The State of the UK's Physical Games Market Might Explain PS5 Pro's Lack of Disc Drive

I dont care what anyone says, this is not good for the consumer.

99% of the games that I buy are digital. The other 1% are Collector's Editions that I rarely open. Indeed, if I buy a Collector's Edition and decide not to open it, but do actually want to play the game, then I often double dip and buy it digitally too. The most recent example of this is where I bought the Collector's Edition of Indian Jones And The Great Circle, which cost me £189.99, and remains unopened. Due to the initial cost, I won't open it, and will likely play it on Game Pass instead (which at least avoids the necessity of actually buying it again).

I have been buying my games digitally since the start of the Xbox One / PS4 era, and as I buy a lot of games, I have now amassed over 1600 digital games in the past 11 years.

The same is absolutely true of my PlayStation digital collection, where all the games that I buy are digital. I just find digital so much easier...

People are clearly willing to pay double, triple, or more, the cost of a game in order to have the convenience of a digital purchase. Fair enough. I’ve done the same at times if it’s a game I really want. Sad it’s so standard though. I do wonder if things would be different if there were actually places you could easily go and purchase a physical game though. Having a decent gaming section at the supermarket for example. All impulse purchases are by necessity digital these days.

But what's the stats for brand new games during launch week? Obviously a large chunk of that digital revenue is from games on sales.

The physical figures also look poor in comparison due to not including second hand sales, physical games are still in demand but a lot of it is second hand.

Without that second hand market a lot of people will be playing less games per year and with an all digital console people will be spending more on a single game but buy less games over the year.

Still love a good physical edition. I miss the whole buying, playing, trading - rinse and repeat times of the late noughties. That has just completely died out with the current trend towards digital. But I do concede digital just offers an easier convenience. I just hope physical doesn't die out completely. Still love to find a physical bargain via CEX or eBay etc.

I live in the UK and buy half of my games physically. I like having a physical collection.

I dread the moment I won't be able to that anymore, and it seems to be coming sooner rather than later.

I wonder if there is a market or even technology in place where Sony can offer like PSN credit to "trade" back some digital games. Obviously not at full commercial. But even like 20%-30% would still be appealing. Don't think they'd ever do it though.

I buy everything in digital as I do not have space in my flat to store physical copies of games and music CDs. I reserve the spare physical space I have for the comic books, as they are still objectively better to be owned in physical form.

For me I currently rent 50% of the games I play through the year, 25% are bought new physically and 25% are digital games that were on a sale. I do not buy digital copies on day one as they are £10-£15 more expensive than a physical copy which I can get most my money back by reselling on ebay once I'm done.

So if there was an all digital Playstation that would mean I play less games and I spend less money on Playstation and spend more money and time on Nintendo (who respect physical media too much to ditch it).

I removed the internal hard drive from my PS5 and now only stream games because I don't want people to see me use any kind of last century physical media

I guess I’m all digital, purchased on PS5 and Switch.
And rented digitally on game pass ultimate for Xbox.
As for the Pro that’s just a shambles on Sonys part not making the disc drive available in stock for those that want it.

I have a massive ps1-4 game collection so don’t have room for anymore physical games so half my ps4 library and 99% of my ps5 library are digital now. I usually play 3-4 games a month so it’s just not practical for me to buy physical anymore

A lot of games don't have a physical release. It's not that England (that's the bit I'm from) is adopting digital more it's just that we have less choice than we did. Most of the games I've bought recently have all been digital and they were all under 50 sheets..I wouldn't have bought them if they were above £60.

@Czar_Khastik 🤣👍

@Fiendish-Beaver Can I ask, as a physical buyer myself, what makes you choose digital primarily, despite the drawbacks such as high cost and not being able to trade in/sell etc? I'm genuinely curious because I see more and more people switch to digital, I just can't do it myself.

I just don't have enough disposable cash to buy THAT many games at £69.99 a pop.

I would buy Digital only when it is something I would like to own in future. But this is 10%. Others I buy physical and resell after since I am not a fan of replaying games. Also, at the end each game costs me 40% of the real price at the most.

