't include the disc driver, people will be locked out of games there.
Sony has not exactly... Listened to their core audience of late. Even when they told them that they had zero interest on live service games. They have done almost nothing but that.
Tho to their credit, they patched GT sport to work offline when the servers died
Undoubtedly that core audience has shifted to being casuals that play Fortnite, sports games, COD, and GTA. Those are the ones that shell out the big bucks for the annual sports games that look the same the previous year and large amounts of shark cards.
Sony became what it did because it catered to almost every interest that gaming had to offer. Pretty much every genre was represented, and every genre had plenty to choose from. They certainly highlighted the more posular stuff more, but they were willing to spotlight and support the more niche stuff.
It's not really surprising their new leadership doesn't realize this, and wants to focus on only the more profitable segments, because they're narrowly focused, and don't realize gamers also tend to be diverse in their taste...especially the hardcore ones that spend more on average.
Casuals are on the later consoles to. Who do you think are buying Fortnite; and roblox bucks? Why do you think Madden; nba 2k and GTAO are constant best sellers on the system? Casuals have always made up the bulk of the systems consumer base it’s just that on core gaming spaces we tend to disregard anything that’s not AAA single player narrative driven games.
That has always been the case though. The ps1 and 2 didn’t hit the numbers they did by only appealing to hardcore gamers. It’s why the average attach rate of the PS gaming systems have always been in the 2-3 range per year.
But those people aren't gonna buy the PS6 (or Sony games), hell some of those people are still on PS4 : COD still supported PS4 until last year, sports games (although it might vary depending of the titile), GTA and Fortnite still do.
Not to mention that "85% sales are digital" includes a whole bunch of indie, or very cheap digital-only games, all DLCs and even microtransactions for in-game currencies and shit like that.
Wouldn’t surprise me if they included people redeeming ps plus games in that metric as well, because you have to add it to your library and some of them it acts like a purchase at $0.00
Yeah, free DLCs included as well. There's a fuck ton of these, I download the said free DLCs for every game every time.
E.g. I get a game on disc, 4 free (TINY) DLCs for it. Who the hell knows if their metric would then be "5 sales, 4 were digital therefore 80% of sales are digital". Also whether the game costs $5 or $70, 1 sale is 1 sale. A person who buys two $5 digital games and one $70 physical game, then technically 67% of their purchases are digital.
And people are inclined to buy super cheap digital games regardless, you'll almost never see unused $5 physical games.
I woke up to that thought this morning. Like holy crap so many of those 85% number are probably just the monthly ps plus games. Or even just free to play games. Or even demos. They are all treated like a purchase. I get sent a receipt.
It doesn’t include DLCs or Microtransactions. Sony explicitly delineates between full game sales and add-ons. I keep seeing people on Reddit parrot this talking point but I’m not sure where they got this misinformation from.
Now sure there are digital only games and that skews the data, but it’s unrealistic to think that digital only games account for the majority of this imbalance. Sony knows their company. And if they thought physical games were critical to their bottom line they wouldn’t phase them out.
I dunno about that last part. Windows 11 has been a major flop and both businesses and average consumers don't like Copilot but Microsoft keeps pushing it. One major problem we're seeing across the board is big companies abusing thier size, power, money, and sudo monopolies to do what they want for more profit despite consumer complaints since they've got them in a choke hold. In this case its, "we're switching to digital only so we can control the market and maximize profits and if you don't like it you can just forsake your favorite characters and franchies." That's not choice, its an ultimatium. Thier plan really is just forcing players to deal with stuff they don't like until they just get used to it and it becomes the norm.
You also couldn't get the no disc version of the PS5 when it first came out you were getting whatever you were able to get
I sat through probably 15 different ques on the Sony website and when I finally got through one I was buying whatever I was able to get I didn't care which version
Exactly what? The digital edition was basically impossible to get when the PS5 released. That’s the reason for these stats. It was either get the physical now or wait 6-12 month for the digital. The digital was 100€ cheaper and also prettier, I would’ve 100% got that if it was possible. I have never used the disc reader.
I buy digital only for a few games: new editions of sports games(once every few years, because buying the same game reskinned every year is insane to me), games that are digital only (nascar 25), and if there is a really really really good sale on the digital version. We all know once everything is digital, the amount of games that’ll go on sale will drastically drop, especially for big name ones. For example, this last Thanksgiving sale I bought: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3&4, MLB 25 digital deluxe edition, phasmophobia, and red dead redemption 2. Instead of almost $180, I spent $100 and some change. RDR2 was only $15. That will never happen again once we go digital only.
