Sales Data Paints a Very Grim Picture for Physical PS5 Games in the USA, UK

Textbook definition of loud minority.

That right there is why Sony won't bat an eyelid to those YouTube and X replies. People can complain all they want but maybe instead of aiming your hated at Sony maybe you should try convincing more people to support physical releases instead.

And why should I care that other people prefer digital?

Thank you for that information.

This is really not good for physical bros...

It shows that this small percentage of gamers is very vocal on sites like this one but doesn't represent the majority of gamers. You should see the gamers on Nintendolife complaining about key cards.

But physical conspiracy theorists say Sony are lying and that physical is doing just fine and that Sony are forcing a fake narrative? 😂😂😂

And this is why it’s an adorably all digital future for PlayStation.

Holy s*** that's wild!

@UltimateOtaku91 People forget Sony have the data of every single PS account as well as pre-order numbers for GTA, Wolverine and such. They know full well the no life's on Twitter and Youtube comments are a very loud but very small minority.

@DennisReynolds

True .... if you believe the numbers and only for North America, other regions would show differently I think but it is what it is. I think this will blow up in Sony's face as more people move to PC and other systems who offers MUCH better backwards compatibility

@get2sammyb Indeed.

This is why I laugh when people saying no physical games will be the end of Playstation. I get people being upset but let's be real. The little "boycott" is going to do nothing. The writing has been on the wall for awhile. I didn't think it would happen this soon though. 🤷‍♂️

@somnambulance Resale is something all platform holders try to gain information on, in a rather unscrupulous way or two. However, no, second hand trading does not account for any sale with a platform to the platform holder and benefits them in no way directly.

Kinda crazy when you actually see the numbers.

@The-punishr and right on cue.

Consoles players don't give a damn about PC gaming. If people wanted to PC game they would have done it years ago. If the majority already digital game why would they move to PC what's far less accessible and far more expensive? My sisters BF was going to upgrade his years old PC last year but she fell pregnant so spending 1000's to upgrade is not viable, now that the baby is here its even less viable to the point he's considering selling his gaming PC and Switch 1 (never uses it) and buying a PS5 Pro to keep up with gaming. That's an example of a PC gamer struggling to keep up with the cost of just upgrading a PC.

@The-punishr I do remember when the PS4 came out, everyone moved to PC and other consoles then too, due to a lack of backwards compatibility with all three previous consoles, didn't they? Oh, wait ...

I'm all for PC gaming, but let's not all of a sudden pretend that any other console is going to be cheap the tail end of this decade, or that PC parts are going to be well priced.

@somnambulance
Indeed, your final point there is the real crux of the whole issue.

Only a very small percentage of gamers really care about 'game preservation' and physical collections anymore.

Most of the noise is because the vocal minority are actually upset that they can't buy and sell on eBay anymore.
Every resale is a sale Sony didn't get for the game they developed, so why shouldn't they attempt to get those sales back?

@somnambulance Resale market doesn't matter as Sony and MS make nothing from it, killing it would benefit them more then anything. Not defending that just being realistic.

Doesn't matter, really. This isn't the reason why Sony is discontinuing physical games and we all know it. They want to destroy the second-hand market and take total control of pricing. They want a future where the only way to buy a Playstation game is to buy it directly from Sony, at full price. That what this is, and has been about.

Read the full data before rallying on the comments justifying Sony’s decisions as if you were shareholders yourselves, sure only 7 games have managed to sell more than 100,000 copies but 35% for Ghost of Yōtei is still pretty significant, specially since it being a first-party game it relies solely on selling copies on PS consoles, by ceasing a physical release they’re essentially forfeiting 1/3 of sales for any first-party game which only spells future problems for first-party studios.

I still find it jarring they went for the nuclear option of ceasing physical discs altogether instead of keeping it as a more expensive and niche option for those willing to pay for it, they easily could have found a middle-ground to make everyone happy (or not as mad) they simply chose not to.

I think it's time to focus on getting digital ownership sorted rather then physical at this point guys 😬

How much of this is not enough physical copies being made? We saw for example that Capcom didn't make enough physical copies of Requiem and Pragmata.

Interesting data. Are we even presuming that those seven games even came out from this year?

@Oram77 Sorry my friend, but I will be fighting till the bitter end…

And by fighting, I mean moaning on Push Square probably.

What happens when Sony loses the Wolverine license? Does Sony remove it from the store and peoples accounts like what happened with the Studio Canal movies?
Is there any precedent?

The one potential way to view the data is that we don’t know by how much the games sold above 100K. Did RE9 sell 120k physical, or 900k physical?

@Oram77 100% agree, its time to start putting some road signs instead of fighting to bring horses back.

@Bizzy there’s precedent when it comes to superhero games. Activision had the Spider Man licence last, and all their games are delisted from digital storefronts.

@species it is possible to fight for both. We shouldn’t be fighting for one or the other.

70 million physical PlayStation 5 games were sold in FY2025, 22% of all PlayStation game sales. Many PS5 games are not released physically (i.e. indies, or games like Mixtape, Dispatch, and ARC Raiders), or have limited print runs (i.e. Pragmata was famously difficult to get a hold of physically). Not saying this is all of it, but it makes the situation more complicated that it originally appears.

To get an idea of what 70 million physical game sales looked like compared to other consoles (i.e. to try and strip out the effect of counting the purchase of a $5 indie and $70 AAA game equally) I did the comparison versus PS1 to PS4 physical game sales for their sixth years on the market. That calculation of 70 million physical games comes to 34.5% (PS1), 31.11% (mainly PS2), 42.56% (mainly PS3) and 42% (PS4) of what was sold is terms of physical games for FY99, FY05, FY11 and FY18 respectively.

Some recent games, such as Astro Bot, sold better physically than digitally (at least in Europe). The physical vs digital game split very much depends on game type; single player games do far better in terms of physical sales. Did we really have that many big PS5 story games release so far this year? It's definitely an interesting issue, but we'd need more information before we could draw definitive conclusions from this data.

I am disappointed by the move away from physical personally, but I can understand it. What is absolutely piss poor on Sony's part is the messaging and subsequent radio silence.

I would like to know, for example, what their intentions are for the PS6, will I have any option at all to play my physical disks on this new console, perhaps my PS5Pro disk drive will work with PS6? I'd like to know as it may change my decision to continue buying physical games now.

Sony need to sort out their Comms, they are absolute garbage at present.

@somnambulance Oh, I can assure you, this is almost entirely a beg and pleading mission from both companies that sell second hand games (the original Change.org Petition Creator), Cex, GAME and the like ... then those who buy second hand.

Now I see nothing wrong with that, I do find myself getting a slight bit of personal frustration from how disingenuous some people/companies have been with their motives.

However, I support second hand anything, I just of course also understand, as Sammy has pointed out and we all know, IP holders get no money from second hand trading, so all industries try to find ways to monopolise on it.

This obviously doesn’t count all the second hand game purchasing and trades between friends that physical allows. No short term money in that so it’s not looked at, despite keeping gaming alive and active between generations and those on lower income, like teenagers, who will spend more money when older.

@get2sammyb Another question to add, how many blockbuster releases actually came out this year? RE9 and James Bond? 2026 has had plenty of good games, but how many big mega blockbusters have come out?

Not saying the numbers would suddenly go up, but take a game like Pragmata. It may have sold 100K physically, but did it sell more than say 500K digitally?

@ShadowRJ I wish you the best, i would hate to see the world without physical media. Its just not the hill i, personally, chose to die on

@tempest984 How many of those games were sold in the US? I’d love to see digital vs physical splits across different regions across the globe.

@species which is fine. I’m not demanding everyone joint a cause they don’t truly believe in. I’m also not so delusional that I’m demanding Sony to fill up stores again. What I personally want to see is for Sony to license the discs out to boutique publishers.

Too many people on here have an elitist mindset against other gamers.

I’m a physical gamer for three main reasons.

1. My games look amazing in my shelf.

2. I can share my games with my family and friends (I’m very social and know many gamers, including my brothers and all our kids).

3. I sell my games and make money back.

I have never claimed Sony was making a bad business decision or that this would “be the end of Sony” or even cared much about game preservation. A lot of that is done digitally.

But for me personally, this is a massive kick in the teeth.

Yeah, these numbers aren’t great. But DVD sales aren’t great either and yet they still exist.

I just wanted more time to enjoy games the way I enjoy them. And I resent Sony for forcing my hand.

And I think gamers belittling other gamers over this is really low.

@Kienda I’m with you mate. There’s no logical reason for us enjoying things the way we want to enjoy them. We just do.

but...but...I thought everyone was upset about physical going? but..but...there were so many in favour of it in all the polls on here, and I was told the sample bias in them was irrelevant?

hahahahahahaha

@DennisReynolds @somnambulance @LiamCroft I mean, from what I've seen data-wise is that the resale market makes up well over 95% of the physical market, so it's far from as cut and dry and Sony is making it out to be. In all likelihood people have been voting with their wallets when it comes to $70-$80 physical games at launch this generation which is why retail sales are down, but second hand sales are still holding strong, unfortunately Sony just keeps cherry picking information in a way that suits their narrative...🤦

Doesn’t tell the whole story though, is that 7 games published by Sony that sold over 100000 copies or all PlayStation games and only in the USA, pretty sure that leaves a pretty big market still in the rest of the world, we will just keep getting fed half a story to justify what they want to do, doesn’t make it right. I mean those seven games may only have sold 150000 total in the USA so it would 66% physical sales and only in the USA

Just depressing, man. Such a shame people don’t care about owning their games. Wish we could go back to when gaming in general was niche. Guess I’m old now.

@Kienda Just wait till the other two to force your hand on their platforms too....

Sometimes we have to look at that minority as the problem here, we’re giving reasons for more control over options. It’s just the way the future is going, are people going to accept that? No not really. What’s the solution? Buying more physical games and convincing millions of people (impossible) to do just that and they’ll realise? Doubt it. In the end we can’t have nice things and humans are the reason for it. In a world of streaming, digital currency and the rest, we’re expecting every major company to not follow through with these implications? It’s just a trend for people to throw shade the real problem is literally in our faces.

I’m guilty myself for buying digital I hate it dying too, simply because I’m all nostalgic, enjoy the physical aspect of it and I like the idea of owning it outright without no expiry. Will it still be accessible to buy it all online afterwards? Probably yes. They just need a way to convert physical media into a digital library or have some type of resolution like limited releases or something.

@TensuraFan7 do we have any sales data for that?

@ManicMitch Yep, plus the US economy has been in shambles since Covid back in 2020 which is why retail is struggling across the board. It's not just games and entertainment, even grocery retailers are struggling, and last I checked, our food and essentials are all 100% physical as digital food that can be eaten will never exist outside of possible full-dive VR.

Not surprising at all. The physical buyers are just a loud minority. I am one of them and unfortunately I understand their business decision.

@Hylian-Likely But you dont own the game just because you own the disc. Sony can still kill a physical game, and they did on multiple occasions.

@Oram77 yeah, but right now they are not doing that, only Sony is.

I’ve owned every console every generation. I’m not biased against Sony. In fact, I own more PlayStation games in total with PS2 being my largest collection.

@ShadowRJ I'll have to find the link, been like a year, so it's going to be like a needle in a haystack to find lol.

@species have they?

@get2sammyb as an older gamer with more cash at hand, I’d love this.

In fact, I have double dipped on games because I want the ease of a digital game without switching discs all the time alongside wanting to have the game on my shelf. Especially if is a game I jump in and out of a lot.

I also have paid more for special editions and collectors editions.

I just love having physical reminders in my house of games I love.

If only they could, like, downscale production to better match this demand. But no, I guess that's impossible. Just kill it all off!

@Balaam_ "Intellectual elite"

Can we not all have a discussion without this yet again becoming some self-righteous parade of appendage sizing.

@species owning games physically isn’t just about the ownership of it. It’s about having it in your hands, the ability to use it, the fact that it actually exists as a product and not as a string of data you can’t see.

It’s hard to explain, but there’s a sensation to physical you can’t get with digital.

@get2sammyb You seem to suggest a very logical set of ideals as a proposal of what could be, I'd support and encourage that. I'd actually purchase more on disc if I knew it would be more of the "game" so to speak, so after patches, maybe with booklets and so on.

There are far fewer people in America than there are in the rest of the world, twice as many people live in Europe then America and that's just Europe not including rest of the world, so these figures mean absolutely nothing just pushing the narrative that Sony want you to believe.

@DennisReynolds @DennisReynolds The no lives?

@ShadowRJ I agree with you and all those points are valid. While 99% of my ps5 games are digital, my nintendo games are mostly physical. I also miss the 90s when the game came woth a little book(warcraft 2 art book).

Im just saying that even tho you own a disc doesnt mean you own the game, legally. Many physical games you cant play anymore, The Crew being probably the most infamous.

@Max_the_German
I think the point is that Sony doesn't care that you and seemingly a minority of the actual purchasing consumer base prefer physical.

@species

"But you dont own the game just because you own the disc. Sony can still kill a physical game, and they did on multiple occasions."

So what you're saying is..
If in 20 years time and if Sony has delisted/deleted a game digitally, maybe even closed the PS5 online store and I decide that I want to dig out my PS5 and plug it in (maybe not even connect it to the internet) and grab my disc copy of said game, that I will not be able to put that disc in my PS5 and play it?

@species which occasions? I’m not familiar other than Concord I guess

@ShadowRJ Unfortunately the data wasn't subdivided by region, just total global sales. I think it came from the original Sony end of year reports for investors, many of whom might be more interested in just overall figures. It would definitely be interesting to get the regional data.

