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For years now, it's felt like an all-digital future is inevitable — whether we like it or not. Game sales continue to skew increasingly towards digital, we've got publishers deciding against physical editions altogether, and we've even got retail boxes packing nothing but redeemable codes. The optics aren't great if you're an enthusiast of physical media, but all hope is not lost: you might still have a couple of console generations to enjoy before discs go extinct.
That's according to Circana's Mat Piscatella, who's spent his analytical career assessing and reporting on the industry's many ups and downs. Adding his take to an ongoing conversation around limited physical releases on Xbox, Piscatella writes: "Folks should probably just get used to this (no physical Xbox versions) across the market sooner rather than later."
Then, when PlayStation and Nintendo are mentioned, he adds: "Give PlayStation another gen, Nintendo another two". Clearly, Piscatella thinks that an all-digital market will become a reality at some point in the relatively near future-- and we're not about to argue with that, given his expertise.
Now, obviously, this is just a quickfire prediction on social media, but it adds to a very interesting conversation that's been rumbling on for generations.
What's your take on an all-digital future? Is it well and truly inevitable, or will things somehow change over the coming years? Throw a vote into our poll, and then glance at your massive physical collection in the comments section below.
Is PlayStation's all-digital future inevitable? (1,012 votes)
- Yes, it's 100% happening
- Maybe, I'm not fully convinced
- No, something will change
[source x.com, via playstationlifestyle.net]
Comments 104
Another state the obvious analyst. 🤣
They should re name the job, common sense thoughts.
Lol that's ludicrous. People who actually believe this are probably the same people believing Banjo Kazooie or Halo coming to Playstation haha.
Physical CD's and DVD's still exist, as do theatres. Just because alot of people prefer one thing doesn't mean the other goes out of business.
I'll be honest, after being 100% physical and completely against digital games I'd say I'm 60% converted.
I just love the convenience of not having to get up and change discs.
It's mainly the pricing I have issues with, not all the time but more often than not physical games are cheaper than digital and I think it should be the other way around seeing as you don't get a box or any packaging... that saving of not having to provide a disc and packaging should be passed on to the consumer
Considering the PS7 won't probably be out until 2036, I wouldn't be at all surprised
You'll own nothing and you'll be happy.
@Fyz306903
Also most of the games will probably still be cross gen with the PS5 & PS6
We are moving more and more towards a Stadia like platform. The world isn't there yet, but it's going that way.
With the size of games and the fact that many (big sellers) are online only now, it makes sense to have an online client where we log into a server and stream. No downloads, no waiting, etc.
I'm a hold out for physical media (still waiting on my BG3 copy) but I can see where we're headed. But I don't think hardware platforms with completely go away. It'll just look different.
This isn't the same environment where the first Playstation helped usher in CD-ROMs, and the PS3 helped usher in the Blu-Ray format as the winning HD format. With streaming as popular as it is now, even the UHD disks are selling in lower numbers. So while Sony is a movie studio and may have a reason to try to help the Blu-Ray UHD market, it may not be enough to keep the disk in the device.
I'm hopeful the new PS5 format will be something Sony keeps around - all digital by default, but with the option for a connected, semi-integrated drive. But I think the analyst is right - what matters isn't what the die-hard community wants, what matters is what the mass market will buy.
Never going to happen. Anyone with a brain can see this. Sony themselves said something about back when xbox dumped on second hand back at ps4/xone launch. This digital only would harm the second hand market and Sony were against that. Maybe something has changed but I just don't see it happening.
I think that it's totally possible that Sony stops releasing newer titles on disc, but if they're committed to keeping a unified ecosystem from PS4 and beyond, then they'll need to at least provide an option for disc-based games going forward, which will likely take the form of a peripheral disc drive.
“The future ain’t what it used to be.”
Going through my old PS2 games today I have to say I will greatly miss physical.
Personally I still buy 100% physical in the hopes of keeping it alive for as long as possible.
It's coming, I think that's inevitable. As someone who likes to buy physical that's not something I'm looking forward to but I understand it.
