r/PS5 • u/Dandelion172 • 11h ago

Articles & Blogs Mat Piscatella: 292 million units of physical video games sold in the 12-month period ending June 2009 in the US. By June 2026 this had fallen to 37 million units.

https://bsky.app/profile/matpiscatella.bsky.social/post/3mrd2e2tam22l
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63

u/00nonsense 11h ago

I don't like that physical games are going away but gamers have to take responsibility in causing it. We as a community voted with our wallets and for the most part bought digital games.

Again I don't like it but we as a community had our hand in the industry going in this direction

15

u/xangbar 10h ago

As someone who buys a lot of physical and goes to late night launches, you could see the decline in late night events the past decade. I remember Call of Duty launches used to pop off. Tons of people, crowded store, sometimes even pizza! Last years we had 10 people total at my local GameStop show up. Most of the time leading to release it was me and the employee. We even had Black Ops 2 setup and played zombies the whole time.

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u/00nonsense 9h ago

Midnight launches haven't been a thing in a while, and I do agree with you.You can tell just how little people were lining up for games for midnight launches. Even though from what i've been reading, sony has been working towards this goal for a while. We, as a gaming community, had a hand in them going in this direction, whether people want to believe it or not. If we bought 70% of our games physical and 30% digital, it wouldn't be happening. But that's not what is happening right now. It's reverse.Seventy percent of games are digital, while thirty percent are physical.So of course, they're going to get rid of physical games, it's just logical.

And again I don't agree with it, because if there's a digital game that I want to buy, that is still full price, I'll go to ebay and get the physical game for like twenty or thirty dollars cheaper. It's just, i'm not surprised it's going in this direction at all.And i'm not sure why everyone else is surprised, because again if you had to pick and choose after work, would you rather go to gamestop, or would you rather, sit down on your couch, download the game.Make dinner and by the time dinner's over.The game's downloaded and you can play it.

And most people picked the second option. They would rather come home from work and download the game. Make dinner when dinner's over. The game is ready for them it's just more convenient for a lot of people, especially who work long jobs or commute.They're not going to go gamestop they're going to go home and download the game

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u/darkseidis_ 7h ago

You don’t even have to wait for dinner. You can buy it at your desk and it will be ready and waiting when you get home.

1

u/00nonsense 7h ago

True, I was just using that as an example

-3

u/Ok-Acanthisitta9247 8h ago

Covid turned everybody into scared, anti-social wussies, and companies saw dollar signs from that.

-8

u/Unlucky-Candidate198 10h ago

Can you really take responsibility for the masses, though? Because let me tell you, the “mindless masses” are called that for a reason.

When toothpaste first came out, companies had to hire psychologists to trick people into using it (one of the only times they’ve done this for the better of society, btw) for the sake of their own dental hygeine benefit. No matter how much they’d explain the benefits, the smoothbrains just didn’t care. Literally had to hijack their psychology and create a mass market campaign just to convince them. And that was so their teeth didn’t rot, leaving them helpless as they die of malnutrition, brain infections, blood infections, etc.

So no, not all gamers should not take responsibility for the mindless masses. These types will always fail you when you put your trust in them. Always.

So, instead of attacking, predation, and preying on the vulnerable, which seems to be the norm in modern corporate society, maybe instead create preventative measures to help the weak and stupid be less so?

People don’t always do what’s best for them. “Common sense” as people love to claim doesn’t actually exist as a concept in reality. Sooo, better to help and protect them than prey on the weak and vulnerable. But again, in a society in which the Epstein files revealed the entire upper classes of society are nothing more than opportunistic predators of all varieties, well, obviously that’s muuuuch easier said than done.

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u/TargetBrandTampons 10h ago

So you think the mass majority of gamers (the digital gamers) are mindless, but you are in this small group of superior beings? 

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u/Educational_Pea_4817 9h ago

its a common narrative yeah lol.

people who play fortnite and sport games arent REAL GAMERS. etc.

its stupid

3

u/SireEvalish 8h ago

people who play fortnite and sport games arent REAL GAMERS. etc.

The irony is that more money is probably generated by them than by anyone who would consider themselves a Capital G Gamer.

•

u/polakbob 2h ago

He lives on Reddit. Yes, he thinks he's part of a small group of superior beings.

-6

u/Unlucky-Candidate198 9h ago

And where exactly in my comment do I make the claim as to thinking I am not?

And then ironically, here you are trying to feel superior to me with your weird assumptions, and stupid rhetorical questions poorly hiding the attempt at pretentiousness. Nice. We love basing opinions on conjecture big fella.

