Bagels

Gaming enthusiast. San Jose Sharks and Miami Dolphins fan for life, but Ross needs to sell the Dolphins. #TheFutureIsTeal #FinsUp

[Bagels @Bleeding_Teal]

@jonford543 Who knows if we’ll ever get underdog Sony back like we did during the PS3 era. The acknowledged their fuckups and did a lot to appease their playerbase. With Xbox lagging so far behind, though, it’s doubtful.

[Persona Anonymous @PhantomAnons]

"persona 3 tier list but it's how likely they would be to feed brownies to a dog"

[Play4Index @Play4Index]

Sony was working on a DualShock with a built-in PlayStation, but canceled the project.

Yes, you read that correctly. Developer Brian “Biscuit” Watson revealed that Sony once created a plug-and-play console shaped like a DualShock controller, with a PlayStation 1 built inside it.

The idea was simple: plug the controller-console into a TV and start playing. The device had an SD card, and around 10 games could fit on its 4 GB of storage. The controller-console ran on batteries. Sony even built a prototype!

So what went wrong?

The controller-console was aimed at the Brazilian market. It was supposed to be cheap and mass-produced, so Sony brought in many third-party manufacturing partners. Those partners demanded royalties. To keep the price low, Sony would have made only 10 cents of profit from each unit sold.

In the end, the project was canceled.

[Game Informer @gameinformer]

Opinion: The PS5 and Xbox Series X generation has been a race to the bottom https://t.co/Ax8nUBj7xd

[HazzadorGamin, Dragon of Dojima @HazzadorGamin]

MARVEL Tõkon: Fighting Souls blocked in 132 countries for PC.

https://t.co/FzZHBvtVQ3

[Stephen Totilo @stephentotilo]

NEW: Sony's private message to publisher/dev partners about discs also cited a consumer "shift"

But it included more explicit word that, after Jan 2028, partners "will still be able to place re-orders for existing PlayStation disc games”

More in item 2 https://t.co/lqXXnLAMZ1

[Bagels @Bleeding_Teal]

Don't Kill the Disc: Tell Sony to Keep Physical PlayStation Games - Sign the Petition! https://t.co/BX4N0rAuhr via @Change

[Bagels @Bleeding_Teal]

The only reason they’re doing it. Gotta please the shareholders.

[Push Square @pushsquare]

Sony Rewarded with Soaring Stocks After Revealing All-Digital Future. https://t.co/mLTtOWuxJv

[Canadian Guy Eh @Canadianguyehh]

Did more digging.

It gets worse.

I decided to compare, isolating the PS5 Platform as a comparison. How many more digital exclusive games are there? and does it correlate with the 85% number?

There are, at this point in time, about 1,120 PRINTED PS5 games (give or take). We are going to assume, that all 1,120 of those games also have a digital counterpart.

I went to the PSN store and simply clicked PS5 Platform and games. So this does not include DLC, MTX, etc. The total? 7,590 games.

But what about free to play?

Lets exclude those, this brings the total down to 7,451 games on the PSN store sorted specifically for the PS5. I want to note, this would be a COMPLETE PS5 library (thus far).

So, simple Math

7,451 - 1,120 = 6,331.

There are 6,331 MORE games on the PSN store than what's PHYSICALLY PRINTED For the PS5. That is 5.65x MORE games. These are all games that sell for 1 dollar, all the way up to your 100$+ digital special editions. If you Buy Final Fantasy Rebirth for 69.99 physically, go home, and buy "Quack McStuffins" for a dollar on PSN, those quantity of numbers are treated as equal.

and it gets even funnier.

Lets take that digital catalogue of 6,331 games and divide it by that complete library number (7,451) and turn it into a percentage.

6,331 divided by 7,451 = 84.96%

Meaning? almost 85% of the PS5's available library is DIGITAL ONLY. Ironic how 85% of Playstation's sales are digital eh?

So, what's happening here?

"All digital" defenders are using False Equivalency, and an Availability bias to gaslight users into thinking that no one plays physical anymore and to "get with the times" in the digital era.

Playstation themselves stated "This is a natural direction for Sony Interactive Entertainment to adapt to consumer trends as the general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs." But this logic is ONLY sound if you apply a False Equivalency.

ALL OF THIS- Before we even take into account of the insomniac leaks back in 2022, which showed that 31 out of the 33 first party games sold MORE in Physical than Digital. And in recent memory, Astrobot selling around 55% physical vs Digital.

So, why are they doing this?

Because MONEY!

Playstation makes WAY more money if you buy the game digitally vs Physically. So playstation is using the backing of convenience, Digital Incentives, indie/AA teams, Mini-Games, and yes, AI Slop, to validate jamming gamers who prefer Physical games with a hot poker into a 100% digital era.

[Does it play? @DoesItPlay1]

Everyone is talking about the digital-physical-split percentages. So we will too!

