It's officially over.

[sworddude]

Even if it's a popular rumor being spread, what you're repeating is incorrect.

I appreciate you digging in and looking for that information, but I don't trust the vast majority of reports coming from companies

These sorts of financial reports are to inform investors and industry leaders what is and what isn't yielding a profit, so doctored data only hurts those efforts. It's highly doubtful that these individuals care what specifically is earning money, so long as money as is being earned. So in that regard, they do want the reports to be detailed and organized both correctly and efficiently. If these reports were falsified, it would indicate that the actions they're publicly taking now go directly against what you believe to be the truth and what actually would yield greater profits. Why would they do that? If physical disc production ultimately earned them favorable profits, there is no reason why Sony would have made the announcement that they're ending it.

Unless you can provide evidence that these reports are falsified, there is no merit to your position. Repeating myself a second time, it's an objective fact that more full game products are available digitally than they are physically, so sales data will reflect that alone. Even if we were to base our findings on simple observations without objective data, it's easy to identify the general sales trend that people are more likely to complete a sale using a digital marketplace than a physical one. With the allure of being able to install game data before a game releases, the convenience of being able to purchase something in that moment without having to wait for the item to arrive or to take the efforts to visit a store location, and the simple fact that many people in this modern era do not prioritize or even prefer a physical media collection, there is plenty of evidence to observe without conducting research. It goes without saying, but anyone who's visited a big box retail store years before and again today will have noticed the diminished focus of the presence of physical games.

and yet people buying stuff online and shipping companies having record sales never being higher. physical retail spaces have slimmed down for sure but people buy physical online for it to be delivered at your door step.

[dhaabi]

I've also heard simular things about the big games have very sizable physical sales. like ofcourse for smaller indi games and lower price tags people will get a game digitally for the small shit which adds up

That assumption can't be made based on the data I provided in my previous post. In short:

Physical game sales during Q4 2025 comprised of 15% total sales yet only earned 10.5% total sales earnings.
Digital game sales during that same time comprised of 85% total sales yet earned 89.5% total sales earnings.

the big money is in the big games, and the big games have more physical sales than digital

I'm not arguing against the possibility or even likelihood that major game releases may perform better through physical sales than digital ones. Those are specific instances, though. PlayStation's digital marketplace consists of thousands of titles of all size, quality, length, and price.

also they did wrong math to skew it hard in digital's favor aside from counting all the 1 2$ digital games which no shit those not getting a physical release if we are tlaking the very misleading 85% number.

Looking at the sales numbers for both digital and physical games alone without also looking at the sales earnings provides no valuable insight. As I mentioned directly to you before, the financial report indicates that the percentage of total sales earnings from digital games is higher than the percentage of total sales numbers of digital games. Like you're saying, cheap games certainly constitute a percentage of those total figures, but reported data indicates that even more expensive digital games counterbalance the figure total.

[sworddude]

I've also heard simular things about the big games have very sizable physical sales. like ofcourse for smaller indi games and lower price tags people will get a game digitally for the small shit which adds up

That assumption can't be made based on the data I provided in my previous post. In short:

Physical game sales during Q4 2025 comprised of 15% total sales yet only earned 10.5% total sales earnings.
Digital game sales during that same time comprised of 85% total sales yet earned 89.5% total sales earnings.

the big money is in the big games, and the big games have more physical sales than digital

I'm not arguing against the possibility or even likelihood that major game releases may perform better through physical sales than digital ones. Those are specific instances, though. PlayStation's digital marketplace consists of thousands of titles of all size, quality, length, and price.

also they did wrong math to skew it hard in digital's favor aside from counting all the 1 2$ digital games which no shit those not getting a physical release if we are tlaking the very misleading 85% number.

