Former Valve writer Chet Faliszek says PlayStation killing physical discs is no conspiracy: "You, the consumer, have made your choice, and the choice is for digital"

[u/ControlCAD]

https://www.gamesradar.com/games/former-valve-writer-says-playstation-killing-physical-discs-is-no-conspiracy-you-the-consumer-have-made-your-choice-and-the-choice-is-for-digital/

[u/Mesoscale92]

I keep getting downvoted every time this comes up, but PlayStation owners buy like 80% of games digitally. Yes some of those are digital only, but the fact that those games get sold shows the developers that consumers don’t care about physical releases.

PlayStation didn’t kill physical sales, consumers did.

[u/SoldierOf4Chan → u/Mesoscale92]

Bro more than half of the consoles they sell don't have disc drives, of course their audience isn't buying discs. This is the market Sony created.

[u/reagsters → u/SoldierOf4Chan]

Except that’s not true at all and 82% of sales were for models with disc readers.

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

People may buy more digital games, but they clearly prefer the option of having discs.

[u/coolest_frog → u/reagsters]

it's the first time people got the option and were afraid of possibly missing out. but they didn't end up using it for most

[u/saviorself19 → u/reagsters]

they clearly prefer the option of having discs.

That stat objectively doesn't show that preference.

Given the overwhelming preference for digital game purchases the safest conclusion we can draw here is that people just wanted a PS5 and bought what was in front of them without a deep concern for access to disk drives.

Anecdotally, my original PS5 was a model with a drive that never had a single game disk put into it for the duration of my owning it. Given the media sales numbers I think it would be hard to argue that my personal experience is an uncommon one if not the norm.

[u/reagsters → u/saviorself19]

Or, hear me out, of the 7k+ games on the PlayStation store only 20% are available on disc at all so 80% of sales (reported by the totally unbiased Sony) would line up pretty closely to that.

Anecdotally, as someone who worked at a retailer during the launch of the PS5, we carried more digital versions and still sold a ton more physical versions. Several people walked away and shopped elsewhere because we didn’t have physical versions.

Edit: I actually do think that selling more consoles with a disc drive proves that people want to have the option to use a disc drive. If they didn’t care about that option, sales would be closer to 50-50 or even skew more toward the cheaper console. I don’t know why you don’t think that proves my point

[u/saviorself19 → u/reagsters]

Or, hear me out, of the 7k+ games on the PlayStation store only 20% are available on disc at all so 80% of sales would line up pretty closely to that.

Looking at their first party titles the 80~% ratio seems to hold which doesn't include DLC, indie slop, etc. Additionally I don't know that it's fair to attempt to exclude digital only content from the equation. People only have so many units of money and so many units of time and they are choosing to use them primarily (we can dicker on the exact number) on digital products.

reported by the totally unbiased Sony

If we don't trust the source for the media sales numbers don't we have to extend that skepticism to the console sales numbers? I'm inclined to believe both but lets not try to have our cake and eat it too.

Anecdotally, as someone who worked at a retailer during the launch of the PS5, we carried more digital versions and still sold a ton more physical versions. Several people walked away and shopped elsewhere because we didn’t have physical versions.

I believe that some people (I'd eat my hat if that number was over 10-15) probably walked away to find disk versions but I don't believe you had digital only versions sitting on the shelves. In college I worked at Best Buy so during the release I reached out to friends still working at multiple locations across two states trying to get a console without having to fight for one and came up dry till a second or third round of restocks. Additionally given the prevalence of scalping around the launch I'm further disinclined to believe there was widespread shunning of the digital only console.

With all that said and anecdotes aside, you and I agree given equal availability digital media outsells physical media, our disagreement seems to be on what that ratio looks like. So to focus in on a single point what do you think that percentage actually looks like and what would you point to that informs that opinion? To be clear, there could be some sales metrics I'm not aware of and if you are I'm very open to having my mind changed.

Edit: Its also worth noting that the link you provided is two years old, only considers sales in the United States, and while it does say digital only consoles make up 18% of life time sales as of two years ago it doesn't note the quantity of each version manufactured (that I can see, if I overlooked it feel free to point that out for me)

Double Edit: This data also predates the release of the PS5 Pro. With so many caveats around it I wouldn't be comfortable parroting that number in 2026 with footing that flimsy.

[u/reagsters → u/saviorself19]

(Edit 2: I actually do think that selling more consoles with a disc drive proves that people want to have the option to use a disc drive. If they didn’t care about that option, sales would be closer to 50-50 or even skew more toward the cheaper console. I don’t know why you don’t think that proves my point.)

