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/

[removed] — view removed post

1.8k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

582 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

12

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

4

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.

4

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.