I do know that for 2024 or 2025, one set of figures stated that North America was supposed to account for 37% of PlayStation total revenue, Europe for 34%, and Asia-Pacific for 19%. That isn't just games sales, but includes DLC, purchases of V-bucks, etc.

I’m gonna miss buying a stack of games for $20 a piece on black fridays. Total bummer.

@Bizzy Not if the game is The Crew, and some others.

@Hylian-Likely Concord and The Crew being the most prominent i guess, but therr is a huge list of games that are no longer playable due to shut down servers.

Then we aren’t discussing the same thing. I only play single player. I can, in the future put a disc in and play it no matter what.

@species That's one game. You never specified that one game previously. You said

"you dont own the game just because you own the disc"

Implying ALL disc games. I just want clarification.

Will my Resistance games and Killzone games on PS3 work when the PS3 store shuts? I own the discs and have a working PS3 console.

@DennisReynolds sounds like you are defending it tbh. Do you stand with companies or the customers?

Decision is already made for me, I’ve gone PC. A big draw for me was to be able to share my games.
Enjoyed my PS5 and will still by the physical games for the remainder of its life cycle. What a shame.

Welp...only reasonable step here is to just make the most of it. I might just stick with F2P games where I don't really spend much money on, just time. I'm not spending large sums of money for an intangible gaming library.

@Balaam_ Big oof.

I've been saying this the whole time. Sony has the EXACT data, they are not just going to leave some huge portion of cash on the table. The physical sales likely are barely turning a profit all said and done. How much idle time must the factories have to only produce 700k discs in half a year that actually sell.

@Bizzy
I dont know, you tell me, youre the one with working ps3. All i know that i cant play The Crew even tho i have a disc and working playstation. Which doenst give me much conficence into physical ownership.

I didnt mean to imply mean ALL games, but theres plenty and even one is enough.

Here are some more i was able to find after 10s google search:

• MAG
• Battleborn
• LawBreakers
• StarBlood Arena
• EVE: Valkyrie
• Evolve
• Babylon’s Fall
• The Crew
• Rocket Arena
• Concord
• Hood: Outlaws & Legends
• Final Fantasy XI (PS2)
• Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn (PS3)
• DC Universe Online (PS3)
• Dead Star
• SOCOM: Confrontation
• EverQuest Online Adventures

@species That's a lot of Online/multiplayer only games

@Hylian-Likely Legally speakin were both renting the game, you just copy it from the disc and i dowload it.

And thats the real problem with gaming today, DRM, not lack of physical media.

@Bizzy Those are games you can buy as physical disc, yet cant play anymore.

Pointless stats as usual without the full data. How many games sold more than 100k digitally during the month of July? How many have sold this calendar year?
How many of those are only available digitally?

@species Everyone knows online games die when their servers shut down (although they can be revived by the community like we have seen on Dreamcast) but removing physical media is a completely different problem. A disc gives you a self‑contained copy you can still play decades later, long after the publisher stops caring and while you don’t own the copyright you do own a durable, playable version that doesn’t rely on a storefront, licence server or the company staying alive which is exactly why physical media matters.

Dang, that’s definitely not good for physical copies. The only games I bought physical was WWE 2K26 and Pragmata. That’s actually the only PS5 games I bought this year. When the Wolverine game comes out I’ll get a physical copy of that at least. All I can do.

I can't stand this guy's cryptic drive-bys. What games? What are the actual numbers? How do they compare to the digital numbers? What does over 100k mean? 100,001, 250k, 500k? How reliable are these numbers? Where does Circana get them? Are these copies sold to customers or copies sold to companies? Impossible to draw any meaningful conclusions without these data points and more.

Told. You. So.

If even 33% of the keyboard warriors of late were actually, you know, backing up their words with actions, the sales data would not look like it does. This doesn't negate the pain of the vocal minority. But it's a damn small minority.

That is because the US has a structural problem with how their neighbourhoods were built away from retail shops and they have been closing down. Also, safety is an issue when ordering online with packet thefts being common place.
Either way, not only do i not believe his numbers which are "estimates", but nor does that mean that physical media should not exist cause of the US.

If they just let the physical sales bleed dry and quietly quit them over time there wouldn't be any issue. Now everything is set up for the PS6 generation to be a complete disaster

People fell for the trick. You even have people here defending Sony, which shows just how comfortable they've become with having no real ownership or control over what they buy.

I've picked up fantastic physical games for next to nothing over the years. With physical media disappearing, that option is gone.

Sony will have far more control over pricing, and once competition from the second-hand market fades, prices are only going one way.

It's astonishing how many people are willing to give up ownership and consumer choice for a small amount of convenience.

@Bizzy So if there was hypotetically a way for you to OFFLOAD the data of a digital game to a usb stick to install later without having to download it, ergo creating what by your definition is a physical copy, youd be ok with having no disc? Despite not really owning the game?

Than thats where our opinions part ways, id much rather have full ownership of what i pay for, and not just a licence, no matter if it came in mail or i got it digitally.

okay well then that's 10k people that should still be able to get discs if they want.

@IntrepidWombat I wish your post would have been 6 instead of 96 b/c that’s what I was thinking but I was waiting for someone else to say it so I could stop reading. 😂

I’m really a math guy but my reading comprehension is the worst so I’m not sure what I’m reading here. I read it as:

7 games x 100k copies each in 6 months = 700k copies in only half a year, at the going cost of $70 is $49 million. So let’s say $100m for the full year b/c you know most sales happen around the holidays.

And that’s just in North America. But we don’t know how many games sold 70, 80 or 90k each, and we don’t know how far over 100k those 7 sold. So we’re at a Minimum of $100M rev, but probably more, maybe double. But really who knows b/c the info ain’t saying.

But it ain’t nothing.

@dBackLash But physical sales have been bleeding dry since COVID. Before the pandemic I remember being able to buy a physical game the day it came out. Once stores started opening up again, physical releases would be in short supply, sometimes taking weeks to hit shelves. Since then even movies, which before were trending on physical releases about a week after digital, started taking months to be pressed onto media; now some of them don't even get physical releases. So yeah, the bridge being out is something the Sony train has seen for a while.

@species I love GoG! I prefer a case and box but GoG on PC is fantastic. I have about 300 GoG games.

I notice that you have a Half Life profile picture. I have a disc copy of Half Life that doesn't require connection to the internet.

I am all for full ownership.

@Bizzy Fellow Half Life box and CD owner too! What a time it was playing that for the first time!

@ButteredCrumpet It really was! Can I have another 'Buttered Crumpet' award?

not surprising, most retail game section are controllers and headphones now. when Amazon used to give me a top 100 best sellers it’s pretty much the same. The writing has been plastered across the wall for years now most of my fellow collectors/hoarders chose to ignore it

@Max_the_German nobody says you have to but sony care they go where the money is and that is digital as much as i wish they would continue to have a physical option i guess thats just how it is.

@TensuraFan7 But Sony make nothing from the resale so losing that market means nothing to Sony, they are properly happy gamers will no longer be able play their games without giving them money first. Games Industry has been wanting kill the used market for decades now.

@Bizzy Well then were both arguing the same point, just from a different side lol.

Half Life 1 is one of my favourite games of all time! I mustve bought it at least dozen times, including physical, still got it in the original box.
I fully understand the collector argument of wanting to keep physical.

@ButteredCrumpet 🫡

@PanFriedSoup He'll go back to crying about trophy lists soon enough anyway.

@AdamNovice No kidding. Don't get me wrong, I actually do sympathize with the physical justice warriors to a certain point, but when they start acting like kids throwing a temper tantrum, that's when the sympathy vaporizes.

Besides, they're all crying over something that won't happen until 2028, when chances that the human race will make it to the end of 2027 seem slim right now lol.

@species It appears so 🫡

@FredBiletnikoff Good. Their tears sustain me.

@Bizzy Buttered Crumpet - Steam Achievement Unlocked

And yet people still complain about them going all digital????? 100k people buying physical and you want to make a big deal out of it????? I personally prefer buying physical but I understand that if the market isn't there for it to make financial sense for Sony then they'll do what they want for the sake of their business and they wont care. This is all getting a bit ridiculous now. As of March this year there were 93 million PS5's sold and only 100k are buying the top performing games on physical, do you all realise how much of miniscule percentage that is??????? And you want to get angry with Sony because they're not going to pander to 0.1% of their install base? Go away now, you're all acting like spoilt brats.

@Balaam_ Dude you're a person who loves putting most of gaming's value on pointless digital trophies there's nothing "intellectually elite" at all about you.

The "intellectually elite" are those who treat gaming as a nice hobby while putting actual value, time and passion into their friends, family and job. Wanna know why most choose what's most convenient? Because gaming is as i said a nice hobby not the main focus on their lives. You care too much mate maybe think about that. Whose the "elite"? The person obsessing over trophies and discs or the person currently relaxing in bed with their partner while chilling with netflix 😁

@ButteredCrumpet Thanks mate!

@species Have fun not owning anything in your all digital future I guess

@DennisReynolds Very accurate, however, it’s actually X-Files from the beginning and Disney Plus. 😂

@ButteredCrumpet Kinda want to award you with a Buttered Crumpet Achievement for the X-Files comment. Achievement auto-cannibalism!

Terrible. People happy to give up their freedom of choice and options. You get what you asked for, fools.
🤡 🌎

Physical forever. 💿💾 ❤️

@Queesh You truly own all your games bought on GOG, an all digital platform.

I explained it so many times here its clear you didnt read any of my comments, but judt because you buy a disc doesnt mean you own the game.

Also unless youre from some alternate universe, its your futute too, so have fun not owning anything as well!

@PanFriedSoup Haha, thank you! Wait until my partner gets to the spontaneous combustion episode! She’s absolutely (and admits not logically), terrified of it happening to her.

I should delve into the why behind that, but I’ll save that for after the episode.

@ButteredCrumpet X-Files: I Want to Believe R-rated director's cut is coming to Disney+ on 17th of August here in the states; wouldn't be surprised if it hits globally around the same time.

That spontaneous combustion episode, ooooof, that one scared me when I was young and it first aired.

@species and I've explained countless times that while one doesn't own the data on the disc, one owns the disc itself. To physically take that away would be the legal definition of theft.

Let's take it to its logical conclusion then; One's phone? You don't own it, cause you don't own the OS and other software on it. Same with a computer. Same with any modern electronic with software on it.

That argument would never hold up. I've never once seen someone from the "you don't own the game even physically" crowd apply the same logic to a phone or laptop.

I've had a hard time finding new games physically in general. RE Requiem, Pragmata and Saros, I ended up playing a month later because it was sold out everywhere. The only one I didn't experience this with was 007 First Light but that game was randomly super expensive physically here so it makes sense. Has anyone experienced something similar?

As a collector, I will always prefer to buy physical games over digital whenever possible unless:
It’s only available digitally.
Disc requires any partial or full downloads and what’s the point except for having the box art.
“Online mode and/or account is required”
The Digital version is dirt cheap so I don’t get screwed that bad one day when they shut it all down.
Problem sometimes is that the publishers release a digital version and then 6 months later they announce a physical version and that never helped physical sales. Not everyone can afford to double dip! But even when I buy digitally I look out for “offline only” (purchase) or “online and/or account required” (no purchase) because as we all know once those servers are killed that’s that.
I also feel that after the Covid lockdown people just stopped hopping into their car to go to GameStop, Best Buy etc and really accelerated the transition to digital over physical. That all said again, physical will always be my preferred choice whenever possible and now it seems those days are numbered! 🙄🤬

Sure those stats support what THEY want BUT who cares?

You could find stats showing that very few people complete games and decide to not make full games anymore

You can find stats showing the majority of profit comes from a small percentage of people and just stop selling the game after launch

You could find stats showing people are buying ps4 games and discontinue making current gen games

Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics

@PanFriedSoup Thank you for the reminder! Good grief you’re bloody good!

I’m lurking online for the physical of all the X-Files but may have to get them when I go Stateside again, as they’re going up in price for the boxset here.

I'm all digital and think the conversation we need to have is about digital ownership.

But, man, I'm also egregiously annoyed by the digital faithfuls excessively annoyed by the physical truthers justifiably annoyed by Sony. It's a discontent ouroboros that I'm embarrassed to be apart of.

But still, if someone wants to own physical things and is mad they won't be able to own physical things, for the love of God just let them be mad. If they seem particularly irrational, that's because they're mad — they have the right. After all, if true ownership is the most prominent talking point here, surely player choice is the second.

No one needs to defend Sony. Extinguish misinformation, sure, but Sony is a big boy. They can handle themselves.

@EVIL-C I think with your example it would be more like my buying say a Lenovo laptop, then say Windows 11.

I could then do anything I wish with the laptop (disc), but then the software (Windows 11), can be bricked, not updated by the developer, etc.

Not agreeing or disagreeing, just think that makes it clearer.

@ButteredCrumpet For some reason, there's not really a Blu-ray of Jason and the Argonauts in the States.

Quid pro quo?

Most people do not care about discs. It's just the minority of collector weirdos. Most of the backlash is from people who are not ever going to buy discs. Sony doesn't have to care because physical sales aren't making enough money for them to.

@RoomWithaMoose One of my dad’s favourites! You’ve got me tempted. Too tempted actually. Don’t say anything else haha.

@get2sammyb Serious question, are they even “good” memes?

Okay that’s besides the point I know, but at this point I’m not really sure what to say, other than I get the disgruntlement, but think it is indeed misdirected massively.

@get2sammyb I wouldn't say it's gotten out of hand until someone's actually hurt over the debacle.

That doesn't mean your guy's Twitter deserves to receive all that negativity. But I might argue a Twitter profile's general vibe is much less important than this battle between a corporation and all their supporters they shafted. Like I said, the latter has the right to be irrational right now.

