An increasing proportion of PlayStation 4 software is being purchased digitally through the PlayStation Store, as a Sony financial report shows that 43 per cent of full games were downloaded in the quarter that ended on 30th June. That’s the same ratio as the previous quarter, showing that consumers’ appetite for digital downloads has not declined.
While it’s an impressive statistic, it’s perhaps worth noting that the increased prominence of PlayStation Store sales will be having an enormous impact on this data. While brand new retail games can be a tougher sell digitally (particularly in Europe where they typically cost more than their physical counterparts), you can get some absolute bargains if you wait around for one of Sony’s many online promotions.
Have you embraced the digital future yet, or do you still prefer purchasing everything physically? Let us know what your spending habits are like in the comments section below.
[source sony.net]
Comments 54
"They day gaming goes all digital is the day I quit gaming"
I wonder how many times I've read that dull sentence on various forums over the years.
New games I always buy on disc but, like mentioned in the article, I'm buying much more in the PS Store when the sales are on these days.
The added bonus of downloaded games is that I don't get kicked from the game when my console occasionally does the random disc eject thing..
To quote Beenie Man: "Ah physical till me a dead"
Okay, so he didn't really say that, I don't think. But I do prefer discs over digital downloads. There is nothing like stripping the plastic off a brand new game. There seems to be acknowledgement in my country that some games can only be gotten digitally. For example, I went to a local game store a few days ago to ask about the physical versions of the Sea Genesis Collection and Sonic Mania Plus for PS4. I was informed there were no physical copies available and no plans to import the physical versions. Fortunately for me, I had enough on my PSN wallet to get the Encore DLC for Sonic Mania, but I'd still rather having the game on disc if I had a choice.
@kyleforrester87
Thanks now i dont have to type that.
I only buy digital when i'm forced too aka the digital only line up. Another reason why i dont go all digital is what was said the other day when PSN was down and someones copy of Skyrim wont boot and its a offline game
I prefer my games physically. I like collecting my games, id rather spend the $60 and physically own the game and if i decide to sell it i can. Digital games you spend the money and you cant do anything else with it. No returns, no reselling, and its tied to your account. No PS+ no game (at least for the ps+ games). Only time i buy digital games is the PS+ free games, or if theres a really good sale going on, or its a ps1 or ps2 classic game (until backwards compatability becomes a reality. Make it happen Sony!!) please!
@LaNooch1978 I generally prefer physical but these days there isn't a lot in it and I'll often buy digital for convenience. Actually today I wanted the Red Faction remaster but couldn't find it for sale physically (or any games for that matter, checked a couple of super markets and they only had a few DVDs and Tesco had some download codes for Fifa 18) so digital wins out there (or would if I actually had Internet in my new place at the moment, I just ended up watching Antiques Roadshow).
@ShadowWarrior yeah that "can't play single player games offline" thing turned out not to be an issue, re-read that thread and you'll see the gentleman was trying to play Skyrim on a PS4 that wasn't his primary PS4.
@LaNooch1978 ah, middle age, I remember that. Try being 87 like me.
I do wonder if this "sales" culture will harm the industry in the long term. So many games get discounted little over a month after release that it must be getting harder to make significant profits. Its why the big publishers rely on preorder and week one sales cos the product deprecateds in value very quickly.
I go digital because what use is a disc on PS4 anyway?
Most of my games are digital now, it's just more convenient.
@adf86 I think it does alot of harm. Games like Evil Within 2 dropping to £27 what, less than a month after launch? Of course people will hold out for sales in that case then they don't perform well and we don't get sequels.
To be honest I do quite like Nintendos policy of not reducing the prices on their first party titles. You can at least buy with confidence that you won't see a reduction, I think it helps their IP retain that "quality" feel, and it doesn't seem to hurt it too much looking at the software charts.
Is this percentage for all digital games or just the ones that also have a physical counterpart?
For myself, I obviously only buy digital if that’s the only option, but prefer physical.
@Knuckles-Fajita it looks purty on the shelf and in 40 years when you just gotta replay that copy of Assassins Creed Unity you still can.
No surprise there. Putting aside the convenience factor, PSN has tons of incredible sales every year now.