The TL;DR: Most of what has been parroted about consumer preference is wildly exaggerated at best, or a mix of a bad faith campaign and severe negligence at worst.

Sony has announced the death of physical media because of "changing consumer trends". Most of us can already smell the bullshit it in this fake excuse. It is when we take a closer look that we discover just how much of a lie that statement really is.

Let's start by scrutinizing the most repeated number lately: 85 % of sales are digital.

This number exists. But in what context?

It comes from the Fiscal Year Q4 report for 2025. ONLY IN THIS QUARTER did we get this number. The overall percentage for the entire year 2025 is "only" 78 %.

Still sounds bad. Where is the lie, then?

It comes with what both sides include. The digital part also accounts for digital-only games. AKA products which didn't give a choice to the customer. You could either add to the digital tally or not play these games at all. This alone should show you how they use statistics to deceive the public.

But we are not done.

If you look at honest comparisons, like those we got through the infamous Insomniac leaks in 2022, or certain market reports from the UK more recently, you will find games that even sell predominantly physical. Many of which are Sony's own first party titles. So their games sell more physical copies, but they still dare to use consumer preference as the excuse.

Not convinced?

Let's look at the even broader picture. Researching online we can find an infographic illustrating the development of the physical-digital split over the years. Admittedly, there is a constant decline for the physical share. Abysmal even in the years up to 2020. HOWEVER, in recent years the year on year decline has slowed down and has almost reached a stable plateau.

Oh, and have we mentioned that the vaaaaaaast majority of all players own a console that can read discs? 82 % is the number floating around online. We take a page out of Sony's book and just run with it for now. Only, let's add that even the other 18 % might not be digital-only die-hards. After all, there were times when both the disc console and the detachable disc drive were sold out at some point.

What would you say does that show about consumer preference?

Less than 18 % actually prefer digital.

Just with a little research we have come from "85 % prefer digital" to "less than a fifth of the customer base actually does".

So why does Sony push for a change? You know by now. Money!

Multiple areas they benefit in in an all-digital future:

1) Margins for digital games are simply better. The save the entire overhead for physical production, logistics, customer service/returns, retailer cuts, etc.

2) This is the big one: The death of the second hand market. Or at least they think that's beneficial, if they ignore the facts that second hand buyers can also contribute to digital revenue, and they help with discoverability/word of mouth advertising. We wouldn't be surprised if this comes back to haunt Sony.

3) Pricing monopoly: They set the prices. They decide discounts. They decide the number of sales that happen, if any.

The key word is REVENUE!

Because that is another great opportunity to play with alarming numbers. The revenue percentage split between digital and physical makes the gap look even wider, of course. Despite selling almost 70 million physical copies, that area generated relatively low revenue. It accounts for only a little over 10 % of the revenue generated by game sales.

That's the moment when "reliable" analysts and "quality" media could formulate headlines like "Physical media is dying - Makes up only 10 %". But that's not alarmist enough. They can do one "better".

You might ask, "But DoesItPlay?, why do I see people claim that the gaming space is over 95 % digital?"

Let's reveal the most evil trick of them all, shall we?

Let's take a look at that FY 2025 report again. The overall category is called "Game Software". In here (and subsequently in the blogs of the anti-physical crowd) the biggest lie materializes. "Game Software" does not only include digital and physical game sales. It also accounts for ANY TYPE OF ADDITIONAL CONTENT (expansions, in-game currency, microtransactions of all sorts) and "Other Software", which is not even specified as to what that could be exactly. If we now lump all of this together and check the percentage of physical game revenue, we land at roughly 4,7 %.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the single biggest gaslighting this industry has pulled on you when it comes to lying about consumer preference.

It was never about consumer preference. It was about maximizing profits and control over what should be rightfully yours after a purchase.

[Bagels @Bleeding_Teal]

This actually kind of incentivizes buying physical over digital because you technically get both. It still lets you loan it to a friend, resell it, whatever, kind of like Nintendo’s virtual game cards, but tangible and usable offline if the game’s data is on the disc.

[Idle Sloth @IdleSloth84_]

Jez Corden explains disc-to-digital (Project Positron) conversion platform

You literally put the disc into the console, and it gives you a digital license for the game permanently for your Microsoft account. If you give the disc away or sell it; if it gets connected to another Microsoft account, you lose access to that digital license.

You don't need the disc to keep verifying it. It's whoever last used the disc who gets the license.

In 2013 (Xbox One launch) there was a rumor that retailers were going to unlock the disc, but that wasn't actually true, but it was badly communicated, and Xbox leaders misunderstood how the feature was going to work. It became a huge cluster that they had to scrap.

You get the full game, you get the Xbox Cloud version, you get the Xbox Play Anywhere version, and you get the license as if you purchased it digitally.

Superchat: Alright, so insert the disc, get the digital license, snap the disc in half, got it. 😂

via: @JezCorden Windows Central
https://t.co/4VV2FL8mGL

[Bagels @Bleeding_Teal]

@kingdavidotw Ryse: Son of Rome. Decent action game that still looks great to this day.