@DennisReynolds and it was proven Sony was lying: in their statistics to support how great digital games sell, they included also every single DLC, digital content like albums or manuals, and yes.. in game currency. This way they significantly increased % of digital vs physical.
I also don’t believe all these sudden articles and analytics, which did not show up before they made announcement, and now so many influencers and journalists make such articles. Do you know some of these may be sponsored?

@HOWARDSROCK Sony have no need to manipulate any numbers because it's just a decision they've made, and not one that needs some number based 'proof' to justify it. It's their company, their business decision.

But sure, go down the conspiracy rabbit hole like minority groups usually do when logic doesn't give the answers they want.

@RoomWithaMoose I would say irrational, but not unaware of their actions and indeed as adults (one would hope), not void of responsibility.

I think that’s where I get irked about all this, I actually support physical in all forms staying for this and all forms of media, but then it’s when people go out of their way as grown adults to not show constraint and responsibility over their actions.

It’s like the excuse of when people say “oh but they’re grieving”, when a person commits a terrible crime, but then it doesn’t warrant excusing an adult losing their ability to control their own actions.

But I totally agree with you in spirit, it’s just an adult should be able to spot themselves being irrational and correct it. Irrational thoughts are normal for us all, refusing to correct them is not.

I just think as a Dev that’s had a threat made to his daughter about this, resulting in someone alluding to have found my work details via literally guesswork from here (I changed my user here and now they’ve been arrested on other crimes), this really can get serious very quickly.

I laugh a lot of it off, but you’d be surprised what an uprising this has from a very dark place.

All it takes is for one person to be told their anger, vitriol and pain is warranted and those seen to be associated need to “pay”.

But yes, I hope more people get what they want, but I also hope some of the irrationality seen online calms a little, as no one listens to a person being irrational, including businesses.

For physical games that don't have the full data on the disk, what happens to those games if the publisher closes the servers for them? Same thing as if you bought it digitally right?

@ButteredCrumpet That's all fair.

I had a rather long discussion with someone else on here about how, in my opinion, the methodology of a protest doesn't matter. But, to be fair, it does. I just don't think constant, ubiquitous crying on the Internet comes close to crossing that line. Hurting someone, or anything close to what you've experienced, is absolutely crossing it.

A big point I was trying to make in that argument was that disruption is the goal. And whenever I read about new supposed lows they've hit, all I can think is disruption is happening. That disruption might be messy, but it's what needs to happen for attention and bargaining.

Like, a change.org petition can get 100,000,000 signatures. But will Sony really care at all? Now, if every attempt to market anything is meet with vitriol all the way up to 2028, surely that's going to get executives concerned at some point.

@species id much rather have full ownership of what i pay for, and not just a licence

And that right there is the issue, you can't own whatever media your paying for, no matter if its Music, TV series, Movies, Anime or Games, any purchases of these gives you a license only, a license that can be taken away if bought digitally without you being able to do anything about it.

the physical ps gamers on youtube dreamcast guy and mbg and those who frequent this site must face reality.. it is over for physical sony games starting in 2028..

get congress to pass a law stating that games music and movies you purchase digitally are yours..

@RoomWithaMoose Absolutely, and with that I can completely agree. I wish I could say everyone would get what they want from this. Who doesn’t love a happy ending?!

I think what I wish is more could describe things more like how you and a few others have. I don’t expect it to be all void of emotion, but I think when it loses all reasoning arguments start to become about the person not the cause.

That’s what I like about the long conversations I have here, more often than not I’m agreeing with the person, I’m just not wishing to phrase it or see it as black and white. I guess I just prefer nuance to a total void.

Anyway, I’m rambling as usual!

@johnedwin Dreamcast Guy, oof, now that’s a guy that tosses a coin as to what his opinion will be each day!

Ok. Let's say that 1/5 of al sales are still physical. How many games released this year, sold at least 500k copies on the PS5? Is this again where they technically say the truth but are still misleading?

@ButteredCrumpet It would be nice if blunt emotion was exclusively directed with purpose, for sure. Anyone having Internet talks with other Internet people don't need to shed nuance for pure pathos.

BUT, I can't help but think that's just unrealistic. Maybe if there was more organization to the movement. But it's really hard to organize a bunch of text boxes on the webs. I feel like a bunch of people yelling into the void is the best we can get. As long as no one gets hurt, I won't be too critical myself.

Naturally Americuuhh will go with the laziest option which displays the highest levels of unreflected, unbridled consumerism, what else did we expect.

The rest of the world is slowly following that trend, but it's not quite there yet. As an American living in Europe I still see a strong physical market and people who care about consumer rights.

Thing is though is it because of games just not selling like they did? Requiem from example was about 30% physical. So no reason the other AAAs aren't a similar number. 100k sounds shocking but it's not as if the games that sold 100k physical sold over a million digital. They just sold low as a whole

@Leinad7 It was never proving Sony was lying. It was just cope heads not understanding context, misreading things, not getting the full picture and lying themselves.

If Sony were lying they were lying to shareholders. Do you think Sony would purposely lie to shareholders? Do you have any idea how illegal that is?

Like @ManicMitch @IntrepidWombat @IllusiveMan said, this report feels incomplete. It's hard to draw a definitive conclusion from this report and it feels more as if to push "look, Sony is right, no one buys physical games anymore" narrative.

And a total of more than 700K copies for 7 PS5 games in the last 6 months are still a decent chunk of numbers for people in the US who still care for physical games. I'm sure there's more of them considering there's almost 70 million physical PS4 and PS5 games sold globally in 2025.

@EVIL-C Right on brotha 🤝

@PuppetMaster It's a pretty misleading article. It's not like every released game sell hundreds of thousand copies in the US alone. Many don't even sell a million worldwide. Now you have to break these numbers further down between other platforms if they are multiplat. And they don't even mention how many physical copies were even sold, just that it is over 100k.

@armondo36 keep spreading misinformation , but at least get your facts right instead of spreading lies. even sony said you'll still be able to buy from retailers.

@The-punishr if they go to pc after this uproar then it'll be hilarious. Absolute hypocrites.

@armondo36 enough of this nonsense. Nobody with sense buys full price on the psn store. It's beyond a tired arguement at this point. Shopto and loaded (cd keys) sell and will continue to sell, cheaper psn credit.

Thanks, America 🙄 lol. I'm joking of course. It's not the physical media that's the issue, it's consumer protections for digital licenses (and physical) - There are none, basically.

Anyway, from this news and the direction Sony's headed, I'll be moving to PC for the next generation. Can't believe I'm saying that after buying the PS5 Pro - which is an awesome console. I've actually been a massive Playstation fan since the original console and every one since...

Sadly my dad recently passed away but left me his 5090/9850X3D/32GB DDR5 PC, which he wanted for top performance in his end days (it's genuinely insane performance by comparison and it was his pride and joy).

So yeah, so long, Playstation 6. You'll be the first I'll never buy. I'll see how consumer protections evolve on the Sony side in the future but I'm sure the PC environment will be much more secure in this regard. Annoyingly, I personally prefer physical media but that's still not the main issue here and everyone keeps missing the point.

All I bought was Switch 2 exclusives for the last 6 months...

@SEVENTEENSOILS enjoy your digital pc library 😂

@dapinionated you've missed the key issue entirely. I have a massive physical library of PlayStation games that I will hopefully be able to play forever now...

Although the problem here is licensing. Both physical and digital media on playstation is at risk and can be revoked at any time. On PC there are ways of preserving your games from this outcome. Despite my preference for physical media I'd rather have the security of the PC space and also a machine that'll remain far, far ahead of the PS6 in terms of technical prowess.

You joke but this isn't something I wanted to happen. I've been loyal to Playstation for years. This is just getting more and more awkward for me to stay.

Edit: id just like to point out that if one of your parents sadly passed from cancer and left you the same PC, you'd undoubtedly snap it up in an instant, for both practical and sentimental reasons. You purposely missed my point to take a cheap shot out of brand loyalty and what is likely jealousy. Hypocritical and idiotic. Shame on you man. Listen more next time. I'd rather have my dad back and Sony to continue producing and then protect physical media.

So what’s the % of physical vs digital on these games and does the US represent the world?

Also: This does show there’s still a market.

Would be interesting to know how many ps5 games (with both physical and digital versions) have sold over 100k this year in total. Just throwing out the number 7 with zero context sure confirms a trend but not much more.

I concede that physical media sales are low, but this data is not really all that meaningful. “Only 7 games sold over 100K in the U.S. over the last 6 months.” That’s fairly manipulative wording with veiled data. He’s picking a lower number and lumping the top 7 selling games into a category quantified by the 7th best selling game.

I’m not sure if he’s doing it on purpose to hide the real numbers or whether he’s just that unaware of how numbers work. I mean, it really depends how far “over 100K” these titles sold. Presumably #7 on the list sold right at 100K. That’s a given. #6 sold more than that. #5 sold even more than that. #4 sold even more, and so on…
With what he said for all we know the #1 selling game sold 1 million copies physically in the U.S., over merely 6 months. I don’t think it’s that high, but it could be 500k for all we know? What if he would have said:
“Over 1 million new PS5 games were sold on disc in the U.S. in just 6 months” That sounds like a lot more of a piece of the pie. This is data on just one market (albeit the largest) and for only half a year. And it sounds like it’s easily over a million copies of games, if not much more.

How many big games have released on disc in 2026? Manipulating morons with data is very easy.

@SEVENTEENSOILS Both my parents have sadly passed, but I just wanted to pop by and say that I completely get that feeling of wanting nothing more than to have a parent back.

That PC will go on to mean the world to you long after it’s ceased being a viable gaming/functional option in your home.

Your dad now gets to live on in your memories, so never stop sharing anything you have to say about his life and what he meant to you.

One day, just like with myself now, there will reach a time where the smells, sights and sounds of that person fade and recalling it is harder than you’d ever want. Remembering them and telling the world about them means those moments never get as hard as they could be.

Game where you want, none of this realistically matters to any of us as much as those we love, love conquers all, even gaming.

Just be loyal to yourself and your father’s memories, when we are all on our death beds I hope to God we barely remember any of this online chatter and only remember the good times we shared with great people.

So if none of this thread matters on your deathbed, go load up that PC, put on some music and know tomorrow you can talk about your dad and a person worth responding to will stop, listen and care.

This is the only statistic that matters to Sony. Not the manufactured outrage online by the people who pirate their games, or play on PC or Xbox or Switch, or are just farming for engagement.

@species I don’t even know who you are, how could I have read your comments?

Also, there was a time when owning the disc did mean owning the game.
I can still play my N64 and my Xbox360 as if it was the day it came out.

I’m not saying it’s not, but I am also totally in favor of physical and actual ownership.

EVERYONE should support physical discs out of principle. Digital isn’t ownership, you cannot hold it in your hands. Therefore it can disappear in an instant.

That Piscatella guys seems like a douchebag after reading the replies to his tweet. And going by his bio and the fact he is not mentionkng which are the alleged seven games I smell bull$h¡t. He is probably being paid by Sony.

I doubt this is true when there are multiple games this year already selling millions. And even if these supposed numbers are for USA where physical is way less dominant than digital compared to Latin America, Europe and Japan, it is still a huge market for only seven games selling 100k copies.

@SEVENTEENSOILS sorry to hear about your loss. I doubt that PC was the pride and joy of your father, that title most definitely belongs to you, and it is nice you have something to cherish from him.

I also have a huge physical collection and I am also considering getting out of the Play Station boat after 5 generations and continue supporting Nintendo and giving PC gaming a second chance.

We're back to anti physical propaganda.

@Max_the_German thats the economic system we live in. Order and demand. If not enough demand a media is obsolete

Does this include used game sales?

Matt P. is committing a perfect example of the Texas sharpshooter fallacy here. Instead of showing all the data he is zeroing in on the data that tells the story he wants to tell.

I have some questions. How much of the games market is the USA? Half? Forty percent? How much will these " barely over 100,000" games sell by the end of the year? How much of this is a result of the USA economy being in the sh**ter? How many of these games were readily available? Did companies even print enough copies to satisfy the market? Is 2026 even a good year for quality AAA titles on PS5?

And why we should follow American consumer trends? Yes it's a big market but the rest of the world is bigger.

@species Sony can't kill a physical game if it's on the disc fully in a playable state. This is why Deadpool and Godzilla are still playable despite being removed from the PS Store.

@Th3solution He is committing the Texas sharpshooter fallacy.

@species id be ok with horses coming back.much nicer then a grotty lorry.

@DennisReynolds
"People forget Sony have the data of every single PS account"

It would not surprise me in the slightest if Sony knew exactly what % of those who normally buy Physical, will make exceptions, and for example pre-order GTA6.

@TheSingularity there is no conspiracy rabbit hole when there is evidence everywhere. You are very hard-core it seems when it comes to defending Sony decision just like I am when it comes to fighting it. What I don't understand is how you can't see I'm fighting to protect your rights to ownership and not paying into a closed system. I'm not stupid enough to think I will personally change anything or that Sony personally needs me. But collectively if they don't do as we ask then we can make a difference when we move on to something else.

The UK currently has on eBay...
700k PlayStation games listed.
400k Xbox games listed.
125k Nintendo games listed.

The USA has...
3.5m PlayStation games listed.
2.5m Xbox games listed.
700k Nintendo games listed.

Maybe the problem isn't people don't buy physical games. The problem is people don't buy physical games from retail where Sony makes a 30% cut is it? Think, don't be an apologist.

Mat Piscatella showing data without contextualising again and this time showing 11 days data to prove a point even though 11 days isn't enough time to prove anything.

This is also the US market only which is one of the least profitable markets for physical media. In the European Union and Japan the physical market is still strong.

