| Shadow1980 said: Looks like digital was already dominating even then, doesn't it? Digital software was generating 3.87x as much revenue as physical in FY2020, and in FY2021 that increased to 4.43x. But look at the footnotes. They are including literally every digital game into a big pool labelled "Digital Software." That includes many games that aren't even available in stores. If you look at actual splits for specific titles or just retail-release games in general, we see a different story. Here's what Sony's own first-party sales data was showing from the same time period: This data shows considerably lower percentages for the actual physical/digital split. Most of these games were majority physical, many by a considerable margin. Granted, that's only first-party games, and was from a few years ago, but the splits aren't too dissimilar from what we see with older PS4 games. There was some more data from mid-2023 (just three years ago) that let us extrapolate for certain games, which were still majority physical. For example, we know God of War Ragnarok had sold 11M copies by Feb. 2023 and 15M by Nov. 19, 2023, yet by June 11 of that same year fewer than 4.25M copies were digital. Horizon Forbidden West had sold 8.4M by May 9, 2023, but just a few weeks later the game had accumulated digital sales of almost 2.35M. So, we know at least those two games were overwhelmingly physical. Maybe things have accelerated a lot over the past three years, but I have sincere doubts that a majority of retail-release games are like 70-80%+ digital. Not when we had games just three years ago that were still sub-40% or even sub-30% digital. What's the splits for Spider-Man 2, Resident Evils 8, 4R, & 9, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, among other recent games both first- and third-party? |
While data can be used to help shape narratives, the context of that data is important, too.
Sony's financials are not trying to hide any information. They are a simple black and white in regards to how they are making money. Compare the data you posted in FY20 with FY25:
Physical revenue drops from 140k to 125k.
Digital nearly doubles from 542k to 1,055k.
Of course the data takes into account all digital, regardless of whether there is a physical equivalent, because the purpose of the data is pretty clear: what revenue is being made from both modes of delivery. It's also NOT the only data that Sony would be using. What decisions are being made from publishers? Did Take2's decision to do digital only for GTA6 factor into this? What about retailer space and stock purchasing? Do you know if retailers are still buying the same amount of stock today that thy were in 2021, or in 2016? These would be among the data points that are being used to make decisions like this.
While we can all agree that it points to a capitalist company doing capitalist things, I think it's a mistake to take their financial reports and deem this some kind of lie Sony is pulling on everyone. Take Capcom for example, if you look only at console digital and physical sales. Not only are physical sales decreasing and digital increasing, but physical only makes up 18% of those sales.
Naturally, physical still makes up sales. But how will this data be different by the time 2028 rolls around? For Capcom, it could very realistically be hovering around 10%, maybe even lower.