Looking at the sales numbers for both digital and physical games alone without also looking at the sales earnings provides no valuable insight. As I mentioned directly to you before, the financial report indicates that the percentage of total sales earnings from digital games is higher than the percentage of total sales numbers of digital games. Like you're saying, cheap games certainly constitute a percentage of those total figures, but reported data indicates that even more expensive digital games counterbalance the figure total.

you are ignoring total sales of big titles in which physical wins. you can't just simply ignore big budget titles with high dev costs having high physical sales numbers often beating digital out. Who gives a shit if lower budget games have allot of digital sales. of their big investments a large chunk of people moreso than digital buy their products physical.

so physical sales ain't that small of a chunk after all. most people have some of the big budget games in their arsenal.

[dhaabi]

the big money is in the big games, and the big games have more physical sales than digital

I'm not arguing against the possibility or even likelihood that major game releases may perform better through physical sales than digital ones. Those are specific instances, though. PlayStation's digital marketplace consists of thousands of titles of all size, quality, length, and price.

you are ignoring total sales of big titles in which physical wins

I'm not ignoring those instances. I directly acknowledged them in my previous post.

To Sony, those sales figures seem to not matter that much considering the announcement they've made. Their first-party games may sell more successfully in the physical market than the digital market, but sales earnings are presumably still not reaching desired outcomes. The cost of first-party games from Sony is high, and it's higher than ever before and will continue to increase until something changes. So, naturally, sales earnings will need grow in parallel in order for their desired profit to be reached. However, there's only so much money to earn from a consumer audience, so something has to change. Maybe one day Sony and other major studios will realize that the extreme push for high-fidelity graphics is actively destroying the industry, because high development costs and overly lengthy development times aren't sustainable.

[sworddude]

the big money is in the big games, and the big games have more physical sales than digital

I'm not arguing against the possibility or even likelihood that major game releases may perform better through physical sales than digital ones. Those are specific instances, though. PlayStation's digital marketplace consists of thousands of titles of all size, quality, length, and price.

you are ignoring total sales of big titles in which physical wins

I'm not ignoring those instances. I directly acknowledged them in my previous post.

To Sony, those sales figures seem to not matter that much considering the announcement they've made. Their first-party games may sell more successfully in the physical market than the digital market, but sales earnings are presumably still not reaching desired outcomes. The cost of first-party games from Sony is high, and it's higher than ever before and will continue to increase until something changes. So, naturally, sales earnings will need grow in parallel in order for their desired profit to be reached. However, there's only so much money to earn from a consumer audience, so something has to change. Maybe one day Sony and other major studios will realize that the extreme push for high-fidelity graphics is actively destroying the industry, because high development costs and overly lengthy development times aren't sustainable.

it does matter to sony but profits would be higher if everyone buys digital not to mention that they could keep prices sky high if they are the only market place digitally.

[shfan]

I used to dread this moment. It would be the end of new games and I would have had something I hold dear, which has been my main hobby from being a small boy, ripped from my hands. But in recent years a lot has happened with my gaming habits and the way I view the hobby.

A lack of funds forced me to sell most of my collection a few years ago, the same lack of funds ended up pushing me onto Steam for some new games just because I could do so cheaply, discovering Kinguin made that all the easier, then I concentrated on the Switch which has been a dream console to pick up physical games for, like even compared to the PS2. I once owned a PS5 but never took it out of the box (got sold like so much of my gaming stuff). Xbox hasn't been relevant to me since the 360, the PS4 took a back seat to the Switch and never even got back in the race for me. Now Sony want out? Go for it! The Switch keeps getting releases announced and I'm struggling to keep up, discovering VGP is not helping in this matter either!

The thing is, 'the big players' have been wrong in my eyes since the 90s, like the PS1/N64 era being about 3D, because "nobody is interested in 2D any more". Exsqueeze me? That's not just a perspective, it's a laundry list of video game genres you're flushing down the toilet, one that I'm very much not done with. Physical media and video games with game in them, as opposed to kind-of interactive movies or e-books with nice graphics, are other things 'the game industry' has decided it's finished with. But the consoles aren't 'the game industry', they're just the ones with the most visibility and the budgets, but gaming was never theirs exclusively and what Sony or MicroSoft do does not dictate where this enormous juggernaut of a hobby goes.

