Nearly 80% of All PS5, PS4 Games Are Bought Digitally

My games collection will be always physical, even my first three PS5 games.
Let's get physical, physical !
#physicalforever 🤟

digital is way up, I feel, because using a disc for games when you have ultra fast load times kind of feels a bit last gen, doesn't it? Not having to switch out a disc to switch games every time adds to the fast load experience.

And now there's the PS5 collection, plus the Catalogue. So much digital!

Yeah, I mean I own a lot that I picked up in digital sales for less than a tenner or a fiver, most of my hundreds of library games are either ps plus or sales buys, I can count on one hand the amount of full price PS4/PS5 games I've bought. My split is probably closer to 50/50 on actual sales I'd guess personally.

I buy them also digitally for convenience. But if I really like a game very much. I also buy a physical copy of the game. What drives people the most to buy digitally is that the physical version has a lot of bugs and gets more and more on release a update fix.

@Ravix
I still like to open the game box, insert the disc into machine, return my game box into shelf after playing.
Such a nice activity to do for me. 👍

I feel like ps6 will probably be the last disc base console.

Definitely helps with the rise of PS+ & Game Pass subscribers. I often get a physical copy to go with anything I buy/claim digital as a back-up.

I still buy the occasional physical game but I would say I’m probably 90% all digital now.

I’ve got 1000’s of physical games spanning over 40 years of my gaming life. I just don’t feel the need to keep collecting them anymore. I really enjoy having these huge instantly accessible digital libraries.

That being said, I did just waste a load of money on the massive Radical Edition of TMNT Shredders Revenge from Limited Run. Instantly regretted that. Oh well. Haha.

I will always go physical whenever I can. I usually get the games 1-3 days before release (D1 patches are usually already there), cheaper and I have the option to sell them in case I don't like them. Also, my internet connection used to be very slow until a few years ago.

Got no choice. There's no disc slot in my PS5.

All digital and im 50 lol, i remember collecting Amiga games and the size of the boxes for 2 floppy disks and a manual was ridiculous.

As I said on the other thread, physical all day for me but I understand the value in not being physical from a storage and ease of use POV.

Physical is cool but Digital is convenient and seamless. Switching from game to game without having to touch no dusty game cases. Playing new releases at midnight without hoping and waiting for the postman to show up whenever he likes.

Of all the games I own on my PS4 Pro, I bought a single physical disc, and immediately regretted it, because of the added noise and loading times. So I bought again said game in the digital version when it got a heavy discount, and never bought a disk again since.
The only reason my PS5 is the disk variant is because of the shortages, it was the only one available in stock at the time.
Truth be told I also benefit from a very good internet connection (~980Mbps) so downloading digital games works very well in my case (as long as PSN is not down for maintenance or smth).
Many other are not so lucky though... so, generally speaking, that's gonna be the main reason for keeping the Physical copies on the market in the foreseeable future. In a lesser capacity than before, and lower bit by bit every year, but not dead completely, at least for the next 5-6 years or so.

And let's not forget the game sizes, that slowly but surely tend to float around 100GB more and more, especially for the big AAA's. Blue ray is becoming saturated.
I don't see Sony or MS investing in a new optical drive in the next generation of consoles.

For physical copies they could go for a single case containing :

• disk with extra content, trailers, soundtrack, manuals etc
• USB stick with the game.
  But that will increase the prices of physical releases, especially the normal versions...
  They could work for collectors... but my guess is that they'll pull the plug on optical drives completely.
  Digital will remain going forward.

I buy digital because I share accounts get 2 copies for price of one and also knowing where to get PSN codes from helps I got £100 PSN voucher for £78 haven't brought physical since PS3

@Victor_Meldrew I was going to say, this number is likely inflated by counting unit sales across all games, including cheap $5 games and indie games that are only available digitally.

We know every time some big title releases figures, their physical/digital difference split is nowhere near that large.