@Bizzy

Will my Resistance games and Killzone games on PS3 work when the PS3 store shuts? I own the discs and have a working PS3 console.

Yes, and your digital copies of those games will also continue to work and be downloadable. Removing a listing for a game does not remove access to it. That’s just fear-mongering spread by bad-faith actors.

For example Yakuza 3 Remasered got delisted. I can go download it right now if I want.

@Swandivetotheasphalt You can even still download your bought digital games on the PSP even though the store closed 5 years ago, so this whole fear of losing your digital games on older consoles needs to stop. Especially as future playstation consoles will use one integrated store, the PS6 will still have PS5 and PS4 games to buy, the PS7 will have PS6,5,4 games etc.

@Zuljaras You already used that one

@Leinad7

and it was proven Sony was lying: in their statistics to support how great digital games sell, they included also every single DLC, digital content like albums or manuals, and yes.. in game currency. This way they significantly increased % of digital vs physical.

Everything you just said is a complete and total lie. It’s explained in their yearly accounts what gets counted in Digital %. It’s full game software only.

It’s hard to feel sympathy for a group of people that just regularly push lies, baseless fear-mongering and general toxicity.

@2-bit and as pointed out why would Sony care about the used market? Killing that market has been the dream of the games industry for decades.

@UltimateOtaku91 Totally spot on comment.

Lotta pro bono shills working round the clock shifts in the comments, wow. At least the Push Square guys are getting paid to do it

@UltimateOtaku91 It would be great if they could get the PS6 able to play PS3 games.

Things were stripped out of traditional physical releases that made them appealing long ago, and then came codes in boxes or empty discs with a tied download. So the damage was done there, enough to understand why this would be the norm. Then comes digital discounts happening for most games by its 4th month of release.

Once again, people miss the point. But once ps6 comes out and fails to sell anywhere near as well as it could, they will come up will all sorts of excuses.

The reality is that negative comments, even from a "loud minority" can ruin a brand.

They also fail to take into account all the people that buy digital but are in favour of physical as an option. Or those that buy some digital and some physical.

But nuance is dead online.

@Zuljaras people have been posting this everywhere online for weeks now, completely ignoring the possibility that being in favour or having no issue with digital only has nothing to do with defending Sony.

@naruball Exactly, it feels like the hardcore pro phyiscal side (I thought I was one... guess I'm not extreme enough) are attacking anyone, which honestly isn't a good look.

@Swandivetotheasphalt

Yes, and your digital copies of those games will also continue to work and be downloadable. Removing a listing for a game does not remove access to it. That’s just fear-mongering spread by bad-faith actors

That's not always the case.

I bought Chaos Rings 1 and Disgaea: Hour of Darkness from PS Store and when Sony delisted both games from PS3 / Vita store they also gone from my download list.

Some demos like P.T also can't be redownload after Sony delisted it from the store despite it still appear in download list.
https://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2015/05/06/report-p-t-completely-removed-from-playstation-store-cannot-be-re-downloaded.aspx

Years ago I also bought a couple of digital comics from PSP store and when Sony closed down PSP store, all the comics was gone from my download list. I spent around $30-40 bucks for those digital comics and Sony didn't offer any refund.
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/sony-psp-drops-digital-comic-service

Or should we forget the recent case where Sony delisted all Studio Canal movies from users download list and they didn't offer any refund?

And what you gonna do if your PSN account got hacked and instead of helping you to recover the account, Sony decided to just delete your account? That was what happened to Xbox player when his 25 years old account got hacked and MS removed it from existence.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/microsoft-deletes-xbox-players-25-year-old-account-erasing-digital-game-library/

So i'm baffled when someone say this is baseless fear mongering when multiple case already happened that showed we still needs physical as alternative buying options as well better ownership for digital products, instead of locked down to digital only purchase and put all your trust to billion dollar companies who doesn't give a da*n about customers rights.

@species
Can you make a list of physical games you CAN play?

I think based on these statistics, a good chunk of the people moaning about this haven't bought a physical video game in a long time, which erodes my sympathy a lot.

What is the amount of digital games you can’t buy on a disc?? I’m curious. Lots of new games are digital only or getting a disc version later on.

@Oram77 It'll either: 1. Be less effective because people will just get annoyed my them and bored of the whole thing, or 2. Be more effective because 3rd parties might get worried about backlash affecting them and put pressure on sony

@Hypoman Especially indie games. Do these physical gamers just never buy indie games?

@naruball If the ps6 sells poorly, it's price will be much more to blame than lack of physical sales

@Zuljaras haha. No one feels "attacked" or offended. A bad meme is a bad meme.

@naruball @Zuljaras True. Defending them and understanding their reasoning for their decision are two different things.

@UltimateOtaku91 The whole thing of misinformation needs to stop. The amount of people talking about 'plug and play' and hard disc space is really irritating me too. Physical games need to install and frequently rely on big updates! 'True' physical gaming died long ago.

@Fyz306903 I can answer that one. Yes, but I never buy indies at launch. Haven’t touched Silksong yet. Looking forward to in October though.

We don’t own anything anymore. A house, your car, your phone, your kids…..and nobody cares. But i do…..

@Fyz306903 Most PS5 games can be played off the disc without the need for updates. Those games are in the minority.

@naruball @Zuljaras I like the way you both think I was referring to the meme, which is a repeat that is a cardinal sin in the world of memes

@ShadowRJ For sure they'll run. But they'll still take up space like a downloaded game and will probably be inferior in some way without a patch

@Fyz306903 digital still has those faults though. The argument may have some drawbacks to modern physical games, but It’s not exactly a sales pitch to convert to digital.

@Oram77 I didn't?

@PuppetMaster let's get back to reality here for a second. In my entire lifetime of buying hundreds(thousands?) of games I have never once lost access to a digital game I bought. I have, however, lost/broken/misplaced a disc/cartidge probably more than 10 times. I have also been burgled once and had every game I had stolen.

When I buy a physical game I dont worry about losing it, or someone stealing it. Similarly, when I buy a digital game I'm not going to be stressing over something that will almost certainly not happen.

Helldivers launched 11 years ago and the PSVita servers are still up. Destiny PS3 servers are still up. Making a game available for download is a tiny effort compared to hosting servers for gameplay.

@Fyz306903 there is always more than one factor. Yes, price will be a major one. No doubt about that.

@Zuljaras it's their right and their obligation to cut costs and maximize profits. It's not a charity. And as consumers it's our decision to vote with our wallets.

@PuppetMaster Disgaea: Hour of Darkness was a PSP game, and Chaos Rings was PSVita(no ps3). Are you sure you are trying to download these on the right platform?

I still have every game I bought digitally in the last 10+ years on one account or another and none have been cancelled. Which is more than I could say if I had bought them physically because I would of sold them by now /shrug. That's why I prefer digital.

@naruball My guess is that the PS5 will release in late 2028, and sony will muddle along awkwardly for 2 years then hopefully do a price cut/slim version once the memory crisis has eased in 2030. I'm guessing the cross gen period will be at least 3 years long to compensate.

@Swandivetotheasphalt The one who needs to get back to reality here is you. Just because YOU never experienced losing your digital games doesn't mean the case never happened nor it means digital has full advantage over physicals.

And did you listed and check all your hundreds / thousands digital games? Go check if all of them are still in your library and playable. I'm not surprise if some of them are gone or not playable.

Also. The one that i bought was Disgaea: Hour of Darkness PS2 classic for PS3 and Chaos Rings 1 for Vita.
https://delistedgames.com/disgaea-hour-of-darkness/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_Rings

You can stay ignorant all you want but don't cry and complaint when Sony removed your digital games without any notice.

@XenonKnight That would be a huge selling point for the PS6, especially of we could play our already bought PS3 games. Wouldn't be so great if they slowly added ps3 games and we had to buy them again or if they were locked behind the premium membership.

This data doesn't tell the whole story without context.

• How many physical games were actually made? It's hard to sell 100k copies if only 90k have been made (and being sold in US specifically).
• Are the games available in all of the major retailers or only in a few specific retailers? Having easy access to physical games definitely drives sales.
• What about rest of the world?
• Obviously this does not include the second hand market. Sure, publishers will not directly benefit from used copies, but they do benefit from all of the DLC/microtransactions sold to players who have bought those physical copies.

Anyway, this data feels intentionally incomplete. Mat Piscatella works for Circana (the source used in that Bluesky post), so the main reason for this post seems to be to drive people to use Circana's services.

Well the EU better hurry up and step in to prevent Sonys upcoming monopoly of the PS Store sooner rather than later. There needs to be fair competition and better consumer policies offered by Sony. Not to mention a better actual store if that’s our only choice.

@KoopaTheGamer To me the most interesting part of the data is the percentages (not included in that tweet for whatever reason).

Splits seem to average around the 20% physical mark, but Ghost of Yotei actually had over 30% physical.

I can't be the only one who has bought preowned games, and bought dlc off the store for those preowned games? It annoys me that this isn't considered whatsoever. Surely there must have been loads of second hand sales of Fifa where someone spend tons of those ultimate team point thingies.

@EVIL-C Yep it's madness. I think it'll only sink in for a lot of people when they're browsing the ps store in the future and they realise oh damn all these games cost a fortune and I can only buy them from this exact store. I never realised just how dumb most people are until this whole ownership situation came along. Absolutely moronic.

@Fyz306903 I'm pretty sure a lot of indie games has physical released. I owned a copy of Axiom Verge, Valfaris, Owlboy, Shadow Tactics, Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap remake, and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and i bought all of them brand new. Next i would love to get a copy of Blazing Chrome, Huntdown, and Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth.

@PuppetMaster Most indies which are even vaguely popular have physical releases nowadays. Sometimes they come out at launch, other times you have to wait a bit.

I own copies of Super Meat Boy, Bloodstained ROTN, OlliOlli, Hi-Fi Rush, Penny's Big Breakaway, Neon White, Yooka-Replaylee, Prodeus, Stray and Kena Bridge of Spirits all on PlayStation platforms alone. I'd have even more if we counted Nintendo indies.

It seems to me that Sony has become an American company that only puts America first since they lost focus in Japan. Prices for UK games have been ripping us off since PS5 launched. Perhaps they see PS being big enough in Europe without a strong competition they have no problems screwing us over and except us to just accept it

For what it's worth, I have always said that the all-digital era was coming. However, Sony failed to mitigate the loss of physical for those who have procured physical copies of PS4 and PS5 games.

What's worse is that up until now, Sony have been ABSOLUTELY DREADFUL in the pricing and price drops of their games. That doesn't account for the obscence prices for accessories, hardware and subscription service.

Do you honestly believe it will get better or worse? Yeah. I'm inclined to think it will be the latter.

It's not my problem anymore because I've done what a smart person does and removed myself from the equation.

Mark my words; this will only get worse. All the people on here and elsewhere trolling and defending Sony, don't complain when Sony's greed gets worse.

Enjoy being rinsed by Sony. It's what you wrought.

This comments thread highlights exactly why Sony need to come back and clarify some things, even though I don’t believe they’ll change the key decision re a move to digital.

They need to clarify/highlight the point re other retailers being able to sell game codes - people have either missed this or are deliberately overlooking it.

They need to provide assurances re ongoing access to digital versions. To be fair, they should just point to the PS3 here as that’s had 20 odd years of store support, with the ability to download your games still for the ‘foreseeable future’. The PS3 approach feels perfectly reasonable to me whilst also being economically viable.

Not ideal for the physical folk but would at least provide some clarity and assurance.

The overreacting from some is probably encouraging Sony to engage less, as any further comment from them will only push the worst online folk to get louder again, and drown out any sensible debate on the subject.

Ultimately, if Sony don’t do more I think Governments will start paying more attention so I think it’s in their interest to get ahead of that.

Their worst nightmare is governments forcing a situation where we can buy a game from any digital storefront and it has to be playable anywhere. So I go to Steam and buy a game and then use it on my PS5. I’d probably love that for the competition between stores but it would be technically complex (and expensive) to manage and likely push up price of consoles and subscriptions as Sony would make much less from the games themselves.

No easy answer basically, other than perhaps allowing for physical but as an expensive niche element for those who really want it - see vinyl music!

@ShadowRJ Yeah i wish more indie games has physical release at the same day as digital or at least a couple of months after digital release. But now after Sony decision to stop physical games, i wonder if indies will still have physical release for PS4/5 or just digital only.

Btw, i didn't know OlliOlli has a physical released. I played it from PS+ and really enjoyed it. But i can't find a copy on my retail / marketplace.

@Ed_Zeppelin I can think of three ways in which Sony can adress this and help reduce the anger, without having to pivot TOO hard.

1. Allow boutique publishers to print their own physical discs, and have them be playable.

2. Instead of codes in boxes, have boxes that come with cards or USB sticks that you need to plug into the PlayStation in order to make them run.

3. Allow users the ability to transfer the launch capability of the game onto a disc if they so choose to.

@PuppetMaster I suspect a lot of indies will still get Switch 2 cartridges. OlliOlli was a fairly early PS4 disc. I bought it off of Amazon back in the day.

@PuppetMaster Every single game I own that has been delisted is still playable, that’s my reality. That’s what I know for certain. You say you lost access to Disgaea, ok I’ll take your word for it even though I can’t find anyone else say they own it and can’t download it.

Either way, I’m not spending my time sitting around worrying about whether I might lose access to one or two owned games in 20 years time. I abandoned all physical media I owned a long time ago due to a lack of space. They’re all gone, lost forever, a consequence of my reality.

It's only a matter time before Xbox announce their next console is Digital only as well, let's see how people spin that one and if there's a massive backlash over their side. Them working on a solution by letting you turn your physical disks into a digital key doesn't fix the issue of physical games going away.

