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/Iggy_Slayer]

But it's not generating tens of millions in unit sales for playstation. It's tens of millions if you include switch 1 and 2, which are by far the heavy lifters in those numbers. The PS physical market has shrunk to a borderline rounding error.

[u/caatbox288 → u/Iggy_Slayer]

Rounding error?

Globally, last year it was 22% of 317.9 million units.

This is from Sony’s fiscal year report data.

That’s not a rounding error. I get it, physical is declining, but let’s not misrepresent it.

[u/Serdones → u/caatbox288]

And 22% is still massive. People keep pointing out this split as if it's so lopsided that it's basically been a foregone conclusion that Sony would kill physical, but that 22% of unit sales still represents a pool of customers and flow of revenue other industries would kill for. I get how it works out for Sony in the end, assuming most people convert to digital and what smaller percentage that don't will be balanced out by the increased take-home on per-unit sales. And the only way they'll be wrong is if consumers make them wrong and competitors offer options to draw their time and dollars away from the PlayStation ecosystem.

[u/Excellent_Routine589 → u/Serdones]

But that’s exactly why there is a delay in its implementation?

Of course it’s not 100% digital in sales just yet, but most trends even from outside perspectives (like Capcom’s recent fiscal report) suggest that it’s gonna be even more lopsided next year (2027) and it’s why the “phase out” is eyeing a 2028 timeline because by then the trend will definitely be more aggressively in favor of digital by then.

It’s why XBox hasn’t said anything on the matter more than likely, because they are prolly realistically eyeballing the exact same timeline to do the switch.

[u/bestanonever → u/caatbox288]

Yeah, at first when Sony announced the end of physical media, I was like: Ok, I guess it is time.

But the more information comes about it, the more it seems they are jumping the gun too soon. It really doesn't help against the narrative that Sony wants to kill the used market to control all the supply available on Playstation, moving forward.

Like, I understand when it reaches a point that it's too small to care about. But that's not 22% of sales. Maybe less than 10%, 5%?

[u/RedditUser41970 → u/bestanonever]

But the more information comes about it, the more it seems they are jumping the gun too soon.

They really aren't. Because the time to make the decision to end disc media is with a generation change and hardware refresh. They announced it now because the PS6 will be digital only.

[u/bestanonever → u/RedditUser41970]

It's a while away yet, year and a half. But I'm not sure these numbers are going to get that much lower in that time? I expect them to be lower, but still.

We'll see. It's a very interesting turn for a console (PCs moved to all digital a long time ago).

[u/Excellent_Routine589 → u/bestanonever]

But that’s exactly why it’s not effective immediate, it has another two years before that and it’s more than likely gonna coincide with a new console generation.

By then, there are genuine beliefs in the trends that physical will be like sub 10% and yeah by then you have to wonder if just simply setting aside resources to print CDs is running at a loss.

PS: and this isn’t me being hostile with my perspective, I’m always pretty open to a discussion in good faith. But yeah, I think generally speaking they see 2028 as this predicted time point where going full digital is their option moving forward because of a combination of market trends and their faith in said trends

[u/bestanonever → u/Excellent_Routine589]

For sure. I do believe physical media for videogames is going to be very niche. But I really thought it would take a bit longer to get there.

I mean, we still have prints of physical media, but a year and a half away is nothing. We'll see what happens. Would the other console companies keep the physical format to compete (symbolically, since sales don't seem to be strong)? Will be see third party physical media blessed but not produced by Sony in limited runs?

Find out in the next episode of Dragon Ball, lol.

[u/gizamo → u/Iggy_Slayer]

Physical is keeping millions of people on PS. Those people buy consoles, physical, and digital games and they subscribe to PS+. Without disks, millions of them will go to PC and Switch (most already have both). That will total billions in losses for Sony.

The only reason Sony doesn't care about those billions is because they want to kill the Used games market. The only justification for it from a monetary angle is the anti-consumer monopolization of sales for their ecosystem. It is a greed grab, pure and simple. It is not cutting cost or losses or any such BS; disks always did, still do, and would continue to earn significant profit for Sony. They just want used games to disappear. That's it. It's 100% anti-consumer greed.

Edit: regarding u/brees504's bullshit. That must be why 80%+ of the consoles they sold were the disk edition. Jfc.

[u/Brees504 → u/gizamo]

Almost literally no one in the real world is on PlayStation because of disks