I have something like 5 physical discs Elden Ring, GotG PS5. FFXV, The Last Guardian PS4 and Astrobot Rescue Mission PSVR.

The other 300+ games I have are all digital. when it comes to movies, t.v. and gaming I'll quite happily go the download/streaming route but try to make me use a kindle and it's not happening, got to be a physical hardcover book/ paperback if I'm not fussed about said book or struggle to track down hardcover copies.

I can understand why. Back in 1900's (nes, snes, etc) games came with manuals, often filled with some nice illustrations, and the box art was usually great.
Nowadays you get no manual, a quarter of the game actually on the disc, and frankly atrocious box art with some goober just staring at you like an fool.

Not by me they ain't! The only time I'll buy digital is when the game is online only, for obvious reasons. Dunno why people wouldn't want a lovely collection on display 😌 I have a huge shelf with several generations worth to show off.

I have nothing against those who prefer digital of course, unlike those who primarily stream and/or use subscription services. They just rub me the wrong way. Sub services aren't sustainable money-wise and all the titles you 'own' are often rotated out of play (I like to revisit titles I've played), and in streaming's case it's usually of a very poor quality in comparison to native.

Digital and streaming is cheaper for Sony/Publishers/Developers I guess but I seriously hope the choice for the consumer always remains!

I only buy physical discs because it’s so much cheaper. I rarely spend more than £10 on games once I factor in the resale value. Why would I spend 5-7 times the amount on digital? Just for the privilege of not having to switch discs?! Lol.

I will buy digital if the games are on a big sale, again £10 seems to be my default limit, or if I just can’t obtain a physical version. Or if the game is not on sale but just a small game for £3 or so.

As the stated ratio in this announcement seems to be sales numbers rather than monetary amount though, perhaps it is a bit more understandable.

If Sony implement a digital ownership and private resale policy I might rethink things but, as it is, I see no reason to burn money needlessly on digital games.

and people crapped on the Xbox one back in the day , now look at em 😂 the disc drive is just for back-up or bargain bin purchases . hell , i don’t even use it for movies , haha

@Ichiban I used to love unfolding a good game map since GTA (probably) started doing them, and various other open world games too. I kind of miss that

Buuuuut even open world games these days seem to come in an empty box without anything nice, or even the game control pad diagram, so you have to do that all in-game, anyway these days.

Actually Cyberpunk 2077 was one of the last discs I bought, and that did have some nice stuff included, but the game was broken anyway, so in the end that took away from that experience 😅

@thefourfoldroot1

“ Just for the privilege of not having to switch discs?!”

or having to leave your home , or better yet - not even getting up off the couch in the first place . when you buy digitally , you just avoided the chances of being robbed , chased by a stray dog , shot , car wreck , lightening striked , tripping and falling down , costing gas money , seeing your ex , or being attacked by the gamestop salesman to spend more money !

nah , just kidding

The big problem with this is that publishers are starting to put much lower stock in store. I'm already seing this for a lot of games, which in the end means only one thing, the retailes will keep prices high for a long time, and if you wait a few months for a game to get discounted, you will not even find a copy available to buy anymore.

As I said above, the physical space is going to the low stock, collector way, which saddens me.

I mostly rent Physical discs now (much cheaper) and only buy Digital when heavily discounted in a sale.

I go back and forth actually. It depends on the bonus stuff that comes with the edition I choose. For example with Soul Hackers 2 the digital deluxe version has what sounds like an extra story mission so I went for that one as it was cheaper and obviously easier to find than the super deluxe physical version or whatever it is called. I also never buy any edition above $90.

Also if it's a game I know I'll periodically come back to like a Street Fighter or AC Valhalla then I go digital more. In the end I don't really have a preference for either one really. Only method of gaming I have no interest in is streaming. Physical and digital download are both good and bad in their own ways.