There's an environmental angle to this as well, something a lot of us probably disregard. Discs are made from materials which are both non-renewable and aren't biodegradable, so most of them end up in landfills.
The platform I really care about still having physical media is the Switch because storage space is extremely limited and owning the cartridge means holding onto storage space for game saves.
I'll probably be PC-only at that point as I am just getting tired of dealing with multiple devices (well, except for Nintendo systems).
I will probably be 60 by then. I think my physical catalog will be enough till I find enternal rest.
Who knows. Maybe the broken clock will be right this time.
@Intr1n5ic Haha yeah? You really, honestly think so?
The Stadia.. failed.
The Playstation Portable GO.. failed.
The Xbox Series S... pretty much heading the same way.
All three of them were/are digital only and completely failed; if you actually believe a full on digital console will actually be succesfull, then.. yikes. Major, major yikes.
If the physical boxes just have download codes or discs that require additional downloads, then what exactly is the point? At this point I think some people just get off on making their lives as inconvenient as possible to be honest.
For someone who plays 20-30 games per year and with most of those day one this isnt good news for me. The reason I can afford so many games is down to selling them on ebay once I'm finished and getting 60-70% of my money back to put towards my next games. I also rent a lot of games per year which wouldn't be a thing anymore with gaming going all digital, so I'd definitely be playing a lot less games per year and will not be spending as much money either as il be waiting for sales a lot more even on games I'd normally get day one.
So going all digital may also weaken launch sales and possibly overall sales in the long run.
@Maubari How's Steam doing?
I'm done buying consoles after this gen so don't really care either way.
Oh its 100% happening, even now nobody is going to design a new console with a disc drive built in. It's already an add on for PS5 models going forward, Xbox have now added a digital Series X, further diluting their physical market to next to nothing. Even today I only buy physical games for the Switch as it's the only platform where you actually play that physical media.
By the time a PS7 exists I'm not entirely convinced consoles will still be around or at least they'll only be one option to play your digital libraries
Well, not so sure. Remember Alan Wake 2
Seems inevitable, and truly, is SO much better from an environmental standpoint. Says the guy with an enormous physical collection…
maybe by that time sony and microsoft might have screwed up their own fan base so much nintendo might catch up and be the ruler of them all.
Here is where i think it’s going…Company save on costs of disc drives and increase hard drive capacity. Games can be purchased online for download and add a flash drive for regions or users do not have access to internet. They can purchase the flash drive and upload to console. Updates can be made available in flash option as they can be really cheap pending size. There you have it. No more discs with an option to still get the game and cheap to produce. Also without a disc drive maybe all future consoles will be more like switch and be console/handheld hybrids…my 2 cents 🫣
In other news the sky is blue and water is wet but seriously though I wouldn't be surprised if they still sold a separate disk attachment so people can play their discs.
Sky likely to still be blue by PS7 release.
I don't think we're going to have consoles at all in the future. What's the point of having a console with no disc drive? Why not just play the game directly from a computer or a TV? The quality of cloud gaming is going to improve in 10-20 years that games are going to stream well on a TV. The only thing you need to buy is a controller and even that might get standardised, i.e. you won't need to buy a separate controller for each of the three major companies.
I also think Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony are going to have apps where you can either buy a game and stream it or subscribe to their service to access games you can stream.
Once people realise that you don't need to pay €700 for a console in order to access its games, that's when consoles will completely cease to exist.
Removed - inappropriate
It is inevitable. The cost of production and international shipping is extremely high. The second hand/Resale market - which gains Sony NOTHING - is eliminated.
Sony have lots to gain and very little to lose going physical only.
@Kienda i always buy physical unless it’s not available like your PS classics etc. I already have the real versions of most of these anyway so I’m good. But the thought of being forced to buy digital is shocking
@Maubari You don't need to like it (I sure don't), but you got to admit that digital makes a lot of sense for Sony. First of all, they get much more revenue from them, since they don't need to print the disc and case, and the retailer doesn't take their cut of the price (not to mention shipping/logistics). Secondly, Sony doesn't benefit from second hand market. Thirdly, games are going to be bigger and bigger, and I'm not sure that future disc technology can keep up with it. Finally, games are almost never finished on launch day, so you'll need to update it through internet anyway or even download a big chunk of the game.
