Game Dev Phil

The Llewyn Davis of game devs (Game Level Designer)

🚫AI, & Crypto🚫

[Game Dev Phil @Phil_Trasher]

New year, new media thread. The 2026 media thread starts here!

[RohanKar @RohanKarMooN]

Gotta bring up the words said by lord gaben himself.

[TreDoes, Sometimes @TreDoes]

The responses to this perfectly show the dichotomy I was talking about yesterday. The chuds hate the gaming companies but also refuse to engage with the political ramifications of these unaccountable entities that are borderline monopolies

[Does it play? @DoesItPlay1]

SHARE IT! SIGN IT! SUPPORT IT!

This is the largest petition against Sony's attack on ownership out there at the moment: https://t.co/ZJGO46mfuU

Started by @PNPGames. If you want to support them (and us), shop games you will own here (ref link): https://t.co/DxZbeJzs6N

[Josh Fairhurst @JoshFairhurst]

Guess what? Optical Microlenses are critical for AI data centers.

That means we can add physical media to the list of things the AI industry has killed alongside affordable hardware.

[moh @vmohv]

The gaming industry is not as consumer-protected as some people think. Governments do not care about the industry as it is, current or previous. Companies have realised that and amidst the AI surge decided to push boundaries as far as they can. Max is right.

[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.

[Maximilian Dood @maximilian_]

Damn. Having a physical game collection is so sick. Owning things is great. Like really great.

[Game Dev Phil @Phil_Trasher]

Shit like this is why Xbox is being bombarded with layoffs and studio closures

[Kotaku @Kotaku]

Microsoft's CEO strings 17 words together into one of the worst sentences I've ever read in the English language as he launches a new AI company ahead of more mass layoffs:

"The future of the firm is a learning loop in which human capital and token capital compound."

https://t.co/X38OO14ip4

[Gene Park, Obama’s Skull Face @GenePark]

cutting physical media cuts costs only for the company. they get to save on production, design, shipping and still charge the same thing with nothing being passed on to the consumer

[Jay Bari Strife 🗣️💗 @JayBari_]

Max understands. This is what I do as well.

[Leon ⁷ ¹⁰ @LeonErikZ]

Or listen to this guy @/itsluke7 on instagram if you don’t like Charlie lol his examples are great

[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.

[RatTrap Leviathan @RatTraptheclown]

I say this all the time. Cyberpunk is genuinely the most realistic scifi game of all time

[Game Dev Phil @Phil_Trasher]

@RinoTheBouncer I'm honestly still not. If I can buy a physical version of a game for pc I would in a heartbeat. I mostly tolerate it cause Steam and GoG are fairly pro consumer.

[Trevor Noah @Trevornoah]

I completely understand where you’re coming from, but for a lot of gamers physical discs are the only way they could afford to play games because they could get them secondhand. You can also give games to your younger siblings Which is a great way to introduce them to the games you were playing.

Most importantly though, as we saw from PlayStation this past week, if the media we buy is only digital, it can be taken away from us at a moment’s notice with no recourse. Imagine that, one day your entire library of games could be deleted overnight because technically you don’t own it.

[ThrowbackPATS @ThrowbackPATS]

-Network that spent years talking about splitting the Jays

[Billy Basso @Billy_Basso]

Extremely sad to think I'll never release another physical game for PlayStation. Releasing the physical versions of Animal Well was a huge motivator all throughout development. It really kills my desire to develop for the platform. I'm hoping they reverse this decision : (

[PC Gamer @pcgamer]

Game preservation leader agrees that piracy is the only preservation option of a discless future https://t.co/6v0n5worYD

[⚙️Magioki (Mahokabi CEO)💫 @Mahokabii]

Still relevant

[Rino🚀 @RinoTheBouncer]

Refuting dumb arguments against physical games🚀

🗣️“85% of players buy digital”

✅15% or even 5% in this industry is still millions of people bringing in hundreds of millions of not billions o revenue

🗣️“Netflix and Spotify ended movie and music Blu-Rays and CDs”

✅Movies are still being sold on Blu-Ray and 4K UHD Blu-Rays, and music is still released on CDs, vinyl records and even collectible cassette tapes that actually work, despite being far smaller and less demanding than video games which can go over 100GB

🗣️“I haven’t bought a physical game for 10 years! It’s obsolete”

✅Your experience with games does not automatically reflect everyone else’s. If you don’t care, don’t get in the way

🗣️“It’s expensive to make games on disc”

✅Games won’t be cheaper when man all digital. You will pay the same price for a glorified rental that can be taken any time due to licensing agreements or account loss/suspension

🗣️“You’re too broke, you want to buy second hand and resell games”

✅Being a bootlicker to corporations that don’t know you exist, does not make you any less broke than those you accuse and posture in front of behind a keyboard

Physical games should always be an option. Video games are far more than just a file to download or “access” to gain. They hold sentimental value to players and collectors.

Raise your voices, players, game makers, gaming and memorabilia stores. Let us overturn this predatory decision!

Video games are an art form, not just a business and the value players hold for them should be honored and not reduced to a code to redeem and a download to revoke😎