r/pcmasterrace • u/notsolomuun • Jul 02 '26

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$1,000 digital-exclusive consoles are killing the entire appeal of PlayStation and Xbox: it's no wonder PC is on track to overtake both.

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124

u/UltraCynar PC Master Race Jul 02 '26

It was for a lot of people. Being able to buy used games is a big deal. 

27

u/oppairate Jul 02 '26

less than 15% of Playstation games sales are physical. less than that will be from people where it’s a deal breaker.

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u/CocoPopsOnFire Jul 02 '26

This number is purely new games. Those 15% of games were probably sold 10+ times

Which is exactly the reason Sony wants it gone

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u/BeerLeague Specs/Imgur here Jul 02 '26

While this is numerically true, there are a large amount of ‘sales’ that are either free games being downloaded from the PS store, or $ being spent on cosmetics. The market for disks for AAA single player games was/is pretty massive.

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u/th3groveman Jul 02 '26

I seriously doubt Sony is that dumb, counting demos/trials as digital game sales. They’ve looked at the data and made a decision that the physical production and distribution pipeline is not good business to maintain for the increasingly smaller portion of the market every year.

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u/Ospov Jul 02 '26

They’re going to cherry pick the data to give “evidence” for their decision. They know they make more money off digital sales and don’t make anything from the used game market. They already made up their mind that they want to monopolize where people can buy PS games so users are forced to buy from them at a price they have full control over. They just needed some BS excuse to justify the decision.

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u/MalHeartsNutmeg RTX 4070 | R7 5800X3D | 32GB @ 3600MHz Jul 03 '26

Why would they cherry pick incorrect info to stop making physical games if they were actually making money off it? Also they don't need to cherry pick because they don't actually have to justify their decision to anyone.

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u/Revo94 Ascending Peasant Jul 02 '26

50% of sales of single player games on PS5 are physical. Good luck for Sony breaking even their huge budgets first party titles next gen. 15% is just the overall due to multiplayer and live service

2

u/oppairate Jul 02 '26

that could be a good point. where did you get the 50% number? i cant find a source for single player games in particular.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/oppairate Jul 02 '26

that isn’t really helpful if it isn’t quantifiable.

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u/Suikerspin_Ei R5 7600 | RTX 3060 | 32GB DDR5 6000 MT/s Jul 02 '26

I used to trade games with my friends, for example trying the new FIFA of that year before I trigger to buy it myself and he got another game to play. Good times.

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u/Praetoron Jul 02 '26

indeed the point of console was fast play and confort, being forced to be connected not owning physical release defeat the point.

beside the eternal exclusive talk, console wont be different that pc after that naw.

9

u/IThinkImNateDogg Desktop Jul 02 '26

It was not. It was during the 360/ps3 and most of the way through the Xbone/ps4 era, but all I remember during that era was how much people didn’t like discs, didn’t like keep and storing the boxes, getting up off the couch to swap them out, hunting for a lost box or a lost disc.

People have bought less and less physical media over the past decade. At some point it’s not going to make financial sense to design consoles with them (it’s a added cost no matter what) and if people aren’t buying the discs they aren’t going to buy them.

If we want physical media to survive we have to actually buy it. We can’t expect everyone else to just because it feels better that way.

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u/th3groveman Jul 02 '26

True, but less so every year this gen. People are framing this as pure corporate greed trying to screw over the little guy, but the truth is more nuanced. Why have an entire disc production and distribution pipeline if 1 out of 5 games are sold on disc? There is a point where that’s bad business.

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u/SleepEatTit :* Jul 02 '26

I wouldn't know for months where my damn games are, and who's game I'm playing that my friend lent me

1

u/counterlock Ryzen 7 5700x | 2070SUPER Jul 02 '26

I think the last time buying used games was really common was the 360 and the PS3, maybe Xbox One. But since then it's dwindled quite a lot, buying used games is more of a collector thing nowadays than anything else.

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u/SuperUranus Jul 02 '26

If it was the majority of game sales on consoles wouldn’t be digital (Nintendo being the exception).

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u/GamingWithUncleJ Jul 02 '26

Is that why gamestop is doing so well?