As for the Stadia, PSP Go and Xbox Series S... Stadia failed because it is cloud gaming with weird payment model, not because it was digital. PSP Go failed because it launched too early for digital to make sense, not all games were available digitally, and Sony was too greedy to support standard SD cards. Xbox Series S on the other hand has apparently sold three times more than Series X. Hardly a failure, although Xbox in general is not going super strong.
I love physical media but I don't think it's guaranteed at all that future consoles will support it. Guess we'll have to wait and see.
@LtSarge Not everyone has the bandwidth and speed to play on demand. Amazon Luna can gobble up 10GB/hour. While the quality of the bandwidth may improve, so will the graphics and quality of the games so they'll always be some kind of correlation.
That will be the day consumers lose out once again. There will be no retailer competition and therefore price wars between them plus we’ll lose the option to resell and recoup some of the investment if we want to.
Yes digital obviously has some benefits but it mostly is beneficial to the company’s selling the goods.
@MrGilly69 That was over 10 years ago.
Nope.its not happening.sony knows the backlash would come.people still buy physical copies.no way its coming.word up son
It's never going to happen and even if it did I'll be too old to care. The ps5 in all liklihood is going to be my last console anyway and I'll be in my 80's by the time I actually finish my backlog 🤣
If Sony were to go all digital, they'd probably need to add other stores on their systems due to EU regulations which would mean the Microsoft Store (with Game Pass included) is forced on there much like how Epic Games Store (and soon Microsoft Store) was forced onto iOS devices despite Apple not wanting it. That is a very strong reason for Sony to want to still support physical media as a result.
I think the fate of physical for Sony/Nintendo very much lies in the hands of retailers at this point. If retailers are willing to sell physical games then Sony/Nintendo will continue to make physical games. Can't say I'm optimistic considering how quickly retailers have been wanting to kill off DVD/Blu-ray recently though.
I can see physical games existing but only if Sony and Microsoft allow third parties to make versions of their systems.
If everything is on them to produce the ONLY compatible hardware with their games then I can see the PS6 and next Xbox being digital only at launch.
I do think that Microsoft have slightly different plans for future hardware compared to Sony though. I'm fairly sure they're looking to partner with companies in the same way that Windows PCs are currently sold. If that's the case then it will be fairly straightforward to offer a disc model too.
Time will tell I guess.
No s#%t sherlock. Don't need a crystal ball to see that one coming.
Perhaps by then Digital will have taken over and it will be time. But don't solely believe the 70% Digital stat Sony pumps out in their investor documents, that is accross all games including Digital only titles, sales etc. so is heavily skewed.
However the Insomniac leak showed very different figures, for Sony's own first party AAA games it was 65% physical, the opposite way around. It seems that for full priced AAA games people still prefer physical over digital. It will only disappear if we let it. Don't.
@Mustoe I think a more likely future is that everything becomes a streaming/download app only.
@Maubari many retailers are removing physical media from their stores. It doesn’t matter if we like to play on discs. Game devs make money on physical by retailers buying the copies, not us.
Sony can also price fix their online store. Want a game? You pay what they want. No paying out a cut like on Steam—in fact Sony can charge third party devs to be on their platform.
@Stragen8 There IS a downside! Aside from places like NYC/LA NOWHERE in the US even has the internet speeds to stream modern games with ANY sort of reliability. You do that and suddenly there would be maybe 1-2 million gamers left in the US that can ACTUALLY use the new hardware. The infrastructure has barely improved here in 20 years so I doubt our market "the biggest market in the globe for the industry" will be ready to stream all games in 10-12 years.
PS+ style that also allows for downloads would be MUCH more feasible than streaming only...
Not too far fetched, but I'll reject it since it's from an analist. All digital will mean all pirated for me.
We're talking about something so far in the future. A lot can change. What will be the state of gaming, consoles and the world then? Maybe there will be a medium entirely different form what we have now. Although we still don't have flying cars or robot maids yet, so IDK.