Let them go. Let them close or fold-in their first-party studios they paid millions for a year or two ago, let them step away from physical. They aren't the hobby. It's bigger than them. Thousands and thousands of games are getting released every year, most of the exciting ones (to me) resemble games from the 16-bit era and are produced by a handful of people or a solo developer, or they're Nintendo games which I'll get on cart (but not those gamecard monstrosities, thank you). We've got Evercade, we're getting the new/old Neo Geo, Sega just might come back and do their own thing.

I've always thought someone could just produce some kind of game-box with a set standard, with a cartridge slot and low specs to run all these fab indie games we're getting these days and the Evercade shows that it could work. Just needs someone to throw down and go for it, physical doesn't have to die at all.

Sorry, a bit rambly, but I'm content to look at alternatives and the more old-skool style of gaming when it comes to future purchases.

[bikingjahuty]

I used to dread this moment. It would be the end of new games and I would have had something I hold dear, which has been my main hobby from being a small boy, ripped from my hands. But in recent years a lot has happened with my gaming habits and the way I view the hobby.

A lack of funds forced me to sell most of my collection a few years ago, the same lack of funds ended up pushing me onto Steam for some new games just because I could do so cheaply, discovering Kinguin made that all the easier, then I concentrated on the Switch which has been a dream console to pick up physical games for, like even compared to the PS2. I once owned a PS5 but never took it out of the box (got sold like so much of my gaming stuff). Xbox hasn't been relevant to me since the 360, the PS4 took a back seat to the Switch and never even got back in the race for me. Now Sony want out? Go for it! The Switch keeps getting releases announced and I'm struggling to keep up, discovering VGP is not helping in this matter either!

The thing is, 'the big players' have been wrong in my eyes since the 90s, like the PS1/N64 era being about 3D, because "nobody is interested in 2D any more". Exsqueeze me? That's not just a perspective, it's a laundry list of video game genres you're flushing down the toilet, one that I'm very much not done with. Physical media and video games with game in them, as opposed to kind-of interactive movies or e-books with nice graphics, are other things 'the game industry' has decided it's finished with. But the consoles aren't 'the game industry', they're just the ones with the most visibility and the budgets, but gaming was never theirs exclusively and what Sony or MicroSoft do does not dictate where this enormous juggernaut of a hobby goes.

Let them go. Let them close or fold-in their first-party studios they paid millions for a year or two ago, let them step away from physical. They aren't the hobby. It's bigger than them. Thousands and thousands of games are getting released every year, most of the exciting ones (to me) resemble games from the 16-bit era and are produced by a handful of people or a solo developer, or they're Nintendo games which I'll get on cart (but not those gamecard monstrosities, thank you). We've got Evercade, we're getting the new/old Neo Geo, Sega just might come back and do their own thing.

I've always thought someone could just produce some kind of game-box with a set standard, with a cartridge slot and low specs to run all these fab indie games we're getting these days and the Evercade shows that it could work. Just needs someone to throw down and go for it, physical doesn't have to die at all.

Sorry, a bit rambly, but I'm content to look at alternatives and the more old-skool style of gaming when it comes to future purchases.

I definitely think the landscape of gaming is going to change pretty dramatically as a result of all this. I can see a parallel industry forming from this; one that caters to your more hardcore, enthusiast gamer and one that caters more towards the mainstream. The mainstream one will be entirely digital with everything being subscriptions and online purchases. This will be where AAA game studios release their games and the majority of AA studios as well. Meanwhile, a much more vibrant, diverse indie scene will continue to flourish on two fronts. One being the same mass market digital platforms as the big studios and then also in a more niche physical space. If small startups like PixelFX and Evercade can release consoles to play older games, there's nothing stopping indie devs from developing games for these platforms in addition to their online versions on PSN or Steam.


I pray something like this happens so I can at least look forward to games coming out physically still. I'm also hoping homebrew development for retro consoles get more popular and new Genesis, SNES, and N64 games become more and more common. I don't think this will be the end of gaming for me, but it very well may be the end of me supporting new AAA and AA releases.