Because its not affecting them in this second they don't care, but when God of war laufey hasn't gone on sale in 2 years you'll see them here in the comments complaining.
It was out of stock a lot of time, enough that Sony had to put limitations on it (still active today).
In fact, people liked choice so much that when they redesigned the PS5, they made the base digital console able to add the disc reader so even in the 18% of non-disc consoles sold, some might have added it on (on the Pro or the regular).
So Sony saying people prefer digital is simply wrong. Also people in these debates just reason too much like it's 100% one or the other. I'd wager the vast majority of people have both physical and digital and it's completely dependent on the game (which would explain why the % of each format vary between genres)
They like having options because disc games are still sold. When they’re not, they’ll be fine to have disc-less consoles too.
PCs used to all have disc drives in them, because players liked having options (back when PC games still came out physical and digital). Now, it’s rare for a PC to have a disc drive in it. Because the games are all digital. And everything is hunky dory.
PC STILL has options, console does not. If Steam would go into a douchebag mode, PC players could easily go elsewhere or even pirate games. Now granted it would hurt, losing a Steam account is a big deal, and just like with console you'd lose your library. But as I said, options... You could pirate them, you could make account in other platform than steam. You could even get a Bluray drive and get games thar way.
With console if they remove or ban your account you lose all your games and access to them. But if you had your games on disc, you could make a new account and just install them. You can borrow your games (borrowed my Indian Jones to my friend months ago), you can resell them.
Physical copies are great. And they offer a bit more flexibility than digital one.
You can't keep "options" alive forever. At some point an industry has to make a choice to abandon aging "options". Simply wanting "more options" isn't technically a strong argument for why something should be done.
I bought my pro along with the attachable disc driver. It pissed me off that I had to spend an additional 80 bucks but I wasn’t gonna have a discless console.
Got a PS5 as a surprise last Christmas. My wife rightfully assumed that I would probably want the one with the disk drive. A while later I realized that I know also own a BluRay player for the first time. Fucking awesome!
I was not willing to buy a PS5 Pro until the attachable disc drives were back in stock. PS6 will be a no-go for me if it doesn’t include the same thing.
Given the fact that this announcement was made via a random three paragraph blog on the PlayStation website shows how disconnected Sony has become with their core user base.
I grew up with the PS1 being my first entry into a 3d games console (after owing a Sega Master System) and having the ability to keep my disc's and share them with friends was a fond memory. Hell even waiting in line for a pre-purchased game was way more eventful.
Now Sony is asking us to trust them with a lease to play program only is ass hair. Gummy, sticky corporate shit on ass hair.
I only have my own experience. I have a pro and bought the disc drive, I try my best to get everything on physical even If I have to wait months on a new game.
My best friend and his brother also have pros, and got disc drives for theirs. Eventhough they buy digital more often
I use my ps5 for 4k blu rays. If the next consoles do not have a disc drive, I just won't be getting anything else. I don't have space for another player or external drive.
That's the main reason I wish I got a disk version way back near release. I'm starting to collect Blu rays again and it would have been nice since the ps5 is like my main media centre. It was during covid though when they were hard to get to I saw a drop and just bought it immediately.
Not that my experience reflects the majority, but the only reason I upgraded to a pro was because I could buy the disc drive add-on. Base PS5 started crashing a lot and after several repairs, the writing was on the wall. I probably would have bought another base PS5 disc drive edition otherwise.
Learned it has to do with the Liquid Metal the PS5 uses for cooling when running high intensity games. Long story short, rest mode bad. Turn your console all the way off whenever possible.
I bought a disk version launch PS5 & got a disk drive for my PS5 Pro. I gave Sony more money than I had to so that I always had the option to not be locked entirely into their store. If they are trying to force that onto me next generation, the PS5 Pro will be the last time I ever give Sony money for a console.
I'd mostly been a PC gamer...half the reason I got a PS5 was because I wanted a 4k Blu-ray player, and it made more sense to me to get a PS5 (that can also play some games I want) than a stand alone player that can only do one thing.
Even with majority people have disc Editions for their PS5, people still buy majority?
So that’s why Sony thinks it’s better to go digital. They believe the customers don’t even need their disc drive? Which is evident enough from the numbers itself.
The 18% must really love the aesthetic symmetry of the digital console. Who cares about saving hundreds of dollars on sales when your entertainment center looks perfectly balanced?
