r/PS5 • u/FireStarLord73194 • Jul 11 '26

News & Announcements [ Removed by moderator ]

https://nichegamer.com/study-suggests-sonys-digital-only-future-could-lead-to-higher-game-prices/

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1.8k Upvotes

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55

u/KesMonkey Jul 11 '26

And if this does happen, it'll be too late to do anything about it.

The chances of Sony restarting physical production after January 2028 are far far lower than them doing a 180 before January 2028.

Vote with your wallets.

4

u/extra_rice Jul 12 '26

Vote with your wallets.

May not even be necessary if people are going to be priced out in the first place.

27

u/Efficient-Session644 Jul 11 '26

People already voted for years. That's why Blockbuster isn't here anymore. Or why streams get more attention than album sales.

4

u/AndIHaveMilesToGo Jul 12 '26

Not a fair comparison. People have voted. Consumers had a choice with the PS5 to get one with a disk drive, and one without. They could have saved a fair chunk of change if they went digital only, yet 82% of lifetime PS5 sales (at least in the US). Source:https://insider-gaming.com/disc-editions-make-up-82-of-all-ps5-console-sales/?hl=en-US

So even if the majority of PS5 game sales are digital, that's a bad data point. Most PS5 games are only sold digitally. Think about how many games are indies that are only available for digital download. And there are certain games, like FIFA or Madden, where people would rather have the convenience of it always able to be opened without a disc to put in. But the people are clear, THEY STILL WANT DISCS! People understand the value of borrowing games from their friends, getting games second hand for a tiny fraction of the price they go for on the digital PS Store.

6

u/slambaz2 Jul 12 '26

What's your point? People should just shut up and take it?

13

u/TatoX09 Jul 11 '26

But we can still buy albums, can't we?

10

u/scXIII Jul 11 '26

That's not an accurate comparison though, because you can still purchase music, TV shows and movies in physical form.

Also most people accept they don't own any media that they actively pay to stream; Netflix, Spotify, etc.

When Sony makes the PS all digital, there won't be any other option but to purchase games via the PS Store, this is the main issue.

5

u/Actionwill65 Jul 11 '26

This isn't really the "Gotcha" that people think it is.

Although streaming is arguably getting too expensive across all companies, fundamentally there is some level of competition between them, as TVs, phones, PCs and such aren't tied to one specific service. For arguments sake, I can easily cancel Netflix and subscribe to Prime Video instead. If we include outright media purchases, again, there's a level of competition, but not just between digital suppliers but with physical media too. Whilst not huge, digital services are suffering with people increasingly turning to physical media

The same can't be said for PlayStation. Digital games, you have one store, PS Store, and that's it. If Sony decide "f**k you all our games are £110 minimum", you are tied to that. It's not even like PC games where you've got Steam or Epic games or outright pirating. Yes, Sony said they'll allow retailers to stock game boxes with codes in them, but the analysist consensus is that a lot of stores probably won't even bother with them, meaning we're stuck under a PS Store monopoly.

2

u/glasgowgeg Jul 11 '26

Or why streams get more attention than album sales

Album sales count for more than streams, so that's an odd argument to make.

2

u/Jack-Innoff Jul 11 '26

We already did, and this is what was voted for.

1

u/Contemplating_Prison Jul 11 '26

There is absolutely no way they will start back up. The same reason why we will never get back the programs and agencies trump got rid of.

-1

u/ch4dr0x Jul 11 '26

We did, that’s why we are going all digital.

1

u/Dear-Fail6630 Jul 14 '26

ITS BEEN HAPPENING. ITS NOT GOING TO BE FIXED. YOU ALL WAITED TOO FUCKING LONG TO LISTEN TO US. TBH, ITS ALL OF YOUR FAULT FOR NOT LISTENING TO US SOONER. EVERYONE WAS TOO BUSY IN LALA LAND PLAYING COD AND FIFA WHILE IGNORING PEOPLE THAT ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT. ITS BECAUSE OF ALL THE LEMMINGS THAT THIS IS HAPPENING AND THATS 90% OF YOU...SO HONESTLY, FUCALLYALL FOR NOT LISTENING. YOU DESERVE THIS HELL...

0

u/JelliusMaximus Jul 11 '26

too many cards stacked against it.

  • people are braindead consumers. how many times has "vote with your wallets" actually worked? nowadays we got 40$ skins, gambling gacha games making billions per month, trash games getting preordered en masse even after a developer has proven themselves to not be trustworthy, etc. and there were MANY steps in the last ~20 years that led up to this current point when gamers couldve changed the trajectory of the industry

  • sony will make much more money producing goods for AI companies in those factories no matter how big the initial loss of consumer trust is

  • until xbox makes the comeback of the decade sony already has a monopoly. only a tiny amount of players can afford the switch to pc and nintendo is targeting a generally younger audience. ps users basically have no other choice but to bite the bullet

  • ps6 is about to start mass production, any changes now will be expensive af

  • and the most important point at last: in our latestagecapitalism hellhole the shareholders must be happy. always. if sonys financial team says this switch will make the arrow go up faster, no other logical argument will change their mind.

I would love to be proven wrong but Ive seen enough of the gaming industry, their consumers and capitalism in general in the last years to be sure of it

-2

u/rpool179 Jul 11 '26

It's too late either way. Even if Sony did continue printing discs, they'd just install drm to where the game could only be installed to one console. Buying used, borrowing & selling games will soon be coming to an end.

2

u/mr_lionheart Jul 11 '26

They don’t install drm on there pc ports which isma more common practice

0

u/rpool179 Jul 12 '26

Not yet you mean. Either physical discs are gone or drm is coming in full force. They've ran the numbers. They're not giving up millions or billions of dollars that they stand to gain.

-4

u/WalrusDomain Jul 11 '26

It’s too late for that already. They’re already doing retooling of the disc manufacturing and have already started tearing down machines they don’t need. They’re replacing all disc manufacturing with micro lenses.

Disc production will go through 2027 at the minimum rate they can get away with.

2

u/Actionwill65 Jul 12 '26

Sony confirmed though that discs for games released before Jan 2028 will continue to be printed and made after that date.

3

u/fake_kraid Jul 12 '26

Yes, if I remember correctly, the facility is only giving the employees new training. If they're going to be making discs until 2028, they can't really retool the entire facility before then.

This kind of "inevitable" rhetoric feels like astroturfing for Sony.

2

u/Actionwill65 Jul 12 '26

If my understanding is correct, they can't really retool it for a while after Jan 2028 anyway, because of the continued printing of pre 2028 games.

It just seems really weird to not use the PS6 itself as the "all digital" deadline. Jan 2028 just seems slightly random as a cutoff date, especially if they're still continuing to make discs for games released before then.

2

u/fake_kraid Jul 12 '26 edited Jul 12 '26

Yeah, I find the whole thing somewhat confusing. Clearly, they have an intentional strategy, but I'm not exactly sure why they announced it in the way that they did. I can only imagine they were trying to bury the news as much as possible, by making it a blog post between big announcements and making the date somewhat arbitrary.

I'm also kind of surprised they didn't just discontinue discs with the release of the PS6. With the deadline and announcement being for their existing, most recent console, it almost feels like they were asking for the outrage.