Not defending them at all cause it really sucks, but decisions like this don’t happen in a bubble

[u/FaithlessnessHungry1]

[u/Mr_Saturn1]

Might be an unpopular opinion but I don’t think digital purchases are a problem. The problem is lack of consumer protection laws that allow companies to modify access to your purchases. We need laws that say Sony making a digital game you brought unplayable is no different than breaking into your house and stealing physical games off your shelf.

[u/smallfried → u/[deleted]]

Gog is the best for this. You download an installer that will work forever. With a simple backup system you basically control your ownership of the game, which is what this whole discussion boils down to.

[u/rico_muerte → u/[deleted]]

Yeah but how are gamers gonna fill up their nerd walls with plastic boxes now?

[u/rico_muerte → u/[deleted]]

Invest now

[u/CyberKiller40 → u/rico_muerte]

With the usual size of modern game libraries (I mean the ones with 1000+ games), a wall would be not enough. You could build a whole house out of game boxes.

[u/Beneficial_Dog4469 → u/CyberKiller40]

As someone who has 1K+ in physical game media. One wall with VERY stable racks will do when talking about PS4/PS5 cases. If we talking PS2/3?? Then you’re 100% correct and PS1 you’d need a room dedicated because tons of the good games were multiple discs in a *compact plastic(MGS, Gran Turismo, Legends of Dragoon, etc etc)

[u/mattyp2109 → u/Mr_Saturn1]

Agreed. The whole “license” purchase vs actually purchasing the PRODUCT is lame and is the issue.

[u/torneagle → u/Mr_Saturn1]

Also pricing, something people seem to not really mention. You can buy discs on a significant discount just months after release, digitally years later the game is still full price. Someone posted a picture of god of war ragnarok at Walmart for $32, it’s $69.99 to download off psn. That’s a 4 year old game, still full price digitally.

[u/TC_Squared → u/torneagle]

Dark Souls III is still $59.99. That game is over 10 years old.

[u/redditbrowser500 → u/TC_Squared]

Physical is better for us poor people

[u/AStupidguy2341 → u/redditbrowser500]

Fr, not everyone is rich

[u/Invictum2go → u/Mr_Saturn1]

And when a law getting passed seems impossible given what we saw literally in the last month, the only realistic line of defence for those of us who care is physical media. Yes, in a bubble, aka a bad way of looking at anything, it's not bad. But when you add context, as you always should, yeah, lack of physical media is a big problem. Because the other problem is impossible to solve atm.

[u/IWantSnack642 → u/Mr_Saturn1]

Yeah, if we had digital consumer protection rights where they can’t touch our games once it’s purchased, then going full digital wouldn’t be a bad thing. Unfortunately these so called geniuses didn’t think that far ahead

[u/WilliamLermer → u/Mr_Saturn1]

The corporate lobbyist are successfully introducing and maintaining anti-consumer strategies and people keep throwing money at these companies.

It's a big reason for so many societal issues and why it's such a massive pita uphill battle for anyone trying to make beneficial changes. Capital always wins

Today, Sony will remove physical copies. Tomorrow it's another thing. Gamers will trip over themselves to buy the latest releases regardless. If for some reason Sony reconsiders, they will find different questionable tactics to get what they want

Corporations are not our friends, never were never will be

Ideally there would be a push trough politics and social movements to implement changes that go deeper, just as you suggested. But it's highly unlikely

Personally, I think full boycott is a good way to show support. Gaming especially is not essential. And there are plenty of consumer oriented choices vs corporate slop that will fill the void quickly

People don't need gta6, they are being told they need it.

The entire industry is reaching levels of absurdity, it's revolting. I wish more people would actually take the time to consider their purchases and maybe not spend money on exploitative companies.

It would be especially easy with gaming vs food industry

[u/lord_pizzabird → u/Mr_Saturn1]

It also sounds extremely difficult to even regulate, particularly in the US.

Forcing a company to release their software on a certain medium has to be a violation of the constitution, be considered compelled free speech.

[u/Greenhawk444 → u/lord_pizzabird]

That second point is quite a stretch

[u/Crowgression]

I do worry about what happens if someone's account gets banned. Are all those games you bought just gone?

I also have concerns about Sony's shitty return policy and potential to monopolize digital game prices in the PS store.

If those get addressed I'll feel a lot better. I personally haven't bought a physical disk in a long time and understand it's a dying media, but I still like the idea of being able to share games easily with friends and trade in/sell games I don't want anymore. All that goes away with digital only

[u/Plane-Education4750 → u/Crowgression]

Definitely gone. The only reason you would be banned outright from your account, not just from online play, is of Sony thinks you're stealing

[u/Octopus_Juice → u/Plane-Education4750]

Still too much power.

[u/Plane-Education4750 → u/Octopus_Juice]

100%. I'm not justifying it at all. It's a digital company town

[u/Octopus_Juice → u/Plane-Education4750]

I didn’t think you were justifying it. But the sells being a majority digital make this decision a no brainer for a company like Sony.

