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The story
Digital Foundry’s John Linneman has revealed that third-party publishers and developers harbor strong dissatisfaction with Sony’s push toward a “discless” future. According to Linneman, many of these companies earn substantial profits from physical disc sales, with some even generating the majority of their revenue from them. In the thread, users pushed back with claims that “90% of PS sales are digital,” while others shared information noting that sales reports for indie developers can be delayed by up to a month, sparking a divided debate over whether abandoning physical media is really the right direction for the industry.
What people said
"Most of them were pretty furious. A lot of these companies are actually making significant revenue from physical sales—in some cases it's even the majority… The industry's reaction hasn't been positive."
A Washington Post journalist also said they were glad to see these concerns being confirmed by more people, adding:
PS digital sales are at 90%.
No complaints from publishers or users—that's the reality.
That's exactly why it's "90% digital"—
The current numbers are massively inflated by demo downloads, reroll spam for gacha games, and free monthly PS Plus titles.
Either way, Sony's cut of the profit doesn't change.
If they want that, they should go try their luck on Xbox.
Steam has been digital-first from the start—it's a different situation from PS, where new releases are still mainly sold physically.
Most digital downloads are from deep-discount sales.
Though I get not wanting to buy something like a competitive multiplayer game physically at this point.
Just make good games and compete on merit.
Overseas, there's price protection where publishers cover retailers' losses or allow returns, so retailers aren't actually guaranteeing they'll buy the stock outright.
What a traitor.
Though that raises the question of why third parties are still putting out code-in-box releases right now.
Word spreads fast among gamers that "code-in-box" is basically just a piece of paper, and it gets a negative reaction.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtTz1O3bMAE6FTS.jpg
But with digital, it's hard to say for sure since you never really know when the profit from a sold copy actually gets paid out to the publisher.
With PlayStation, you have to actually chase them down or you'll wait a whole month just for the sales report.
CC2's Matsuyama: "Sony is the only one that won't tell us our sales figures, and it's a real problem."
//krsw.5ch.io/test/read.cgi/ghard/1629798354/
www.pushsquare.com/news/2021/07/report_how_playstation_is_failing_indie_developers
・Indie developers had to wait up to a month after launch just to get their sales figures.
PlayStation reports sales transactions at the earliest 30 days after the fact.
Apparently it's still best if everything sells through since it affects the next title, but
in terms of being able to make quick decisions, I think that's a real benefit for publishers.
In the West, retailers can return unsold copies to the publisher, so I think that "ship and forget" model is really just a Japan thing.
North America has a returns system, you know.
On PC, nobody's out there complaining about not having a physical copy.
Well, you can't really compare consoles—which have had a physical-media culture for about half a century—to PC, where it's practically never existed.
Someone who doesn't even know that in Europe, even Capcom still puts out code-in-box releases. Total PC poser.
Sure, returns exist, but basically the money comes in the moment it's shipped to the distributor.
Though I guess you'd have to set aside some funds in reserve for returns.
That's not actually how the Western returns-based system works.
The initial deal is basically asking the store to give you shelf space—you don't get paid just for placing the product there.
When the store sells a unit, they keep their "cut," and
the remainder gets paid to the publisher each time, as it sells.
So a "return" just means "pulling the product off the shelf"—no money actually changes hands at that point.
It's closer to how download-card sales work in Japan.
There's no cost to stock the cards, and the publisher just gets paid, minus a fee, for whatever actually sells.
But with none of that happening at all, the idea that PlayStation alone shifted this drastically toward digital? It's obviously not credible.
If anything, PlayStation doesn't even allow codes to be sold through outside retailers—its digital distribution channels are actually pretty narrow.
Background and Key Points of the Discussion
For background, the PS5 has sold both digital-only and disc-drive models side by side since launch, and this topic is a reaction to the broader industry direction of “further movement toward a discless future.” Where the thread’s opinions split was over how to assess the actual digital sales ratio—against the claim that “90% of PS sales are digital,” some pushed back by pointing out that the figure is inflated by demos and free monthly titles. Another point of contention is the practical difference between physical copies, which get paid out the moment they’re shipped to distributors, versus digital sales, where reporting and payment reportedly lag by up to a month—a difference tied up with North America’s returns system and Europe’s shelf-space contract structures, making it something that can’t be captured by a simple sales comparison. Opinions on Digital Foundry’s neutrality were mixed, and since some of the thread’s posts include baseless speculation, they shouldn’t be taken at face value as fact. In compiling this article, posts containing unfounded bribery accusations against real companies or mockery targeting specific groups were excluded.
※This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Hardware/Industry (Geha)) thread “DF’s John: “It’s true that third parties are unhappy about PlayStation discontinuing discs—in reality, physical sales make up the bulk of their profit.””
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