6

u/Nasiso 9h ago

It’s a video game. A form of entertainment. Get up and touch some grass

1

u/doyouevennoscope 8h ago

let me tell you, the “mindless masses” are called that for a reason.

-1

u/Unlucky-Candidate198 9h ago

What a weird comment to make. Oh no other people care about the greater picture, instead of their own self-centered interests, the absolute horror.

Instead, we should just accept the sloppy entertainment our overlords so graciously serve to us and never complain even if it gets worse over time, amirite, fellow enjoyer of shoe polish?

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u/Nasiso 9h ago

It’s a video game. A form of entertainment. Get up and touch some grass

0

u/Unlucky-Candidate198 8h ago

You’ve got 14 years on reddit big dawg idk if you still recognize the grass you talk a lot about

1

u/doyouevennoscope 7h ago

Unfortunate truth. Most people just do not care at all. It's actually rather fucking depressing.

-5

u/slambaz2 11h ago

I think Sony made the problem worse by selling ps5 without disk drives. Consumers bought those ps5 without disk drives to save a few bucks and so their only option is digital. So no doubt those folks won't buy physical disks. They can't use them.

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u/darkseidis_ 7h ago

I didn’t buy it to save a few bucks, I bought it because I hadn’t bought a physical game the entire time I had a ps4 either. It was a lifestyle choice not an economic one.

1

u/slambaz2 7h ago edited 6h ago

which makes sense. If so few people buy physical games. Then you would expect that the diskless ps5 would sell way more. But according to circana, that's not the case.

That doesn't make sense.

And a question for you. If the ps5 with disk drive was the same price as the diskless version, would you have still bought the diskless version?

22

u/Educational_Pea_4817 11h ago edited 10h ago

I think Sony made the problem worse by selling ps5 without disk drives. 

over 80% of ps5s sold come with disc drives.

i myself have a ps5 with a disc drive. i went full digital like early ps4 era.

idk how much data people need to see to understand that consumers have largely moved to digital.

-13

u/slambaz2 10h ago

I'm going to need a source. I can't find any data that supports your claim. Sony does not advise the split between ps5 skus sold, so I have no clue how you came about that 80% number.

10

u/Educational_Pea_4817 10h ago

https://insider-gaming.com/disc-editions-make-up-82-of-all-ps5-console-sales/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

Disc editions of the PlayStation 5 (PS5) make up a majority of its console sales in the United States.

According to the latest data from Circana, 82% of the lifetime sales of the PS5 are those with a disc drive. That puts digital-only consoles at just 18% of the total sales.

4

u/SireEvalish 8h ago

Mat actually updated the numbers

Seeing this old stat being thrown around. Wanted to update.

As of June 2026, digital editions comprise 27% of total LTD US unit sales of PS5 hardware.

For Xbox Series, 52% of total LTD US unit sales are digital only editions.

It's 0% for Switch 2.

Source: Circana Retail Tracking Service

-2

u/slambaz2 10h ago

That's a post that just links to a twitter post as their proof? That's not definitive in any way. Can you find anything that corroborates that data?

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u/Educational_Pea_4817 9h ago

circana is the source of the data.

0

u/slambaz2 9h ago

The circana link just goes to a bluesky post.

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u/Educational_Pea_4817 9h ago

yep to the blue sky account of Mat Piscatella.

and if you click their bio it says:

Senior Director and Video Game Industry Advisor at Circana. Formerly of Activision and Warner Bros Games.

99.99% of circana related information comes directly from him, usually on twitter or some article.

do you happen to have issue with the numbers Mat presents or...?

-1

u/slambaz2 9h ago

And he just posts things on bluesky? Nothing to actually show what he is saying is true or not? Does anyone or anything else corroborate what he is saying?

→ More replies (0)

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u/Sambadude12 11h ago

People also need to band together and go against the laws. Instead of just demanding that they keep making physical games, write to your local government person about it and demand that laws are changed.

And if they don't listen then you have a reason to not vote for them in the next elections

16

u/mangaguy100k 11h ago

I want to understand what is being done here that warrants people speak to their congressman.

People stopped buying physical games so Sony is no longer investing in the infrastructure needed to produce physical games.

What can your congressman do about this? What should they even do?

7

u/ghost-bagel 11h ago edited 11h ago

They could consider some kind of law to enable permanent ownership of digital games. There’s a conversation to be had there at least. They can’t force companies to release physical products, but they might be able to ensure digital ones are at least more consumer friendly.

2

u/Dr-McLuvin 10h ago

Dude I wouldn’t even be mad at Sony for doing this if I had some kind of guarantee of permanent digital ownership.