[u/Technical-Guest6015 → u/Octopus_Juice]

technofeudalism brother

[u/MidnightPrevious4473 → u/Plane-Education4750]

That happened to me with Xbox when they pushed a security update. Not because I was stealing. Basically, my account was made in the 360 days on an aol email that no longer exists. I then updated my account to my university email in college, which the college promptly deleted. When they pushed that security update, it required me to verify my sign-in in my non-existent email accounts...which bricked the account that I've had for 20 years. All my digital purchases? Gone. Now, granted, most of my back catalogue is physical media, but still...I was beyond pissed.

[u/joe-clark → u/MidnightPrevious4473]

I don't want to victim blame but canceling the AOL email and having your Xbox account attached to a University email rather then a personal one is insane to me.

[u/MidnightPrevious4473 → u/joe-clark]

Mistakes were made although - to be fair - it was setup by my dad when I was 10

[u/Runnin_Mike → u/joe-clark]

People are allowed to make poor personal choices but still retain their game library.

[u/rightchea → u/Plane-Education4750]

Aka dont get banned

[u/degonzolives → u/rightchea]

I had a person hack my account purchase a ton of games, when I did a charge back I got banned. Not so simple buddy.

[u/Xaphnir → u/rightchea]

Seems easy until their AI enforcement hallucinates a violation.

[u/ScalesNailsnTales → u/Plane-Education4750]

Or if you dont log on for 36 months. Then they delete your account.

Sure most people will log into their account in that time, but sometimes life happens. You or a family member get a long term illness/accident (plus recovery), go to jail, have to sell your console to make ends meet. When youre able to get back to your account, its gone.

Or your account gets hacked. Ive seen a few people who previously had their account hacked and apparently they just outright banned the account instead of helping the rightful owner get it back.

[u/TanukiThing → u/Crowgression]

My sony account got hacked and had the email associated with it changed. I was unable to get access back and lost my digital games.

[u/Sierra-117- → u/[deleted]]

2FA has saved me multiple times on multiple different sites. On my Microsoft account too. I always enable 2FA if it’s an option.

[u/Ty-douken → u/[deleted]]

I actually had someone potentially using my account (I've claimed all Ps plus games since they started doing it) for years, but they never changed anything or bought anything on my account. As soon as I enabled 2FA I got 100+ notifications in 12 hours from them. Changed my password as well after that, but genuinely felt bad because they'd never done anything bad with my account, it was essentially an unknown friend borrowing access.

[u/Tekniqz23 → u/Ty-douken]

Yeaaaaa F that. Unknown friend can take his ass to work just like I do everyday.

[u/shadowthehh → u/Ty-douken]

Reminds me of an old Penny Arcade strip where one of the characters kept having some unknown person log in to their WoW account. They decided to just let them have it since they wound up being the one playing it more anyway.

[u/shawn1213 → u/Crowgression]

100% they're gone if an accounts banned sony Is not letting you transfer them to a new account like you could if u had a disk

[u/Hammersonjones → u/Crowgression]

I can confirm they will be gone and Sony doesn’t care. I had a friend whose account got hacked through the trading system on rocket league, somehow they got access to his account and sent links through the psn message. He got banned and lost all his games and progress on black ops3. He tried getting his account back for years to no avail.

[u/bandjalah → u/Crowgression]

Dont forget if you die nobody gets the library. With physical media on the other hand...

My kid will get all my n64, dreamcast and xbox360 shit :)

[u/McGrufNStuf → u/Crowgression]

This is the biggest concern that needs to be addressed (account and property recovery). I have a buddy I play with on Xbox who got locked out of his account. He had to prove two factor authentication but the phone number he had on file was to an old phone. He lost hundreds, if not a couple thousand, in games and add ons for games because Microsoft makes account recovery so difficult.

This should be the rallying cry right now. Not trying to save something that many, if not all, of us contributed to killing. Make it so your media is easily recoverable, downloadable, able to play offline (where applicable), and even transferable (able to play on any future Gen platform).

[u/MudSeparate1622 → u/Crowgression]

Nintendo banned my account over it getting hacked and buying something I never approved a year into not using my switch. when i called to talk to them about it they said I needed to call my bank and let the payment go through so they could protect me from the hackers... craziest thing ever. They would not tell me what the payment was for either when I asked. All my nintendo games and an account as old as the service gone in an instant and they could care less. I will never buy another nintendo product

[u/Dry-Post723 → u/MudSeparate1622]

damn, ¿what did the bank did?

[u/Boredatwork709 → u/Dry-Post723]

Bank likely did a charge back, I've seen that get accounts banned on PlayStation and Xbox as well

[u/trixel121 → u/Boredatwork709]

its pretty much a sure fire way to get your account banned from what ive heard. id of been arguing hard with that CS rep about the charge back being their only option cause how are they going to let me keep something that i shouldnt of have after i get the money back.... like im calling you to say im hacked, i dont want this and you are telling me to "Steal" from you by keeping the product and getting my money back from the bank?

let me talk to your manager.

[u/Zharken → u/trixel121]

Yeah that's fucking ridiculous, there was a chargeback because the account got hacked, so what? arent these digital games just fucking revocable licenses anyway? Can't they just revoke the famn licence and remove the game from the account? There's absolutely no need to ban an account for that. If you use this to get full refunds of games after playing them, then yeah you are abusing the system and will get banned, but god damn

[u/scarr991 → u/Crowgression]

Exactly thats the problem. Sony is a shit company they will find more ways to screw their customers. Not just that, the store is shit too and now you are forced to buy their stuff there.

