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Chris Dring: In Europe, PS5 game sales are 32% physical, Xbox Series sales are 19% physical, and Switch sales are 65% physical (2024 data via GSD)

Three

Member
Sony's premium console cutting standard features to save on cost is a funny thing to advocate for. Why not release it with a 1TB hard drive and get the cost down even further?


The feature isn't cut, it's sold separately. My point was why do you believe that a disc version of a Pro wouldn't be even more expensive. Is the Digital PS5 and Regular PS5 the same price? If they had sold two SKUs like PS5 regular and priced the disc version even higher would that have been OK?

Nobody is advocating for higher prices or patting anybody on the back for it but a cheaper price is unrelated here to its inclusion, since it would have likely cost even more with it. I think you just took somebody mentioning Sony having user data to increase storage rather than use the BOM target price to include a drive ( that a lot of users wouldn't use) the wrong way.

2 skus for a lower volume than regular PS5 piece of hardware would have only increased price further too. You would have people paying even more for things they wouldn't need if the disc drive wasn't optional like it is now.
 
Holy false equivalency Batman! Laptop internals dictate thickness, unit size, and heat - factors in portability. Based on the design of the PS5, PS5 Digital, and PS5 Pro, Sony doesn't seem to think the PS5 is portable, and so doesn't give a shit about the thickness or size. Do you think the PS5 is portable?

If you're gonna whine and moan about spending $700 for a console w/o a disc drive but shell out thousands more for a PC w/o a disc drive and pretend like that's not price gouging either then you are a hypocritical phony.
 
European Switch gamers saving gaming as usual
Plot twist: Nintendo spots another cash grabbing opportunity and decides to make all its physical games on a limited run supply, thus enabling scalpers to buy them by the truckload and exploit diehard Ninty fans who are willing to blow out their life savings for limited stock physical games.
 

Woopah

Member
Not sure it is a shame.

People buy physical because they can sell it or other advantages in terms of being able to install after it is no longer available on servers, but there have always been downsides to physical. It just seems like people want to ignore those downsides and call it rainbows and gum drops.

Many of us likely will be able to keep playing our games in 20 years, many cases at boosted resolutions and framerates, where as your precious discs are going to be worthless tied to archaic plastic boxes that will break down over time.

People who still buy physical today do so with the knowledge that they're driving off a cliff. Like buying VHS tapes thinking you're entitled to DVDs or DVDs thinking you're entitled to blurays or blurays thinking you're entitled to 4k blurays.

This has always been the burden of physical media. Best that many wake up to it sooner rather than later.

I bought 2 discs of PS4 games that I'll probably never play. Kingdom Hearts collection and Cyberpunk. I paid 10 dollars for Cyberpunk, if I have to buy it again, I won't mind. Kingdom Hearts collection, I also got on sale and don't necessarily want to play it again. The games haven't aged well and I haven't heard good things about KH3.

I still own a PS3 and quite a few digital games there as well. Including most of the PS1 games that I have a special attachment to. Most PS2 games I care about have been remastered thankfully.
It will be a shame for me as a consumer, as I like being able to swap games with my friends and family.

I'm not expecting my PS4 discs to work on the PS7, or my Switch carts to work on Switch 3. But it would preferable to me if I was able to buy a PS7 game, complete it and then lend it to a friend.

I get that this is not what businesses want, but it will be a shame for me personally to not be able to do that.
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
It will be a shame for me as a consumer, as I like being able to swap games with my friends and family.

I'm not expecting my PS4 discs to work on the PS7, or my Switch carts to work on Switch 3. But it would preferable to me if I was able to buy a PS7 game, complete it and then lend it to a friend.

I get that this is not what businesses want, but it will be a shame for me personally to not be able to do that.

Games cost way too much for a developer to lose all that revenue because you lent the game to a friend at no cost.

At least you recognize that its a personal issue.

Only thing I would say is, personally I want that sequel or I want that studio to exist. Their financial health is vital.
 

Woopah

Member
Games cost way too much for a developer to lose all that revenue because you lent the game to a friend at no cost.

At least you recognize that its a personal issue.

Only thing I would say is, personally I want that sequel or I want that studio to exist. Their financial health is vital.
I definitely see the logic in that, particularly for games from mid/small studios or franchises.
 
Well one problem that many ppl overlook are retail brick and mortar shops getting broken into by thieves that steal physical games and systems, which can be costly for both the retailer, manufacturer, and the game companies. Then there's also black market practices in the PC market sector that have forced the hand of many PC game devs to resort to solely selling only digital games.

Moral of the story: stop stealing physical games or doing stupid shit that violate copyright laws
 
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sainraja

Member
Why should people who don't play online be forced to pay for networking hardware? Sony's making money hand over fist - I think asking for the most expensive console in the history of their company to include basic features is much of an ask, frankly. I do smile that your argument once again advocates for Sony making more money instead of advocating for the best deal with their customers. I think your opinion is a little tainted, friend.
You seem agitated or annoyed for absolutely no reason. Sony is a business and they are not doing this as a charity lol and they can (unfortunately) charge what think, for their product. You can decide if it is worth it to you or not but it's not a device being designed just for YOU.

