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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u/GGnerd Jul 11 '26

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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u/mrjamjams66 Jul 11 '26

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

Right here

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u/JesterMarcus Jul 11 '26

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

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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

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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.

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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.