[u/Tsunamiis → u/Crowgression]

Steam refunds used to be unheard of. If that company can change the others can too. Or die hopefully

[u/Zalvren → u/Tsunamiis]

Steam got forced to do refund by a lawsuit, should be the same here at the minimum

[u/buzzcutbabygirl → u/Crowgression]

Yes, gone.

My girlfriend lost access to her EA library and is cutely fighting with them over hundreds of dollars of Sims DLC she’s acquired over a decade. If they don’t find a work-around she’s going to have to sail the high seas to get the content back, because there’s no way she’s spending that money again.

[u/Pootisman16 → u/Crowgression]

You lose the games and don't even get a recourse if you try to sue them or something.

It's just bad all around.

[u/MoveLikeMacgyver → u/Crowgression]

You didn’t buy games. You bought revocable licenses to play the games.

[u/Crowgression → u/MoveLikeMacgyver]

Yes, which is an issue. If you purchase a game I believe you should own the game, not a license that can be taken from you

[u/MoveLikeMacgyver → u/Crowgression]

I agree completely.

[u/InvaderJoshua94 → u/Crowgression]

Well, the amazing thing about digital games is that there are multiple devices you can play them on and multiple storefronts. If you don’t want a PS6 or the new Xbox, which will inevitably be digital only and cost over $1000, get a steam machine instead or build a mid-level gaming pc, or get a laptop or handheld for $1000-$2000 and use steam, GOG, epic, etc. instead.

If you don’t trust a company running a storefront there are plenty of other digital store fronts. And steam and GOG have made it a point that if your account gets banned, you don’t lose your games. You just lose access to the storefront and community features not your past purchases.

[u/EvilDarkCow → u/Crowgression]

There are way too many stories online of people's accounts getting compromised, and Sony support simply saying "that sucks lol", and just like that your account and games are gone.

I've set up a passkey on my account, so a sign-in attempt sends a request to my phone that I verify with Face ID, but I still don't trust them to not fuck up and hand my account and games to a hacker.

[u/WorryLegitimate259 → u/Crowgression]

Sonys refund policy is so fucking garbage if you download the game (which happens automatically once you buy it) you can’t get a refund. Even if you didn’t play the game.

[u/Significant-Mud2572 → u/WorryLegitimate259]

You should check your settings if it downloads automatically after you buy it.

[u/Slow-haste-26 → u/Crowgression]

I had a sony account that got banned, yes the games i had (only 4 digital ones) are lost now.

[u/zeeko683 → u/Crowgression]

Time to go after Sony like they are doing with Apple, saying that their store is anti competitive and is actually a monopoly.

[u/InsaneJamez → u/Crowgression]

BINGO!!!! It’s call control and thief. This is the first step of not being able to play offline anymore.

[u/Kind-Let5666 → u/Crowgression]

For real. I got banned once because I called somebody a fuckass or something. I didn’t realize how strict Sony is, my first ban got me banned for a week. I figured I’d learned my lesson, I’m not messing with Sony messages, turned it off.

Now do I have to worry about my account getting banned for stupid shit I said in chat over a decade ago, should one day old friends or something report me for it? Come tf on.

If they’re going to go all digital this needs to change.

[u/Gharvar → u/Crowgression]

What should worry people more than a banned account is the fact they announced the PS3 and PS Vite stores are closing in August 2026. Anything not downloaded to your console is just lost forever. They really are taking your games away.

[u/Xaphnir → u/Crowgression]

I do worry about what happens if someone's account gets banned. Are all those games you bought just gone?

Yes, they are. How the ban happens depends on the storefront; for EA, you called someone an idiot in in game chat? That's it, your entire account is gone, and you as a person are not legally allowed to play EA games ever again, with them having very aggressive ban evasion enforcement. For Steam, bans will affect different parts of the service, with the only bans that cause you to lose access to your entire account and therefore all games being typically associated with fraudulent activity related to your purchases.

For Sony, not entirely sure what their policy is.

[u/Ill_Purple_4468 → u/Crowgression]

This is my problem. Digital games can stay full priced much longer than disc based that usually get a price drop or can be bought used at various outlets.

I know psn runs sales but they also have games you can get for $40 on disc that are still $60 for digital.

And Sony also axed people's digital video purchases.

[u/liqwood1 → u/Crowgression]

Yeah it's major issue. I've always slightly worried about it in the back of my head and then in the 2025 Sony data breach my friends account was hacked.

We both thought it wouldn't be a big deal, maybe a quick phone call to prove ownership but no, unfortunately Sony couldn't care less and he lost his account and around 2k of games and purchases..

Shit like that should never happen. Ever.

[u/The_Se7enthsign]

I used to buy disks mainly to save hard drive space, but once they started installing the whole game anyway, it became pointless.

[u/lemonylol → u/The_Se7enthsign]

I used to collect physical media in general, until I realized how much goddamn space it takes up in my house. Now I just have a wall of boxes of stuff I ripped to my media server sitting in my garage. But hey, now I can make playlists and shuffle, and watch on any device anywhere seamlessly.