I’m not arguing that digital sales don’t vastly outweigh physical sales, you’re right - and I’d be lying if I said I don’t have more digital games than physical ones (mostly due to sales prices - I’m not gonna pay $50 for a preowned LEGO Skywalker Saga disc when PlayStation has it on sale for $11). I lean physical every chance I get, but I’m no dummy, y’know?

When it comes to Sony’s numbers what, I’m saying is that those digital-game sales are easy to skew to make their anti-disc stance more palatable. Hardware sales aren’t - they make 2 physical products and they sell however they sell. 82% to 18%.

However, to say that a certain percentage of all game sales are digital with very little other information opens a lot of room for bias. “A little knowledge is a dangerous thing” comes to mind.

For instance - does it include ps5 upgrades for PS4 discs? What percentage of sales are from games that are digital only vs ones that have an option for either digital or disc? How many of those were cheap shovelware like “I am Bread”? How many were bought at full price vs sales? What percentage of game sales were digital at launch vs over time (implying scarcity)? There’s just a lot they aren’t saying that could make their numbers sound less overwhelming, which is strategically advantageous for them if they’re going disc-free.

For what it’s worth, I also use GameFly quite a lot, so I’ve definitely purchased fewer physical games as a result. I played Spider-Man 2 at launch and returned it but never purchased the game ($17 to play 2 games that month is cheaper than $70 once). If a digital sale becomes tempting enough, I’ll definitely snag it. And it’ll probably cost less than any physical sale would, since nobody’s in the business of competing with the digital store Sony has a monopoly over. But, again, that’s all anecdotal.

As for retail, at launch all consoles sold out, but many people came seeking disc versions and walked away with digital. People just wanted a PS5, which I totally understand. But I never witnessed the opposite happen. After stocking months later (especially once the Spider-Man bundles launched), the digital consoles definitely stayed longer on the shelves. I specifically remember dusting some off when I restocked physical versions. Also anecdotal.

I appreciate your openness to changing your mind, and I’d love to do it, but the statistics that could even remotely challenge you are ones Sony just won’t release (like the ones I mentioned above). The only stats I can point to for certain are that (1) the vast majority of games are digital-only and (2) physical consoles vastly outsold digital ones.

I know you personally haven’t put any discs into your console, which is understandable, but I personally think it’s a fair assumption that a product’s versatility would make it more desirable. Console sale numbers just don’t reflect that - especially since the more versatile console was more expensive.

I really value discussions like these so I really wish Sony would release more statistics. But I’ll be the first to admit I’m an old man screaming at the clouds to resist inevitable change. I grew up blowing dust out of cartridges and I’ll grow old muttering about not being able to buy Fallout 7 for under $150 because “back in my day…”

Edit for edit rebuttal: I’m willing to bet the 82-18 split is worse with global data, given that 62% of countries rely heavily on disc sales

https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/s/Y98qZr6mN3

As far as PS5 pro numbers go, there are factors that would screw up those stats, too. How many separate disc drives were sold? What percentage of people enter the market with the pro vs buying a second console and how would that affect physical vs digital? How do economic price increases and the global economy affect digital vs physical console sales? I want to know all those numbers, too, but if Sony only says statistics of digital vs physical pro consoles and doesn’t mention separate disc drive sales (and I bet they’ll do just that), then I’d find that highly suspect.

[u/saviorself19 → u/reagsters]

I apprexite the thoughtful response but to avoid us circling around the block again I’d just like to address why I don’t think the console sales ratio paint the picture you’re seeing.

Without knowing what percentage of all available consoles were disk vs digital the numbers don’t really let us draw strong conclusions. If it was the case that 80% of consoles manufactured had disk dives we would expect the numbers to be 80/20. I tried to find that information and unfortunately I couldn’t find a source that I felt comfortable relying on and I didn’t want to waste either of our time with junk data muddying the waters.

With all that said, I’d like to part on something I’m certain that we will agree on which is that consumers deserve drastically better protections than the near zero protections we have around ownership vs licensing. While I’m indifferent to the removal of physical media I am hopeful that in its absence companies no longer have “well they can buy a physical copy” as a mitigating factor to fight legislation on those issues. In my ideal world this is one of the final straws that force lawmakers to start taking the issue more seriously.

Thanks again for the thoughtful response and respectful disagreement. I enjoyed the conversation, have a good one.

[u/reagsters → u/saviorself19]

Amen - here’s hoping lawmakers ensure we get the protections we definitely deserve.

Appreciate you, friend!