Console Digital Only Sales increased 70% year over year. How do you feel about that?

L

lowhighkang_LHK

Member
I'm curious to know how some of you feel about this. Considering most of my PS4 games are digital, I'm okay with it. But I've noticed a lot of people enjoy owning physical copies of games for a multitude of reasons.

According to SuperDataResearch, console digital sales in the year 2014 were at 2.4 Billion USD, while for this year the same tracker listed console digital sales at roughly 4 Billion USD showcasing a roughly 70% increase.

Considering the overall console market in 2015 was estimated to be about 55 billion (which obviously includes both digital+physical and maybe hardware too?), it's obvious digital still comprises a small fraction of the total revenue in the console market space. So those who are physical only probably don't have anything to worry about at least in the next few years...


The benefit of digital versus physical depends on person to person.

Digital helps the environment, allows publishers/developers to keep a larger percentage of revenue, and it has ease of use since you don't need to manage or swap discs. However, the negatives is that you don't own a tangible product, it's taking away revenue from retail store outlets that employs many people, and you can't trade/sell/lend games in the digital space on consoles. Furthermore, there is no promise that once the game is deleted from your HDD, you can later re-download it (see: PT).

Summary: Overall market growth in the entire industry is higher but console digital sales are seeing the highest yoy increases compared to many other categories. Although Physical sales while still a metric ton higher than digital in revenue, we are beginning to see the physical / digital gap close and as digital sales become more and more prominent as we have been seeing as of late, it's likely this trend will continue.

Additional links:
http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2614915
http://files.shareholder.com/downlo...4A2/Nasdaq_Conference_Presentation_vFINAL.pdf

EDIT: Some are saying that superdataresearch revised their 2014 console digital estimate to be higher than 2.4 billion, making the increases less than 70%. None the less, the year over year growth is still significant.
 
A lot of games are digital only, though. They're all over PSN, XBL, etc.

When given the choice, I take physical, because my slow Internet means I'm looking at upwards of 30 hours to download the damned things. I like digital because I don't have to swap discs, but like the resell and convenience value of physical.

Screw the digital revolution, at least until they install better internet.
 
I'm fine with it. Nowadays most physical games are just discs in cheap cases with no manuals and a few download codes anyway. They are about as satisfying to own as an AOL disc.
 
Personally, more power to those that want to buy digital, I honestly feel indifferent about it. As long as I can still buy games physically when I want to then its fine with me. I still think digital prices are a bit ridiculous at times however, but thats another reason to get a cheaper physical copy for me.

Do I want a digital future? No way. Not with the internet we have in Australia.
 
I don't personally care about the form they take. Non-physical is perhaps even better.

The rub is that games need to remain affordable (Largely true on PC), and I need to maintain control over them (Very much a big problem right now).

All digital seems like an eventuality, but we need to have serious reckoning about our digital property rights before we get too excited about it.
 
I'm fully digital this entire generation. I doubt I'll ever own a PS4 disc, in fact right now I go out of my way just not to have it.
 
Must have been all those digital copies of Halo 5.

Edit - Seriously though, I hope this leads to publishers experimenting with lower prices. I wouldn't mind going all in on digital, but not at current pricing, which is almost always far higher than at retail (in the UK).
 
It's going to keep growing. We've got an entire generation of youngsters who have no concept of physical media and when they mature into that 18-34 demographic over the next decade or so you will see digital sales make up a large portion, if not the majority of game sales.

Doesn't bother me at all. I made the switch to digital a couple years into the PS3 era due to convenience. Not ever having to swap discs and having all 80+ games on the hard drive were worth as well as not needing to have an entire shelf set up for my hobby. Digital media makes sense for me and my wants as far as entertainment goes.

One thing I would like to recommend, and this is purely for peace of mind, is to have an external hdd dedicated as a backup. I've got one that I updated yearly just for PS3 games and I plan on doing the same with my PS4 collection once that gets going. They should last decades as well if you only use them once a year to keep them up to date. Since I'm pretty much done with my PS3 collection that hdd likely won't be used for a very long time.
 
Uneasy is how I feel. I'm not bothered about the convenience, I buy a lot of used / retro games, and I trade in games I don't think I'll play again. Also, digital games tend to be more expensive than physical.

