ITS OVER Sony Interactive Entertainment to end physical game disc production in January 2028

[EricHiggin]

twintail said:

angrypoolman said:

well maybe thats changed in light of this announcement. microsoft could very well win a sizeable part of the market if they maintained physical releases for their next console. they wouldnt even necessarily have to "go big" on it. i think they should (obviously), but maybe all it would take is keeping that option available. i dont think a strong focus on gamepass has to preclude them from offering physical content over the next generation.

The issue for MS is that Gamepass has created the decline of physical on their own platforms, especially in light of day 1 first party titles. They have conditioned their user base to go digital over physical, and been doing so for years now. When you factor in that sales split for physical to digital on playstation is about 1:4 and only trending up for digital, even Sony is seeing a massive digital only consumer base.

Take the recent news from Capcom where 90%+ comes from digital, and Take 2 about to drop the biggest game of the gen as digital only. 

There's no sizeable market for MS to gain if you ask me. We're not in the early years of the PS4 anymore.

XB only has a few options to gain ground.

A. Wait for SNY to FK UP again like PS3 and simply watch gamers show up because they're done with SNY. Bit by bit or all at once.

B. Go with a blue ocean strategy, with a decent product, and GO ALL IN HARD. No half in half out nonsense like they're doing now.

C. Create undeniably, must have, affordable, new groundbreaking tech, and change the industry forever in your favor.

SNY got lucky with PS4 because they got to go with the best version of option A since MS pretty much got every move wrong possible with XB1, so PS4 could capitalize on all of it at once. MS couldn't have made it easier for SNY back then (besides dropping out and going third party).

Over the last couple of years would've been the time for XB to chip away at SNY slowly with all the negativity towards PS, unless MS was trying to be strategic and are waiting to go big all at once and use this against PS with their next gen XB ecosystem.

A comeback could be made, but only if MS was willing, knowing how brutal it would be, but it seems like the odds are MS would rather avoid that and grab whatever share they can easily get with XB at this point.