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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Last generation for physical copies? Capcom: Game sales are 80% digital, and rising

Digital has been trending higher percentages steadily throughout the generation, but COVID-19 is what has accelerated the growth. I prefer physical, (though on Xbox One X the advantages in storage are negated by the massive 4k downloads) for storage, and collectible purposes. But since COVID-19 I have been buying digital save for once that I had to go to Walmart and saw a copy of Gears of War 4 with (the 360 games for free) included on sale for 15 dollars. Still the Xbox One X Download Even with the disc is like 118gb so...so much for that.



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Xbox and Sony making digital consoles solidifies it. Aside from games I wanna collect I’m all digital.



Xbox: Best hardware, Game Pass best value, best BC, more 1st party genres and multiplayer titles. 

 

Wrong thread. 



How many games they release are either fully digital only or digital only in certain regions? Because if you artificially limit availability like that, you tend to get the results you want to show.



You know it deserves the GOTY.

Come join The 2018 Obscure Game Monthly Review Thread.

Just as it's the last generation for records!



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So this will be my last console generation then? Because digital offers horrible value on console compared to PC, and I prefer gaming on PC even otherwise.



Maybe, physical media still exists for CD's, DVD's, and Books, I imagine video games will retain a physical presence in much the same way.



Game application sizes are getting bigger and bigger, digital sales are rising, so yeah. I say PS5, Xbox Series X and Switch 2 (or whatever it's called, and it's debatable whether it will be 9th or 10th gen) will be the last of physical video games.
Obscure video game platforms both upcoming and in the past have pretty much already ditched physical media. Ouya was digital only, Atari VCS will be digital only, Intellivsion Amico will only have limited physical games. And there's also a few all-digital versions of mainstream video game platforms.
If PS6 and Xbox 5 (whatever) were going to release in 2025, I'd say there's a modest chance of physical games continuing. But since they probably won't release until 2026 or 2027, that's just more time for digital games to dominate.
If physical games still came with cool manuals and had the entire game (or vast majority of it) on the disc, I'd mourn their loss more. But the line between physical and digital is blurring, and it will come to a head.
Final thought. I could see the PS6, Xbox 5, and Switch 3 still having some games in physical boxes with a download code inside (so PC and some Switch games). But discs and cartridges will be dead by then for video games.



Lifetime Sales Predictions 

Switch: 151 million (was 73, then 96, then 113 million, then 125 million, then 144 million)

PS5: 115 million (was 105 million) Xbox Series S/X: 57 million (was 60 million, then 67 million)

PS4: 120 mil (was 100 then 130 million, then 122 million) Xbox One: 51 mil (was 50 then 55 mil)

3DS: 75.5 mil (was 73, then 77 million)

"Let go your earthly tether, enter the void, empty and become wind." - Guru Laghima

Inevitable. I will be buying all of PS5 games digitally (though I will buy the console with a disk drive).



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1gWECYYOSo

Please Watch/Share this video so it gets shown in Hollywood.

I'm curious to know what the digital/physical percentage for only Capcom's new games are for this gen.

I feel like 90% of the games Capcom release this gen were just re-releases of their older games and I can definitely see people picking them up digitally when they're cheaper. With that in mind, I also dont find many people buying physical versions of a game they've bought before on previous gens. I know a good amount of people that re-bought RE4 on PSN for $5, and also a good number of their games had short physical prints ie. Okami, Onimusha etc.

Digital games definitely has its place in the market without a doubt, but I feel like Capcom themselves hasn't really played fairly in the physical vs digital market which is why it's no surprise that 80% of its sales were digital.

And if they're also including DLC I can only imagine the few people that picked up physical copies of Street Fighter V/limited prints of the Arcade/Championship Editions are for the small collectors. They swarm PSN/XBL with a million DLC to the point where it's more pointless to pick up the physical copies because when they released physical it was already out of date the moment you unwrapped it.