I get that digital is the more common way of game distribution these days but I still think a disc drive should be included for backwards compatibility if nothing else. Many folks (myself included) still purchased games physically during the PS4 era. I would like to retain access to those games.

Plus it's a feature. Even if someone never uses it why would anyone want less features? The detachable disc tray would be fine if the demand was met but quite clearly it has not been met as its still difficult from what I hear to find a disc drive for the newer PS5 models.

The people who buy the Pro though will want a disc drive more often than not as they are the hardcore fans and want the best version of the console and that would be one with a disc drive.

I'm mostly digital only. Never really traded games so just sat dust collecting on shelves mostly. Not entitled much so I don't expect to get games for free or near free, buying at launch and selling. Also having the disk drive separate is the best option those that want it can have it (when scalpers run out of gullible targets). Those that don't, looking at the stats in the article is most people, save money on the hardware. Those claim most pro owner will cos they are hardcore and have back catalogue? What hardcore gamers sells there old consoles

I assume UK homes are much smaller than other countries.

Ironically enough, I JUST got an order in for the disc drive at Argos

@Don They are, but also; the UK is actually one of the countries with the largest physical markets. Europe is the region with the highest physical rate in generally too. So these results might be even more skewed in some other territories.

However, it should be noted that digital games on console were also down a significant amount during this period. I don’t recall exactly how much and the thought of a 1 minute google trek doesn’t appeal to me, so let’s say somewhere in the region of 10%. PC sales were also down if I recall, ergo almost all the growth was from the dreaded “mobile market”.

I have the solitary 1 disc for PS5, that being Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart, that came with the PS5…Everything else = digital

and yet the drive is constantly sold out

I'm currently at 193 ps5 discs. I will keep going as long as I can.

As always this is a ridiculous comparison, comparing physical sales to the total of the industry which includes mobile and PC and even on consoles own stores, where there are tons of digital only games.

For big single player releases on Playstation and even more so on Nintendo, the physical/digital split is much closer and often favours physical

Press Cross to doubt

Let me know how physical does next year

When MS release there games on PS,

When PS actually release a big AAA game.

When Nintendo releases a big game (or even switch 2)

Does the digital sales figue include money spent on subscription services such as PS Plus, Game Pass and Nintendo Online, I wonder? If so that could be skewing the figures slightly. Either way it's clear that physical sales have fallen off hard.

@Steelhead No, subscription services were also up by, let’s say, around 10%

Sadly things change and digital is convenient.

@JonnyAces buying and trading in hasn't died out at all yet, there's still a CEX on every high street.

This article is incredibly misleading. Sales revenue in general is down, down 35% of boxed games, but that 1% down is for digital sales across console, pc, mobile, tablet, so is a very unfair comparison. Console digital sales are down by 15% according to your source, but…. Nowhere does it say what the total sales were. Nowhere does it tell the split between brand new games and games on sale, nowhere does it have figures excluding digital only sales. There is no actual insight in this article except that across the board the UK spent less in gaming… which is unsurprising considering the cost of living crisis. But maybe that would make a less interesting article…

I don’t buy games at all anymore tbh, physical or digital.

I pay a monthly fee to rent new games (discs) and any other games I play are F2P (Fortnite, Dreamlight Valley).

The last game I bought was the Tomb Raider 1-3 remaster in February 2024 and that was only because it was digital only (a physical version was released months later).

If the option to rent discs ever goes away I’ll probably only play the F2P games. Anything else I would wait until they were 50-75% off in a sale.

I would never spend £70 on a digital game. Not a chance.

@Ashkorsair exactly. When/if physical dies it means we will no longer be able to recoup any value from second hand sales. Also it gives monopoly to the digital store front holder giving them power to charge whatever prices they wish.

We as consumers have stabbed ourselves in the back.

I like buying discs because of resale value. If downloads were significantly cheaper I'd go digital. Simple.