[u/Son_Of_Icarus6774 → u/The_Se7enthsign]

Yeah, this is why I stopped buying disks. Every since the PS4 and Xbox One toy have to download the game even if it's on a disk. No point to the disk if it only tells the console you own the game.

[u/deadrebel → u/The_Se7enthsign]

It wasn't pointless, it's just the points that buying physical media needed to make weren't what you valued.

[u/Vegetable_Excuse2029]

Game companies have been wanting to do away with used games for a while now.

They've been wanting to do that since xbone/ps4

This is their excuse to do it.

[u/Squidorb → u/Vegetable_Excuse2029]

I'm so confused how someone can make a statement like OP's and not realize that this is all by design from the industry.

[u/RelocateToHellFor20K → u/Squidorb]

Its a confluence of events imo. Big gaming companies want to do away with physical media and the majority of gamers (likely of which arent represented on reddit) want the convenience of buying a game from their couch and immediately having access.

My reason for going digital was working turnaround jobs and flying with my console so physical media just made sense. Most of the guys I worked with did similar so it just feels like more of a 'yeah the companies want to do away with physical, but also the customer base seems to be drifting that way too'. Two things can be true.

[u/Carl_Azuz1 → u/Squidorb]

Did big PC make everyone stop buying games on disc? The reality is that digital format is objectively more convenient and most people prefer it. Does it have its downsides? Absolutely. Do I generally still prefer and collect physical media? Yeah. Is there some grand conspiracy to make people stop buying discs? No lmao.

[u/AkuTheNiceGuy → u/Squidorb]

Yes the gaming industry made floppy disk obsolete LOL ok man

[u/Dhiox → u/Squidorb]

It's not really a conspiracy. The tech has moved on. Physical media takes up.a ton of real estate in a console, and is way slower than internal storage. Why continue to support a very expensive media so that their consoles cost more and are slower?

[u/abyssaI_watcher → u/Vegetable_Excuse2029]

I mean steam operates the same way being a fully digital market based on licenses. It's only been this way for some time with physical on PC not really being a thing. Not attacking steam or defending Sony just feels hypocritical by the community at large.

[u/Remote-Bus-5567]

I'm guessing the people buying games digitally still appreciate having the option for physical copies.

[u/thewiredknight → u/Remote-Bus-5567]

Also that statistic counts indie games which are often released digitally only so it’s a skewed stat

[u/Komondon → u/thewiredknight]

They also include dlc and the like as well.

[u/Frobizzle → u/Komondon]

Source plz.

[u/topscreen → u/thewiredknight]

There is also a whole small industry bringing smaller or indie games to physical releases and special editions. Iam8bit, Limited Run, and my favorite Fan Gamer.

[u/thelameghost → u/thewiredknight]

I also wonder if they also count all the free games like fortnite, warzone and the likes.

And while we're at it, I'd be curious to see that percentage without the call of duties and ea sports games. Because these would probably count for a lot while not being representative of the average gamer

Edit : and all the psn+ free games are also probably bundled into that stat. So yeah. Fuck Sony

[u/voyaging → u/thelameghost]

If we had to pick a game/series that was most representative of the average gamer Call of Duty and EA Sports games would literally be #1 and #2

[u/Whiteboiconvert → u/thelameghost]

"If you take away all the digital games then physical copies sell more" lmao

[u/Witty_Bookkeeper_314 → u/Whiteboiconvert]

If you take away the digital ONLY games***

[u/steelthyshovel73 → u/Whiteboiconvert]

The point is that the statistic is misleading. It's saying "85% of our sales are digital". People are using that stat and claiming "85% of video game sales are digital."

But that includes all software like dlc and digital only games. If you buy a physical game and then 5 DLCs for that game the number automatically gets much bigger in favor of digital. That's 1 physical sale versus 5 digital.

When a game is released with a physical version the gap gets much smaller.

https://www.thegamebusiness.com/p/the-video-game-industry-is-not-ready?hide_intro_popup=true

[u/No-Risk-9833 → u/Whiteboiconvert]

If you take away all the digital-only titles, DLC, cosmetics, PS5 upgrades, micro-transactions as well as indie, mobile and free live service games then yes it’d be a fair comparison.

[u/OkAd1797 → u/Whiteboiconvert]

Who the hell would buy a physical copy of a free live service game?? It has no business being in the %

[u/Whiteboiconvert → u/OkAd1797]

Are they counting free downloads as sales?

[u/EddieHeadshot → u/Whiteboiconvert]

No

[u/Dull_Fix5199 → u/Whiteboiconvert]

They made a mess of the phrasing, but i see the point.

I bet if you were to omit digital-only games and specifically poll the purchase ratio of physical vs digital for games that have both as an option you wouldnt see a % nearly as high as 85-93.