I haven't bought a physical game in almost a decade. So far haven't lost even one title to removal outside of entire shops closing down lol. But honestly, I had my fun with those and have no interest in going that far back, and I also have those emulated if I ever want to play them again. I totally get why people buy physical though, no hate here.

I have doubled dipped on games i love grabbing them cheap on PSN down the road. But i greatly prefer physical. I dont see myself buying as much or atleast not ubtil they become cheaper if its digital

In Australia, it is genuinely cheaper to buy new releases for console games physically, but I've got to say that's due to the fact that you can only buy digital psn games on the playstation store. It isn't like PC where I get the majority of my games from official online key stores instead of on steam. So if sony don't continue to hold a monopoly on the digital store front I will continue to buy physical for brand new releases.

Interesting stats. The table shows 300 million first party game sales for 2021 also. That sounds like a lot. Well done.

As for the digital numbers, I do wonder if they count the PS5 upgrades from a PS4 disc as a digital “sale”. 3 of my last 6 games played were that scenario - I have the PS4 disc but I downloaded the free PS5 upgrade to play. I get a receipt sent to me that refers to the transaction as a “purchase” (with $0 paid), so I assume they are counted in this statistic, even though I have to have the disc to play the game.

I know a lot of people went this route with Horizon Forbidden West - buy the PS4 disc and download the free PS5 version with it.

I also get a “purchase receipt” for every PS+ game I claim, so I wonder it that messes up the true numbers also. It would heavily inflate the digital purchase stats.

I've always bought physical and been pretty vocal in my thoughts on the cons of all digital gaming and the fact you're stuck with a game that can't be traded in.

However I will say that since also buying an Xbox Series X and using game pass I do love being able to switch from game to game without having to get up and change discs etc.

It's almost reached a point where I rarely play on my PlayStation simply because I can't be bothered to get up and change discs.

Or another way of looking at it is that I'm getting lazy in my old age.

Either way I am starting to see the benefits of digital games

I stil enjoy physical copies more than digital games.digital is cool .but physical is where its at.i l💖ve owning my games.and seeing the box and box art. Ps plus games digital is n.i.c.e. and PlayStation is always having sales.but im always going to enjoy physical copies more.word up son

Having collected games for over 30 years, and amassed a collection well over 1500 games, it will be a sad day that physical media ends!

I just picked up 2 games on disc (Tony Hawk/Red dead 2).

I usually only buy digital when it's deeply discounted because I don't trust those games will survive. CompanyX decides to drop em and you lose access. Unless there were some law on the books to prevent that I won't pay full price for anything digital.

Also digital can be updated in malicious ways; like taking song tracks out and things like that. They can't erase my disc.

Pretty sure the spike is due to the lock downs from Covid. I'd be really interested to see what the difference between 2019 and 2020 were.

Secondly, the percentage will only go up. Not because a majority necessarily prefer digital but because there is and will continue to be a massive fuel shortage. Diesel specifically which is used for transporting goods to stores from warehouse via semi trucks. Planes will be affected for international deliveries. Even train shipments will be hurting.

And that's for people who still have the money to enjoy new games. Most people will be using all of their money to buy what little food is available to them through the next year... assuming farmers can get back to regular business next spring.

It's looking grim folks.

only buy games at release on disc. cant stand this digital attitude ah license ran out well just take it away from them . sometimes i buy the digital version if it's on sale round £10 or £20. i prefer to buy digital via gog no drm. ive cyberpunk on gog just bought the map dlc seems interesting.

Yup, digital PS5 here and I stopped buying physical midway through PS4 lifecycle. Nowadays the only physical games I buy are PS3 games.

