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The story
Reports that prices for PS4 and PS5 games have plummeted at GEO’s used game sections have become a hot topic on 5ch. Discussion split between two views on the cause: that PlayStation titles simply have such high circulation volume that supply outpaces demand and prices crash easily, versus the theory that this is inventory clearance ahead of a planned cutback in packaged game sales. Posters also weighed in on the likely shrinking of disc media going forward and what software formats the next generation of consoles might adopt.
What people said
No comparison to 3 months ago.
Apparently they'll keep carrying it under the 'retro games' section.
WHAT A DEAL!
…said no one, about the PS section.
But that's PlayStation for you — market share cratered, it fell from the top spot over a decade ago, and retailers have hated it ever since.
You mean Nintendo, the one everyone hated?
The N64 era was truly a disaster lol
I don't get why the N64 suddenly came up.
Nobody's talking about something from 30 years ago.
Though starting the year after next, there won't be any packaged copies or even a dedicated section anymore.
Is this some kind of trade-in value guarantee?
Nope.
The Switch 2 version actually has demand, and the PS5 version has demand too, so it gets dumped cheap right away.
That's basically it.
Indie physical releases get limited print runs, so they shoot up in value.
Does that even happen with PS? I don't really remember it happening even among retro games…
Maybe barely for the original PlayStation or PS2, but even that's a faint memory.
Maybe for now, but a few years from now it'll be full of cases where only the PS version goes for premium prices.
Almost every title's PS version alone ends up discontinued.
It happened with PS1 and PS2, but once PlayStation became a 'losing' platform from PS3 onward, the customer base got way too small and there's no demand, so premium pricing just doesn't happen.
My impresson is that Switch users are just sharing around a tiny supply of overpriced games.
Seriously, give up on voice input already.
So is there demand or isn't there?
My bad.
It's because the PS5 version doesn't have demand.
It's not really a pullout, but it's true that once packaged copies disappear, the feel of the sales floor will change too.
Just look at Yodobashi shrinking its PS section and you'll get the idea.
Once packaged games are gone, there's no need for a dedicated section anyway.
Nintendo games are the opposite — they barely sell = barely get produced = low supply = used prices stay high.
It gets cheap because demand doesn't keep up with supply (i.e. it's not selling), right?
Don't you know basic economics?
Give it 20 years and these games might be worth a premium.
That's weird though — the install base is nowhere near comparable to the Dreamcast…?!
Seems like they're just changing the format, and physical releases themselves will continue.
Nobody wants to deal with 'code in a box' — it's just not worth it for retailers.
Unless they make it prepaid-reservation-only with no cancellations.
And GEO would rather not carry it at all than go that far.
That said, I don't want to jump to conclusions either.
But even if they do the same thing, I'd think Nintendo has the edge here since it's easier for them to bundle extras with a code.
Nintendo already sells download versions in stores via POSA cards,
so I doubt they'd regress to a 'code in a box' format.
The PS version has better graphics and framerate too, so getting it cheaper feels like an amazing deal.
You can only keep spouting that nonsense while retailers still bother to stock it…
Reality says it's the PS5 nobody needs.
Once disc sales for PS5 stop, the shelf space itself disappears from stores, so who knows if retailers will even carry anything until the PS6 shows up.
There's no way they'd do something as costly as a dongle.
Honestly, I bet they'd rather cut distributors out of the picture entirely.
Better to spend that money on digital games instead.
Background and key points of the discussion
Used game prices are set by the balance between how many copies were sold new, how many end up in the secondhand market, and demand. Because PS4/PS5 titles tend to sell in much higher volumes, the used supply grows faster too, and prices crash easily whenever demand can’t keep pace. Nintendo Switch titles, by contrast, tend to have more limited production runs, which helps keep used prices propped up. In the thread, the view that “prices are low because PS is struggling” clashed with the view that “it’s cheap precisely because so many copies were sold” — but it’s easy to overlook that falling prices alone aren’t direct proof of poor sales. There’s also the open question of how retail store layouts and the secondhand market will change going forward as Sony scales back packaged software sales for its home consoles.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry, aka “Geha”) thread “GEO’s PS4/PS5 software price crash is insane”.
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