Why do Disk Drives matter?

[Norion]

RolStoppable said:

G2ThaUNiT said:

Not only that but when you consider PC gaming is practically 100% digital, Sony's recent financial results showed PlayStation sales were 80% digital, Nintendo's recent financial results showed Switch sales have long passed 50% digital, and Xbox sales are around 90% digital, you start to wonder if you have friends, how many of them even bother with physical at all?

It's no longer 20 years ago when all games were physical and sharing games amongst friends was so common because if you had a console, you had to buy games physically. You're statistically more likely to let your friends borrow the whole damn console than borrow your games lol.

Switch software sales aren't even close to 50% digital when there's a physical option available. The 50%+ digital share that people all too commonly cite is revenue-based and does include DLC, subscriptions and digital-only games. When given the choice, Switch software is still around 70% physical; not lifetime, but during the most recent fiscal year.

Admittedly, Switch doesn't have a disk drive because it uses a superior physical medium. So in that sense it's correct that disk drives are obsolete nowadays.

You won't have trouble having friends with physical Switch games, because statistically that's the norm. People have to be honest and acknowledge that PC, PS and Xbox are very similar while Nintendo is a different beast. So any fantasies about an all-digital future are just that: Fantasies. You won't see Nintendo develop into that direction, simply because they'd lose too many customers if they did that. Nintendo's long-running policy of giving five times the gold points (or as special offer even ten times as many) for digital purchases in comparison to physical games has hardly moved the needle. Nor have vouchers where on average $/€10 per game can be saved.

Nintendo will definitely keep physical for the longest but the notion that they won't ever develop into digital only is unrealistic. Even if it takes a while Nintendo will reach the state Playstation is currently at with it and eventually where Xbox is at with it and at some point the amount of customers who are physical die-hards will be small enough to where it won't be worth catering to them.

Just compare the state of digital gaming even just a decade ago to now and it's clear that things will be very different in 20 years or so. I don't think this is a positive shift since physical is a good option to have but digital is increasingly where the money is at for video games so it's where companies like Nintendo will go.

Last edited by Norion - on 31 August 2024