method114 said:
It's been very shocking to me the amount of people who don't realize how much Sony is saving with DE version. It seems all anyone thinks about is the disc drive and that's it. There's a reason MS tried to push no more used games this gen and it's not out of kindest of their hearts. Everyone knows how much money is being lost via the used game business. This is Sony's attempt to casually move people away from that system without forcing anyone. Genius move and one that MS should have implored this gen to avoid all the controversy. - no disc drive - required to purchase everything through the Sony store which means more money for Sony and less to retailers - No more used games (this is massive) Sony makes no money off of used games purchases. Over the life of the console this adds up to much more than $100. In fact if you still purchase a fair amount of used games than the $100 you are saving is nothing compared to what you save with the disc version + used games. I don't purchase used games anymore I'm all digital. |
Sony has already won the war against retailers. They do not need to worry about people primarily buying physical, digital sales has already overtaken physical sales by a large margin and that trend will continue, no matter how Sony prices their consoles. The downsides of physical sales for Sony have essentially been eliminated. I can barely find any physical games where I live any longer, the retailers are either gone, or are only selling a small selection of the newest titles. Used games I would have to buy online, and pay a shipping cost that isn't worth it. Other countries might still have more physical sales, but not for long.
So your points 2 and 3 don't favour a disc-less console so much anymore.
Things that might make the disc version preferable to Sony are:
1. They still get royalties from Blu-ray films, even if it has become a niche market.
2. Collectors editions of games can be sold at high prices, to those who care for those.
