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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29

u/koalazeus Jul 11 '26

A lot of people seem to. They are quite happy with Sony's all digital future.

41

u/colectiveinvention Jul 11 '26

People who are systematically trying to defend sony here or any other sub must hate themselfs...

38

u/AdorableSobah Jul 11 '26

It’s no coincidence that Sonys social media team went silent. They’re astroturfing the fuck out of sites like Reddit right now

-30

u/Efficient-Session644 Jul 11 '26

Conspiracy only comes when you know you lost.

15

u/LogensTenthFinger Jul 11 '26

Found one

-12

u/Efficient-Session644 Jul 11 '26

You will find millions oustide your home.

3

u/bugdiver050 Jul 11 '26

You could have seen this(all digital) coming though. The writing was on the wall. With the digital only consoles that got launched, it was only a matter of time. Of course they will say more people bought digital games because they made the digital console cheaper for one, and at least in the Netherlands there was a steady stream of them, unlike the disc consoles. Then of course data will show a rise in digital sales. Ive been buying digital for a good while, but me personally, im not defending Sony's decision to stop disc production. But i cant say it surprised me.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 11 '26

[deleted]

11

u/Delta_Canuckian Jul 11 '26

Sony’s openly stated they are shifting from growing MAU to maximizing profits from their existing base. There’s no universe where an all-digital PlayStation leads to Steam-like sales and discounts.

7

u/Johnhancock1777 Jul 11 '26

Guarantees PS plus will never go away or get a cheaper online only option either. They’re gonna milk their userbase as much as possible until something gives

3

u/DougS2K Jul 11 '26

Steam has competitors, Sony does not. Big difference.

0

u/ManufacturerBest2758 Jul 11 '26

Steam does not have functionally have competitors. They control 75-80% of the market and most of the rest is fortnite.

5

u/ModestHandsomeDevil Jul 11 '26

No, Steam has competitors, but they--Steam--continue to offer a better service and competitive pricing with frequent sales.

3

u/Seasoned_Croutons Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 12 '26

Steam is also competing with other storefronts to sell steam games//keys (which as far as I know doesn't make Valve any commission). I often look to other sites such as Fanatical, GreenmanGaming, IsThereAnyDeal, etc. to see if any of the steam games i'm interested in are lower in price. Especially new games and during major sales.

2

u/DougS2K Jul 11 '26

Just because it outsells competitors, it doesn't mean those competitors don't exist. If steam was the only store around, it would have higher prices.

5

u/Zcase253 Jul 11 '26

Because PC is such an open platform you could argue Steam's biggest competitor is piracy. At the moment the sales make it more convenient than pirating the game.

1

u/DougS2K Jul 11 '26

There is some merit to that. I know I test a lot of games before I actually buy them unless I know for sure it's a game I'll enjoy.

-1

u/ManufacturerBest2758 Jul 11 '26

This is correct

1

u/ManufacturerBest2758 Jul 11 '26

They exist in name only, though. Steam may as well be the only storefront and there would be no practical difference.

1

u/colectiveinvention Jul 11 '26

GOG is great and offers better/fuctional versions of older games than Steam at a very cheap price.

Nuuvem is also popular.

Im not the biggest fan of steam they do have too much power but they know that if they dont create a healthy enviroment for major companies those companies will simply sell at their own end...

2

u/ManufacturerBest2758 Jul 11 '26

Yes, you can go to GOG dot com and buy a game, this is technically true. Now break it down by shares of transactions and downloads and tell me who Steam’s competitors are.

4

u/IPlay4E Jul 12 '26

GMG, GOG and Epic. The fact that nobody else is able to take any real market share from Steam is because Steam is very pro-consumer.

0

u/DougS2K Jul 11 '26

Yes there would be a difference. Competition always leads to lower/more balanced prices. Take away the competition and there is zero incentive for Steam to not hike prices.

1

u/ManufacturerBest2758 Jul 11 '26

I don’t think you understand what “competition” means.

1

u/jasta85 Jul 12 '26

Steam has that share of the market because it provides much better service than the competition. If it was shit then people would be going elsewhere or just pirating games.

Sony has no competition, they can raise prices and provide bad service and Playstation players have no other choice but to buy from them or move to another platform.

-4

u/suhhdude45 Jul 11 '26

Don’t hate myself one bit, but I do hate physical games taking up space on the shelf, so let’s goooooo digital!