I have always been a physical media person, as i grew up with it. I cannot accept the fact a digital game can be swooped away without you knowing. Why are people happy buying a digital game they don't own at all. Sure it's convenient, i get that. But owning something should be in your hand & not to be held hostage by Sony, Microsoft & Nintendo in a digital library. I don't buy digital games often at all, unless it's dirt cheap i mean dirt cheap. It truly baffles me when i (myself) can find physical games much cheaper than digital games. For example i bought Neon White for £9.95 a new physical copy & the playstation store same game on sale at £15 recently & another example i bought Elden Ring standard edition for £24.95 for a physical new copy, digital on sale at £35.99. I will quit video games if we lose physical media. I refuse to go "all digital" as they say!!

There are three reasons, in the main, as to why I am all digital, @JB_Whiting;

1. I have a large collection of films and games, numbering well over 2000. The games are from the 360/PS3 era, and I am one of those that prefers to buy my films on blu-ray / 4K. So I simply do not have the space for more physical games (and yes, I know it is a contradiction!).

2. I have the vast majority of my games loaded on to 3 different hard-drives, and the internal hard-drive too, meaning it is very easy for me to simply play pretty much any game I own without needing to leave my chair. That also leans into my third reason.

3. I am disabled with a pretty horrendous back condition, and there are days where I can get down to the floor, where my consoles are, but cannot get back up! 🤣 Some days just moving is very painful, so being able to remotely switch on my console, and start pretty much any game is a real blessing. When it comes to the films, I usually only watch them with my son, and he inserts the disc for me...

For big AAA releases I'm almost always going to get it physically unless it's digital only as AW2 was in 2023.

Smaller games and decent sales offers I'll get digital version but again in physical is cheeper or same price I'll likely get it on disk.

A recent exception was Astro Bot, I bought it digitally at launch as along with playroom it will always be on my PS5 and don't have to look for the disk when my kid are wife or myself just want a quick blast on it.

I'm concerned the future is looking like it could be a niche thing buying a physical game.

We all lose if that's the case

I dont care what anyone says! Im on a hungerstrike until we get a floppy drive back. And not even the small ones, the big ones, that are actually floppy!
Golden age of gaming was when games came drawn on a cave walls anyway! Boo on digital!

Physical for me first.i would buy digital only for the sale.word up son

People in the UK don’t buy games like that. Their sales are always pitiful.

Physical all the way, if they go digital only then I'll work backwards and go retro. I've been collecting for a long and collecting media is it's own hobby so that would definitely be my back-up plan. I'm not worried though, companies like Amazon UK ship a lot of physical games. I've yet to run into any problems.

If it's a game I am really keen or excited for then I'll buy a physical copy. If I then enjoy the game I'll keep it in my collection and if it's a letdown I'll sell it online.
If I'm between games and I want something quick and easy I'll often go digital as there's always something on sale worth a try

I was a die hard fan of PC boxed games back to the 286 PC. Digital only made me quit PC gaming, and move to PlayStation consoles 100%. If PlayStation goes all Digital, I have Nintendo to switch go 100% too.

@JB_Whiting I buy digital due to the convenience but very, very rarely at launch. My backlog is so big that I just wait for a decent sale. By that point the game is all patched up and ready to go.

I am physical all the way and have only ever purchased 1 digital game (unpacking) as I couldn't secure a physical copy from LR, I am not in denial I know it is coming but it is not good for the consumer IMO.

I am a fan of both formats. I have quite the large backlog of digital games, due to the numerous sales over the years.

Over the holidays, I took stock of my digital library, and made the decision to buy physical copies of the games that I would like to own, should the day ever come that Sony shuts down access to our digital libraries.

I understand that if that ever were to happen, it would be a ways down the road, but now it is something that I don't have to worry about.

And in the meantime, I can focus on playing through my digital library.

It's a self fulfilling prophecy. If PS doesn't sell the disc drive and there are no games in the wild anymore, sure nobody will buy them because they cannot get hold of a physical game.

I fancied playing hitman 3 last night and being one of the very few PlayStation 5 games I actually own on disk, having the disc drive whir up and make a terrible noise throughout the game was very very distracting.

I am happy with whatever day-to-day gamers choose. I don't want to take away options or change others.