[u/JAMESTIK → u/thelameghost]

??? call of duty and sports games are huge chunk for f the average gamer

[u/P_ZERO_ → u/thelameghost]

Why are people theorising ways that make it so that Sony is cutting more revenue? It makes absolutely zero sense. They have the numbers, they have decided they're going to get their money. This whole idea that Sony is underrepresenting a revenue stream is mental, it's all about money and they would not shut down the more profitable streams

[u/tfhermobwoayway → u/thelameghost]

To be fair they are representative of the average gamer, in the same way the average film fan watches Marvel movies and nothing else. Which sucks. We need quality standards. Go back to the days gaming was niche.

[u/yakityyakblahtemp → u/Remote-Bus-5567]

You have to do doorman math at that point. There's overhead in making physical copies, 80% of your audience doesn't buy them. So what percentage will be upset by not having the option and will it lose you more revenue longterm than it will save on overhead. It's not an easy call to make.

[u/Fry-Z → u/Remote-Bus-5567]

Yeah I buy everything digital, but every once in a while I’ll get a game physically if it’s cheaper. A few months ago I got the entire Dark Souls trilogy with all the dlc on disc for $35. If I got it digitally it would cost around $150

[u/pat_the_catdad → u/Remote-Bus-5567]

I believe that’s the cope that hoarders use 😅

[u/Xnub → u/Remote-Bus-5567]

i do not care

[u/Organic_Manner6847 → u/Remote-Bus-5567]

Not all games are physically available. if someone bought Hollow Knight weeks after release the chance is pretty high they finished it multiple times before a physical edition dropped.

PS: Hollow Knight is one of the most successful games. Baldurs Gate 3 has a physical edition which is limited afaik.

[u/birdman133 → u/Remote-Bus-5567]

I actually don't, at all. I think it's a waste of plastic and ends up in landfills eventually.... All digital for me, please

[u/ChanglingBlake → u/birdman133]

There are other packaging types.

The biggest concern should be ownership.

With all digital on a proprietary system you have zero recourse if they decide to just pull games off the service. Just like they’re doing with a bunch of movies people have bought.

[u/Indraga → u/Remote-Bus-5567]

I don’t. I don’t even have a drive on my ps5 because it’s actually $100 cheaper without it.

[u/ronin_cse → u/Remote-Bus-5567]

As one of those people, I think I bought maybe 4 physical games last gen: I couldn’t care less if I’m being honest. I’m also a PC gamer and there haven’t been physical PC releases for many years at this point.

[u/Firm-Veterinarian-57 → u/Remote-Bus-5567]

Purely anecdotal, and I’m only person, but I personally could not care less about digital copies only. I haven’t purchased a physical game in several years, and think that the reduction in physical plastic is a net positive.

[u/BusterSocrates → u/Remote-Bus-5567]

that’s just stupid

[u/SunNext7500 → u/Remote-Bus-5567]

No. I don't care about physical copies at all.

[u/Confident_Aspect1316]

We must buy all the discs before its too late

https://giphy.com/gifs/Bva8ZKa2Ww72BQKYWl

[u/ChaoticFairness]

You don't appreciate what you have until it is gone.

[u/MrTopping92]

Having the option is always better than being forced.

[u/RecLuse415]

Gotta remember Reddit does not actually speak for the general public

[u/gdrumy88 → u/RecLuse415]

Wait, it doesnt?!? /s

[u/budbud70]

Haven't bought a physical game since the PS4, and even then I bought almost all digital.

99% of games these days don't even play off the disc. They just install the data.

[u/between3-20charcterz → u/budbud70]

The disc isnt the game or just the data, its the key. They dont want you to have physical keys they want to hold the keys and give you permission to use them. Most people dont want physical keys because its inconvenient as opposed to having everything in one place. I personally love physical media and was anticipating going to a midnight release for gta 6 until this came out. Depending on what happens after they stop making physical games we probably wont be too far off from movies and TV shows being digital only

[u/budbud70 → u/between3-20charcterz]

It's not though. They can revoke the validity of your physical key check via internet the same way they can remove your purchases.

Gone are the days of the PS1 when the game was just on a disc and that was all you needed.

People are confusing Roms with what is basically just raw data stored on a disc.

[u/smallfried → u/budbud70]

It's not that long ago as the PS1 era. Horizon Forbidden West still installed on an offline PS5, no?

[u/Bartkie775]

Feels like I’m being punished for buying hollow knight and hades digitally 🫠

[u/Reyjr]

Give people the option, and if they want the games digitally fine or if they want a physical copy, take individual orders and burn a physical disc for that person (burning discs shouldn’t take long), instead of burning millions of copies, give them a release and arrival window.

[u/ninjupX → u/[deleted]]

The the 85% is just for

“Full game software digital download ratio is calculated by dividing PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®5 full game software units sold via digital transactions by total full game software units.”

https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/IR/library/presen/er/pdf/25q4_supplement.pdf

It does not include dlc. It is full game downloads. So no, your Street Fighter example is objectively false.

[u/overts → u/ninjupX]

People cannot accept reality and it’s crazy.  I feel like I’m going crazy.  There are people arguing with you even though your comment should be case closed.

It can suck that physical is dead.  You can prefer physical over digital.  But it’s delusional to act like the vast majority of players don’t prefer digital.  They absolutely do.

[u/Mrchristopherrr → u/overts]

This is exactly how I’ve been feeling. I’m not “defending a billion dollar corporation” I’m just asking people to look at reality.