I never buy a game digitally if it’s available physically. Never have never will. Plus games and the like are the only exceptions. I’m not sure what I’ll do if gaming goes digital only. Not to mention redownloading everything is much more annoying copying it back from the disc.
I prefer physical, though I'll generally just go with the cheaper option. All those PSN sales are hard to say no to.
This also accounts for digital-only games, right?
@kyleforrester87 I mean...sure? But it all installs anyway...
Not been so bothered either way, since leaving the previous to last generation in all honesty, certainly not from a keepsake / collectable point of view anyway.
I say that, but I think it varies depending on age group as well.. To me at 42 years of age, classics are from my Megadrive / Master System days, so as great as games have been over the recent generations, i'm unlikely to go back to them and I havnt so far in the last two generations.
The last "old" console I own is the dreamcast, so i'm not competely averse to keeping consoles and games, but in terms of the current gens, i have enough to play on my ps4, without going back to older games
What concerns me is in this new culture of non physical games purchasing is losing all of your games from being banned for really inane offences like swearing. I think your purchase should be separated from your user account and be held as licenses that can be applied to your new account if you are banned.
I have about 130 games, only 3 are on disc, quite happy to stream/download movies/t.v. and games, and save shelf space for my books!
I still prefer purchasing everything physically. I like adding the box to the collection, buy some collectors editions, getting the steelbook and being able to sell my game if I no longer needed it or didn't enjoy it.
Unfortunately I have bought more games digitally this generation than I did last generation and more than I thought I would too. I have regretted some of my digital purchases not because I didn't enjoy the games but because I couldn't add it to my physical collection. So I decided the only buy certain games digital and those kind of games are the type that I would return to just to play now and then over time while my physical games will be my main focused game for the story.
The one thing that I like about going digital is how easy it is to switch from game to game without having to keep removing my main game (the one that gets full attention). But I need my physical collection which is more important. If a game is released digital only then I would consider buying it but if I'm not in a rush then i hold out for a physical copy or to see if it enters PS+ someday or if it has a very tempting sale at some point.
I can understand why almost all software is purchased digitally, the PSN store sales which happen now on a regular basis and to be honest the blu ray disc is only used aa validation key once the game is installed on the PS4 hard drive. With the limited time I have for gaming I can wait for the game digitally to go on sale, and hopefully by then any performance issues have been patched
I like digital because I don’t have to move to load a more game! Seriously though, I won’t buy anything digital unless it’s massively discounted. Unless they start letting you trade in digital games by surrendering your licence for a percentage of the original purchase price, I will continue to buy physical copies.
100 percent digital in the ps4 and doubt that will change anytime soon. Not a collector at all and enjoy the convienence, plus with 2 ps4s it saves from having to buy certain games twice. That being said I do hope physical is still a presence for generations to come as I know many prefer it.
The future is now. I pretty much always go digital.
It will be interesting to show the statistic with the percentages being on sale offers items that run all through the year.
When it comes to number games I own I’m about 75% digital.
About 2/3 of the money I spend on games goes on physical games.
About 75% of the time I spent playing games I spend on physical games.
When I really want to play game I will usually picked up on a disk fairly soon after launch. Digital games tend to be things I’ve not got first time around. I’ve just picked them up because I seen them cheap. As I know what I like I tend to spend far less time playing them .
It just makes no sense to buy something digitally at the same cost as a physical copy, you have no rights and and no recourse and the terms of service you agree to say just as much. If you live far and away from civilization it might be nice to buy digitally but usually the further you get from urban centers the worse internet speeds become. I guess if you hate loaning games to friends digital is a nice way to prevent that as well.
I'll always buy digital when the option is available.
