Sony uses fuzzy math to claim that only 17% of PS5 gamers choose physical.

[twintail]

Cerebralbore101 said:

From Sony's Q1 2025 report. Found here: https://www.sony.com/ja/SonyInfo/IR/library/presen/er/pdf/25q1_supplement.pdf

"10 Full game software digital download ratio is calculated by dividing PlayStation®4 and PlayStation®5 full game software units sold via digital
transactions by total full game software units."

In other words, every indie game that has no physical release and is sold for $5 to $15 counts the same as a full fledged $70 game release. And PS4 games that have no new physical copies (because the system is last gen) also count towards their "83% download ratio." In fact, any PS5 game too old to be on store shelves anymore as a brand new copy will be counted for this as well. 

This is just another example of how companies purposefully hamstring physical sales to make it look like consumers are "choosing" digital. 

I'm not sure I understand what the fuzzy math is here. It's pretty clear looking at the rest of the data that they're talking about all digital software and all physical software. You can see this when they talk about revenue. Since the revenue part obviously has to include all the money they make from physical and digital sales of all kinds, it becomes a little strange if the distribution includes specific type of games instead.

Will you then choose to discount physical games being sold at sale or bargain prices just because they aren't the full $70 anymore? What happens to digital games that go on sale? it makes no sense to exclude cheap indie games just because they don't meet a certain price threshold.

That said, the latest version of this data: https://www.sony.com/en/SonyInfo/IR/library/presen/er/pdf/25q3_supplement.pdf

shows that physical sale revenue and ratio distribution in Q2 and Q3 being improved over Q1.