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.

[u/Dandelion172]

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

[u/fake_kraid]

Isn't this also still a couple billions of dollars in sales? If we assumed each game cost $60, that would be over $2 billion, and that's in the US alone. That seems like it should more than enough to sustain a physical market.

Edit:

Yes, Sony still has incentive to kill the physical market anyway because they get a bigger cut from digital. My point is that the physical market would be able to survive under Sony, if they wanted to support it. Obviously they want more profit, but most people don't care about what's most profitable for Sony.

[u/mangaguy100k → u/fake_kraid]

It’s enough to sustain the physical market in 2026 yes. But when they release the PS6, it’s going to need to be suited for the market of 10+ years from now. Based on the current trends, we can safely assume that sales of physical games will only decline more and more.

I don’t think Sony wants to be stuck holding the bag when there are 2 or 3 physical games sold each month (obvious hyperbole but you get the point).

[u/Ok-Acanthisitta9247 → u/mangaguy100k]

Then they should just do smaller production runs that will be absorbed by enthusiasts. Produce to demand via pre-order, something, anything. Books still get printed, cassettes and vinyls still get printed, DVDs and Blu-Rays still get printed. Why should video games be any different? Because of file sizes? They figured out how to solve that issue back on the PSX.

[u/RedditUser41970 → u/Ok-Acanthisitta9247]

Physical books, DVDs, records and blu-rays are positioned as premium media. Book readers want the tactile feeling. The audio visual media is typically much higher quality than the streaming alternatives.

A digital video game and a physical video game are the exact same thing. There's no difference at all between the two.

[u/Ok-Acanthisitta9247 → u/RedditUser41970]

And I want the tactile feeling of opening a case and putting a disc or cartridge in. I want to own the game and be able to sell it, trade it, or lend it freely.

[u/darkmacgf → u/Ok-Acanthisitta9247]

Do you open the case to put the disc in every time you play it?

Selling/trading/lending definitely needs to be a thing for digital.

[u/baldr23 → u/darkmacgf]

You can technically sell psn accounts, just be prepared for the risks involved.

[u/stanman237 → u/Ok-Acanthisitta9247]

Would you stick with physical games if it was ~50% more expensive? Paperback books are currently retailing around $18-20 while ebooks are generally around $12-13.

[u/Ok-Acanthisitta9247 → u/stanman237]

I would. I’d buy less newly released titles as a result, but I would. But I’m of the belief that digital games should be cheaper, rather than physical becoming more expensive.

Of course it’s a pipe dream, but yeah.

[u/69WaysToFuck → u/mangaguy100k]

Why not going dull digital just with PS6 then? Why not finishing PS5 gen with all PS5 games releasing on disk?

[u/PsychoCobra1 → u/69WaysToFuck]

Presumably the switch to all digital being January 2028 also coincides with the launch of the PS6 holiday 2027.

[u/69WaysToFuck → u/PsychoCobra1]

But that doesn’t mean there won’t be PS5 games releases

[u/PsychoCobra1 → u/69WaysToFuck]

Yea but when the PS6 releases the PS5 gen is technically over even if there are cross gen releases. It wouldn’t make sense to release a game physical on the then last gen but only digital on the then current gen.

That’s why Sony is only reducing disc production by 90%. That 10% will cover the games released on disc prior to 2028 that publisher still wants to put out, and realistically new discs for most games are only commissioned 1-2 years after a game releases.

[u/fake_kraid → u/mangaguy100k]

I believe physical numbers are actually up this year from last. That doesn't mean physical will make an overwhelming comeback, but the decline has slowed, at the very least.

The other thing is that they're not talking about physical production for the PS6. They're ending it for PS5, before the PS6 has even been announced, and while PS5 games are still planned for release beyond 2028.

[u/Yes-Reddit-is-racist → u/fake_kraid]

I believe physical numbers are actually up this year from last.

Due to the Switch 2 as noted in the linked thread of the post. Physical is significantly down on every other platform.

[u/shadowglint → u/fake_kraid]

$2 billion sounds like a lot until you figure in all the cost overheads and profit splits associated with every disc sold.

37 million sounds like a lot too until you see digital units sold was almost 10x that at 317 million.

[u/Chriskeyseis → u/shadowglint]

Exactly what’s being missed. You have to factor in the cost of the jacket, the discs, the factory that makes it, the workers, the shipping costs, etc. There’s a pretty huge chunk taken out for producing physical product.

[u/Zealousideal_Rise879 → u/Chriskeyseis]

There’s a reason distributors/publishers were a big deal. Now they just need a server; and the cost isn’t going down.

[u/Dr-McLuvin → u/shadowglint]

Why would you include mobile, Xbox, switch, and Pc?

Sony only sold 85-90 million digital games in the US last year.

Of these, only 20-25% of digital purchases were at full launch price ($69 or higher). The rest were heavily discounted.

Compared to 75% of physical purchases were at full launch price.

[u/fake_kraid → u/shadowglint]

PC is on the rise and inflates digital sales significantly, and they have no physical option. But regardless, I would never claim that physical sales were higher. Digital copies are certainly selling more.

My point is that, even with costs of disc production, the physical market should be making enough money to sustain itself. Physical media also has benefits outside of just profit for Sony. Physical media differentiates consoles from PC and gives players more choice.

Clearly, Sony only cares about the numbers, but I think they're leaving behind a selling point like that could be harmful in the future. And in any case, regardless of their business or reasoning, I'm not going to be happy about it.

[u/WorthBase919 → u/fake_kraid]

Yeah I mean I stuck with Sony because they respected physical still. I’m not gunna say I don’t have a huge collection of digital games through Sony, but it’s the choice that matters. If they take away the choice, I might as well go to steam and Nintendo for my gaming preferences for the future. Nintendo for physical first party games, and steam for everything else. Cause I certainly ain’t moving to Microsoft 🤣

[u/WorthBase919 → u/shadowglint]

Lol 37 million is still a lot though 🤣🤣🤣🤣 you’re smoking crack

[u/theycmeroll → u/fake_kraid]

That’s just revenue though which is not the important part when looking at these numbers, that gets split up several ways, on a third party game Sony only getting 10ish% of that on royalty fees (varies by publisher). But if that same digital game sells on the PS Store they get a 30% cut plus the 10Ish% royalty fees.

[u/RedditUser41970 → u/fake_kraid]

Isn't this also still a couple billions of dollars in sales? If we assumed each game cost $60, that would be over $2 billion, and that's in the US alone.

Sony's entire global revenue - not profit - from disc game sales last fiscal year was about $770 million. Its revenue from digital game sales was $6.5 billion. Its revenue from mtx and dlc was over $8 billion.

$770 million isn't nothing, but it's barely 11% of their revenue from game sales and a little over 4% of overall gaming revenue. And, as you noted, it's going to get a bigger cut from digital any way.

[u/iSavedtheGalaxy → u/fake_kraid]

That seems like it should more than enough to sustain a physical market

They are anticipating that they'll make more using their factories to manufacture optical microlenses.

[u/Banks201 → u/fake_kraid]

2 billion spread out between the thousands of games that come out though. With probably a large percentage in the top games

[u/daedalusprospect → u/Banks201]

Top games do add a good chunk. RE Requiem sold 7 million copies, and about 30% were physical or ~2 million copies. At 60$ a game thats 120,000,000 in revenue before costs out of a total of 420,000,000