However, it bothers me if I don't get options, and 'forced' to get just one format.
I did get a big discount on the PS store: 4 games for £10. It would be much more somewhere else.
Now, I kind of feel lucky to have two games from Christmas shopping: I've got FF16 for £12 and Cyberpunk Ultimate for £25. Both are new on disk. The extra cost of disk version PS already paid off.

I wish I could have both formats accessible forever, as that's the best for me.

I can't be mad at you guys who are fully digital. It's your choice. I just wish I would have choices, let's say, 5 years from now, too(I don't think so).

Honestly, I'd love to still be a physical-copy gamer. If only GAME hadn't wiped out or bought out most of their competition bar CEX and then worsened the instore experience year on year, maybe I still would be.

Once buying games on Amazon ended up being the more reliable and enjoyable option, and with the physical options themselves losing all of the extras (...I miss being able to thumb through a physical instruction manual, and by the time I finished buying physical you'd be lucky to get a single sheet), there just wasn't much of a point anymore to avoiding digital versions. I loved physical games for browsing a wide selection of them and the, well, physicality of it all, and both publishers and vendors completely lost touch with that; a boxed game nowadays is like a good book printed on bog roll, sadly.

I doubt they include second hand sales.
And that's where their source of the problem is.
They don't want you to pick up games for a few bucks. It's very rare I'll buy a brand new game. Because most new games are either chopped garbage full of micro transactions to sell what should be base game back to you. Or an absolute buggy unfinished mess. And seeing as games are the only product where you don't get your money back for receiving unsatisfactory product. I struggle to justify it unless it's a "proven game" GOOD LENGTH DEMO collector's edition FF7 Granblue etc.
If I've got to pay for a ps5 pro or ps6 disc drive it's PC time as clearly Sony doesn't value its customers. And PCs always have a better experience.

Adorably all digital future is nearly here 😎😍

The State of Disk Drive Absence, Might Explain Why I Am Not Going to Buy PS5 Pro.

@Barryburton97 not saying it hasnt completely died out. But CEX are kind of the only place to go for trade ins now on the high street, so they can create their own prices without too much competition. Doesn't feel the same as back when you had Game, GameStop, cash converters all doing trade ins. The prices were much more competitive back then. And trade in market felt healthier. It's clearly dying down for sure, which was my point.

@JohnKarnes yup good ole golden child nintendo , the sanctuary for gaming am i right

It'll be a sad day once it stops. Going from paying £0-£10 for a day one game overall to £50-70. Support it whilst it's here

Introduce a new law: You cannot buy tea unless you show a proof of purchase for a disc or cartridge game. Problem solved.

the only thing this data tells me is that the majority of gamers are either:

A) lazy — would rather pay more for something (that is less valuable) because of convenience.

B) come from a pc-centric background where physical media was stripped away decades ago and that culture has seeped into the console space.

C) simply don't understand the repercussions their buying habits will have in the long term — a digital-only marketplace will only make gaming more expensive and more curated than ever.

as we know, there are certain publishers that simply do not drop their prices beyond a certain threshhold even for titles that are 5+ years old. nintendo, activison and fromsoftware titles come to mind among others (i.e. cheaptest price for elden ring digitally is $48CAD but i picked up a new physical copy at walmart for $30CAD). why be at the mercy of digital storefront pricing when you can hunt down a new or used physical copy elsewhere at 30-50% cheaper? then i can sell the game on the second hand market and use that cash to buy a different game if i so choose... or i can hold onto the game and see the value increase over time (in some cases) making it an unexpected investment with a profitable return. whatever the case, it is my choice what i decide to do with the games that i OWN physically. it's just insane that more people don't understand this simple concept or just don't care. to make matters worse, there are people championing a digital-only future, as if it bothers them that physical media even exists and some people prefer it.

this isn't just about games, though. most people don't seem to have a problem throwing away their rights and freedoms when it comes to everything in their lives.

Just awaiting the EU to force Sony to state that digital purchases are merely “licences” and the surge in physical game sales that will follow. It’s coming

Well clearly Sony has misjudged the situation, since so many people are trying to get their hands on a drive.

I think people are going to regret having relied on streaming and digital licenses once the bubble bursts, and their nostalgia is compelling them to play old games.

