Dito Pondra Dharma

Nothing is true, everything is permitted

- Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad_Assassin's Creed

LINE: ditozero21

[Dito Pondra Dharma @ditozero21]

I’m the type whose body moves before hesitation can begin 🏃‍♂️

My result: Dual Blades ⚔️

A weapon type with incredible mobility, capable of unleashing relentless rapid attacks.

#MHNow #monsterhunternow #MHNowLifestyleWeaponQuiz https://t.co/5fZwF2bK2B

[Jean-Luc Mélenchon @JLMelenchon]

Avec la fin du jeu physique, l'industrie du jeu vidéo veut nous imposer un tout-numérique dont l'accès sera conditionnel et limité dans le temps. Les droits de l'acheteur seront niés. C'est le triomphe de la marchandisation totale : vous payez plein pot pour n'avoir qu'un simple droit d'accès révocable.

Ne les laissons pas confisquer notre patrimoine culturel. Reprenons le contrôle !

👉 Signez et partagez la pétition "Sauvons le jeu vidéo physique" : https://t.co/P2FhNvZBzy

[eStarland @eStarland]

The Best-Selling PS1 Games of All-Time! 💿

[RPCS3 @rpcs3]

Want to play your favorite PlayStation games? Use these emulators:

PS1: https://t.co/GaTEDc6GCO
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PSP: https://t.co/Vd3jt8roW8
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⚠️ A PS5 emulator does not yet exist!

[eStarland @eStarland]

Today is the 26th Anniversary of the PS One! 🤍

[eStarland @eStarland]

The History of PlayStation Physical Media 💿

[Jenesis @Jenoblade]

The beauty of physical games

[daily final fantasy @ff7comfort]

✨

[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.

[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.

[lau🦦✨ @lausumi]

i've been a playstation girlie since forever, and it breaks my heart to see playstation move away from physical media, the very thing that made it special in the first place.

PHYSICAL MEDIA MATTERS
@PlayStation @Sony

[Tales Of Twin @TwinRebirth]

Una pequeña muestra de los más de 3.000 juegos físicos que hemos comprado en estos 20 años de las últimas 3 generaciones de #PlayStation.
Si Sony no recula con la desaparición del formato físico, para nosotros está muerta. Se acabó.
El formato físico estará todo lo degradado que se quiera en estos últimos tiempos, pero se mantenía como el único bastión ante la "propiedad" y la capacidad de elección y consumo del usuario. Y como muchos otros, no vamos a transigir con la imposición hacia un formato digital absoluto que se llevará buena parte de la esencia de los videojuegos y su industria con él.

[Forsaiz @EatPlaySleepRe1]

Gracias DIOS por haberme permitido vivir la edad de ORO 🪎de los videojuegos:

Por mis maravillosos abuelos que ya no están y que me compraban mis videojuegos de SNES y Game Boy en El Corte Inglés como premio por mis buenas notas.

Por las interminables tardes de verano en mi pueblo jugando a los RPGs de la Super Nintendo en compañía de mis primos y amigos.

Por las miles de aventuras vividas.
Por los amigos que conocí coleccionando y jugando.
Por los viajes recorridos en busca de esa pieza soñada.
Por las risas, por las lágrimas, por la pasión de vivir y de disfrutar jugando a videojuegos, juntos o solos.
Por los Zelda, los Mario, los Gears, los Uncharted, los The Last Of Us, los Halo, los Castlevania, los Metal Gear, los Resident, los Street Fighter…

Por aquellas épocas pasadas, donde el sol ☀️ brillaba alto y bañaba nuestros sueños con su luz.

Los que poseemos colecciones de videojuegos en formato físico, tenemos algo más que una simple afición: tenemos en nuestras casas un estilo de vida, una manera muy particular y muy sencilla de amar el medio además de poseer una hermosa herramienta que nos sirve para conectar con nuestro pasado y con la gente que comparte nuestra historia.

LARGA VIDA AL FORMATO FÍSICO.

#ForeverPhysical

[CAKITA @cakitaswitch]

Doy gracias seguir viviendo uno de los mejores catálogos FÍSICOS de la historia…

#NintendoResistencia #JuegosFisicos #Coleccionismo

Gracias @NintendoES

[Nostalgia Daily @nostalgia_]

This is what a PlayStation Store looked like in the 2000s

[Nintendeal @Nintendeal]

Share a photo of your physical video game collection to scare a PlayStation executive 👇

[Zee✨ @Zee_is_mee_]

I love collecting games to have forever. 😞

[PlayStation Nostalgia @PlayStalgiaX]

Physical media forever

[𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐭𝐭 | 𝐖𝐨𝐥𝐟𝐢𝐞 @TheOgIronWolf]

Should PlayStation go back to Physical Disc Copy Media or Go Full Digital for all new games?

#PlayStation #PlayStation5 #PS5 #PhysicalMedia #PhysicalDisc