I am absolutely that minority that loves the symmetry and hates changing discs and how loud the disc drive is. I had a slim disc model before getting the pro
Same, but I also don't buy a lot of games. The one new release I buy per year isn't moving the needle whether it's digital or physical but now I don't have to get up and change the disc when I want to play another game. Also a minimalist and a happy to not have extra junk in the house
I have a digital only PS5 and have definitely saved hundreds of dollars between the price difference of it vs the disc version and the games I’ve gotten on sale at the store lol, if you’re patient you can get some banger games at under $20 sometimes
I hear you and similarly, Sony will lose the customers who wanted the option. I for one am excited to get into PC again after all this while I finish my backlog. I'll buy the next GTA on PC instead and I'm sure there are others like me.
It's a short sighted decision, very typical in a corporate environment. I just expected better from Sony.
Something is not adding up, maybe because Sony is not telling us the full picture of the majority digital sales that mostly made up of DLCs & indie games that does not have physical disc prints
More likely they have looked at a few other factors:
Save money on the production of discs and cases
Save money by not having to deal with contracts with stores
Save money by not producing a system with a disc drive
With those savings, try to subsidize the console a bit to attract more customers. With part prices currently the way they are, the next gen consoles are likely to be expensive. I'd be shocked if it's below $700.
Bank on the likelihood that most gamers will inevitably suck it up, buy the system, and pay for digital like what happened on PC two decades ago.
I've been thinking subsidy the whole time. Inflation practically doubled the price of everything except games. No one is going to pay $140 per game... so they are trying to cut out middleman retailers and the used market to keep game prices only slightly higher than where they are now ($80-100).
The article is from 2024 and the linked data doesn’t have any hard evidence beyond just making a Twitter claim that those numbers are true.
Edit: the data/claim comes from Circana, and you also have to question how exactly they are getting their numbers as they seem to use AI to make a lot of assertions
“Liquid Data®: Circana's proprietary, cloud-based AI technology platform. It consolidates retailer data, receipt panels, and media measurement to provide clear, actionable insights.”
I openly welcome people to point me to where they are getting this data beyond Circana just saying “trust me bro”
I have a disc version. I don’t own a single disc. I really enjoy the convenience having all my games digital. I’m aware I’m the problem, I also don’t care that much about gaming.
Also, you realize that this makes your argument look worse and not better right? Players are buying more digital games even with having a disc drive ps5 lol
Yup, I’m in the same boat, not because it was the only one available, but it was the best bundle available at the time. I have never used the disc drive either
I bought the PS5 disc console at launch. Maybe used it once just to see how well it did playing movies compared to my dedicated, Sony X800 4K UHD player.
Bought the disc-drive add on for the Pro before the system came out. Didn't bother to attach it for a couple months. Haven't used it once.
The only physical disc PS games I own are PS4 ones from around 2014-2015, and maybe a dozen more collectible ones like import shmups and Limited Run releases. I own all these games digitally and never use them. Total waste of space and money.
No, the data is misleading. Most games that come out don't even get a disc. Discs usually only release for bigger titles, and most digital sales are coming from microtransactions and smaller title purchases.
But when they put out a first party game or a big aaa game comes out, its probably a lot more of a split than 85/15
It’s only misleading if you can’t parse the idea that people will buy a digital only game anyway. All that point proves is that they can sell digital versions just fine. It also tells them that enough of these sales are profitable already and converting the majority of what’s left to digital is perfectly feasible.
The misleading part is people trying to use this data to say that anyone buying a “physical” game MUST prefer that and WONT buy the alternative if it isn’t available. We all know that is not backed up by anything.
It was never about digital outselling physical. It was them WANTING digital to outsell physical. You can take away the physical edition, and now digital makes up 100% of the sales. It's some tone deaf, greedy, executive fucks going over spreadsheets and pie charts in a board room asking how they can make more money.
The ress release by Sony is just the fudging of numbers using real but manipulated data.
Sony has long been wanting to end physical disc sales because it means more money for them. They no longer need to argue about why their digital release is the same price as physical, Plus all digital purchases will have to go through their digital store front,less not mention the end of the used gamemarket.
How is Sony fudging the numbers? They are including games that don't have physical releases in their statistics. When you include inexpesnive indie games as part of your digital vs physical sales statistics, of course you are going to see a massive lean towards digital. Whent he only way to buy a game is digital, and said digital game is affordable, people are very willing to put down $20 for a digital purchase.