I think as long as Playstation have the cheaper console and better exclusives (as usual) then they should be fine next gen but overall I think console sales for everyone will be way lower compared to previous gens.

people on reddit still wont believe this data

people assume an infinite supply of physical games if they only ever made 100,000 physical copies of each game then that sales number could never be any higher

@Queesh Because youre quoting me with your edgy comment about enjoying futute. If you skimmed thru this thread even badly you would know is pointless.

Im not disagreeing that digital isnt ownership, it isnt and it really sucks, all im saying is that today physical isnt ownership either.
The only true ownership is GOG, all digital platform. If your “windmill” is ownership, than the enemy is DRM, not your “digital future”.

This is why Sony won't change their decision. People on forums like this are the vast minority.

@GameCollector84 if you've already bought Deadpool, can't you redownload it even though it's no longer listed? Genuine question.

@UltimateOtaku91 And most of Microsoft games only have a Downloader on them. So they never have the full game on the disc. I dont have a Xbox anymore or will ever get one agian so it not my problem.

@Dogbreath When the real Playstation handheld comes out all the disc game aren't going to so useful. I still have alot of PS4 games on disc and 33 PS5 disc but im not getting anymore games on disc. And im keeping my PS5 Pro for all my games on disc.

@Bizzy marvel uliitmate alliance was delisted if u own it u can still play it

Right, as if we needed clarification.

Sorry but social media noise over this is an absolute train wreck, it is embarrassing.

You can make as much noise and push some kind of warped narrative full of lies and misinformation, but it is still just a very small percentage of players that are complaining, and even then it doesn't take a genius to work out the majority are just salty they won't be able to game the re-sale market anymore.

To put it in to context, the petition for Destiny 3 has nearly 100k more signatures.

Just about says all that needs to be said.

Very depressing reading those stats, but it doesn't change anything for me. I'll keep buying physical for as long as I can. I buy digital, but only for big discounts (50% or so) because I value owning things that I pay for and if you're not going to give me that then I'm not going to give you as much either. I have a huge backlog of PS5 and PS4 titles to play, so I can stick with my Pro for a good long time and be well served.

The pr machine is rolling along nicely. Sony are quite obviously asking these guys to release all this data to support their hostile takeover of game supply.

I’m sure a large percentage of the vocal minority are just trolls and bot farms astroturfing on behalf of shall we say “interested parties”.

Digital only for a Sony console at their present state is a no go for me. I don’t care what the numbers are for people whom love to pay for overpriced digital licenses. I’m still going to support physical for everything media related that I like. If MS wanted some positive coverage their next console would have an optional disc drive which can be acquired separately. Even if they treat their own games as physical key cards. Better than Sony plans for the PS6.

@Lolwutz trolls gets thrown around often when normies step out of line for an approved narrative. Most people like me aren’t trolls for voicing our opinions against this corporation. We have valid concerns. My camp has been able to read between the lines with the digital only future for internet of everything.

@Hylian-Likely - I'm totally with you. I am lucky though, I'm surrounded by physical games and retro consoles that I've collected over the years; I'm actually now running out of room. But what it means is I can hold off, or skip the ps6, with no FOMO, and play me some Megadrive, 3DO, amiga, ps1, ps2 and ps3 games, that have lingered, unplayed, for way too long.
I have realised that I am old, that the word gamer, of which I thought I was, doesn't really represent me, even though gaming is the biggest thing in my life.

@t0nyth3t3rrific In fairness, that Destiny 3 petition has been out longer

@Lolwutz Or pc zealots trolls trying to use this get as many as they can to switch to pc gaming.
I have completely washed my hands of pc gaming pc gamers enjoy getting bend over by microslop with windows.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AkvetmzCh_M&pp=ygUHd2luZG93cw%3D%3D

It's more UK players buying digital and they have no right to complain about losing physical disc including American people only buying digital. There's your proof. It's hypocrisy. I only buy physical always have.

@Max_the_German You don't need to care.

Just like no one cares about disc's outside of a tiny minority

@Swandivetotheasphalt

You say you lost access to Disgaea, ok I’ll take your word for it even though I can’t find anyone else say they own it and can’t download it.

You're saying i'm lying? Here's a picture from my PS3 account that i owned the game and i can't even played it despite the game still installed on my PS3 HDD.

And my Vita memory stick that has Chaos Rings got corrupt. By the time i want to redownload the game, it's already long gone from my download list.

Either way, I’m not spending my time sitting around worrying about whether I might lose access to one or two owned games in 20 years time. I abandoned all physical media I owned a long time ago due to a lack of space. They’re all gone, lost forever, a consequence of my reality.

Good for you. But don't come in here and acting like an ignorant, claiming it's all bulls* and fear mongering from bad actors. I hope all the proof and facts presented on your face is enough for you to accept the reality about digital games.

@Fiendish-Beaver Did you see this video https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AkvetmzCh_M&pp=ygUHd2luZG93cw%3D%3D Windows 11 is only getting worse

I will never not be baffled by the amount of people apparently buying AAA games digitally at full price? A 70-80 € single-player game is often something people play for at most a few months, then move on from. By the time they feel like replaying it years later, it might already be included in PS Plus (which I'm sure a lot of these customers also pay regularly, no matter if they get use out of it or not), heavily discounted, or available cheaper elsewhere.

There must be hundreds of euros worth of full-price games sitting in people’s digital libraries, collecting dust. Unlike physical copies, they can’t be sold, traded, or lent to friends to recover some of the cost. I understand digital for indies, older games, or big discounts, but paying full price digitally for every AAA release seems strange to me.

I guess the only explanation is, that people have long stopped viewing games as assets, but more like an experience, thats gone after the fact? Like a movie ticket, or a restaurant meal.

"only seven PS5 games have sold more than 100,000 physical copies in 2026."

If Sony don't master discs, we can't buy physical so the figures are always skewed (I'm looking at you, Avowed!)

Question is how many digital copies of those unnamed games were sold in the same period?

Nintendo will be getting my money next time I upgrade consoles.

Almost like the outrage about Sony ending physical disc production is just people complaining for the sake of it!

Most people do not buy discs (evidently) and the number that do is only likely to drop over the next couple of years as more people get better internet and more people buy disc-free consoles in an effort to save some money given the increasing cost of consoles generally!

If Sony can save money by not manufacturing discs (and putting a disc-drive in a console) and it only inconveniences a tiny percentage of their customers, they would be very silly to not cut out disc production and make that saving. They are a business at the end of the day, they want to make money.

@PuppetMaster

But don't come in here and acting like an ignorant, claiming it's all bulls* and fear mongering from bad actors.

Brother, there is literally a bunch of people all over claiming that any game that gets delisted is now unavailable to play, and anyone who bought it just loses it. That is false information. The person I responded to was directly implying you lose access to all games when they're delisted.

I'm not, like, trying to minimise your experience or something. I dont know why you can't play those games, but that is absolutely not normal. Its not normal with communicated intention, and not normal with my personal experience.

@ButteredCrumpet What? LMAO! That never happened. PS4 won gen 8 of consoles. Can't really count Switch as N released two 8th gen consoles and was released halfway through the PS4's cycle. Wii U and Xbox were both completely crushed by the PS4.

@Almost_Ghostly I’m confused by your comment, what never happened? I’ve not stated anything to the contrary to what you have just stated. In fact, I agree with your comment, hence why I wouldn’t have stated something to the contrary.

To be honest, that Christopher Dring comment doesn't alarm me that much. There weren't any big releases last week other than AC4 Resynced (was that even last week?) so I wouldn't expect tens of thousands of games to be sold in just one week.

@PuppetMaster Prove that your account is the one that purchased the game or that you didn't delete the account that purchased it. Also prove that you are online and signed in to PSN, and that your PS3 is activated for game content. Prove that you didn't try to re-download it to reactivate the license. Also that your PS3's date and time are correct. Prove that your CMOS battery isn't dead. Video proof of this stuff or it's a non issue that can can be fixed on your end.

@Bizzy You'll only be able to play a revoked game if the console is offline. Doesn't matter where the game comes from: disk or install copy.

@Boxmonkey Conspiracy theories machine doesn't stop either 😂

@XenonKnight Linus is an unintelligent *****. The guy for the most part doesn't ever know wtf he's talking about. That entire video is a huge over-reaction and nothing but fear mongering *****.

@ButteredCrumpet "I do remember when the PS4 came out, everyone moved to PC and other consoles then too"

@Almost_Ghostly Ah yes, that’s sarcasm to counter the point of the commenter I was replying to. If you read the comment in its entirety it shows I agree with you and not them. Haha.

@ShadowRJ I like option 1, I’m not sure the others would work. Option 2 would be very expensive I imagine.

Even if Sony controlled the physical printing to a degree, as long as it remained an option I assume that would work for most. As technology progresses I think the disks would increasingly become like game key cards though, but that’s still better than nothing for those that want physical.

Meanwhile sales of physical games in Japan a much smaller market is doing significantly better

@Fiendish-Beaver Loser Linus fear mongering. The guy this happened to is a criminal. He's also acts as if this type of thing doesn't or can't happen on any other devices. Like, you know, a phone for just one example.

@ButteredCrumpet Okay. My apologies if I misunderstood.

@Almost_Ghostly Oh gosh, no worries at all! There’s a lot here misunderstanding an awful lot of things, you misunderstanding my being sarcastic and my failing to convey sarcasm is the least of our worries if much of this thread is to be believed.

I fear for the populace far more than I fear for physical, that’s for sure.

@GameCollector84 Ah, yes — I wasn’t aware of the name of the specific fallacy but after looking it up, “The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy” seems to fit. Thanks for that. 😄 I like learning these logic fallacies. It’s crazy how often people and even large corporations fall for them. This particular bit of data manipulation from Piscatella is probably more about snatching a headline and generating clicks or buzz though. In the case of Sony, one would hope they have a more sophisticated data analytics team, and have not been forthcoming with granular data because they have other motives for killing physical media. It seems pretty clear from the online dumpster fire that whatever small numbers they have attributed to physical sales is not telling the whole story. Do we really think that it’s that tiny of a group of people who liked having physical disc options? The internet outrage would suggest otherwise.

I think another part of the misinterpretation of the sales data is this assumption that a specific consumer buys only physical or only digital, where I think the majority of people do both. So if game A only sells 100k copies physical out of a million, some of those 900K people who bought game A digitally also bought game B on disc. Now you’ve not only ruffled the feathers of the original 100K people, but some of those 900K people who are your digital customers also. I don’t know if we have data on what’s the total number of players who have bought at least one game disc on PS5, but I reckon it’s pretty high. A very large percentage of the player base if affected by this move, and simply saying that only 1000 copies of game X sold physically in one market over one week is just not really telling the whole impact.

@ShadowRJ All of the Spider-man games can be re-downloaded if you purchased them digitally.

@Almost_Ghostly But what happens if you didn't download them beforehand for whatever reason?

You're screwed.

@viktorcode @Bizzy Keep in mind revoked/delisted are not the same thing. Delisted games can still be redownloaded and played if you purchased them. All of the delisted older Spier-man games for example, can still be downloaded if they were purchased even though they aren't listed for new purchases.

@ShadowRJ As long as you purchased them, you can download them. You don't need to have downloaded them once before.

@Almost_Ghostly But you would've needed to have bought them.

@Almost_Ghostly Yep, I did the same with Driveclub - bought a disc from CEX/eBay/somewhere and as soon as I loaded said physical media into the PS4/PS5, it downloaded all the patches, even though the game cannot be purchased digitally.

@ShadowRJ And? Are we supposed to get them for free after being delisted? What if you had bought them physically for PS3 and the discs got scratched, broken, or stolen? Would you just get new copies for free? Or would you have to pay high eBay prices to replace them? Meanwhile... my digital copies are all still good and I don't have to re-purchase them. Pretty much every delisted game that isn't an online game that had it's servers shut down is available in one format or another. There are tons of places that have them available to download for PS3, PC, whatever... even if you can no longer purchase them through legit means.

Again this doesn't account for how many people buy the games used, and the various other businesses and consumer options that the physical disc copies facilitate. Sony dont make money from those sales of course, so that would be why they discount the importance of this, and are keen to see the back of it an an option.

@ShadowRJ Very good point on needing to buy them, but I think Ghost is trying to point out not a counter to your point, but a counter to the fact that people are saying if purchased their “digital library” will be unable to be accessed years down the line.

If you don’t purchase a game, it won’t be available, but many have stated in the run up to this news their purchased digital games they fear losing. Which as of yet Ghost is stating that will likely not be the case.

All digital and about time.
One for the environment being the plastics etc and the manufacturing and raw materials etc.

The whole argument/movement has been largely co-opted by memers and trolls to karma-farm on Reddit while also sowing division.

@Ristar24
I'm still on the fence about this overall, but (to me) a big positive of physical games disappearing is the loss of the 2nd hand / resale market.

It's not just Sony who miss out when games are resold rather than purchased new, its the dev teams, and a lot of developers are struggling at the moment.

Removing this 2nd hand market may potentially help delay the rise to £80 for full price games.
It might also help persuade devs to ensure their games launch in a complete / polished state - as I'm sure more customers will be being careful when buying games they can't resell.

@Fiendish-Beaver The threat to move to PC is very real and true.
Steam is rapidly growing while xbox is reduced to ash and playstation will sell less and less consoles every generation.

@Rich33 That is not a positive in the slightest. Removing the second hand market means that that there is no alternative market to stop pricing games at £80. In fact I expect there to be LESS discounts on games, not more.

And it won't have any effect on games being launched in a complete state. That's due to having to launch during specific financial quaters, not because of discs.