Obviously PS1 and PS2 are 100% physical. PS3 for me was 99.9% physical. PS4 was 60% physical and the 40% digital purchases came mostly on the last few years of PS4 for me. My PS5 so far is more than 80% digital. Physical purchases for PS5 are PS5 exclusives or my all time fav series like RE or Yakuza and a few others, everything else on PS5 is all digital at the mo. While digital most likely be the future there is some physical increasing in sales like the vinyl revival over the last 10 or 15 years and I think read somewhere that physical music cd had a little increase too, not much though. I'm certainly one that hopes physical video games doesn't 100% disappear from store shelves or online warehouses. What about those collectors editions with a nice figure and decent artbook

All we need now is digital price new releases to drop in price. They're a bloody joke. I buy physical because they are always cheaper and i can trade and get something back when done with a game. No reason a new digital release should be as expensive as a retail copy tho. Your not paying for retail packaging for a start and cutting out the middle man completely.

@Toypop That still doesn't seem to be the norm, at least on PlayStation afaik. When you buy a disc, there's a playable vanilla version on there. On Xbox, I believe more and more games come on disc incomplete.

Those of that care about environmental issues already know that media that can be consumed digitally, should be consumed digitally.
Those that insist on buying a plastic box containing a round shiney download ticket for the real game code, have little justification left. It is prehaps sad then that digital prices were kept artificially high to placate retail buisness, as the cost element is prehaps one of the biggest issues keeping these people generating more useless plastic.
Glad to see the metrics move in the right direction...

I do have a disc ps5, though the only disc its ever seen was a 4k bluray to test it worked. I bought a 2nd ps5 and that one is digital...
I went fully digital about three years ago. Ripped all my music to a server and access that and streaming via Roon. Ripped all my films and videos to the server and acces them via plex. Only buy games digitally (Im fortunate to be able to afford the excess prices). In 40 years of having my own home, its only been in the last three years that not every single free inch of space has physical media stuffed into it. Its unbeliebably liberating and I dont miss it at all.

I’d love to stay digital but its just not as cheap as digitally.

I’m all for the prices of games going up if it means the developers can continue to deliver amazing games, but my pay doesn’t go up so I can’t pay that full price all the time.

Turkey PSN > Physical Games

There's something about going out touching grass going to a physical store to pick up your pre order more than a dozen times a year or going shopping looking for a used copy or a physical retro game hunt. Grab a coffee or a bite to eat at maccies while sitting down looking at your new physical purchase looking at the back of the case for screenshot details and install size while you drink your coffee or milkshake. While digital purchases and online Amazon purchases were more than perfect for buying your games during covid lockdowns, at the same time I was craving to get out and just buy something physically. Dare I say it there's just something dead and lazy about buying digital or online compared to going out from time to time on a weekend to grab your physical pre order just feels more alive. While I'm not totally against digital or online amazon purchases I just hope physical doesn't completely die. All my fav movies are physical 4K or Blu cause most of these movies are tied to more than half a dozen different subscriptions which can get very expensive every month. Netflix I find to be useless

I mostly buy physical discs for the PS4, mainly because they are much cheaper than the PS Store prices. Don't suppose it's an option for those with a PS5 DOE but that's their fault!

From PS4 onwards, most of the game gets installed on the HDD/SSD anyway so a little whirr while it checks the validity is a small price to pay.
I have been known to double-dip on a game when the digital version is dirt cheap in a sale but when a disc+packaging+shipping costs up to £20 cheaper than a digital download, it's always going to be a disc for me thanks!

To be honest even though I still buy and play retro games I have stopped buying physical games. The only physical modern game I bought within the last 3 years is FF7 Remake (that I got it digital when it was discounted) and some collections of PS4 retro games.

I want game preservation but the modern physical games are ... well not good. They miss patches, dlc etc. It’s a physical license anyway rather than a physical game. The contents of the disc are always incomplete. Except Nintendo I don't see any other company cutting you from dowloading older digital games

It's clearly another case of a very vocal minority in an echo chamber online not sharing the mainstream sentiment that digital/disc-less is king. Largely due to the convenience, but Sony's frequent sales and game-sharing will also likely play a part.