@Maubari Walkmans still existed... until they didn't
Nobody invests time or money in things that people don't use anymore, and eventually no investment leads to... 🤷
Here's me thinking about avoiding anything with a NPU and eliminating the internet out of my life (which would be hard) to avoid all of this Ai bull crap and such but now seeing this we won't be able to get away from it if it ends up being the case, ill never be dumping, selling any classic games I have now especially if my partner says so.
I've been saying it over and over. Not only is it going to go all digital, the next step is going to be streaming only. Hopefully the Internet is good enough by then to handle it. At the very least storage problems will be a thing of the past. Future generations won't comprehend games needing to be "installed" before playing.
@WiiWareWave That's hyperbole. I live in a rural area of a rural southern state and have 1Gb fiber. It's happening all over the place. Look up CAF and RDOF programs.
I do agree that steaming sucks though. Physical forever.
@UltimateOtaku91 Where do you even rent PS5 games from these days. Genuinely didnt know that was still an option.
i think it might happen with the ps6 to be honest. as the publisher and console manufacturer, why put it off another 10 years if you don't have to? other than the initial PR hit, people will have no choice anyways. i feel like if sony and microsoft both agree to go that route, it will happen earlier than the ps7. of course, with the ps6, sony will likely offer an optical drive for backwards compatibility with physical ps4 and ps5 games but will no longer support physical media with new releases.
that said, this could create drama with the 3rd party publishers as many of them likely do well with physical collector's editions. taking away that option from publishers could hurt them financially and there could be resistance to this change from within the content creators, let alone the general gaming community at large. but one thing is for certain, physical media will cease to exist within the next 10 years or so. if not, i'll be rather surprised.
@jrt87
i don't get invited to parties
I think physical will still be around. A lot of people like to have a physical collection.
I vaguely remember messaging Phil Spencer on Twitter a few years ago that it would be a good move to have a kind of trade in programme where you post them your disc and they credit your account with a digital copy of that game. They could then recycle what they could out of all the discs and the world is a nicer place.
But as a follow up, they would need to create a digital trade in shop in the Xbox store. One where people could list their digital games for sale or trade them with other users. Prices would be set by Xbox based on the number if digital copies etc. available to trade in. In exactly the same way that places like CeX do now.
I think a digital trade in/swap store would be an absolute game changer for the customer. Whilst the initial hit to Xbox or PlayStation could be negated by them insisting on subscriptions to things like PS+ or Game Pass.
But what do I know.
Yeah, not going to happen.
Unlike Microsoft, both Sony and Nintendo sell in a lot of countries where digital only isn't possible, and it ain't a small number either.
Going full digital would help them to cut costs? Maybe, but they also would lose a lot of customers on those countries, leading to less sales overall.
Yay, no one will fully own their games. The best future. Bright side, save money by not buying a console as one of the main reasons to buy a console is to own things physically for me.
@Mince Did you read the whole thing? I hate the idea of a digital only future but can see how companies could be seen to do better when it comes to plastic waste.
I can also see a way for them to 'help' customers move from physical to digital if there was an actual incentive for gamers.
Which is why I also suggested a way for gamers to trade or monetise their digital games.
You don't read things properly pal! End of topic! 😂
Where is the option: "Mankind will not make it to the PS7 release"?
We don't even know if we are going to exist next year and analyst already talking about this, same analyst who said gp would have 100 million subs in 10 years and that sh*t is actually killing xbox instead of growing.
Meh.
@Rgeneb1 In the UK there's a subscription called Boomerang Rentals, I pay £25 per month for three games at a time including new releases.
I'm impressed it has lasted this long. I'm also hesitant to predict what 2 generations from now will look like. It very well could be a sony branded pc at that point.
All digital are lame.
I hate that stupid idea of the future.
They misspelled "discless wonder", if you ask me. I know there are those that would argue it but I think digital only will be detrimental to consumers. You aren't going to convince me otherwise.
@GymratAmarillo Well, there's analysts saying all of us living near the coast are going to die of great floods too. So, I guess there's always other problems to worry about.