@Zuljaras
In regards your comment about "release now, fix later"

You get that problem at the moment with physical games as well. The version on the disc still needs a day 1 patch / future patches.

@4fold your take is very bad.

Second hand market has 0 to do with sony and no business of theirs.

But if only 7 games made it to 100k physical, that means whatever eay you slice it. Only 100k per game is in circulation.

Secondhand market doesnt survive if people arent buying the games in the first place.

Isn’t the data heavily skewed in favour of digital by including subscriptions, dlc purchases, in-game cosmetics and games over a year old (ie. heavily discounted sale items)? I’d love to see the figures for new game releases only.

As for them saying, ‘only 7 PS5 games have sold over 100k boxed copies this year’… I would struggle to list 7 must-play PS5 titles in the first half of this year.

@ShadowRJ
There will be an alternative market - Sony have already said about digital codes sold by retailers (they need to detail this better though). If there wasn't an alternative there would be a monopoly, and Sony wouldn't be allowed that, and they are well aware of this.

If games can't be resold, it means that those gamers will likely be more careful when purchasing - which is the enemy of devs looking to fix after launch.

@Zuljaras
Such a foolish thing to do and a waste of plastic.

@dslayer yeah I was already on the fence about PS6 due to the potential cost but now I’m skipping without regret. I already think that Sony’s first party offerings just aren’t what they were during the PS4 gen with all of the sequels being inferior to the originals (Horizon, GoW, Spider man, Tsushima)

I bought a PS2 Slim recently with plenty of games I never played as a kid plus I’ve got the Switch 2 which should still provide physical games for a while except for those disgusting key cards. Also I purchased a handheld emulator for gba, snes, even ps1 games that will keep my plenty busy.

@Rich33 That is an incredibly optimistic view on the situation. Call it a gut instinct, but I can't imagine any business not going "hey, Rockstar are charging £80 for GTA 6. Why aren't we doing that."

@MrMeeeseeeks It is heavily skewed that way - that's why these numbers are so misleading. Alinea tracked RE Requiem to be about 28% physical vs digital. (With a healthy number of complaints online about people not being able to get ahold of the physical edition at launch). That's not insignificant.

I also have to wonder how they tracked PS5 free upgrades. Example: I bought Diofield Chronicle second hand. That particular purchase doesn't count for their purposes. It does, however, have a free PS5 upgrade. When I added that to my library, did that then count as a digital purchase?

If that's the case, consider what happens to the numbers for people who bought a game like Resident Evil Village for PS4 on disc. After purchasing the Shadows of Rose DLC on PS4, then getting the free PS5 upgrade, then getting the PS5 version of Shadows of Rose, well, that's counting three digital purchases toward one physical purchase for someone who just wanted the disc in the first place. Lots of 'ifs' in there, I'm happy to be corrected if that's not the case.

@MrMeeeseeeks no it isn't. The ones who want to make you think that, will use that example.

But you dont even need data. Just take a walk down your high street, go look in your supermarkets.

Thats evidence enough.

My local independent game shop, still going but only survives from retro gaming sales, hardly sells new releases anymore, they used to have 2 shops.

Game, biggest retailer in England, reduced to a few shelves in sports direct, this is a direct result of physical games sales, not because Game some how sabbataged themselves like people would like you to believe.

In top of that at the height I knew of 2 other Game stores which were national, borh gone.

Im pretty sure tesco doesnt even have a gamr section anymore.

My local asda as a tiny few shelves.

Games are getting bigger than the disc they are printed on, do you risk over spending to put it on 2 discs with minimal returns, or put the key on the disc and then download, defeating the object of physical.

Its literally just business 101. If only a fraction are buying physical and its spread around the entire world, is it even worth producing?

Forget physical vs digital and the whole preserve the games.

If you only have a few 1000s buying the game, its not worth the cost of printing a disc. Your actually now losing money on physical media.

@ButteredCrumpet I'm sorry to hear about your parents mate. It really is one of the biggest turning points in your life losing one, then losing both (my mum has just lost both hers recently too) - you absolutely point out the right way to approach it though. They live on through us. Thanks for the kind, wise words.

I would like to say that I was less offended about the lack of care for my situation and more the intentional misunderstanding that showed complete lack of critical thought 😂 my dad, being autistic, taught me well!

@DennisReynolds Your right it only makes sense to move away from consoles at this point. Expensive, locked platforms, no ownership, no physical options. And we see how great monopolies work with big corp. GOG is the next logical step if you want to move on.

@ShadowRJ
Games probably were going to rise to £80 soon.
Maybe this helps put that back by getting more money into devs hands rather than the resale market, and removing some of the manufacturing/ shipping costs associated with discs.

I take your point: " but I can't imagine any business not going "hey, Rockstar are charging £80 for GTA 6. Why aren't we doing that." ".

But I'm sorry, I cannot see how Physical discs sold by retailers reduces the risk of this over Digital codes sold by retailers.

@MrMeeeseeeks I can easily list more than 7. Problem seems to be you.

@Krlozgod thanks man. That's really sweet of you to say actually

But yeah, I've been thoroughly happy as a PS gamer up until this point. I'm happy to use two platforms for gaming, as long as I can still use all my physical media on older consoles. We just need more protections as consumers of all forms of gaming media!

At least on PC we can have a little more control around what happens to our game files. Can even make our own physical cases and discs with the games on, for collections sake 😂 and if playstation changes their ways, I'm happy to go back for more.

@AI-Generation Funny the with the AI generation is talking about the environment. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Your from the US where people to struggle to get tap water from the faucet. And with energy bill 4x as high.

@ShadowRJ Argos are even selling GTA 6 code in a box for £67.99.

Then if people used ShopTo and Loaded for their PSN credit they’d also never buy at PSN prices again.

No developer in their right mind is looking at Rockstar and thinking “we can emulate that utter egotistical nonsense of an attitude as a developer”

EA as a publisher tried it and got levelled very quickly with that sort of attitude.

Literally, no PSN price is the actual price if you simply top up your wallet with companies that have been going for in some cases over half of the PlayStations lifetime.

I think we all just need to be careful with the what ifs and maybes, there’s a lot of people using points to their arguments that are based on what ifs.

That’s no different to my saying what if your physical collection is burgled, what if you have a house fire or flood, what if you go broke one year and need to sell everything you have including physical games to even eat.

All we know right now for a fact is that IP holds within media and entertainment hate us having the ability to reproduce or hold on to their works.

VHS taken away, MiniDisc, BetaMax, Freeview TV recorders in decline, less films and TV going to physical media. Even music was attempted to go all streaming, and it’s only because the artists made next to nothing off streaming it even went back to physical.

So we know that is the stance of the industry at large, trading a game, and then them not profiting even a little off it is not good for their business. That’s common sense.

We also know game stores selling second hand games are in dramatic decline compared to mine, and many other peoples childhoods. Again, we know this a fact.

So we know the trend for the consumer and the desire of the industry are well established facts. They’ve proven they will remove media to make sure we divert to a stream of purchasing that cuts out trading, and we know on the whole consumers are declining in their purchasing of physical games.

What we don’t know is the plan of future developer and publisher pricing models, we don’t know if the PS6 will have an external drive and we don’t know it’s backwards capability.

So everyone could do with being frustrated by Sony at what is happening, but the moment we use what ifs we’ve sort of stopped talking about the here and now and what’s happening.

I like your ideas of more boutique printers, and that no doubt would mean increasing pricing (see vinyl), but it keeps the medium alive.

No one, I repeat no one should be paying for full price of games on PSN if they simply too up their wallet before hand, and no one should be unaware of how industry wants physical and tradable dead, and consumer trends at large show (other than a bit on the music side), most are okay with that.

But I don’t think arguing about the future of a potential game released in 2037 from a publisher inspired by Rockstar will help further any physical discs being produced.

We all need to stick to our opinions of physical staying, or going for and against, but without using anything else to prop those ideas up other than known facts.

We can’t have people in this thread accusing analysts of using conjecture and guess work with figures for us to then counter it with guesswork, otherwise it’s just a race and circle of mistrusts and misinformation to the bottom.

@SEVENTEENSOILS The biggest problem that total control by Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo will benefit nobody. The loss of media, price gauging, the option to resell or share your media.

It has been shown that they don't care to preserve older games or even replace newer versions that are inferior to the old games.

Look at something like Overwatch you get Overwatch 2 a worse game with insane monetization and they gut the old one.

@ButteredCrumpet Big corp doesn't like it if you have options to make a point

@ButteredCrumpet I agree that there are disadvantages to physical too. That, there's no doubt with. What I personally want to see is either boutique publishing, or the ability to transfer a digital license (not the game, just the license) onto a blank disc.

@Flaming_Kaiser Exactly! Couldn’t agree more. Then they also know (as many threads on here showcase), consumers at large don’t even know what their point is. This cause would be so much impactful if we could at large mobilise with a structured set of points and approach.

I adore physical, but even I read through a lot of people’s points and go “yeah, I wouldn’t struggle to counter that with a business perspective”.

I think I’m just looking for unity and strength in a place that isn’t ready to show it as a whole.

Couldn’t agree more though, options to trade, to sell and to share don’t ever last for the most part. It’s why now options for me to share a TV show I watched on TV are limited. They don’t want me passing a copy of “insert TV show name here” to my sister, they want me to tell my sister to stream it and watch product placements for “insert useless product here”, and then count as an additional viewer.

Oh how times do change.

@Flaming_Kaiser 100% agree. It's an issue of the lack of competition and lack of consumer protections around ownership (which is in turn made worse by lack of competitive pressure)

If anything this will mean I end up supporting i.e. giving my gaming budget to, a wider array of gaming companies. I imagine many will be considering the same path.

Very few buy physical games and more and more data is coming out to support this you can't blame Sony in fairness!

@Almost_Ghostly That IS my account and i don't have any reason to lie. I don't care if some anon like you don't believe me. I don't get anything either even if you believe me.

@ShadowRJ I agree fully! You’ve got some really great ideas. Now if only you had a few billion laying around and we could actually get this all in order. 😂

@Flaming_Kaiser
No I’m from the UK.
The little country that if it disappeared right now would make zero difference to the environmental world impact.

Sony has lied and manipulated data before to make their point. Whether this data is true, misleading or a flat out lie is irrelevant to Sony's intentions.

None of this matters compared to Sony's goals. They know that consoles will be losing players, not gaining them. They know that their next consoles will be ridiculously expensive and will sell poorly. They are going to fleece existing fans who stick with them as much as possible.

Get ready for prices to be generally higher for software and definitely look for a PS Plus price increase.

If Sony doesn't have physical discs, then I won't be there for PS6.

I dont know how exactly this guy and his company counts those sales but official sony raport for year 2025 says they sold 350m games and split was 22/78 for digital (85% digital happend only in one quarter) so 22% of 350m makes 77m discs sold in 2025

@Hylian-Likely - You have 1000's of hours worth of games to play on the ps2, and that's without even trying to find the expensive and rare games. Enjoy, some of my favourite games of all time are on that beautiful console. No worrying about patches and dlc; the good times.

@PuppetMaster And I guess at the end I really don't care if you don't provide actual substantial proof of your misinformation or that you haven't done what it takes on your end to make the game playable. Shrug.

@Fabivito I personally like to imagine he counts them via hand one by one, whilst listening to Venga Boys on repeat.

And as for your point, I guess that’s just it, we have limited data, the data we do have represents both arguments for and against physical and neither the business or the consumer are willing to bend.

My one and only real thought on this that has remained in its entirety is that physical (if wanting to be cut by Sony), should have been announced to be ending when support for the PS5 does.

Though I would prefer physical options remain, what actually shocks me far, far more than the fact it’s being stamped out by the industry, is the fact they’re rushing to get to it needlessly.

Forgetting second hand, because of course that’s never going to be a good argument for a business to keep producing a medium from a business perspective. If say they’ve done this to “save money”, surely the money gained from the 77m discs sold makes at least evens, if not of course one would assume a sustained profit of sorts.

After of course manufacturing, distribution, sales channels percentages and so on are accounted for. Because if physical never made them a profit, they wouldn’t have done it in the first place.

So whilst I agree with your point it’s a large chunk to dismiss from the books, the counter argument for it also seems weak. As in, they would counter to save money, but then they make a profit from it as a whole, surely. I can’t imagine producing 77m of any mass marketed product and failing to make a profit unless I’m literally inept in every way shape and form at accounting for the costs involved.

So that then leaves us one only true reason, second hand/trading. Just like VHS, DVD burners, second hand music and the like, the one thing that all the industry hates is a buyer who lines the (no doubt incredibly corrupt) pockets of CEX more than their own.

That’s why I’ve told people time and time again, even if someone’s argument is that they too don’t buy second hand, the industries argument will always be, but many still can and do.

It’s happened to so much of the mediums available and that’s the true crux in all of this. They’re yet to create a physical item at a price mass markets purchase, that goes on a shelf but also can’t be legally traded.

Physical would stay if they could figure out a way to prevent people from supporting trading of said physical.

@Bez87 but you also have to consider that the high street is completely dead now post-Covid (and was dying for many years before that). It’s not that demand isn’t there, it’s that everyone knows it’s cheaper to buy online and the high street can’t compete.

People don’t just pop into their local game shop or supermarket to buy a game when they can have it delivered to their doorstep from Amazon. It’s less hassle, usually way cheaper and you have a physical present to wrap-up for the occasion.

Hardly anyone uses places like GAME or CEX anymore unless they’re desperate for cash. It’s all shifted to online marketplaces.

