Basically, they can make more money with the future AI related production than disc.
While I’m not a physical collector, don’t have the space, I think this will sink PlayStation in countries (132) PSN doesn’t support. But the vast majority of their sales likely comes from countries they do support, so it would be seen as a win for them. If the people still on physical (if, pfft) become all digital.
It doesn’t look good for refunds though.
These earnings calls are increasingly callous and show just how far removed the wealthy shareholders and business executives are from the people actually keeping their company alive.
Sony telling Sony fans to fuck off and take it and Sony fans saying Ok Pa Pa Sony thank you, is some sad cuckhold bullshit that is a cancer to gaming.
Sony fans did this themselves by treating Sony like a charity for decades and shunning better gaming alternatives cause the thought of gaming on a non Sony platform scared these nut jobs to death.
They act like their house would burn down and their mom would be murdered if they even thought about gaming on a non Sony platform.
Communication from Sony to their fanbase seems non-existent these days. Next-gen will be so expensive, and Sony will have a rough time selling a meaningful numbers of consoles, IMO. They have the worst of the digital marketplaces around, with nothing like MS Rewards, bad refund policy and customer service. And don‘t even get me started on that dynamic pricing bullshit.
I know there are lots of factors at play, but if PlayStation’s future strategy is to extract more money from a smaller audience (i.e., sell more expensive products to their most engaged fans), dropping physical is at odds with that. The most devoted fans, who would be willing to buy expensive limited editions etc., are the ones who cherish physical the most.
I do think that a lot of loudest internet complainers will end up buying the console and games anyway. But I don’t know, the console business has stormy seas ahead at best, and this is a heck of a time to drop a bomb that pisses off your most engaged fans. Who knows how this will all play out.
Oh also, I wanted to add, I think it’s funny that a lot of the criticism is toward Sony’s communication… Like, oh this was so badly communicated, they haven’t said how they’re going to address people’s concerns about ownership and preservation. Have you considered that their communication is just fine, and the reason they haven’t said how they’re going to address those concerns is because they don’t plan to?
Physical editions that come with a code and not the game on disc already exist. It’s really a question of how many of the fanboys draw the line here. Will they accept it or not? Ngl, I actually prefer my Starfield Collector’s edition that only came with a game key (not a disc) because of Xbox Play Anywhere. I’m avoiding the Gears collectors edition because a disc has less value to me and would be more restrained in my library. Maybe there’s enough Playstation players who think the same. Then Sony can both get the fanboy money from expensive limited editions and save money on the cost of actually making a physical disc for it.
I thought that’s what everyone figured. I’m impressed by the conversations surrounding preservation today, but Nintendo and Sony BUILT console gaming on not caring about game preservation. Nintendo has never promised any form of backwards compatibility between generations. Neither has Sony. Both have screwed over libraries already in the past. Even Xbox has, though they did Xbox backwards compatibility to make up for it (that’s still not full compatibility with all Xbox OG and 360 games tho). Sony has never really tackled that problem. There’s zero indication that they’re magically going to care now. They still don’t even have free cloud saves. I expect at most a disc drive you can buy as an add on for the PS6.