I've been without an internet connection since Friday evening when my cable modem packed up during the storm, and I only got the replacement from Virgin late today. There's too much that can go wrong and prevent access for me to ever willingly switch to digital.
there must be considerable regional variation, because it's nowhere near this high in the UK. for "AAA" games it's just above 20% or so. horizon zero dawn for example sold more physical copies in its first week than it did digitally for all of 2017.
it's physical all the way for me. the only 'AAA' game i owned digitally is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and that's because it was a bonus.
i've bought 12 games digitally on PS4 (7 of which are telltale games series), plus i have dead nation and hustle kings from cross-buy from the PS3 versions. as far as i know, none of them are available on disc. i've bought 48 games on disc. but i tend to buy games the week they launch, and have never paid PSN prices for any of them, sometimes not even close to PSN prices. i've only bought three games this year - shadow of the colossus (£22), God of War (£41) and detroit (£38) - that's £32 less than buying them on PSN would have been.
@kyleforrester87 That's one of the main reasons I stopped gaming on Ninty consoles. No, thank you.
digital all the way, I do not care for having blue game cases lying around
Only buy digital when on sale what frightens people the most is the fact that the game you pay could be removed from stores but what people need to realise is that it's still available on your download list. The issue I have is even then it could be taken away if the Dev wishes for it to be removed take P.T from Konami they got it fully removed even though it still shows in my download list. I will buy physical to a game I play a lot of it's seriously cheap and for example I got Dragon Age Inquisition with my PS4 3 years ago that was £45, I paid £11 for the game of the year editon last year with all the DLC which may I add each major dlc for this game was £11.99 each so that was £33. At the time of me having poor net speed the disc installed the game saved me 45gb and the DLC was all that I had left that's one benefit
At this point, I'm only gonna buy physical on a game I REALLY want (Spider-Man, God of War, etc., etc) or wait for a good digital sale. Otherwise, physical over digital is caveman mentality these days.
I only buy physical games that I like that comes with an art book, soundtrack or something and when they are cheap like Horizon zero dawn complete edition that was 20, at this point the disc feels more like a key to download the game and even if the game is complete they always release patches and what not, as for digital I will never pay full price for a digital game why would anyone pay full price the same price as retail, but I do buy a lot of digital because the sales those sales are so good that it's hard to resist and you really save money
But physical copy are cheaper at discount.
Digital copy in PSN hardly discounted.
As someone who mostly buy games at discount. All digital is a bad news for me.
I haven't brought a physical game in 2 years been buying games digitally not just for the convenience but the sales have been amazing for the past year
I believe I’m 60% physical and 40% digital nowadays. For my favorite games, I always want the physical version on my shelf.
I barely buy games on disc, the last was so heavily discounted that I had to buy it. But apart from this impulsive moment of weakness, it's all digital for me since dunno 2010 or so.
@Lowplains is it really so difficult to not swear though ... I think the majority of people find it pretty easy to not get their account banned uf they behave like a decent human.
I'm generally happy to go digital, used to love physical, but now I just think of most physical copies as plastic, inconventient tat, especially with the full installs. Even the few nice collectors edition I buy (mainly Nintendo games) end up on a shelf, and rarely used beyond the initial opening. Maybe it's as I get older, but convenience beats out having shelves of nice looking physical copies.
I personally can't wait for the all digital future. It'll be so much better for gamers. Unless you don't have access to the Internet, in which case, we've got a system for you and it's called Xbox 360.
@LaNooch1978 it's far more convenient to press the home button and switch to another game. Convenience is about things been convenient, not going from one extreme to the other. For example, I have a grill, so if I wanted to make toast, I could quite easily put the bread under the grill, and turn half way. But because a toaster is more convenient, I have a toaster.
There is no arguing digital is far more convenient, like the other day, I had a game on my home screen, clicked to play, realised the Blu Ray I had been watching was in the machine, so had to switch the disc to play the game that was already fully installed on my hard drive. Not a massive issue, and I'm far from lazy (go to gym daily, swim a couple of times a week, walk an hour each way to and from work), but it bugs me that a full install still requires the disc. It wouldn't bug me half as much if the game streamed from the disc.
@Wraggadam Ahhh, you've missed my point completely. I was talking about the protection of bought digital goods. Regardless of online behaviour these goods should remain the property of buyer, something that cannot be exploited with physical goods. Yes, In an ideal world nobody would swear online but competitiveness can bring out emotional responses which when frustrated we are all guilty of at some point.