@JonnyAces yes definitely fewer options these days. Luckily my town has an independent competitor to CEX still.

@UltimateOtaku91 second hand sales don't mean anything though when it comes to publishers and sales

I like owning some good films on 4k but I have 0 Intrest in buying games on physical.

I started going digital on 360 and Xbox one and ps4 was basically all digital from there.

Having gigabit Internet for the last few years helps as well

@Stickleman I know but they may mean something to console sales, those that rely on second hand games might not buy into an all digital console and just stick with the previous console or go to the competition.

I think the appeal for digital games is so many people don't want wait for the games deliveries day one as there is little options now for going to store and no midnight launches for years.

For me personally physical is far more better. I save so much money as they're cheaper to buy which I don't understand. Shouldn't a digital game be cheaper? Why do they cost more to buy

I live in the UK and still buy everything physical unless it's a smaller digital title that traditionally wouldn't get an alternative release (not counting the likes of limited run games etc). Tbh I have no intention to change. If games go all digital, I will significantly reduce my consumer spend on software.

So many depressing sentences in this article, but none as depressing as some dreadful annual football game being the biggest selling game in the UK... get taste people!

I use both, but I never bought a digital full price (70€) game. Most digital purchases are deep sales.
Digital is often much more expensive and it will not get better once physical is a thing of the past.

Once again all the games I bought this year have been physical, I absolutely hate digital.

I understand digital sales are better than physical. Why then is the PS5 disc slim selling, I can only presume better than the digital version. I personally have bought a lot of digital games but they are usually old and on sale. I prefer physical. I suppose it's because I'm an older gamer from a different era.
I've had a suspicious that the lack of a drive with the pro, is more to do with manufacturing issues, than anything else, and we will see a pro with a disc drive later this year.
I got a pro and I was lucky enough to get a disc drive from Smyth's toys a couple of weeks ago. It didn't feel right without the disc drive. There were games I couldn't play. Now it's perfect.

@JimmyRiddle
It should only make a noise for about a minute at the beginning. Then it goes silent.

One issue with all this is that it doesn't include second hand sales and the digital portion always includes micro transactions and dlc revenue.

Couple that with physical collectors usually having a solid hand in playing retro games and publishers and platform holders doing their best to encourage digital means that physical games' availability and production will continue to dwindle.

You only have to look on eBay to see that physical copies of games is still big business. It's just not going back into the industry at all unfortunately.

Oddly, as a physical collector I'm kind of looking forward to it dying out completely. It'll put a clean stamp on my collection and hopefully cause a shift to more substantial competition that forces prices down a bit. It's an interesting proposition really, we'll get to see what happens when a form of media fully dies out physically. If music went completely digital vinyl records would become incredibly valuable. It'll be interesting to see if the same happens with games.

With how many games are physical in your Gamestops or department stores, how many Indie physical, how many Limited Run/Super Rare etc. type companies as well.

No new physical format for people to go wow is going to chance anything either.

How much do people care about their digital content when the 'will' time comes around and people go 'oh' digital purchases/account cancelling happens....... Good luck then. We'd have to rely on archives. So if accounts disappear and all the P.T copies go then archives. I know it's a weird angle but I mean a will is still important and can you transfer digital ownership of an account probably, but the logistics is it's own factor there.

You can't even physical send in and swap to a digital via console makers. Consoles aren't very fair on customer side for purchases and back ups unless to their cloud storage. It's controlled on purpose.

Be glad we don't have PC 1 disk use, tied to owner, can't sell. That pre Xbox One type stuff. Will it come around again? Hmmm.

Same with cloud storage, if you don't use Google Drive for a while, Google does eh, nope and your stuff is gone. Or whatever account sign in/use of things. If the free tier no idea if they count that, if the paid tier very likely so they want to free up space.

I only buy the occasional games anymore I even see that isn't the same stuff, the more copies obvious and they have like 1 copy of the odd games in there every so often anyways at my EB Games.

The focus on digital, less need to go out sure.