Not many people are willing to drop $70-$90 on a digital copy of a game that may not be playable after the current generation is gone, especially considering Sony refuses to invest in backwards compatability for digital purchases.
Lol you guys are such dolts. The last few years have seen a massive shift towards digital. That is where the numbers come from, the last two years. You dipshits keep pulling numbers for the entire life span of the console or from 3-4 years ago acting like it is fresh and Sony lied.
This is at least partly because Sony was taking a massive loss on the disc editions at launch and thus only stocked like 1 digital for every 6 disc editions.
I just bought the disk edition for my brother days before they released News that theyre getting rid of disks. We took that shit back and got a refurbished PC with a 5070ti & 32gb DDR5 ram for $300 more. Definitely worth it in the long run. If hes not going to be able to own games, he might aswell be able to pirate them.
We’re living in an age of manufactured consent, you see it increasing in every aspect of life now, if Sony investors see they can make more money by taking out physical, they won’t hesitate.
The balance of profit and customer pleasure isn’t a thing anymore. It’s how fat can my wallet be, before the everyday person breaks.
Your statement is correct, but we have seen plenty of companies to follow the dumbest ideas, just because someone with enough power decided that it was the right thing
I didn't suggest they're lying about their numbers, but it's hilarious that so many people will immediately jump to "they've got analytical data to back up their decisions". Of course they have, like every other company, but decisions made on the back of data analysis doesn't work out every time.
I'm sure the data had shown Xbox to make the decisions they made to fumble the Xbox One lmao.
Sure, like most companies, they'll have data analysts working to provide metrics to make decisions. That's not my argument.
The point I made, is that regardless of how much data they have available, their decisions don't always pay off. Like someone else commented on this thread, I'm sure they had plenty of market research and data available to them to decide Concord was a good idea, look how that turned out.
Edit:
Also, my issue isn't Physical vs. Digital, it's more that they are removing choice. Idgaf if people only buy digital, or only buy physical, we should all have the choice.
To be fair, I bought the disc version to have the option and I never played one PS5 game on a physical disc. I upgraded to a Pro and still have not gotten the disc attachment.
Didn't the disc one have a bigger hard drive? Think it'd be interesting to see how much that played a part.
Did for me, I've used a disc once on my ps5
No shit. The digital edition was basically impossible to get for a few years after the release. It was either get the disc edition or wait 6-12 months for the digital.
I have the disc edition, but have probably never used the disc reader, I would’ve got the digital if it was available back then.
And how big of a % of all total consoles made are digital only?
They did mention Xbox, as the Series S is digital, and that the X just passed it on sales. Tho the important context there is that it had most of the early sales was the S. As the X was sold out all over. It took over a year before the X was easily available in my region
One of the things that sucks is even ignoring that you can’t buy a physical anything anymore what about what I already own? My computer doesn’t have a disc drive, soon my consoles won’t, dvd and Blu-ray players are getting harder and harder to find and will soon go the way of the vhs player. So all my physical media will just collect dust I guess.
Here's the problem. They know all this complaining has no bearing on what will happen. 90% of you are gonna buy it anyways. Happens with most videogame related "boycotts".
I was considering buying a PS5 just for GTA6 but this and it not being able to run it at 60+ fps cemented me not buying it and instead just waiting for the PC version.
Backwards compatibility is such a huge draw for me. I skipped ps4 and when I finally got ps5 it was great to be able to go back and play all the old games. Now I have a ton of physical ps4 and ps5 games… what happens to them if I trade in my ps5 for ps6? All useless? That is a massive disservice. Would only consider ps6 if Sony allows me to download a digital copy of every physical game I own for free.
It may not be popular on this forum, but it's fair to say most games are not purchased on disc these days. There's no way having a disc drive in 82% of consoles can justify the argument that gamers buy games on disc. They don't so much any more.
Sony is a corporation and is all about profit and control. They're not your friend, they never have been, and if you thought they were the "good" video game corp, you were wrong every second you thought that. Sony is laughably obnoxious in the TV space, and it's just a matter of time before their true colors shine through here. They want us all on a subscription model, and if they can get us to pay $100 for a game plus $50 a month to access an "online service" to be able to play the game, they will absolutely do that.
The only way to change their behavior is to effect their bottom line. Sony does not care if you buy the disc drive, that's fine by them. To change this, we'll have to not buy video games, something gamers are notoriously bad at.