Mostly though I like the consumer protection I get from the law if I buy physical products. I am aware of my statutory rights when purchasing them. The laws regarding digital games may have changed since I last looked them up, and if so, then it's my fault for not researching them, but they have always seemed to take a lot of rights from the consumer in favour of power to the seller.
 
I'm okay...I think. :p

3DS:
-22 retail games
-109 digital games

Wii U
-14 retail games
-122 digital games

Only get retail when there's a collectors edition or a game that it's considerably cheaper than digital.
 
the-pi-guy said:
My preference:

Consoles - Physically preferred.
PC - digitally preferred, unless physical is cheaper somewhere.
Click to expand...
Same, even if it's more expensive I always take the physical option in consoles.
 
PS3 era = ~25 discs
PS Vita era = 3 physical games
PS4 era = 1 disc

This says a lot considering I play the same amount of games. Digital is just overall cheaper and more convenient for me.
 
I love digital, especially now that consoles are starting to have some sales.

I still tend to buy physical on full release games a lot of the time -- because I like having that physical manifestation of the game, which also has some ongoing equity -- but sometimes I even buy full releases digital. Right now my time and my energy/attension span are quite the commodities, so if it's convenient for the moment I want to play to just snap something up from my living room and DL it, then sometimes I'll do it.
 
Eh, whatever. I prefer physical discs, and I'll continue to buy those when that's an option... but I'm not necessarily opposed to a game being digital-only, either.
 
Started off as ive always done and bought physical for this gen, but now I'm much more convinced when it comes to digital and I just can't pass up that convenience.

With that in mind generally speaking im only buying digital going forward and as I finish my current backlog im getting rid of the physical games unless it's a game I know I want to keep where I'll wait for it to go on sale digitally.

Just yesterday I purchased Bloodborne GOTY & GTA V (Xbone) digitally to replace my physical copies, and I also purchased The Witness which is digital only at the moment.
 
I'm glad that digital sales are picking up the slack while physical sales seem to stagnate. It's good for the industry.

That said, if I have the option, I prefer to buy physical myself
 
I was apprehensive about Digital Distribution over a decade ago during the Steam Beta.
Ten years of Internet Time is something on the order of eight centuries.

Discs are just there to speed up the download these days anyway.
 
I am still doubting downloads will EVER get any good share in the uk, with most digital games being £55-60 and never really being discounted, whilst the physical version is usually £40-35.

such a shame the retail store market prevents digital competing.
 
BY2K said:
Digital-only future is going to happen, like it or not.
Click to expand...

Microsoft's original plan was one generation too early. However, even if they weren't, with the messaging they had at the start, it would've still been screwed up in consumers eyes..
 
Nah buying digital is scam atm with gcu or prime. Especially if you live in USA and gcu is only 30 bucks for 2 years. You gotta be a sucker to buy digital. Not to mention digital distribution is shaky as it is. No internet? Can't even access the games you dint have installed.
 
On PC, I'm 100% digital.

On console, I want my discs. In a day and age where Comcast caps my internet, I can't be running a PC, an Xbox One, and a Playstation 4 digitally all at the same time. The patches on console are big enough.
 
I'm all digital this gen I only have 2 retail games.

Convenience, not having games cases taking up space are high factors for why I can't see myself going back.
 
4B on a 55B market? Digital has a long way to go.

i will always buy Physical while it is available but i dont mind going all digital if they give us more HDD space since games are pretty big to delete and install all over again.

I have alot of Xbox Live and PSN tittles wich usually come into Physical eventually but those smaller games i always buy Digital, i only like buying AAA Physical so i can borrow to my friends and play in their houses, also because they are too big to download.
 
fernoca said:
I'm okay...I think. :p

3DS:
-22 retail games
-109 digital games

Wii U
-14 retail games
-122 digital games

Only get retail when there's a collectors edition or a game that it's considerably cheaper than digital.
Click to expand...

Is that every Wii U release? I only own around 8 games for it >.>
 
Once it's cheaper to download than to buy physical copy I will make the change. I have about 32 PS4 disc's and 4 digital games.
 
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