I just think once physical games are gone, Sony will have a monopoly and they’re absolutely going to run riot. The price of digital games will increase every financial quarter, as will game services like PS+. Sales will become less frequent and will be more targeted due to dynamic pricing. New releases will remain at full price for far longer than they do now. They might also suddenly revise their T&C’s allowing them to remove purchased games from your gaming library, and make it compulsory to sign if you want to keep playing. Like they just did recently with over 500 purchased movies, because their licensing agreement with Studio Canal expired. And where will we be then? At the mercy of Sony’s good will? Good luck with that. No good ever came from giving a company like Sony this much control/power.

@Fiendish-Beaver A decent 1440p PC isn't that expensive and the RAM crisis farse will soon cool off. A PC is also something you can work on and make money. As i'm getting older i'm transforming from an enthusiast to a casual gamer and the PC platform makes more sense without online paywalls and more than 3 decent storefronts.

@ButteredCrumpet
Just to clear it out I remembered it wrong (had to double check it again) and the offical sales was 318 millions with the 22/78 split so that would be 70 millions discs sold in FY2025

Regardles of that the reason I believe ps6 will fail just as xbox series failed is the same reason ps2 succeded and no other playstation console could reach does numbers is the biggest group of people which are "casuals" will skip it. Those are people that do not write comments, dont watch trailers, dont read news and dont even type playstation in they browsers and yet for various resons ps2 catched that people while xbox series with "game pass is all you need" and but is not visible in stores for casuals sold only 35 millions consoles and need a hard reset now. Sony backing of discs will make them dissapear from stores and only hardcores fans will buy it just like only hardcore xbox fans bought xbox series and that is just simply not enough. My predictions for 6 years ps6 anniversary is 50 millions consoles sold max (6 years ps5 is 93 millions)

@zebric21 I totally get your point about you preferring PC, and yes it can be used for work.

However, I would just like to point out that you wouldn’t need to sell someone on the benefits of a PC being for work too, as if they need a PC for work they will already have one.

Then those that do have one for work will likely not want to spend the rest of their free time in front of said PC.

There are many benefits to a console ecosystem, to many a person, the fact PC has what it’s always had (choice, options, power), don’t invalidate the favourable aspects of a console over those PC features.

It’s just I’m not going to sell my mother in-law, or a paramedic, or someone who works a physical in person job of any kind on the benefits of a PC because you can make money from it.

Working from home and building a gaming rig are two very different attitudes to the PC ecosystem, and they don’t always play well together.

Just wanted to state, despite yes all of these three main companies being absolutely dreadful at times, that doesn’t suddenly delete many of the reasons people want a console over a PC.

Take what Valve are trying to do with their Steam OS, yes they say on the Steam Machine and Steam Deck you have “choice” where to buy your games. They’re correct, not a lie!

However, they’re doing their damn best to make anything but purchasing on those devices from anything other than Steam more tiresome.

And don’t get me started on Windows 11, it’s like asking an ex to repeatedly punch you in the face whilst they occasionally tickle you.

@Almost_Ghostly Dont forget he Canadian.

@Fabivito I don’t actually necessarily disagree, but 50 million consoles sold for a PS6, depending on the pricing structure of PS Plus and game sales at the time certainly don’t make it a failure.

The Switch 2 is considered a success already and it’s at around 20-21 million in sales as of May this year.

Sales of consoles matter less when the sales to people who buy second hand are the ones that have gone and upped sticks to another platform.

If the ones that stay are indeed as you say the loyalists shall we say, well then they’re exactly who Sony needs to stay.

A random household buying a console (sometimes sold at a loss), and only buying second hand games for their three kids at a store doesn’t support Sony. So there’s no loss to them.

So I totally agree, but I also know you can have things like a Steam Machine be around £1,000 and still sell all stock despite being twice the price of a PS5. It’s an odd market to be in.

@ButteredCrumpet I know and i have avoided the PC space for almost 14 years! But reality hits hard...I can't stand the ongoing ps+ price increases and eradicating the psysical market will affect my pocket very deep for a product that i have less and less time to enjoy. Also those steam growing numbers mean something..

@Almost_Ghostly

And I guess at the end I really don't care if you don't provide actual substantial proof of your misinformation

Misinformation? Again, i don't have any solid reason why i should do that.

that you haven't done what it takes on your end to make the game playable. Shrug.

You seem like a smart and kind guy. If you really know how to make delisted digital games appear to my library and i can redownload them again, legally btw, then by all means you can spell it in here. I would love to replay Disgaea and Chaos Rings on my PS3 and Vita.

@ButteredCrumpet
I said 50 millions in 6 years of life cycle and that will be consider a failer in the eyes of investors. 100% you are correct that those casuals are not the one who buy games etc but the hardcore fans of xbox bought only 30+ millions consoles and that is a fail and the ceo of xbox says it needs reset thats how bad that is. Sony I believe have more fans overall thats why I predict 50 millions ps6 sold and that mighy be just not enough

@zebric21 Oh I completely understand. But as I stated to another commenter, those Steam numbers will carry on going up due to what Valve is doing to disrupt the PC space. They’re creating a console ecosystem and slowly weening the PC market that is willing to be swayed by it.

Look at Steam Deck and Steam Machine, both use Steam OS, basically UNIX with a Proton Layer slathered over it. Now whilst Valve try really, really hard to tell people it’s console-like, not a console, they’re marketing a product and belief system, they’re not in the market of selling truths.

Their systems make purchasing and playing in the Steam ecosystem lovely, all cozy and funnily enough, nothing remotely new to any of us familiar with a console.

They’re smart, they almost single-handedly got rid of physical PC games, then now won’t give up on creating a box that directs you to their storefront and their products with the same ease as a console.

They’re also smart because they know though many say, oh look, but it’s not a console as it can be used as a PC, they’re well aware most won’t do that.

If people really wanted to use Linux for a desktop they would already be doing so, I use Ubuntu daily, but trying to convince anyone else is sometimes like slamming my head in the car door.

So for the most part, they’re doing exactly what Sony is doing, but in reverse. Sony created the console first and then the games and now making them digital only.

Valve is doing exactly the same thing, just started by making it all digital to begin with.

Due to population increases Steam numbers will grow, but that can be said about many industries, it doesn’t mean many of those people loading up Steam ever intended to be a console purchaser though.

I get your complaints and frustration, I share it too, but after using a PC all day long, and after starting my journey in gaming on a PC, they’re not the answer; they just different.

And it is fool made of anyone who believes Valve and many others won’t gain as much of the market and create a locked down system the moment they can, Valve are even literally marketing it to people right now.

All Valve can offer you is a closed storefront that if you want to go and install and use GOG purchases you can, but many don’t, hence Steam numbers.

So if Sony say also allowed you to install say a game from another storefront, that immediately means they’re already ahead of PC in one fell swoop.

As Valve doesn’t offer physical, their ToS can and are changed, they offer another storefront not because they want to, but it’s good marketing and they can’t prevent it in an open PC system, and they now want you to have a console like experience.

This is what I’m telling people, use GOG and GOG only on PC, or be very careful about what you wish for.

What we need is better rights and values as consumers from all companies in the industry. All this talk of hopping from one system to another does nothing for saving anything we value, it just temporarily boosts the pockets of those that laugh down at us.

Mark my words, the moment Valve sees growth in a closed loop system (as they are beginning to), they will branch out as far as they can. They don’t like GOG anymore than they like Windows or Sony after all.

@PuppetMaster Are you trying to imply that you cannot re-download delisted purchased games? Transaction Management > Download List.

That's do to the concentration on ai usage and Sony's marketing to those that have money to burn. Most people I know are struggling to pay bills. Our countries tariff issues are helping.

@Almost_Ghostly That's the first thing i've tried and also from both PS3 and Vita store and both games was gone from my download list. If it's working, i wouldn't be here.

@PuppetMaster I just simply don't believe you and you'll have to be okay with that. I can still download all of my purchased & delisted PS3 games.

@PuppetMaster Have you at any point (from memory), deleted the account/user from the PS3 that purchased the game to begin with?

As in, am I correct in assuming you bought it under your PSN account back then, being the same account you use now to log into PS3, which hasn’t been removed from the console at any point, and you’re now trying to load it with the same account?

I only ask as there was an old workaround that worked ages ago for some, but all depends on what the user has done.

Really drives home that it is indeed a vocal minority that are upset about the digital only news.

@Rich33 Also puts a lot of smaller independent business out of business and removes customers options. I doubt removing second hand sales would somehow improve quality control on AAA games being released in a more finished state, but time will tell. Appears to me that centralising profit and locking people into their store is the driving force here. I can see why they are doing this, as there are great benefits for Sony, but I wont support it myself moving into the PS6 era. I do buy digital games, but tends to be the smaller indy games where gives them a better chance of distribution.

@Almost_Ghostly If you think my case is impossible then look at P.T and yes i've also tried to redownload P.T and it doesn't work.
https://gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2015/05/06/report-p-t-completely-removed-from-playstation-store-cannot-be-re-downloaded.aspx

I rest my case here. Don't care if you believe me or not 👋

@ButteredCrumpet No, i never deleted my account.

@PuppetMaster What an absolute pain in the backside!

Hmm, let me know if you ever want it physically instead, as I can get the Japanese one off my friend in the coming months when I visit him and mail it to you.

I know it would cost the mailing cost, but I don’t mind paying that nonsense. Anyway, I’ll be in Japan in September, so if you want the disc copy I’ll send it to you free of charge after then!

Shame that is, what a pain.

What's with these weird statements? 9th?! 7 over?!
The bs alert is going off.

@PuppetMaster I didn't say it wasn't possible, but you know full well you went cherry picking for that P.T. reference. The two games in question here that you mentioned are still available to download in the PS3 shop if you purchased them on the same account you're logged in to.

@Max_the_German why should I care that you prefer physical?

I think the loss of the secondhand/ used market is somewhat a distraction.

The last full priced game I purchased on release was last year. After release games get discounted. I nearly always buy when the price is low. Old games can be picked up cheaply - even old, great games.

A digital marketplace is still a marketplace. Playstation has a lot of control, but cannot operate it as a literal monopoly.

@Ristar24
That is totally your choice, however in regards to:

"Appears to me that centralising profit and locking people into their store is the driving force here."

That is one thing we know very little about, and is probably the least likely negative here.
Other retailers, by law, have to have the ability to sell games - Sony have already said about retailers selling digital codes. We just don't have the details yet.
The only exception to this may be their games, as they likely can sell them where they like, and exclusive to their store.

Maybe once some of the more 'extreme voices' have calmed, Sony might start talking about this.

@Rich33 * Maybe once some of the more 'extreme voices' have calmed, Sony might start talking about this.*

Indeed, it’s almost like a multibillion £/$/¥ company has a plan for its own future. (Sarcasm not aimed at yourself by the way of course)

Much needs to be revealed, however, I would also state it is a year and a half away and therefore one would expect all to be revealed closer to the solidification of plans that shall be executed.

A responsible adult waits until the children have stopped shouting to make their point, instead of shouting over them.

Though I don’t see us all as children, from a business perspective the public are definitely the children in this instance.

Sony will no doubt have a lot more to say on the matter in good time, much like Value didn’t have much if anything to say about the Steam Machine or even its existence at this time period away from its launch.

@Flaming_Kaiser If most players are digital nothing has changed for them.

Go PC and see how the reality of it isn't great. Expensive as hell to get into, endless shoddy ports that only get fixed by upgrading to something that can brute force it, endless storefronts with endless launches (fun fact PC gamers hate using anything that isn't Steam), threats of more crashes, digital only, online only for most games, endless settings that need tweaking.

I find it adorable how PS players only started to care about "ecosystems" once they're precious wasteful plastic was threatened. "Excosystem" must be the new fav buzzword. You lot never gave a damn prior about it.

Anyway don't fool yourself you will buy a PS6.

@Rich33 I guess we'll just have to see how it goes, they've made the choice. I would be interested to see if disc drives sell well, and how that compares to 'new' disc sales, as would give some indication to the popularity of the 2nd hand trade market. If it is very popluar it would be in their interests to end that as it currently exists. I dont believe it's in the interests of customers myself, but will just see how it plays out.

I'd say though that wanting to maintain an option is far from extreme by default, depending on how people choose to articulate that perspective of course. I also think being upfront would probably have seen off a lot of that 'extreme' speculation if they have things like game sharing and decent refunds up their sleeve. Even Nintendo came out with their virtual game cards info ahead of the Game Key card thing (not that I have a Switch 2 either).

@IllusiveMan Not to be a "um actually" but I think this conclusion assume that total 35% is a net forfeit and/or none of the 35% also bought the game digital. I own Yotei physically, but never played it off disc. I like to collect but I play 99.9999% of my games from digitally.
Not saying some will completely just not buy but I think that number of who will not buy is significantly lower than 35%.

Here is a report from Kotaku to put into context why the internet so upset, and why reports like this only give a fraction of the whole picture
"Daniel Ahmad, director of research and insights at Niko Partners, said that 70 million physical PlayStation games were sold last year, and around 500 million have been sold during the current generation."

@ButteredCrumpet
"I would also state it is a year and a half away"

That is also very true, and you are quite correct - we shouldn't expect all the details yet. I just know though that I wouldn't bother giving any details in the current 'climate'.

I do think Sony was pretty stupid in the way they dropped the news with very little additional info - most of the big questions were easily foreseeable.
But then, Sony's communication / marketing has in my opinion been awful for a few years now.
The example I use is the Pro announcement, without the specs / teardown (the base console had), given the intended audience. Great machine, crap communication, and a waste of Cerny.

The trouble is that some people are coming to all sorts of conclusions, when we literally know virtually nothing.

Take a point I was discussing earlier, the resale market. We know in all likelihood this will be over, although it is not certain there won't be some way to trade in digital, it's unlikely imo. But the biggest gainers I see here are the devs, not Sony.