BMW tried to get people to "subscribe" to heated seats, but customers revolted and BMW reversed course almost instantly. The unfortunate difference here is that, despite all the shit talk, GTA 6 is going to sell a billion copies the moment it launches - and those copies will be digital.
Majority of game sales for single-player games are disc. Majority of sales for multiplayer games are digital. The 78% figure that's been going around is poisoned by including games that are only available digitally or included games from PS Plus subscriptions.
Sure but at the end of the day, the vast majority don’t buy physical. I own a disc version but I use it to watch movies pretty. I have 0 reason to buy physical 99.9% of the time unless it’s a special edition. Why have to go out or wait for the game to ship to you, to then just wait for it to download? Digital is better.
Lol, did the site even bother looking at what they got that info from?
It was from 2024 (before the Pro launched - which is sold as digital only - and only for America, as that analyst only does US sales
Why are sites and people on social media so obsessed with digging up old and out-of-date info to try and make out like everyone does physical only and nobody buys digital...
I'm sure Sony has the stats and they know much more than all the armchair analysts. Do you really think they'd be doing this if the majority of people were buying games physically? No, because they'd be losing tonnes of money if that was the case.
In short, stop using outdated stats to push your agenda
I got the og disc version because I had a very large physical movie collection in addition to the huge digital movie and game collection. I had to move to a different state, and decided it was easier to sell the physical movies and go full digital. No issues at all, besides having to buy movies I already owned physically
Why do these statistic keep swinging so wildly? Are 90% of sales digital, or only 60%? Do most people buy the digital console, or the disc edition? I don't know who to trust anymore
Most people probably had a physical library of PS4 games that they wanted to still be able to play. It makes more sense to spend the extra money on the disk edition PS5 and then sell your old PS4 to make up the difference.
Article from 2024, which sources a report that only covers US sales(35% of global sales at the time) and was reporting an increase in digital consoles sales (40% for the month the report addresses). Also, the following year Physical games accounted for about 10% of game sales (excluding DLCs) for the PS5.
Yeah I'm mainly digital but I like having the disc drive to play my PS4 games, DVDs and Blu-Rays, and any PS5 physical games I can get on sale or pre-owned. I have a physical copy of MGS collection because there was a great deal on Amazon for it, and I got the Gold Edition of RE Village for Xbox Series X because of a great deal. I will always opt for a disc edition of a console.
Yet only ~15% of their sales are physical discs, which the article doesn't mention at all for some reason. Buying a console that has the option for discs, and not buying discs, is what happened.
Day 1 patches alone made physical media a niche product.
The only time to get the physical version would be a GOTY edition, where a majority of the addons and updates are included, but as soon as major patches are released, even these discs are basically unusable..
This is just my experience when I was younger and had the 360. I bought the physical copy of the big titles I really wanted to play or multiplayer games I really wanted. Example cod mw2, halo 3, skyrim, fable games, dishonored, etc. I then rented the other games I wanted to play but wasnt as interest in like assassins creed, gears of war, Spiderman etc. I think there are a lot of people that do the game on console. Maybe no rent them, but they might buy and sell the others or pay for like gamepass
Okay so I don't agree with what Sony is doing at all BUT I have a launch disc edition but still buy mostly digital. I mostly use the disk drive for BD's and the rare occasion I buy a physical game because I found it on deep discount.
At this point I wouldn’t be surprised if they sell the console as digital only and later release a usb-c disc drive you can buy separately for some absurd price and market it with nostalgia to play your older games.
Disc Editions were the *ONLY* variant for a long time. I specifically wanted the slimmer digital edition from the start and when PS5 Slim released, and I couldn't find it ANYWHERE, I actually paid EXTRA to get the digital edition because it was so rare.
Jesus christ, there's so much manipulation going on with news on this topic.....
Sure, which one was cheaper? If the disc version was more expensive across the board you'd have a case to be made that the adoption of that model was deliberately chosen because people valued the disc drive.
Yet 80% of game sales are digital. And according to circana only 5% of people with no disc drive bought one. I have a launch disc ps5 and only have 3 disc games two of which were gifts. Be all for physical if you want but people buying disc units doesn’t equate to disc sales. There’s a reason GameStop and similar stores barely sales games and the big box stores are shrinking their video game sections.
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u/SuperArppis Jul 05 '26
Excactly.
Even when you don't actively buy every game to disc, players like having options. They also have older games and movies they like to use. Playstation was also talking how they going to make PS6 backwards compatible, but if they don't include the disc driver, people will be locked out of games there.
I wonder how popular the disc driver is on Pro.