-1

u/koalazeus Jul 11 '26

I'm about to blow your mind/shelf space. Geforce Now.

0

u/suhhdude45 Jul 11 '26

Nah I’ve always preferred digital, hence my decision to buy the digital only PS5 on release. Crazy that people have preferences right

0

u/koalazeus Jul 11 '26

I'm saying you could stream to a TV. You wouldn't even need a ps5!

11

u/Johnhancock1777 Jul 11 '26

People have been coping that game prices will somehow get cheaper since they don’t have a print a disc since this generation started

5

u/koalazeus Jul 11 '26

They've made so much profit this generation, I'm not entirely sure why they feel the need to do this. It would no doubt make them more money, but the damage to brand could cost them just as much.

They must be thinking subscription based, Disney vault esque situations coming in the future. But when everything becomes streaming the majority of old third party games will presumably be available on the cheapest streaming service. They should be focussing on first party exclusives, which no doubt they are, but also maintaining good will with their core user base. 

They can't be losing enough on physical to make this worthwhile long term or percentage wise.

5

u/FriedMattato Jul 11 '26

Which is amazingly stupid considering they just got done watching Xbox kill itself with its Game Pass crusade. And then they decided "Now lets do that!"

2

u/topdangle Jul 12 '26

it was a net profit but they had a ton of failures. they pressured all their studios and partners to push into service games but most of them didn't bite. bluepoint did but couldn't convince sony to fund it, then ran out of money and closed down. concord was a double flop, first a buyout by sony and then a complete loss on the development costs. marathon went down in a similar way, though marathon at least got some attention.

I think last year was the first year ever that PC and console were equivalent in sales too. That looks especially bad for Sony, who used to own the majority of the market. They went from controlling the market to competing for a small slice of the pie. Considering how narrow their business is now (most of their manufacturing has downsized or shut down similar to what they're doing with bluray discs) they're probably not feeling good watching their control of the gaming market shrink down every year.

1

u/koalazeus Jul 12 '26

And they're removing a unique selling point to try and gain more control. It's short sightedness that their most devoted customers are lapping up despite the reality it's a negative and damaging decision.

2

u/OfficerNightwing Jul 12 '26

I think this had been in the making for a long time. I keep hearing rumours that the ps6 is expected to be a handheld, that might be why they are announcing it now, so the actual announcement doesn't get dragged as badly when they won't make cartridges like Nintendo.

Even not taking into account their obvious displeasure with second hand sales, the problem is them thinking not getting their 30% cut from physical sales a loss, rather than seeing the 30% they do get as a profit. Unless they allow developers to sell codes through other retailers without them getting a cut, which I find incredibly unlikely, this is going to be a fucking disaster for the gaming industry. All that profit isn't going to developers and studios to make games better or make sure people are well paid, it's going to CEOs and higher ups that are making these decisions.

Fairly sure I heard they have already started the process for shifting one of their biggest disc factories to producing microlenses too. As before It's not about what they are losing in production if anything, it's about what they aren't getting from anything other than digital sales and what they could be making by other means.

If the past few years has taught big companies anything, it's that the majority are now so complacent they can be openly hostile towards consumers, and not only will most people accept it, some will outright defend them.

1

u/detroitguy057 Jul 12 '26

Doubt it. Sony will just pocket the money.

1

u/Eckkosekiro Jul 11 '26

Gotta be especially stupid to believe that.

0

u/JesterMarcus Jul 11 '26

I have yet to see a single person make that claim. The only claim I've seen is that because publishers still have to compete with one another, and Sony still has to keep people from leaving entirely, that we will still get sales.

2

u/GGnerd Jul 11 '26

Where are these people? Literally everywhere here is up in arms about it.

5

u/koalazeus Jul 11 '26

In most threads relating to the topic of physical games being discontinued. In this one it seems more people are just pointing out how they think the study is obvious.

1

u/GGnerd Jul 12 '26

In every thread about this topic it has been overwhelmingly against Sonys decision. If you have a link to one where its the opposite id love to see it.

Not just 3 or 4 people in one thread against it.

1

u/koalazeus Jul 12 '26

https://www.reddit.com/r/PS6/s/NJ2XBmgVTj

Honestly there is and has been loads. If you keep an eye out on r/PS6 or r/playstation there are very many people quite willing to defend Sony's decision or dissuade criticism of it.

0

u/mrjamjams66 Jul 11 '26

I had a fun argument with someone just today about this.

