At a recent press event, Sony revealed that almost half of all purchases on the PlayStation Vita are digital. SCEA executive John Koller released the snippet, stating that 48 per cent of the handheld's games are purchased through the PlayStation Store. Although he didn't reveal the same figures for the PlayStation 4, the suit did say that the system's vaunted 'PlayGo' feature was boosting online sales.
"We set out to solve a bigger problem in the industry which we think is immediacy," he said. "It has taken a long time to get into digital games because you have to sit there and wait for a download. Gaming culture is usually not willing to wait. PlayGo was really instituted as a feature to solve that, and in many ways we're seeing the rise in digital sales, I think, as a result of the fact that play-as-you-download is really taking hold."
Koller continued that December was "the best sales month that we've ever had on the Sony Entertainment Network". While we prefer physical copies for most games, have you decided to go all-digital yet? Clear out your shelf space in the comments section below.
[source computerandvideogames.com]
Comments 17
Because its hard to buy anything new off the shelf. The stock available on shelves is very poor. I end up being forced to buy second hand because the titles simply aren't on shelves.
Vita is the only gaming device I've ever owned where I've felt compelled to buy digital over physical and I'm not sure why. It's not because of selection on the shelves because the gaming stores near where I live have a good selection of Vita games on the shelves. I think if I had to pin point something, it'd be how fluid the PS Store works on Vita and coupled with how often I use the system (I take it to work, when I'm home I take it with to whatever room I'm heading to). Since the store works so perfectly, and I visit it a lot, it sets up for impulse buys. Some of the PS Plus deals are simply too good to pass up also.
I'll never go all-digital. Buying a physical copy is a whole experience. Besides, physical copies have resale value and they end up lasting me longer because I don't have to delete them to make space for new games on my expensive memory card. The only digital games I buy on my Vita are indie games .
@Gamer83 i don't find the PS store on the vita fluid at all, its very slow even when connected to the super fast fibre. I find the PS App and PSN network store a lot faster and easier to use but even that isn't perfect. Until I really get into a franchise then I'm not too bothered about keeping any games I own anymore. There are some RPG franchises I might get into on the vita and maybe then I'll opt for digital over physical just because I would have no intention to trade in for many years. Something like txk or mortal combat I would have no intension to sell but with some titles its still cheaper to buy new physical games than new digital, this is what Sony needs to change.
@RyoHazuki Strange. I've got a 60Mb connection, and the Vita store is excellent - in fact for me, with the speed of the touch interface, it's probably my favourite to use. Obviously the downloads aren't as quick, but the store itself is a dream.
On the subject of the article though, perhaps the reason Vita's digital purchases are on the rise is because that's basically 90% of what's been available lately? It seems to me that for many months now, all the games released seem to be retro-style indie titles which are ONLY available via the store, so you couldn't buy on physical media if you wanted to.
For my personal tastes, Sony are failing the Vita in the area which sold me on getting one in the first place - home console quality games on a handheld system.
I'm not interested in the vast majority of the retro indie stuff which has been flooding the system lately. I bought the system on the strength of it being a state of the art system capable of games like Golden Abyss and Killzone Mercenary. I'll happily take indie games if they make use of the system's power, but all this retro stuff needs to stop.
Imagine if you'd just bought a top-spec gaming PC and all you got to play on it was a C64 emulator - that's how I feel about the Vita at the moment.
Well I can't just say no when Sony give discount right? Half of my collection is digital (which always buy on sale)
I am sure many buys the Digital version, because it's 5% or is it 10 % cheaper?
They however forget to included the price pr. GB into the price.
Then their is titles like Atelier Totori/Meruru Plus, which never got a psychical release outside Japan and lastly the special cases like TWD,which only got a psychical release in NA
@RyoHazuki
The Playstation Vita store way more smoother than the Ps3 PSN store.
@Kayoss I couldn't comment on the ps3 store. I've maybe used it twice. I think different countries have slightly different versions too.
I only buy digital copies myself if there is no physical version available in my country, or there is but it's out of print/expensive as heck.
(I probably won't own a PSVita until 2016 though, heh)
@Paranoimia I'm with you on the retro thing. My first favorite games were for DOS: Dark Forces and X-Wing (all .bmp), and Dinotopia (some ultra-low-def fmv clips). I was disallowed from buying even a hand-me-down SNES, so, while sidescrollers still hold some mystery to me, I could really give a rats lips about intentionally poor graphics. It's not nostalgic, it's just an easy, gimmicky cop-out
Sales are the reason I buy digital. That, and it's digital-only. If I can't find it in stores, I'll also buy digital (more of a PSP problem than a Vita problem).
Idk. I hate digital. Buy all my games physical, unless it's only sold digitally of course. I only have a few digital games on Vita- Mega Man X, some micro car racer and a WW2 CoD that came with BO2 Declassified. Can't really find anything that interests me on the store, so yeah...
If I had a big enough HD on my PS3 and all games were available I would go full digital.
I know I'm in the minority but I love digital.
@Paranoimia I think you are overstating your argument just a tad. There are more than just retro indie type games out there so the nihilism of your statement is kind of disingenuous.
There is plenty of room in the Vita library and the gaming scene as a while for both AAA and indie titles. And because they are usually developed by different developers it isn't a situation where big name devs are opting for Indies over AAAs.
Granted there may be less of a rush to get those big games out due to the deluge of indie content but that is a good thing IMHO as it serves to allow AAA devs more time to release games of quality.
Besides, if a game is fun who cares if it has pumped up graphics or 8 bit sprites? I say why can't we have both.
@Splat
I hear you brother, digital is the future I love digital, the only problem is I have kids that play on their 360's, they share their games at the moment so the only digital games they have are indies. If the whole family went digital then i simply couldn't afford it, so the prices need to drop somewhat for that to happen, it is digital after all so why do the games cost the same as hard copies??
I wonder if they consider how much of those sales are due to the PS Plus discounts which are sometimes really steep for good games.
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