If people want to buy clothes and make sure they are the right size/cut and work out sure. Same with shoes. Food I mean delivery sure but going on is probably better for 'what is available' and other factors not just delivery for everything and delivery fees or whatever companies put extra onto that.

So besides going to the store, fuel/petrol costs and more.

How many got second hand games. I did I bought more retro second hand games for retro consoles then I did Switch new/pre-owned or PS4/Xbox One pre-owned combined in 2024.

Beat 20+ PS2/Wii/360/PS3 (not that for each platform but of games I had on those platforms). With 1 Switch game Splatoon 2 so hardly new and was a second hand store copy anyway.

I bought probably 100s that's like what 10% or under I bought and finished.

Second hand sales are never put of stats here, sure they may be small but still make a difference, when they make up a sizeable amount, or else collectors wouldn't bother picking them up of old favourites, or game design/nostalgia being more a preference or random games they find interesting, aka me fitting the later. Not just old big series I'm collecting.

On another note fair PS+ of Stanley Parable, Suicide Squad and NFS Remastered, but got NFS HP Remastered on Switch, OG on 360 and Wii version and binged the Wii entry, need to play more of the OG/Remaster.

I just moved house last week. And I think I'm probably going to go more digital as a result. I got rid of a ton of physical games I didn't really plan on replaying (TW3, CP2077, Shadow of Mordor etc). I don't really game on Nintendo but their smaller boxes were definitely useful for moving (Also I've only played 12 games on the Switch)
The thing is I mostly supported physical but houses in Asia are way too small to actually store physical. My brother pays the same amount of rent in the Netherlands and has a apartment 2.5x bigger than my flat.

@SuntannedDuck2 I feel second-hand is mostly a thing of whales and collectors now. Sure it adds to the stats but I don't think it is as meaningful as you assume. I would love to see someone from GI Biz or Circana look into it though. Maybe, there is more than meets the eye.

I'm standing my ground personally. If a game costs over £20 or so then it's got to be physical as far as I'm concerned. If it does disappear then I guess I won't be spending so much on gaming any more.
Though, as others have mentioned, if the digital revenue includes subscriptions and micro transactions then the numbers aren't really a fair impression on the base game revenue.

I just wanna play games, I don't care if it's digital or physical.
This is such a first world problem.

I want a disk drive for my PS5 Pro, but not for games. All mine are digital now. I want it to play DVD/Blueray discs, which I have many.

@breakneck Your probably right. Though I just laugh at people in the collector scene when they complain about the same narrow range of games anyways while I'm busy getting other games with no price or complaints at all. Sure I saw Lollipop Chainsaw for $200 but I'm not complaining.

So yeah I don't take the collectors/whales seriously either. XD

That or ignore things like Piglet's Big Movie game as like many games, whatever people cling to of 'like this other game' prices go up. It's 'like something else' but people take it too seriously. XD

Also getting such stats too from second hand local stores, department stores, what second hand status of pre-owned, clearance, discounted, and more. Too much effort, not enough users likely anyway to be worth a statistic probably yeah. XD

That and the focus is usually on first purchase stuff or the way digital works of discounts or whenever any purchases so different factors i guess?

If some of those you listed were to go that far I'd read it for sure. I know they likely would into other things but something like that of research/working out stats will have to see.

Maybe there is a correlation who knows.

I mean as if the 'old games' and they are live services or mainstream obvious, when there is those you see comment about playing on their old systems for a number of reasons. I assume not 'all' nostalgia but who knows that is very likely too. But some like me 'don't' fit the criteria.

The fact that over 80% of PS5 consoles sold are the disc edition. Makes me think this whole narrative around "impending death of physical media" is completely manufactured. People still want physical media. Even if they don't buy 100% physical media. If physical media is truly so worthless people wouldn't be overwhelmingly paying extra money for a disc drive.

@Balosi True. Seems like politician levels of skewing numbers to tell a narrative. It might be true that only a small fraction of overall revenue is physical games. But it's also true that around 60% of Sony's first party games are sold physical as well. Basically which numbers you use depends on what story you want to tell.

@Ultimapunch And physical still accounts for 65% of PS5 games in Japan.