I will not pay to borrow a game that is digital. I have hundreds of digital games from PS Plus member ship. That is only because of the low yearly price. I will leave PlayStation for Nintendo if they do digital only. At any point I could just relay on my 1,000's of game I still own dating back to MS DOS days to current times. Who remembers the original ZORK games.
@CielloArc pretty much every new release is technically digital though (even if you own the game physically). i'm against a digital future but we are already there with physical media due to all the mandatory updates and patches which can be in the dozens of GB's in size. if people don't have access to decent internet, they can't be part of modern day AAA gaming as it stands. that really sucks but my point is, physical media has already lost a lot of its value. the ps2 was the last era where physical media was the real deal and it has steadily gotten worse and worse. sure, the idea of ownership is stronger with physical media, but being at the mercy of mandatory updates really kills the idea of fully owning anything.
i’m sorry but console definitely won’t even be relevant by the time ps7 comes out anyway. I like console but it’s feeling more obsolete than it ever has these days and PC has come so far that if sony and MS continues to release their games on it , then it’s pretty hard to play on their consoles . at that point you’re just doing it out of loyalty
@IntrepidWombat Not hyperbole. The entire state of Arizona has crap internet and I'm sure many other areas in the US do. I live 30 miles from Phoenix in a city with over 125,000 population and our internet drops every few minutes and bounces between a few thousand BPS and 1 GBPS. It doesn't matter where you are in the state, the internet is just as unstable and bad...
I really don't care what "analysts" say.
We'll see where we are when we get there.
I guess this is the future, I mean they gave us an all digital PS5 from the off this gen. But at least this analyst thinks we’ll get at least one more gen with a disk drive. I’ve been buying games digitally across different platforms for years now though.
@nomither6 massively cost saving for me, thats why i still game on PS5, and I own a good laptop
@Andy22385 i’m more so talking about in the future if there is a PS7, not right now
It's why you need to keep your consoles people why I will continue to keep my PS3 and I've have a PS2 as well. Ps5 handles my PS4 games fine
It's inevitable at this point. I've been 95% digital for years now so not really a big deal for me personally. I think the big 2 want this to happen sooner than later and are just waiting to see who goes all in first to take all the heat. As long as the account system is strong I don't have any issue with it but I'm sure many will. Ah well like I said this is inevitable.
That being said these "analysts" are idiots overall. Remember Patcher saying 360/PS3 was going to be the last console generation lol 😂
Not a given. Look at the originally digital-only Baldur's Gate 3 and Alan Wake 2. There will always be a numerous number of physical enthusiasts refusing to give in to the farce of forced digital purchases.
@jrt87 well said.
Good. About time.
I doubt physical copy will be gone and console gaming will go full digital. That just limit the market for anyone who wants to play console games but they has limited internet quota and speed to download 50-100 gigs /game. COD alone is 300 gigs which is nuts.
But at the time PS7 came out, i'm probably already stop playing games because getting old with your bad vision and can't sit down for more than one hour...
With House sizes getting smaller I think digital is the way to go in the future just because it is difficult to store disc's. I still buy disc's when there is something cool with them but it has reduced drastically. Also with Dlc and patches the disc no longer contains the 100% game. Even Mario Oddysey had updates which renders the cartridge playable but no longer the 100% product
@carlos82 Xbox unveiled a 2Tb Xbox Series X in their recent showcase even though they are the ones who actively push digital-only format in the form of Gamepass, then Nintendo ain't ditching a drive system for their successor to the Switch console either.
Another thing to consider is that they is zero sales for the digial format and then Playstation can charge whatever they want and force delete the entire game from your library at anytime, as what happened several times before.
Then is the issue of broadband connection. Players would be forced to have a full-fibre NBN connection, that in Australia costs well over $AU130 / month for a 250Mb/sec connection. A 50mbps connection won't cut it anymore given the game's 150-200Gb file size. Anyway, those that have Gamepass Ultimate can opt for Cloud gaming for every new title that alleviates hours upon hours of waiting time.
