Cerebralbore101 said:
Choosing digital over nothing =/= choosing digital over physical. Sony treats that cherry-picked 85% number as proof that consumers prefer digital. And on top of that they assume people will choose PlayStation digital over PC digital, if forced to go all digital. |
You're right, that when given the choice there will be some people who choose physical. But that doesn't really matter if the same people will still buy a digital game when there's no physical.
If someone's preference is to have and play a game more so than only wanting a physical version of said game, then the argument of wanting physical over digital is somewhat moot.
| xl-klaudkil said: But if all games had a physical option, would it be the same you think be honest?! If sony would release actuall HONEST stats and say. For the games that have both a physical and digital version 85% is digital. Why dont they do that? I'll tell you. Because it would prob be around 65-35 or 60-40 digital to physical, and thats a LOT of copies sold,sony doesnt want that. No shit sherlock that small indie digital games are mostly not physical,but it should NOT be counted in the digital vs physical becauze thers isnt even a physical copy to buy, i truly hope you must be aware and understand that. |
This comes from a financial report for the greater Sony company. The split between a game that is both physical and digital is incredibly irrelevant to the purpose of the report. All that matters is how healthy physical sales and revenue are, and how healthy digital sales and revenue are. This is what the report shows. The report also shows that physical revenue only represents 10.5% of total game sales.
Hence why, at the end of the day, what matters is not whether someone chooses physical over digital, because this is only significant if said person doesn't buy digital at all. If given the option to buy GTA6, how many people who prefer physical are going to decide not to buy the game just because it's digital?
Let's be honest, not many.
| BraLoD said: Sony wording in the announcement to end physical games feels carefully choosen to paint the picture the way they want. "general preference for digital media significantly outpaces physical discs" is what they wrote in their blog post. Preference does not exist when digital is the only option available, even as it's not a lie, as yes, digital sells better even when there is a physical version for most game as we know from third party data and projections, it is still very misleading. The data we have that leaked for the matter actually shows their own games sold physically better than digitally in a direct comparison, as in the Insomniac leak and also for example the report Astro Bot sold better physically than digitally in the UK during its launch. I'm positive this changed since the data in the leak is 3 years old, and digital makes more money, but I'm also positive it's not the 85 vs 15 case the overall data that heavily favours digital shows, exactly because it lacks proper actual comparison on a case by case level, like we have for the Insomniac leak, so the choice factor, needed to claim preference, doesn't actually exist for such claims, and paints the picture the color they want it to be. Digital is the stronger format for some time now, but that's it. I would love for Sony to share with us the last 5 years of sales split for every single one of their games. But Sony can't even bother to reply to people over the biggest movement I've ever seen in gaming flooded them with nearly infinite possibilites to address it and not shove their decisions over people's throats either they like it or not. |
But Sony isn't saying the ratio is 85:15. That's a single quarter worth of data and their Q4 is usually their highest digital ratio over the last 5 or so years. It is their highest quarter for a digital to physical ratio, sure. As evident by previous ratios, it'll most likely increase (ok with GTA6, it definitely will).
From FY20, ratio has gone 65% > 66% > 67% > 70% > 76% > 78%.
And even if we had the physical to digital comparison for their own games, this doesn't tell us how many of those buying the physical will only buy physical vs. those who will buy the digital in the absence of physical. You yourself accept that digital sells better, and digital makes more money. So in that sense, I don't think the ratio is overall meaningful if overall trends highlight that digital sales continue to increase in ratio even if physical sales increase for a particular year (such as FY25?). But it would be nice to have just in case.
By 2028 what will the digital physical ratio divide look like? At minimum it could be 80% (with only 1% increase each year). At maximum it could be 90% (at 6% increase).
Last edited by twintail - on 22 July 2026