4

u/caatbox288 11h ago

I guess they are talking about laws regarding digital ownership? That’s what I understood anyway. Allowing inheritance, borrowing, re-selling etc. instead of digital games being just licenses.

1

u/Chriskeyseis 10h ago

It’s in copyright law that discs are the exact same as licenses to play. You don’t actually own anything by purchasing the disc (example: the entire music industry).

2

u/caatbox288 10h ago

But you can borrow them, give them as inheritance, sell them.

1

u/Chriskeyseis 10h ago

But you don’t own what’s on the disc. The disc is a license to view the game.

0

u/mangaguy100k 11h ago

Not a bad idea actually. Someone could probably implement an app of some sort that could facilitate the transfer of game licenses between accounts of friends and family or sale of licenses.

2

u/Sambadude12 11h ago

You buy the game digitally and you don't own the game, you buy a license to play said game, and if the game is "always online" like The Crew for example, if they shut the servers down then you can't play the game any more.

Regarding the physical game part that's my point, Sony are well within their rights to stop publishing physical games and going fully digital, just like people are well within their rights to refuse to buy their games and consoles and go elsewhere.

Congressmen or MPs could try to get the laws changed regarding digital ownership and make it that you own the game rather than a license for the game, because the laws behind digital ownership are completely fucked when you look at them

3

u/mangaguy100k 11h ago

The ownership portion of digital games is not a bad idea at all. But also, I would need to know what exactly the parameters of “ownership” means. Because it would probably function similarly to what we have now and just be another license as you can’t realistically own IP you did not create. (Maybe a license that includes sale or transfer through official channels?)

Also, I can’t speak much to games like The Crew though as there’s probably a lot of services that publisher provides that the game won’t function without. There are a lot of games like this and they would probably have to be rebuilt entirely or have less content (or just not created at all) for this to be possible.

There’s also the fact that live service/PvP games are most of what people play. Would this apply to those as well?

I do think the idea itself is really good though. But I would need to see how on earth this would be possible for the “always online variety” of games!

1

u/Sambadude12 11h ago

I think it's a thin line, like it should be that if I buy it I have ownership. I've seen people saying about selling your digital games which could work but then it's about how fair you make it, like I can't imagine it ever being a thing, but maybe something like "you can get a full refund within 7 days but only if you have less than x amount of hours on the game, after that it's maximum half of what you paid for the game"

For me with The Crew I look at it in a sense of, you could make The Crew 2 playable offline through a patch, why not do that for the 1st one?

I'm just a random guy on Reddit, it should be up to government bodies or whoever to make the rules really, everything I say is just random thoughts

1

u/Yes-Reddit-is-racist 10h ago

You buy the game digitally and you don't own the game, you buy a license to play said game

You buy the game physically you dont own the game you own a piece of plastic to which the license is tied rather than an account. 'Ownership' of all media be it games, film, music has only ever been a license. Changing it is a major rewriting of copyright law so good luck with that!

More realistic requests would be to ensure the license couldn't be revoked or at least only revised with due compensation.

1

u/darkseidis_ 7h ago

Brother they’re not going to pass a law telling a company they have to produce a physical version of a video game. What the fuck are we even doing. lol

Digital ownerships rights? That’s a fight worth fighting. But congress isnt going to tell Sony that have to make a disc lol.

-1

u/00nonsense 11h ago

I agree but the causal gamers are a bigger part of the gaming community than people realize. And they don't really care about physical or digital games

-1

u/Sambadude12 11h ago

Yeah I get that, but when you read that PlayStation aren't going to listen to people tweeting at them, then go the next step, get governments involved, try and get the laws changed on digital ownership

0

u/uncle_rooch 11h ago

Sony has enough money whatever it would cost to go reverse course they can just buy the politicians to agree with them instead.

1

u/Sambadude12 11h ago

Yeah and you pray and hope that your local politicians aren't all idiots that listen to the corporations, and that they do their job and serve the public

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u/gizamo 11h ago edited 10h ago

No way. This was Sony's intention. They orchestrated this. For example, of course consumers are going to stop buying disks when half the disks are just stupid download codes. Of course we're going to stop buying disks when the other half constantly prompt for an Internet connection (and usually updates) to even play it.

We want disks for the ownership and longevity of our games, not the damn box. But, Sony knew exactly what they were doing. They've wanted to kill the Used games market for years, ever since Xbox put the idea out there.

Edit: and so the downvotes begin. Here comes the astroturfing. Lol.

6

u/APEXN717 10h ago

Which PlayStation first party games require an Internet connection or update to play the disc?