@Sergo I didn't get that game because there wasn't a physical copy version of that game available. I'm not going to lie sometimes I do wish I can just push play on any game without putting a disc in
@MrGilly69 why Sony would support second hand market? They gain nothing by those trades. Here in Australia, we have 3 physical chain stores that run by second hand games and not a penny goes to Sony from them
@Intr1n5ic you just said something to have an answer even irrelevant. Steam is on PC not console!!!
@2here2there He listed three devices he believes failed because they were all digital, I don't agree with his reasoning. I mentioned Steam because not only do Valve have an incredibly successful all digital handheld, but they also have one of the most successful digital storefronts in a market that's now growing faster than console. If they were able to completely revolutionise PC gaming and help make physical obsolete, why is the likelihood of the same thing happening to console in the future an impossibility?
If you take a look at what's going on in every market, be it music, film, gaming etc, you'll realise they're all declining year on year in physical sales. Whether we like it or not, that's clearly the direction we're heading in.
It amazes me that people actually still listen to that Bozo the clown lol
@SingleStooge that 2tb Xbox is a limited edition and they'll be producing and selling way more of the digital Series X and I didn't even mention Nintendo, it's common knowledge the new Switch is backwards compatible.
Sure the Internet situation is bad in certain areas today but this is talking about when a potential PS7 launches, which realistically is probably well over a decade away
@nomither6 they'll always be relevant because of the value. Until PCs can be bought for 400 that overpower them, there will always be a market. Plus a lot of people aren't as technically minded and just wanted a simple plug and play, and owning a gaming laptop myself they're rarely just plug and play.
@Andy22385 You save more overtime with a PC than you do with a console, couple with paywall online, more expensive games that go on sale less . PC you buy once, and then buy upgraded parts for less than you would buy a $500 console every 6-7 years . PC is also plug and play too , it’s not hard to game on PC anymore
The moment this happens is the moment i won't buy another console and go back to PC gaming.
I buy some digital games now, but i still have a choice now. As soon as it's digital only you get vendor lock-in which is exactly what we do not want.
If the future is PC gaming only, I will just quit this hobby.
@savarunl If the future is PC gaming only, I will quit this hobby.
Paying for overpriced GPUs just for better resolution, fps, and mods, it's just not my thing.
@Mustoe Yeah I agree. I think some of the comments here are simply an unwillingness to accept that.
@Psnfanboy79 I meant that Alan Wake 2 did not sell good as expected and at the end they releases it on physical. But i do agree on the other point, it is comfortable to just hit play.
With movies and music I absolutely prefer hard copies, in fact I Insist on it but with games I don't really care, i always thought I could gift my entire libraries to someone else anyway but I see some companies insisting on 2fa on accounts which would make signing into these accounts even harder so I might not be able to gift them after all
If there will be no standalone physical medium containing my bought product I'm out. 🙂 I also have so big backlog that I have something to play till the end of my times.
I just simply not accept when I DON'T GET my product to use it way I want.
anything could happen so don’t count your chickens before they hatch
also analysts said that the switch 2 wouldn’t do as well as the switch, which given its nintendo we’re talking about, i seriously doubt that would do wii u levels
So like 2030s mabey 2040s 🤷
That's when I'll check out of console gaming, then. I have no interest in a digital only console future. Less rights and control over my library. Higher prices.
Analyst? is that an actual job? What a FKn joke. Pretty certain they were saying about an all digital PS5. Now it's pushed to PS7 🤣. These Analysts remind me of the people saying that the end of the world was happening in 1999 at the turn of the century.
@Danbottomburp hmm I'm the opposite I guess. I listen to Death/Extreme Metal and have almost all my albums purchased from Bandcamp and Amazon digitally and downloaded and transferred to an DAP. With games I own a lot of digital but also physical especially collector editions and I REALLY don't want to see an end to it.
@Mustoe I meant completely digital with NO physical media
@Mustoe thanks! I love yours as well, and Quake and pretty much every thing ID have done. DooM 3 and Dead Space 1 are my favourite horror games. I really want a true horror-like sequel to Doom 3. Not holding my breath to be honest. As for my original comment I don't deny that by PS7 it will be all digital. I just don't think analysts have any more of clue than anyone else. I've read several times analysts making nonsense predictions that haven't happened.
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