@Lowplains I understand the point, and agree that once bought you shouldn't be blocked from offline play. I do think they should be able to block online functionality etc. For bad behaviour, we all swear at some point, but online isn't the place for it, and we should all have a little self control. My main reason for avoiding online play is the agressive, over competitive behaviours. Makes something fun into something devoid of fun.
@LaNooch1978 fair enough. Glad you enjoyed the analogy. I used to be pretty much 100% physical, with digital only games being my only digital purchases, but the move over to PS4 pushed me to 90% digital. Sales prices are amazing (though I don't want steam level craziness to start devaluing content), plus, the whole having to download big patches and install to system just made me feel like the disc was nothing but a copy protection device, and one extra hoop to jump through.
I reckon getting older and London living has done opposite to me, I just see game dics/Blu Ray discs/collectors edition as extra junk to find places to store in an overpriced flat, whereas once upon a time I would salivate over collectors editions, and quite happily spend a day alphabetising and catagorising discs ...
Is this specifically referring to full price ($60) style games that also release on physical or "all full games" which include download only titles like hellblade etc.
@LaNooch1978 that makes sense if you watch to share them with others, as with digital it's possible, but the solution isn't ideal.
I'm certainly with you on Blu Rays, being a massive film buff myself (I prefer film to gaming). I'm more into Blu Rays and DVDs for the extra features, and the lack of a unified library for films makes it a bit if a hassle going digital.
@Wraggadam Ahh, I am afraid I can't agree. I don't swear myself but you have to understand that by their very nature, online multiplayer shooters have an aggressive aspect, after all, they are aimed at people who want to release tension after school/work and the games usually depicts extreme violence, gore etc. These games have been rated pegi18/ In an adult environment which these games are aimed there should be no rules on speech with the exception of harassment and hate speech, racism and so on, especially If you've pad 60 for the game and 40 for your online pass.
I do however believe that the studio that made the games and the consoles that implement them should work on servers that have, say a safe space for protecting the sensitive/young from such behaviour, absolutely, but banning a console player and removing his whole library of purchases for cursing, I find that a little ridiculous.
I do however agree with you on certain competitive behaviour ruining a fun time but again, In my opinion, can really only be changed by better server filtering implementation, opt-in/out etc
@Lowplains and I can't agree with that at all. Accepting that aggression in that environment is acceptable feeds into the toxic culture. We are adults, and if we can't control our behaviour and be respectful to other people, then there is a serious problem. You should always speak online like you would speak to somebody in public, and swearing in agression whilst hiding behind a game is not okay.
I do agree that locking out if single player is probably a little far, but locking you out of multiplayer is completely acceptable. If you want to shout and swear and vent your agression, then you'll have to do it via local multiplayer.
I do appreciate what you are saying, but it worries me that it seems to some that swearing and being aggressive has become the norm. It's no wonder the press find it so easy to dredge up negative articles on gaming.
''Accepting that aggression in that environment is acceptable feeds into the toxic culture''
Well, it seems like we should agree to disagree in this instance.
I've been playing MP online since the mid-90s with the likes of Quake and Team Fortress and such and I can categorically state swearing and aggression have always been the norm amongst a certain type of player. It's always been there as it is part of a certain mindset that stems from a competitive nature and born of frustration. It can also give that type of player a psychological boost.
McEnroe vs Borg is an example of competitive/aggressive nature. Aggression is part and parcel of the psyche of any winner. This feeds back into the old adage, ''Nice Guys Finish Last''.
Take a look at this research by Dr Richard Stephans@Keele university.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-4475446/Shouting-swear-words-make-stronger-study-finds.html
Swearing is also an expression of the English language and I don't think we should be condemning people for that.
I do however acknowledge the difference between general cursing out loud and say abusing, bullying and or racism/sexism/hounding etc. I am not down with that at all.
''Just because you're offended, doesn't mean you're right''
Ricky Gervais
There are different types of players with different types of mentality and ability and personality, and if they've paid their dues, they should get to play online, always.
I use to play a lot of Battlefield until the last incarnation, and if people were being a they'd get kicked/banned from that server, but they weren't excluded from online play or BF online as a whole, and that seems pretty reasonable and fair to me.
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