I've been digital-only for years on PlayStation and Xbox. No mess of discs to store, never need to get up multiple times to change games and our group of friends shares purchases. Win-win-win.

I like physical disc's much more than digital. That said I have bought a lot of digital games this year from the PSN store, all of which have been either not available on disc or have had deep discounted prices.

It's very hard to get a physical PS4 disc into a digital PS5. That's why I bought the full version PS5. It's also hard to sell a digital game if you get sick of it.

There is something reassuring about holding a game in your hand. You own it, you can play it on any PSN account and you can sell if you wish. Rant over.

I'm digital only, I don't care for a collection of discs taking up space and they just act as validation checks anyway as far as I am aware.

The only things I buy nowadays in physical form is music, for albums I really like, and books, save for a few kindle efforts hear and there.

I buy physical and sell once completed generally making most of my money back this way gaming costs very little

Digital has no resale value

Yikes, that sucks. I hope physical still holds strong. The pricing of digital media in my (high tax) country is ludicrous. There’s always at least a $20-30 price difference between physical and digital.

@playstation1995 My thoughts exactly dude, I love own physical games, as you have the satisfaction of seeing them on a shelf, choosing what to play from them, plus the box art is brilliant on a lot of games these days, the digital future will have lost that great imagery, if we do go full on digital only games in future consoles to come. Shame really, because I love a collection you can see, and I love box art in games!

play and buy games how you want. I prefer digital.

Makes sense digital is on the rise since the ps5 digital is selling more than the disk version

Plus those percentages of digital sales are high because of playstation store sales, I'd wager new releases see more disk sales than digital within the first few months of release, but then sales of older games put up the digital percentage.

Aslong as physical never goes away then I don't mind

I was all physical until someone broke into my place a few years back and stole my ps4 and games (among other things). Ever since then I've been all digital. It's easier to just replace a console than to also have to replace all the games as well.

I'm digital myself for the same reasons @Tintin mentioned...mostly every square inch of space being stuffed with physical media becomes untenable after enough decades.

But this also means something needs to be done about digital pricing with these closed environments. Digital changed the way media is distributed but it also changed to price fixing as the norm, which in any other product type would be illegal. The law has not caught up to digital at all. PC has it right, but console isn't great.

I only buy physical if the game is cheaper than digital which is almost never. So yeah, I probably couldn't be a gamer and would be a very sad and bitter person if it wasn't for digital games lol

@Jacko11

I've been interested for a long time, how can you buy games from Turkey since there aren't PSN Cards there (I think)?

I only buy digital games when they on sale. Brand new games I really want I get the physical copy.

I’m genuinely flabbergasted (a word I save for special occasions) by this. I only buy digital if on sale / very competitively priced or there’s no alternative. Physical is invariably cheaper and have sell-on-ability. Appreciate the convenience digital offers but until prices are considerably lower than physical I’ll stick to physical when it a game I want to own (as opposed to PS Plus / Game Pass).

@Ravix solid thinking.

@Ico1977 I feel the exact way

I buy physically. Very few games, the ones i love the most, I'd rebuy them digital when they are cheap. But if we come to an end with physical games then I don't see myself buying many or if any. Think I'd have a cut down like by at least 80% or more. If we are to go all digital, then I'd be mainly getting my gaming through subscription and replay older games.

Like some have stated sales may be a reason behind this, maybe that some games aren't available physically at launch(til a later date), maybe the godawful tactic of selling high end special editions with no game in box(?!), just a code. Also, long gone are the halcyon days of just popping in a disc/cart and playing. There are day one patches, updates, etc.

I went fully digital a few years ago, and I couldn't go back to disc now I don't think. Unless it's dramatically reduced, anything I buy on release is now digital for me.

Multiplayer games or "long games" i will always buy digital but single player story games i always buy physical. Its cheaper and with the amount of games i play a year i cant afford to buy everything digitally and not have the option to resell.