[covfefe2020]

aside from counting all the 1 2$ digital games which no shit those not getting a physical release if we are tlaking the very misleading 85% number.

the big money is in the big games, and the big games have more physical sales than digital

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fC2oke5MFg


Sales debate aside, I was thoroughly unsurprised by this news. I have had three buddies who were all incredibly avid playstation gamers for over a decade and I don't think I have seen any PS5 game cases in their homes despite them buying and playing lots of games. Live service freemium games and services such as PS+ seem to be a pretty big factor on top of the simple ease of online stores for why they do this (although they've all had to purchase storage drives just to keep a few digital games on, ironically.)

[sworddude]

aside from counting all the 1 2$ digital games which no shit those not getting a physical release if we are tlaking the very misleading 85% number.

the big money is in the big games, and the big games have more physical sales than digital

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fC2oke5MFg

first of all 1st party titles is more revenue for them per transaction than just getting royalties from 3rd party titles. if that's just straight up revenue withouth any cuts taken out of yet that's pretty inaccurate

2nd of all, those numbers look like a huge scam if this is accurate and one can do that as per laws in which the above is even worse.



also just cause you have people that are all digital doesn't mean that's the case for everyone that's a very small pool to go off. and if it's around 50% pretty ez to have people like that.

in terms of the big games 50% or more physical is quite a big deal and those are the kinda games people buy anyway. it doesn't make much sense for mosy indi's to have big physical sales.

[shfan]

I definitely think the landscape of gaming is going to change pretty dramatically as a result of all this. I can see a parallel industry forming from this; one that caters to your more hardcore, enthusiast gamer and one that caters more towards the mainstream. The mainstream one will be entirely digital with everything being subscriptions and online purchases. This will be where AAA game studios release their games and the majority of AA studios as well. Meanwhile, a much more vibrant, diverse indie scene will continue to flourish on two fronts. One being the same mass market digital platforms as the big studios and then also in a more niche physical space. If small startups like PixelFX and Evercade can release consoles to play older games, there's nothing stopping indie devs from developing games for these platforms in addition to their online versions on PSN or Steam.

You've summed up what I was trying to say in a couple of sentences. TBH I struggle to articulate as well as you guys and it's something that puts me off posting to some extent, not sure if it's my age or what. I totally agree, it's going to be the FIFA/COD/games as a service crowd and some/many of the triple/double A players with the internet-box consoles who just want easy access and straight into the action, and fair play to them! Then there's going to be sort of middle-of-the-road Nintendo players who want the choice, as well as die-hard Ninty fans, a massive amount of players who just PC Master-Race it through Steam alongside the casual/cosy crowd. Then there's going to be those of us who just want to play old-skool, tried and tested genres and mash-ups which do something different, in a completely nerdy way, complete with physical media. I'm happy with 'nerdy game-box' running Mina the Hollower and those new eldritch pixel-art games like Neverway and Welcome to Elderfield off a cart, that'll do very nicely! Oh, and that new survival-horror built ground-up to be fully Dreamcast compatible that's going to be on Kickstarter soon. That's lovely, can't wait to have it on the shelf...

[telekill]

Alright... with Sony doubling down in their silence, it's clear they aren't going to backtrack. It seems one of the other CEOs within Sony is seeing the writing on the wall with their poor decisions and sold half his stock in the company at the bump, giving him more than $4 million in revenue. He knows what's coming and it won't be pretty for them.

As for me, I'm not going to continue with the brand after this generation. PS5 is officially my last Playstation. Oddly, PS3 will be my next Playstation. I'm currently in the market for a 320GB Slim and will be picking one up before the end of the month, and definitely well before they begin to skyrocket in price before next year when the PS3/PSV store is permanently shut down.

I'll continue here on VG Collect as I work to buy back and add too my old PS3 collection. I may also go for Gamecube as well, but some of those games are just over the top expensive anymore.