We don't even know there wont be an optional disc drive for PS6 - for PS4/5 collections. People are assuming this, but I want to hear it from Sony before I make that conclusion.

One thing I am reasonably sure of, given how on the ball Sony's legal team were with the social media ban for children (acting before the announcement), is that their legal team will be all over any of their plans.

@Ristar24
"I'd say though that wanting to maintain an option is far from extreme by default, depending on how people choose to articulate that perspective of course."

I am 100% talking about how SOME have chosen to articulate, not the point itself.

" I also think being upfront would probably have seen off a lot of that 'extreme' speculation if ..."

No argument from me there. I was just discussing that with Mr/Ms Crumpet. I agree we shouldn't expect all details at this stage, but Sony's communication lacked answers to foreseeable questions and was pretty bad in my opinion.

As I said, I am still on the fence overall about this - I'm sad discs are going. But I will be on that fence until we know concrete info - we actually know very little at all for certain.

I don't think people are too bothered about not getting disks in the future, its just they want access to the new consoles with their current physical games. Disk drive for the ps6 as optional would probably go a long way.

@Chapapa I can't speak for anyone else, but a lot of times when I buy a game at full price (AAA or otherwise) it's because I want to support the developer. And if it's a publisher pocketing most of the money, I want to send the message to them that I would like more of this type of game.

For example, I purchased Screamer and Tokyo Extreme Racer at full price because I wanted to support those devs and send the message that there are people out there who want quality arcade racing games that aren't open world.

I bought Invincible VS at full price because I wanted to send the message that there is an appetite for violent fighting games outside of the Mortal Kombat series. I bought Pragmata full price because I wanted to send Capcom the message that there are people that want original AAA IP and that taking chances really does pay off.

Those are just the most recent examples. But the point is that is how I like to show my support. I personally believe buying games on deep discount doesn't help developers.

That's not to say I don't buy games on sale. Most of my collection I bought on sale. But on the few occasions where I feel compelled to support a dev or show support for a genre, I'll drop the full $70

@Rich33 Agreed on all points! I think Sony have done a terrible job regarding their PR team delving into anything of note for years.

Also agreed, if I were them, I would have either focused on waiting to provide the news to then counter it with something else immediately, or provide all the news in one concise swoop.

This debating, speculation and what ifs and maybes from the community and journalists only serves to detract from both the points Sony may later wish to make, or the reality of the situation at hand.

All I know, is that they are well aware of wanting to keep people able to play PS5 titles and have a plan for that. That is all I know and I am aware they will of course have to reveal that at the latest with the PS6 official reveal.

However, by that time, we could be 6-12 or so months or more knee deep in all manner of rumours, speculation and people darting all around the place with ideas.

I’m exactly with you, on the fact that for me, until all the plan is public, I shall remain on the fence as to how I then react and what I next do. As it stands, if I buy a digital copy of CoD on PS5, my partner and I can still play it in multiplayer with more freedom than on Switch 2.

So immediately that’s one of the competitors that does physical media, yet is oddly both behind and ahead digital license usage wise. So for many reasons, including my game catalogue, exclusives and ease of the ecosystem I just can’t jump ship randomly.

So will decide how to react to this when I know all of the information. At the moment the only decider of my gaming fate is what Sony does next, not a comments section online.

@Rich33 Agree with you there, there are indeed some posting 'angry' videos and the like, for money in the end. Such is the world these days unfortunately. I will wait to see how it pans out as I mention, but I feel next gen will price me out anyway, just on the basis of where things appear to be headed. Good job I have all those consoles and games back to the 80s at this point. Anyway, thanks for the responses.

@Wakkawipeout I had Tokyo Xtreme on pre order too, one of the few games I did. Great game.

@Rezium
I wrote about it here before, Sony stated in their report that in FY2025 they sold 318 millions games in units with ratio 22/78 to digital. 22% of 318 millions makes ~70 millions new discs sold in FY2025

Frequent reader, seldom poster here.
(The quiet, silent majority?)

Just so annoyed with this...

Physical video games take up too much space, are easy to lose .. Are inconvenient to switch games. Just another thing to keep track of, store, lose.

Who cares. I cared about physical copies of games when I was a child. Long ago. Before technology moved on.

Digital FTW forever. Spotify, Disney+, Amazon Prime, PlayStation, Nintendo.

Physical media can reside and carry on with vinyl music albums where it actually makes sense. Perhaps Blu-ray. But by and large- it's reign has come and gone.

Napster ~ The catalyst! And we've always loved it.

@DennisReynolds you made my point for me! They want to kill consumer choice and the second hand market. They are not your friends.

@ButteredCrumpet
There is just 1 other point I will make - more and more over recent days I have started to think that a lot of the more 'extreme reactions' we are seeing are actually just anti-Sony, from fans of other systems.

I'm NOT talking about most of those I have conversed with on this site, or some of those I haven't. I am however talking about some of the behaviour I have seen referenced in articles.

It reminds me of how some (particularly PC / Xbox fans) would post incessantly here negatively about the Pro (and to a lesser extent the basePS5) - its like they were scared of it.
Admittedly, once Pro was available a few people I knew who were PC gamers, gave up with PC, and bought Pros. (The main reasons they cited were being fed up of PC compatibility issues / errors and the frequency of online cheating).

I am getting that same vibe again. I have genuinely thought that there are some trying to use this to desperately attract people away from Playstation as a system.

So full price ps5 games!
No! They are games that have been discounted.
Whos to say with no physical media on ps6 games will get such price discounts.
These figures are misleading

@2-bit Took you this long to grasp Corps only care about money, profit and shareholders?

@ButteredCrumpet Thanks for the kind offer. But sadly Chaos Rings 1 doesn't have physical copy. Chaos Rings 3 have physical copy for Vita that also includes Chaos Rings 1 and 2 but both are download code, which is useless because both games already delisted from Vita store. It's a pain and one of the reason why we still need physical media for games preservation.

Btw, it seems no one in here doesn't know or ever played Chaos Rings. The game was developed by Media.Vision, the same devs who developed Sony's Wild Arms and Sega's Valkyria Chronicles. For me, Chaos Rings 1 is one of the best JRPG i ever played. It's Media.Vision top works and it's sad their top works are gone and can't be played by a lot of people, unless using emulator. Here's one of the review for Chaos Rings 1.
https://www.rpgfan.com/review/chaos-rings/

As for Disgaea 1, i've seen some online sellers in my country who have a brand new and second hand PS2 copy. Either i'll grab a PS2 copy from them or the HD remake for PS4.

But again, thanks for the kind offer 🙏

Pretty sure this is the only site pushing Sony propaganda. Guess we will see next gen. Pay your 130AUD for a new game I don't really care, I won't.

@CheapMerc 130 AUD converts to 68 GBP, so here in the UK it’s £70 usually, more expensive than you currently would pay.

However, we can use ShopTo, Loaded and many more, have Australians not got access to anything like that?

As at JB HiFi it’s 129 Aus, which again is cheaper than it is for us before you get a discount.

I’m just asking as I know nothing about the Australian gaming market you see.

@Grumblevolcano I for one would of bought physical of BG3, HD2 and expedition 33 if available.... That's 3 more physical sales.

@ButteredCrumpet I'd assume there is grey market. I do t really use it I just go to local store and grab normally $20-30 cheaper. I like physical so I can loan, sell or trade. Ive always avoided digital as I knew this day way coming. Is sooner than i expected though.

@CheapMerc I completely understand, I just didn’t know of any store other than JB’s that sold games (only Aussie store I’ve been in where I noticed them), but yes, just was super out of the loop on what everything costs physically there.

Do hope you find you have options that work in your favour next gen, no matter where it is on the corporate side of the fence.

One thing is for sure, it impacts us all more than we may realise currently. I got told I was insane to hate Valve pushing for digital only in the PC market, now they’re working to create their own ecosystem and devices just as I said all those years ago.

Thanks for replying, appreciated! The more I learn about other markets I always love, especially when it’s a country I want to keep visiting.

@ButteredCrumpet normally big stored like target, big w launch games at discount. Used to be $30 in a lot of cases. But recent it is more like $20. I picket up Digimon on switch for $90, full price $110. I know black flag is $80 full price $100. 20 buck is 20 bucks. EB Games and JB Hifi price match also. Plus EB games sell a lot of second hand games and have some good sales in them.

Seeing physical is sad, nothing for my kids to open Xmas day. I also just enjoy looking in games stores. PC gaming is becoming interesting also ATM. Keen to see how MS plays out. TBH Sony doing this is probably a good thing for me. Forces me off the platform before I over commited digitally.

@Swandivetotheasphalt
Yeah, it’s not a lie, it was already proven they did their estimations this way. Go defend your precious corporation somewhere else. I don’t buy it.

@DennisReynolds
..more illegal than using internal information to buy or sell stocks before they grow or drop in value..?? You know why I say that. To show that ethical behavior and law matters only when they fear they may be caught doing it. When they are not, they break the rules. Same thing they did with how they estimated digital content sales. And did it on purpose to support their decision to shareholders and also customers. They literally think we are idiots.

@Leinad7 Well why don't you go and report them then. Hell open up your own corp and start your own gaming empire because clearly you know more then Sony, analysts and more. You must have this secret data that Sony lacks so do something about it. 🙄🙄🙄 This is why people laugh at gamers because of people like you.

Okay but with this recent news has anyone changed from buying digital to physical? I can imagine this news will have had an impact and now more people could be buying physical instead

@Leinad7 show me this proof then. Link it here. I'll be waiting.

@Dman10 it's the same in almost every area, the over vocal angry minority shout louder and longer and drown out the quiet and calm majority

@Rich33
(It reminds me of how some (particularly PC / Xbox fans) would post incessantly here negatively about the Pro (and to a lesser extent the basePS5) - its like they were scared of it.
Admittedly, once Pro was available a few people I knew who were PC gamers, gave up with PC, and bought Pros. (The main reasons they cited were being fed up of PC compatibility issues / errors and the frequency of online cheating).

I am getting that same vibe again. I have genuinely thought that there are some trying to use this to desperately attract people away from Playstation as a system.)

That bs gets so old and I know im not giving to the pc bully abuse.

@1985_Mario_Bros_FTW

I do hope Sony does still give Playstation gamers a option of a disc drive on PS6 because alot of Playstation gamers have alot of PS4 games on disc. But i will use my PS5 Pro for disc games if I have to.

@Wakkawipeout
Thanks for the feedback! I totally get it, and if everbody would be a penny pincher, game studios would have died out probably even faster.
But let me put forward that buying a physical copy of a brandnew game would also be supporting the developer just the same, AND still giving you the option to lend it out, or even sell it. Though selling makes it so that the second buyer then doesn't support the developer, which does hurt the devs, I get that.

400th post!!! woot woot!!!

Well done digital generation. Ownership is dead

All this physical ownership is a bit bollocks. Gone are the days when a true gold copy goes onto the media. At best, most newer games need a patch to run optimally, at worst there's gamebreaking bugs.

If I want to play The Lion King on my Master System, I'll be lucky if the console works, the cartridge works, and I have the right cables to hook up to the TV etc etc. But I'm pretty sure I can download a ROM online and be playing in minutes guess what... Digitally! Praise be for digital preservation!!

Everyone banging on about physical ownership sounds like Smeagol keeping hold of his precious ring.

Let's see how many actually stops buying new games after this.
When Sony releases a sequel, to your favorite franchises, on the PS6, will you be able to resist?

Yes it sucks for collectors, but honestly, take a deep breath, and realise, this really is such a first world problem...
We're lucky, we don't have to face REAL problems, like being blown to pieces, in a warzone, living broke on the streets, or dying from Cancer. In the end, it's just videogames.

@Dman10 The percentage of gamers represented in any comments section always represents a small minority of gamers overall. Therefore every opinion you ever give in a comments section can be safely disregarded, by your logic.

@ShadowRJ There's no logical reason to play games. It's an objective waste of time with no societal function. However, we still do and get very precious about it.

@Sunzy98 For some reason there are lots of weird men who want Sony to have even more control over their gaming landscape and want themselves to have less options. It's very strange.

@Boxmonkey Exactly. This website knows this but look how many comments they get on these trash articles.

I was hopeful for an optional accessory drive so people could play PS1 to PS5 physical games on the PS6. Would have been really nice to have a device where all legacy physical media could be taken forwards. However these numbers are so miserable it seems more unlikely unfortunately. Seems pointless arguing about percentage of physical sales accuracy as if these numbers are even remotely close to being correct it’s very dire situation for physical.

Can’t wait until Pokémon cards go digital. I also cannot bloody wait for the day Sony start taking away the games from your libraries because they don’t have the rights to music etc used in the games. I am going to laugh like a drain 😉

With this logic...

McDonald's sold friggin more fries than their Big Mac, it means Big Mac should be removed from the menu. They'll save up so much from having to buy and stock bread and lettuce and the sauce, etc.

Not only I'm boycotting Sony, i will spend everyday dragging their names through the mud. PlayStation is only cool because we recommended it to our friends and families. Casuals won't buy a console that's not "cool".

Damn those analysts 🤣 I guess that’s the final nail in the coffin then, be good if there was a box kit to burn the buggers on disk yourself eh? Then everyone’s happy I bet 👊

@species I think you're conflating shutdown servers with disabled games. The Crew is unplayable currently (although you can still play it on PC with TCU) because it was a purely always online game. If we want to get technical, this was a software, not hardware, shutdown.

I'm not aware of single player physical games (or portions of games) being disabled on a console. At least one of the examples you listed (Final Fantasy XI) is still playable; others (like Final Fantasy XIV) are online games.