I respect whatever way people want to get games. I'll always be team physical, same goes for movies! Love having a big collection, love the smell of new games and oddly, I love changing discs out!

@Agnostic True.
I bought GOTG and Cyberpunk 2077 and all the Uncharted on Disc as they were primarily single players.
But Destiny, Outriders and GT7 I bought digital so I could jump in anytime without changing discs. (Though now I wish I went with a GT7 disc so I could get rid of it.)

...during sales

It’s very easy to manipulate these figures to give a narrative though. For example do downloads from plus and now count as purchases? As I get emails thanking me for my purchase? Also what’s the split between AAA and digital only games?

Thirteen games bought in the past 365 years; ten physical, three digital. Most expensive game was Judgment [PS5] at 35 GBP or whatever I paid for it from Argos.

That's in addition to 18 games played that I pulled off Plus (old Plus, Extra Plus, Premium Plus).

@Ravix Knowing i own my games its not a big issue switching that disc.

Games i bought digital is 4 maybe 5 in two generations. And if that game released physically in the future i double dipped if it was any good. The games i bought digital was only because there was no physical option and now ill wait untill its available physically.

It makes sense, digital is almost always much cheaper than physical.

@Flaming_Kaiser no, it's not a big issue. I used to love discs too. But the more games I own the easier it is to be digital now. Saving space and time, so it's purely a Quality of Life thing that to me makes it feel more next gen, and totally worth it to me.

I even started buying games I already own on disc, digitally, and one day I will recycle or trash my old discs and boxes, I imagine. Or give them to someone who might still want to play them.

Yes I buy physical games ,I love the fact you can trade in games after if you like and something back or towards something else,I just also think buying physical gives it soul and real tradition ,for me there's something special about getting up to change a disc and so on and so forth and makes you less lazy lol ,love the shelf full of cases and covers and some games with maps etc rdr2 for example,there's big market for digital and its great to have choice but I really enjoy physical stuff anyway ,books for reading etc etc,and really enjoy the going to a shop to pick up games ,always enjoyed that sort of thing

@lets_do-this_1999 yeah, I used to love physical, but at the end of the day, unless it has nice maps and booklets, it's just a bit of horrible blue plastic.

I'm going digital for movies and gaming, and now books are able to fill my dvd/blu ray/game shelving of old, taking the space my games and movies would be taking up otherwise 😅 so I agree with you on keeping books physical.

Wow. That many people are both paying more on average than buying physically and also not having the option to lend or sell your games.

It is really convenient for online multiplayer games you play regularly though rather than having to swap discs around. Most live service games are digital only though anyway.

Who remembers all the obese humans in WALL-E movie where they don't do anything cause all the robots made them obese lazy. Lol everytime I see a post about digital sales going up it reminds me of the obese humans in WALL-E movie. Now I'm not saying this will be a reality in the future of course not but I can't help it feeling that way lol everytime digital sales are discussed

Digital/physical, whichever is cheaper. Earn the big bucks but save where you can is spending smart

@themightyant It doesn’t include PS Plus games and the revenue split is even more telling:

Physical Revenue - 16,573M Yen
Digital Full game Software - 101,019M Yen
PS Plus and Now - 106,523M Yen
DLC & Microtransactions - 184,826M Yen

Physical Game sales are basically almost irrelevant to Sony from a financial perspective.

@DaveHero75. Ni no kuni remastered box art is excellent.metal 5 phantom pain definitive edition.demon souls.titanfall 2. Battle chasers nightwars.god of war Star wars jedi fallen order. Sleeping dogs definitive editionDragon dogma 2.dark arisen.Sekiro shadows die twice.far cry 3. ratchet and clank. Resident evil 2.sega genesis classic.plus it comes with a double size poster of golden axe and streets of rage.amazing.etc.etcword up son

I'm all digital on PS, Xbox, and PC. On Switch i prefer physical. Physical just makes more sense for a portable system as you can't shove a 4tb ssd into the Switch, so you're gonna be deleting and re-download stuff all the time. Plus good available public internet access still isn't a thing, so good luck downloading mario kart while you're out of the house if you suddenly wanted to play that.