If there were still a large enough market for physical Sony and Microsoft would be all about that, but the truth is there just isn’t anymore- at least not enough to justify the added costs.

PC has been the pinnacle of gaming for over a decade now and they’ve been almost entirely digital.

[u/P_ZERO_ → u/overts]

We have people arguing that Sony is actually lying and physical represents the majority of their revenue. Ok, great. Now explain to everyone why they’d invite such bad press to cut themselves off from their major revenue stream on their own volition.

Great idea, let’s destroy our financials, create bad will and double down on the financial impact so we can lose even more money!

Like, fucking think for one second. It is amazing how internet rage totally destroys brain cells.

[u/protobelta → u/overts]

It’s what happens when you’re a terminally online Reddit loser

[u/VibrantCanopy → u/ninjupX]

Does it exclude digital-only and physical-only games? Does it exclude games that launched digital first and only got physical later? Does it exclude F2P games? Does it exclude PS+ games?

[u/Swiftzor → u/[deleted]]

It goes beyond that. It includes free games given via PS+, GamePass, and free DLC or included bonus content when you buy a physical game.

[u/WakeMeUpAIOverlords → u/[deleted]]

And indie titles that you cannot get physically. It’s a footnote in their press release so the number is very likely inflated to hell and we’ll never get the real numbers.

[u/New_Cockroach_505 → u/[deleted]]

It’s not misleading. Sony put out a financial report (as lots of companies do) and separated full game purchases from mtx and dlc. It was still around 80%.

[u/Alert-Principle-2726 → u/New_Cockroach_505]

And did they separate free games, indies and digital only games as well?

[u/Fun-Nefariousness186 → u/[deleted]]

Prove what you are saying 

[u/BOOMxHEADSH0T]

This is dumb.

If you buy a digital release, that's an option.
If you want to buy a used game a few years after release, you'll find something available for you outside of the Sony ecosystem.
Take away that option, BOOM. Monopoly.

You want new, Sony
You want used, LOL. Get bent!

[u/ItsKendrone]

Going digital only kills the secondhand market for future consoles. I usually get used games for my switch like how I got Breath of The Wild for $20 rather than buying digitally.

[u/TheShoot141]

I had Sega TV Channel streaming games to my living room in 1994.

[u/RealValf]

I only buy digital because I’ve had my disc drive die on so many consoles I just stopped buying discs to avoid that.

However, physical should always be an option. Just because I don’t buy the disc doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have the option.

[u/DrRealName]

Imagine actually wanting to own what you buy. What a crazy concept.

[u/Pathetic_Cards]

Yeah. I was already on board when Microsoft announced that Xbox One games would be purchasing a non-transferable license and the disc would be meaningless. I was already buying most games digitally by then, and the only reason I’d buy physical is to save space on the drive, which stopped mattering with the XBONE and PS4.

So rather than bitch and moan about the loss of discs, I’d rather start a more aggressive push to have the laws about buying digital licenses bolstered. They shouldn’t be allowed to delist it, shut it down, or ban/delete an account that owns digital licenses, and they need to remove the line from their ToSs that forbid handing off your account to someone else, so you can pass it to your kids or whatever.

[u/Fendfor]

And yet i can almost gurantee the price of the games wont go down by getting rid of physical disks.

[u/northernsuede]

These dipshits simping for Sony dont umderstand that even if they prefer digital, having place other than the ps store to buy games stops them from inflating their prices to whatever they want because you have options where to buy.

[u/alcomaholic-aphone → u/northernsuede]

And no lending to friends, no borrowing from libraries, no eBay selling.

[u/minterupandmoving → u/northernsuede]

Average Reddit gamers thinking that physical game stores are stopping companies from raising prices LOL

This is why there’s such an outrage on Reddit right now. You guys spend so much time absorbed into your computers that you don’t realize 90% of the world makes gaming purchases digitally

[u/Grouchy_Marketing_79 → u/minterupandmoving]

Bruh

It's a third of the price for a physical copy on amazon, lmao

[u/AsariKnight → u/minterupandmoving]

I mean it literally does. Just because you're not savy enough to understand doesn't mean it doesn't.

[u/protobelta → u/northernsuede]

Lmao this dude clearly failed economics 

[u/eBohmerManJenson → u/northernsuede]

Are you dumb? Sony sets their prices right now. It doesnt matter if you buy it from Walmart, Best buy, or Target. It will be $60 cause that is what Sony says. If they want they can increase all the games to $70 tomorrow. It is literally their product and can sell it for whatever they want to.

[u/BatmanFarce]

It doesn’t help matters that ppl opt for “convenience” but don’t act like these mofos weren’t being pushed into this by corporate interests

[u/BatmanFarce → u/[deleted]]

Hey hey, blockbuster sucked! lol
But your overall point about the rental industry as whole goin away is sad. It’s my gawd give right to complain about change lol

[u/Fudmeiser → u/BatmanFarce]

I haven't bought a physical copy of a game in years. Please explain how I was manipulated into that by "corporate interests".