[Insider Gaming @InsiderGamingIG]

Sony Discusses Potential Future PlayStation Plus Price Hikes

https://t.co/FYYNpHeh2U

[NIB @nib95_]

In addition to PlayStation recieving insane backlash from consumers, they're now becoming a meme too.

Companies are satirically mocking their physical announcement and gaining tens of thousands of likes doing so.

[Dr. Serkan Toto @serkantoto]

Why Sony bets on digital in 1 picture.

More here: https://t.co/Ci4Dk6pEJz

[NIB @nib95_]

Seen several quote #PlayStation's 78% digital full game sales, thus omitting important context.

That figure includes countless digital only releases, from back catalogue to indie games etc. Even Capcom revealed 84% of its sales were "older catalog titles", many of which are only available digitally.

So using such data is somewhat misleading.

To gauge REAL physical demand you need to look at splits of games that released both physical AND digital only. Thanks to the Insomniac leaks, we have such data on PS first party games.

Playstation Physical / Digital splits

Sackboy - 77% / 23%
R&C Rift Apart - 76% / 24%
Ghost of Tsushima DC - 71% / 29%
Demon's Souls - 70% / 30%
Miles Morales - 66% / 34%
Spider-Man - 66% / 34%
Returnal - 61% / 39%
The Last of Us 2 - 61% / 39%
Ghost of Tsushima - 51% / 49%
MLB The Show 21 - 39% / 61%

So per Sony's own internal data, 31/33 first party games from their chart sold more PHYSICAL than they did digital.

Uncharted 4 actually has an insane 83% physical split.

Granted it only covers through to a few months into 2022, but we can see from other more recent data, things haven't drastically changed. For example GSD data shows ~60% of Astro Bot sales across Europe were physical.

So what skews revenue and data more digital, beyond digital only releases and platforms? The answer is games with LIVE SERVICE components, especially multiplatform ones.

As you can see from Sony's internal data, MLB has the highest digital split, and it's a live service game.

Generally the highly popular live service or annualised games such as Call of Duty, NBA 2K, FIFA etc, have higher digital splits, as gamers are constantly launching them (often daily) and don't want to be constantly switching discs, thus skewing digital/physical splits.

It's very different to single player games which are shorter and have different play and consumer trends. So again, context matters.

Then there's a MASSIVE audience of gamers that aren't even accounted for in any of this data; the countless consumers that buy and sell used physical games, because they simply can't afford as many new games, but still buy/own consoles, accessories, games, services etc. Everything from poor parents, kids etc.

Ultimately, the data rejects the notion physical is dead or meaningless, even if digital accounts for the overall lionshare of revenue/sales, especially when you look at things with the proper context and/or focus on single player tentpole games, which is PlayStation's bread and butter.

Keep in mind platforms make a 15% licensing fee from third parties on physical games, while they get a 30% cut on digital.

Likewise first party lose a 30% cut to retailers on physical, while they keep all of the revenue on digital.

As I said before, this move to kill physical is more about PlayStation trying to make far more profit and squeeze away the last remnants of consumer ownership, control, flexibility and resale, and could have greater negative market ramifications.

[Wario64 @Wario64]

Jason Schreier: "I can confirm that Obsidian is *not* in negotiations to avoid shutting down. Plenty of details are still up in the air surrounding the layoffs (picture will be clear on Monday) but Xbox is keeping Obsidian, according to people familiar with the situation."

[GamesNosh 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @GamesNosh]

I'm talking to people - Sony is currently being inundated with emails and messages behind the scenes from smaller publishers and devs voicing their displeasure over the end of physical games.

I'm actually kinda shocked just how much internal backlash there has been to this.

Doubt it'll make a difference, this was apparently a decision made by the money men within the last two months, is 100% influenced by component costs & manufacturing (AI ruining everything again)

They know nobody will buy a $1000+ PS6

They have calculated that the only way the PS6 makes business sense for them right now in terms of margins is to kill both the retail and resale market. Furthermore, they figure people are invested enough in the ecosystem that they're locked-in for life.

They fully expected a huge backlash and took it into account, but they think the anger won't amount to much in terms of real financial losses and are willing to take the PR hit.

Of the 15% of the current PlayStation audience that buy physical, they expect only 2-3% of people not to move over to fully-digital upon being forced.

The money saved by getting rid of the retailer cut, and lost on the reseller market eclipses that 2-3% and makes up for their miniscule profit expected per PS6 sold. (they will not sell it at a loss, but are willing to only make as little as $50 per unit sold)

The only way they'd ever reverse this decision is if the 2-3% of physical audience they expect to lose is instead around 8-10%+

As much as i'd love to see everyone come together and somehow force their hand with a mass boycott, I doubt it will happen.

They have been wanting to kill physical since around 2020, the AI RAMpocalypse has forced their hand.