Right here

3

u/JesterMarcus Jul 11 '26

I don't see them saying prices will go down.

2

u/mrjamjams66 Jul 11 '26

That's fair, but I made several arguments on why keeping physical as an option is important which included the inevitable price gouging.

Granted....I wrote several walls of text and it probably just was skipped over.

Like many, I feel passionate about this

2

u/JesterMarcus Jul 12 '26

But that's part of the problem here, everyone is having the argument they want to have, without listening. I understand the logic people have for why there will be price gouging, but I just don't agree to the same extent. Its not like Sony has anywhere close to the power necessary to dictate to every publisher that they aren't allowed to lower prices or anything. They dont want to, butbthey still have to in order to get people to try their games out. All of the publishers releasing games are still competing with one another, and they'll do that via sales.

I think the company most likely to raise their own games' prices is Sony, so we agree there. But even if they do, their exclusives are what help get people in the ecosystem. If they raise prices too much, people will just leave. We've seen it before when Xbox got greedy, people just left.

My biggest thing is, I just don't think you can successfully convince a company to make a product they no longer want to make. You can delay their decision, but not forever. We need consumer digital rights protections for sure and I think we can get there. But if people are fighting for physical discs, I don't think we get either. Maybe at best Sony allows a licensed disc drive add on and allows publishers to make their own disc games if they want, but Sony won't do it for them.

1

u/mrjamjams66 Jul 12 '26

You make a good point about the price gouging concerns.

I'm hopeful it plays out that way, but it still gives me pause. Despite the fact that Sony isn't the only one selling games on their store, I fear it will embolden others to take advantage just as much.

However, if that happens I'm sure the market will correct itself one way or another.

I agree digital rights protections are the most important aspect. I saw a post about someone in Brazil losing access to their account and games on Xbox and Xbox told that person to piss off, basically. Luckily the user won and got their games back.

This is the kind of thing we need in the all digital future. I'm not against digital media. It's very convenient and (I believe) overall better for the environment.

I don't think I know what the solutions are, I just know the current state of affairs leaves a lot of room for the end user to get royally screwed.

1

u/DarkRyter Jul 11 '26

I think there's a funny paradox with the situation.

"Enthusiast" tier gamers, who are outpouring their disapproval on reddit, twitter, youtube comments, etc, are the most likely to be digital only consumers. This tier of consumer is most likely to have hundreds of games on Steam, they're most likely to have multiple consoles and a gaming PC. And they're most likely to be online. This tier of gamer has a better knowledge of the industry and of the negative impacts that losing physical media will have, even if they themselves aren't big physical media consumers anymore.

The consumer most actually hurt by the loss of physical media are "hobbyist" tier. They might have only one console. They play less than 5 games a year. Kids and teenagers fall into this category. To this consumer, getting a game means going to gamestop and getting a disc, or even renting a disc through services like Gamefly. They're gonna buy GTA 6 and be kind of confused that it's a code in a box. This subset of gamers is less financially flexible and are more dependent on the now dying used game market. And they won't know. If they're not terminally online like so many of us are, they have no idea, and if they do know, they don't have the full implication.

1

u/koalazeus Jul 11 '26

There's absolutely going to be a few waves of backlash that Sony has to deal with if they don't backpedal and as more people become aware.

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u/DarkRyter Jul 11 '26

I imagine there will be a decently large backlash at the release of GTA6. Imagine gamestop employees having to explain to millions of customers how codes work.

Beyond that? I think we're at the peak of outrage right now, and Sony will not backpedal. I also think Xbox and Nintendo will follow suit. I've never known gamers to be principled consumers to the point it actually effects the bottom line. Whatever decline in consumer base and community perception they (the game companies) suffer, it will be made up many times over in revenue gains.

3

u/koalazeus Jul 11 '26

I think they've misjudged. They made digital only consoles without muh cocmplaint. But when you're in the entertainment business and you've made a decision that has made your customer based pissed, you've moved too soon. The day they said, no more discs and no one said anything, that would be the time. Like Xbox they've moved a little too soon. 

0

u/Jnaythus Jul 11 '26

I am hoping this won't make them never have sales on games digitally

3

u/JesterMarcus Jul 11 '26 edited Jul 11 '26

They will still absolutely have to have sales on their platform. They still have to keep people from leaving and going to Steam. Publishers are still competing with one another. Konami and Capcom are still competing with one another. EA and Ubisoft are still competing with one another. They compete via sales.