[u/holdmybeer89]

I love physical media, esepcially for music, but physical copies of games are just a disc that has like an authorization code to download the game from cloud storage to your local console, because they're massive. Also, liner notes for games, like the little booklet you get that has descriptions for weapons, environments, and enemies, and other lore bits has been gone for a long time now. Having the cover art is nice though, I guess.

[u/thupamayn]

I support the option to own a physical copy but you can’t force a company to manufacture and distribute them.

The vast myriad of complaints regarding this aren’t even realistic and I suspect are made mostly by people who don’t actually care enough to buy physical copies of games. They’re just on the hate train because they’re bored and want a boogeyman to be mad at.

If you are a true diehard on this though your only option that will ever exist is to only buy physical copies, which is going to get harder and harder for you as they become more and more obsolete with time. Not even speaking from opinion, just reality.

[u/KitanasLesbianLover]

2.6b USD physical video game sales in Japan 2025. 1.1b Canada. 1.6b USA.

There is no shortage of people buying physical copies of games.

[u/MotherPerk → u/KitanasLesbianLover]

Im interested in your source please

[u/New_Cockroach_505 → u/MotherPerk]

I think they made it up cause a quick google tells me Japans total USD sales in 2025 was slightly over 2.6b. And I really doubt Japan’s digital sales was like…. 1% lol

This is according to data from Japanese video game magazine  Famitsu . People in the country spent more than 418 billion yen on video games and consoles during 2025.  That's almost $2.7 billion.

That was the only source I could find.

[u/New_Cockroach_505 → u/KitanasLesbianLover]

What’s the number for digital?

[u/Mindless-Beat-4872]

They need to change the laws regarding digital purchases and that you’re really only buying a license to play it. When you purchase something it’s the same as buying a physical object. If they did that this wouldn’t be an issue

[u/ArrRawrr]

The funniest thing to me is the “Sony is going all digital, guess I’m buying a PC now” like disc drives haven’t been extinct for over 15 years on pc.

[u/Nighthood28]

As long as physical exists it is a pressure point in the game ownership vs license conversation. So even though all my games are digital on pc, the fact that physical games exist, and places like gog exist, there are still avenues for true ownership.

[u/SlimDollaBlazer3]

Those numbers are skewed by PlayStation to justify funneling everyone to use their platform to control 100% of sales.

[u/irtz_malik]

Its overinflated number

[u/David_Clawmark]

On the indie side of things we really don't have a choice. Indie devs are LUCKY if their games get physical releases. A majority of them just stay on digital.

Even then, it takes a WHILE for even high profile indies to get physical releases. Took Pizza Tower 2 years to finally get one.

[u/Tail_sb]

Literally how i found your post

[u/Financial-Music-7406]

I'm definitely in the minority. I just recently bought Hogwarts Legacy for 30$ even though it was on sale for 10$ digital.

[u/crankyjalapeno]

I almost only buy physical games. Sucks that it's getting harder to find old games for cheap

[u/DiabUK]

I don't believe the 85% buy digital, not on every platform out there.

[u/LuckyErrantProp]

I generally prefer to have physical copies of my games.

Certain games including I have looked at all the local GameStops, Best buy, Walmart, etc. And if the game isn't newly released, it just isn't available to pick up anywhere.

That absolutely was not the case in the PS4 era.

[u/Ameliandras]

We have to buy digital because many games don´t have a physical copy already. This argument is stupid.

[u/Shadow_Wolf_X871]

Im not gonna pretend like I've been all that big on physical media the last few years, but let's not pretend like it's not a problem when companies who regularly like to remind you "buying isn't owning" make moves like this.

I prefer digital copies personally, but this is absolutely going to give them more wiggle room to fuck people over

[u/Silmarillion151]

I don’t think people realize how large the gaming market is. The number of gamers on Reddit and or social groups is %10 or less.

[u/metalb00]

sad thing is xbox completely ruined their business trying this 2 generations too early

[u/True_Vault_Hunter → u/metalb00]

Damn, I didn't even think about that. Little did Xbox know that they did this a decade later they would have been successful in succeed.

[u/Silverr_Duck]

OP somehow forgot renting and trading physical disks is a thing.

[u/TaticalSweater]

at the same time this doesn’t mean praise Sony and R* for doing what they did and some people are happy about it and its silly.

There are games right now at your local gamestop that have been de-listed from a digital store.

[u/lonely_guacamole]

I DON'T CARE IF PEOPLE BUY GAMES DIGITALLY MOSTLY NOWADAYS. I WANT DISCS

[u/roberdanger83]

Quick question. How many people in here still carry around wads of cash?

When was the last time you went to your local gaming store with 700$ in 5s, 10s and 20s to buy a console ?

Or do you just use your card and tap or insert it like everyone else ?

This is all sony is doing. Progressing.

Of course on the flip side. They should not be allowed to revoke your licenses without reimbursing you.

[u/Member9999]

Games should be kept on DVDs. They're digital because digital sells faster, but gives too much power to the distributers and companies.

[u/knightmechaenjo]

Honestly yeah this is me at this point

I remember how much of a pain in the butt it was to have to pick what games I wanted to bring with me because of limited space in backpacks and such when I was younger

Now I just bring the console and the controllers with me whenever I travel and it's so much easier

[u/Biocockspeedrunner]

85-90% of people buy their movies online and through streaming services nowadays and there is still a physical market for those products. In fact, only within the gaming sphere have we seem to have accepted that digital only media is somehow acceptable.