I applaud those of you who still collect physical games. However, I just can’t seem to get past the convenience and lack of clutter when I buy digital.

You'll only have yourselves to blame when it's all digital and Sony can really screw you on price. Jim loves reading stuff like this...

@ChrisDeku I doubt physical sales is irrelevant to Sony just yet or else they wouldn't have done two PS5 versions. The options is king here for me and having the disc PS5 just gives another option to play. Be interesting to see which PS5 sold the most so far, my guess would be the disc PS5 sold more than the digital PS5 cause gamers like to have the options of doing both. Even though digital is bigger and has been bigger for some time now, gamers still want more options to play so will go for the disc version despite their purchases being more digital. What I'm trying to say is more options to play is better than limiting yourself to just one way to play. Those microtransaction numbers are scary

When it comes to AAA games it's around an even spilt or slightly in favour of physical.

Remember a lot of games are digital only so it's more nuanced then the headlines suggest.

I personally have contributed to that quite a bit myself, I usually only buy physicals of games I plan to play multiple times, if it is a one time playthrough type of game I am ok with getting it digitally or just playing it through PS Plus Extra.

@TrickyDicky99 hit the nail on the head. Especially when you consider the huge portion of indie titles are digital only

Yeah, but at what price? There are constant price cuts on psn. Many games going for 10 to 20 euros/dollars.
The games i buy physically are the max price ones, cause i know i want to own and play them.
The games i buy for 10 euros on psn are mostly a curiosity.

Aka i think this number is incredibly misrepresentative.

I've bought plenty of PS4 games since getting my Pro last year, but they're always second-hand, just like my PS2 & PS3 games. The only digital stuff I've paid for (aside from monthly Plus 'freebies') is the Witcher 3 DLCs when they were on a steep sale, which I only bought because the Complete Edition disc version isn't compatible with base W3 savegames.

Physical is super important for pricing. It’ll be real and without it.
Now I also wonder what this looks like if you remove digital only games like Stray and I wonder I Plus games count.
I still get plenty of games physical myself. I do get a number digital now.

Well there are suckers everywhere. Physical media for life! I have a few digital games but thats because of psn or because no physical available. Otherwise you are at the mercy of your internet and someone elses server and licensing rights.

I buy physical for 2 reasons. Firstly I share my games with my son, so a physical disc is a no brainer. I think we should certainly be able to lend digital items amongst family members - perhaps with some form of access code attached. Secondly, being an adult, I'm somewhat behind the new release curve due to work / family constraints so I buy alot of games second hand from eBay. Dirt cheap. Just picked up Doom Eternal for £6. Winner, winner, chicken dinner. Physical all the way. I also got burnt with a digital version of Transformers Devastation that was pulled from the store and became unavailable to redownload, despite being a purchase. Since then, I've always bought physical unless digital is a really good deal. Much prefer to own my media rather than merely have license to use it.

I'm not so sure about this "fact". It seems awfully convenient for any console maker or game publisher to state this as fact when IN FACT they make more money on their games by controlling the only market place they have Influence over. The digital only market.

A physical game is subject to market deviation ( discounts, the second hand market, trade ins and so forth) meaning they can't control that market as it is subject to too many variables. They do not want that.

I would warn all of you about encouraging a digital only future as once it's here you will lose ALL CHOICE as the physical market will be gone and you'll be at the mercy of the digital only price
Setters. You'll miss the choice when it's gone.

Now don't get me wrong, digital does have a place. You can buy a game physically at whatever price and then when the digital version drops to something more reasonable, usually 10% of retail is it's true worth in my opinion, you could buy that.. Then you have a backup whilst still having a physical edition to actually show what you originally spent your money on.