Given where things are going and the data shows it, I can see why they added more storage and made the disc drive optional.

He made a simple enough point and provided a reasonable explanation. That somehow triggered you. Do we want a digital future? Well, some of us say we don't but that is not proving to be true based on data, so we need to define who this "we" is. Hell, I want the option for physical to be there always but I haven't bought a physical game to play in a long while... for any system.
 
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DeepEnigma

Gold Member
It's probably due to Helldivers 2 being sold overwhelmingly digitally on PS5 (this title alone moved million of units on the system). If there were bigger (and successful) AAA releases like in 2023 the physical ratio for PS5 would be noticeably higher than 32%.
im-doing-my-part-dogecoin.gif
 
Many of us likely will be able to keep playing our games in 20 years, many cases at boosted resolutions and framerates, where as your precious discs are going to be worthless tied to archaic plastic boxes that will break down over time.

Odd, I’ve got a bunch of Saturn and PS1 discs that are 30 years old and work just fine.

No breaking down going on here.
 

pasterpl

Member
This is Europe only, probably without UK, which is even more digitally focused. Add USA to that and that digital % will increase further.
 

gtabro

Member
And in my European collection 99% of the games are physical. 1% goes to Baldur’s Gate 3 PC since Steam killed the proper stand-alone physical releases with keys on the manuals, but at least GoG Master race exists where you still buy the game and not a license for the same price lmao

doctor who laughing GIF
 
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mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
People's worldviews are being absolutely crushed.

Sony based on data increased the PS5 Pro to 2TB and left the disc drive optional lead to pitch forks, but the writing was clearly on the wall as to why they did it.

They've been very data driven this generation and people who don't see that data and don't think critically, but instead emotionally are always quick to respond...

Physical is dead and dying. PS6 will probably have digital only SKUs with an optional drive like the PS5 Pro. PS7, probably no option for optical drives at all. Optical discs simply don't make a ton of sense for gaming into the future.

I believe the bolded. Another issue\question is......."what type of physical media could Sony even have for the PS7?" That's a real issue, that'll have to face in 15 years.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
If you're gonna whine and moan about spending $700 for a console w/o a disc drive but shell out thousands more for a PC w/o a disc drive and pretend like that's not price gouging either then you are a hypocritical phony.


Thats It Martin Short GIF by PBS SoCal


This is Europe only, probably without UK, which is even more digitally focused. Add USA to that and that digital % will increase further.

Now do the same with South American countries and Japan........then lets see where we stand.
 

Aenima

Member
The moment consoles become digital only machines, is the moment i stop buying consoles. Sad to see the adoption to digital format being so big in Europe, but in countries like Japan is the oposite where physical format is still king.
 
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Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
I believe the bolded. Another issue\question is......."what type of physical media could Sony even have for the PS7?" That's a real issue, that'll have to face in 15 years.

That's another problem if compression doesn't keep up with game sizes. You're not going to pioneer and fabricate a new optical disc medium for the amount of physical sales that remain out there and games won't fit on a single 4k bluray disc without requiring online installation of files anyways.

They can probably get away with 4K bluray as an option on PS6, but a lot of games won't release on disc if it requires multiple discs and a lot of retail will just be redemption codes.
 

mckmas8808

Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
That's another problem if compression doesn't keep up with game sizes. You're not going to pioneer and fabricate a new optical disc medium for the amount of physical sales that remain out there and games won't fit on a single 4k bluray disc without requiring online installation of files anyways.

They can probably get away with 4K bluray as an option on PS6, but a lot of games won't release on disc if it requires multiple discs and a lot of retail will just be redemption codes.

Is there a quadruple layer Blu-ray disc that Sony could use for the PS6 that has 200 GBs of size or something?
 

Mibu no ookami

Demoted Member® Pro™
They can always resurrect

But I don't see it in the current world of licensing and licensing rulings now. And the end game for all companies for you to own nothing and be happy.

This isn't a feasible option. It's not commercially viable and it is only used for enterprise storage in line with data tapes.

You don't see any resurrection for PC games via physical media even though you could sell games at a significantly higher profit outside of steam on disc. The biggest problem there is piracy and putting games on disc encourages that.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
This isn't a feasible option. It's not commercially viable and it is only used for enterprise storage in line with data tapes.

You don't see any resurrection for PC games via physical media even though you could sell games at a significantly higher profit outside of steam on disc. The biggest problem there is piracy and putting games on disc encourages that.
We are talking about consoles here. PC threw in the towel after the Trojan Horse DRM for HL2. Kicked and screamed, but eventually caved.

Same will happen on the console side.
 
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