The pushback is warranted.

[u/Old_Bug4395]

Careful, people who don't understand how statistics work are going to tell you that you're being "misleading" because a bunch of people bought astro bot physically lmfao

[u/Witty_Zaru]

The statistic is actually almost completely opposite for playstation. The majority of games bought for playstation are on disc.

[u/DanyMok22]

80 - 90% of players buy the standard edition of any game, so why are they still selling deluxe and ultimate editions?

[u/Ervi_ni]

this % is incorrect

[u/OoTgoated]

The statistic isn't even the biggest reason Sony is doing this. The real reason is because mass producing and shipping physical games costs a fortune, and Sony doesn't profit on sales of pre-owned games. With digital there is no distribution expense and they always get a cut, even for games they don't have the rights to.

And that's why Sony is doing this, and they would do it even at a 50/50 split because even then digital would still be more profitable. Even at a 60/40 split favoring physical then digital would still likely be more profitable due to the lack of distribution expenses. There are also expenses for keeping online marketplaces active, but next to mass production and shipping those expenses are microscopic.

The only way physical would be more profitable is if people were buying physical over digital a vast majority of the time. That's just how much more profitable digital is than physical not to mention the fact that many games only get digital releases, namely indies. But given the 80% statistic favoring digital, even if that's partially skewed by things like DLC (which I don't know that it is or isn't), that means digital is exponentially more profitable for them. Again going fill digital would have still been more profitable even at a 50/50 split, but the statistic makes going full digital that much more enticing and is probably why they're doing it sooner rather than later.

Plus disc drives for PlayStation consoles cost Sony extra to mass produce as well and they don't pass that expense down to the consumer enough to profit off of it as they have to sell all their hardware at a loss (even at the current high prices their hardware is being sold at a loss, crazy I know). They make all their money on games, and rapidly rising hardware prices makes cutting costs on it even more enticing for them.

And that's all this is about, cutting spending and boosting profit from game sales. It's not dissimilar from mass layoffs to cut salary expense and then using A.I. to fill the void left by those lost workers. They're using the statistic as the main excuse, and it's probably what sped up the transition, but unless digital was outright selling poorly compared to physical they would have eventually done this anyway because it's better for them.

[u/TheCerealKilled]

This will be the death of Sony’s gaming studio because they’re trying to be like Steam but lack the proper value for their customers; they think that any and all decisions are one-directional and forget that people will and always have voted with their wallets.

[u/DeafKid009]

Doesn’t really matter if Sony can just make it so the console locks you from playing digital or physical copies. This is a consumer right problem.

[u/greyfox1998rea]

Astro Bot (Goty) sold 55% of physical copies btw.

[u/cainemmd]

That statistic you guys love to toss around is misleading and some of you don’t seem to understand why.

That 80-85% of digital purchases stat includes indie games (games that had no other option than digital only), micro-transactions, free to play games, etc. it is not representative of full digital game purchases.

15% physical game purchases in the quarter from which the statistic is from is 15% of 74-75 million total unit sales. 15% of that is 11-12 million physical unit purchases, roughly.

Do you see yet why it’s foolish to treat this stat as a standpoint for why people shouldn’t be upset by this or fight it? 11-12million is no small number. There is clearly demand for physical media. Stop sharing misleading stats to make a nothingburger argument.

[u/MaxiemumKarnage]

Bootshine posting

[u/Greasy-Chungus]

It makes zero sense for a game company to release a physical copy.

[u/Zandrous87 → u/Greasy-Chungus]

Then it makes zero sense to charge more than $40 or $50 for a game. They don't have any physical overhead to worry about for manufacturing, which was the excuse for DECADES.

Don't have to pay for the proprietary physical media container? (Disc/cart/card/etc) Well that's a WHOLE lot of money saved from the development budget! Better be passing down all that saved cost to us consumers. And yet I have a sneaking suspicion that GTA6 isn't gonna be at a reasonable price... you know since they outright told us they're charging PHYSICAL PRICES for a DIGITAL ONLY GAME.

Oh and saving on all that manufacturing cost for disc drives should ALSO mean lower costs for consoles, right? Sure the prices have gone up a bit for digital only consoles, but they should still be WELL below $700 or $800 when the PS6 and Helix release. Which is why we're TOTALLY not hearing rumors that we're looking at closer to $900 or $1000+ pricing for them. Again, I'm sure they're TOTALLY gonna pass those savings onto the consumer.

Do I need to keep the sarcastic tirade up? Or are you MAYBE seeing why this is bad for SEVERAL reasons even if you yourself weren't buying physical? How you're STILL going to get ripped off by these corporations as they take away things from the consumer without lowering prices to match the stripping back of these physical releases and physical drives?

[u/HarvickFan_4]

Only reason people stopped buying physical discs was because they no longer gave you ownership. With the disc, Sony (and every other company now) still has the right to take your game away and not give you any refund.

If buying the disc gave you ownership of the game, and they couldn't take said game away from you if you owned the disc, a lot more users would buy physical discs instead of digital copies.