Be warned, digital ONLY is fools gold. Always choose physical.

Good luck to you all

Well, they made physical a worse experience. It’s like digital except you also have to put the disk in whenever you want to play and the disk drive makes extra noise sporadically. The prices for most games are similar. I would rather pay $5 more and increase the likelihood that I will play the game then it just sitting on a shelf. Either way — digital or not — I still have to install the day 1 patch and then the new new new update that fixes the gamebreaking bugs.

@Anti-Matter It's all fun and games until you scratch your £70 disc.

If I want a game and it’s significantly cheaper at the time I want it physical, I go physical instead of wait for a sale. But with updates and patches, I find myself wondering why I bother at times with physical

@billyboyblue666 hey, if you buy physical for game sharing, digital is actually better for that. Assuming you and your kid have your own PS4's, set your account as primary on his and his account as primary on yours. Now both of you can play each other's games. The added benefit over physical is that you only need 1 digital copy of a game to both play it (online or offline) at the same time.

Also you can still download Transformers Devastation even though it's been delisted. Search for it on your download list on console.

@Beerheadgamer82 the video and sound quality is much better on a 4k disc when compared to streaming. Dolby Atmos from a disc sounds much better than dolby atmos from a stream.

@Ravix neither PS4 nor PS5 use discs to read data while playing. They use disc to install game on your HDD/SSD and as a DRM feature. So every game is still running from your disk drive and it doesn't affect load times

@Jammsbro
Don't worry.
I only play kids games.
I handle my games very carefully.

@saffeqwe yes. I know...

I mentioned how changing discs takes time, which defeats the point of loading up games fast. Clicking launch on a digital game does not add time, therefore it seems more next gen and adds to the quality of life that the fast load times bring. It's all within my second sentence 😅

@Ravix I complete games before i switch so its not a big issue.

@Flaming_Kaiser ok

I currently have over 440+ games on Playstation. 200+ are PS Plus games. PS4 and PS5.
My PS5 has over 30 PS5 games installed.
With the help of the 1tb m.2

I'm wondering where folks are shopping that physical is so much cheaper than digital. Genuinely curious. Are we talking like a used copy with considerable wear with no case on eBay? That kind of thing?

Always buy physical unless it's a download only. Physical is an investment. If I want to sell it I can. If I want to play years after I can. Some games/dlc get deleted from the networks. Driveclub on ps4 for example, no worries I have on disc. Each to there own I guess. Unfortunately we live in a throw away society, easy come easy go.

I haven't read all the comments, there's too many, but my personal take on things is this:
1. Only a lunatic or someone who has more money than sense would pay an extra 20%, on average, for the digital version of a new game rather than the physical one
2. See No. 1. I still haven't figured out why digital versions of games cost 20% more than physical versions. I'm talking about in the UK. A new digital AAA release is £60-70 which doesn't have any overheads really. It's just a server that you download it from. Whereas a physical version is just that, it's physical. A factory and all the staff have worked to produce it. It costs money for the machines to run and for the staff to be paid yet it costs 20% less than the digital version which only costs pennies on a server.
3. Once you've finished playing your physical version of the game you can bang it on eBay and recuperate 90%ish of your money. So in real terms it's only cost you £5-10
4. Once you've finished playing your £70 digital version. That's it. It's dead. RIP. Especially if the game turns out to be garbage
5. Don't get me wrong, I'm a coder myself. I'm all for paying our way to help developers but charging an extra £10 for a non existent digital version is ludicrous. It shouldn't even be the same price. It should be £10, if not £30 cheaper than the physical version. You do all know that the shops that sell the physical versions of games only pay about £20-30 for them, don't you? Yet the same people charge you £70 for a digital version.
But who am I to talk? As the headline suggests. The World Has Gone Mental. Go and support the High Street shop. Buy physical games for less money than the digital versions and then sell them on.

Lol, ive been all digital since ps3