I don't get it. Why is Sony killing physical discs if they cost $1.50 to mass-produce?
few people buy them, it costs them $0.00 to just kill them, reseller market takes away from Sony's pie, no longer competing with xbox, makes future console cheaper since they're obviously not going to ship them with it
It's not the discs, it's the disc drives I believe. Xbox is having trouble sourcing disc drives too, disc drives in general are fucking dead so most factories have stopped producing them.
>>747419201should've introduced a new physical format to replace the rotting corpse of bluray long ago.
>>747418906You’re forgetting the costs of the disk drive on the console, the case for the disk and the cover, hell they got rid of manuals years ago and there was that period where they had cases with big holes in them to save on plastic
>>747418906Why don't they ship consoles with an floppy disk drive too? Maybe also an SD card reader
>>747418906Line go up. A game that sells 100 thousand copies saves $150k in production costs by going all digital.
>>747418906Sony's one of the greediest companies in gaming. They're doing it out of greed.
>>747418906They hate used market more than you think.
>>747418906So they can control the whole pipeline and market place. If the PSstore becomes the only place where you can buy PS games and if second hand is killed, Sony controls the whole thing.
>>747418906Jews.>but--It's jews.
>>747419038They're competing against Nintendo and are getting mogged.
>>747418906They want to make an extra $1.50
Digital sales are worth a lot more than physical sales to Sony. They won’t have Wal-Mart or Amazon taking a cut.
>>747418906they want complete pricing control over their games as well as kill the second-hand market.
>>747419492I'm buying the next Zelda game because I like little Jew girls. MMMMpph.
Real reason is there is going to be an oil shortage soon from escalation in the war. Oil is used to make these discs so they will cost more to make in way less quantity
>>747419479yup that's the plan, Windows Smart App Control is also doing this on microslop 11 by branding everything as untrusted if "side-loaded" from not microwank store.
It's funny how Sony always wins while Xbox lost permanently by trying to do digital only in 2013
>>747419520Sony does less and makes more than Nintendo, the opposite of what you're claiming
>>747419560the war won't last for that long.
>>747419324First, they did with UHD Blu Rays, second why would they make another after UHD? They want total control of your media and there's no use for discs above consumer grade.
>>747419038>reseller market takes away from Sony's pieNo they don't.
>>747419665delusional
it's like paying to use your internet; someone's gotta be the bad guy that does it first.
>>747419765retard
>>747419765Jews want ALL the money.
>>747419201Here's an article about Xbox struggling to source disc drives because the supply chain is in the gutter.https://archive.is/IlAIA>>747419324Unless it's a disc, it'll probably be too expensive to manufacture if it uses NAND memory like Switch 2 cartridges. That's why right now you're seeing the newly announced Switch 2 multiplats that are fully on cart being $10 more expensive than their PS5/Xbox/PC counterparts. Really, the issue is that consumers are just eschewing disc drives and embracing digital for their movies and music so the market for disc drives is dead outside of consoles. Even musicfags are going vinyl if they buy physical.
Because discs require them to pay 30% to Amazon/Best Buy/whatever. By going digital only most people will buy directly off the PlayStation online store and Sony gets to keep that 30% cut**Might not be exactly 30% but you get the point.
>>747419675UHD was not nearly enough of an improvement, read speeds are still atrociously bad for vidya>why would they make another after UHD?So that we wouldn't be in this situation now?It's been 20 fucking years of bluray anon, yes improvements were made to read speeds over that time but it was never a suitable format for vidya to begin with. Installing massive games takes forever and bloats the internal storage requirements.Sony tried nothing to alleviate this and now they're all out of ideas so they'll just abandon physical media entirely. It's a joke. Proper R&D should've been spent on an actual new format that would solve the issues bluray indirectly caused. Yes, a ne format would have a very high cost price but fuck it the consumer would drive that down after mass market adoption. This should've been done over a decade ago but they rested onm their laurels.I have my gripes with nintendo, but I will give them praise for actively trying to keep physical media alive and solving the problem themselves in spite of the costs, it's just too bad most publishers aren't willing to pay the estimated $15 cost per switch 2 cartridge, hence GKC's being so prevalent. But this is only a short-term issue, the cost of mass manufacturing always goes down at scale over time.
Why would you produce physical media if you still have to download the game
Optical discs still require silicon to manfacture. I don't know if the DRAM silicon bottleneck is affecting optical disc production at all.
>>747419868>That's why right now you're seeing the newly announced Switch 2 multiplats that are fully on cart being $10 more expensive than their PS5/Xbox/PC counterparts.Consumers are still willing to pay that added tax if it means the game is fully included and playable from the physical media without install.
>>747419479Yeah, because the second hand market for modern games is huge.
>>747420017Because physical drives sales. Why do think steel cases and collector's editions exist?
>>747419324I don't know why people cling on to physical format when every snoyslop release requires a day 1 patch for the game to be playable anyway.You will always need to connect to the internet and patch the game, long gone are the days of PS3 and 2 and 1 where if you had a game on a disc, you could play it until heat death of the universe>20 years pass, it's 2046>put in your PS5 disc into your PS5>game crashes on launch, please connect to the playstation service>service unavailablewoooooow there's your physical mediathere's no such thing as game preservation since PS4, only PC has that anymore
>>747418906>STEALING $1.50 PER SALE FROM THE SHAREHOLDERS hey, cool it with the antisemitism
>>747418906its so they no longer ever offer discounts ever again and now you cant go buy 2nd hand pre owned copies for peanuts because everything becomes digital only and attached to accounts which also feature digital ID and require your real IDall about control and pure greed
>>747418906A jew doesn't need a reason to save $1.50 but also it means you cant resell the product.it means anyone who wants to buy or play the product cant a used copy.
>>747420086>I don't know why people cling on to physical format when every snoyslop release requires a day 1 patch for the game to be playable anyway.That is not an issue with physical itself, that problem is the result of crap development practices and rushed releases. The real issue there is the retarded consumers buying unfinished games.
>>747420049Nvm I just got btfo by AI:>Why Optical Discs are Unaffected by the Silicon BottleneckMaterial Composition: Commercial optical discs (CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays) are made almost entirely of polycarbonate plastic, reflective metallic layers (like aluminum, silver, or gold), and protective lacquers. They do not utilize crystalline silicon wafers.Makes me wonder how much other uncorroborated bullshit I routinely spew.
>>747420086Because the second physical actually dies Sony will start removing games from your digital library just like they've done for moves. Physical is why digital only fags haven't been fucked in the ass.
>>747418906We've reached the point where the population has been sufficiently raped into cattle so they'll put up with this and not get the pitchforks out
>>747419038>no longer competing with xboxenter the ring with PC
>>747419520No they are not. Modern AAA are such different beasts it might as wel be a different medium from what nintendo does.Nintendo makes games, Sony makes interactive experiences and they are trying their hardest to remove that interactive part
>>747418906Because physical media fucking sucks and always has sucked but nobody wants to admit it. Zoomers weren't around to know how ASS cartridges were. Disks are the first decent means of distributing media physically and EVEN THEN if they get scratched they're fucked.
Finally killing the secondhand market, something they've been trying to do for 20 years.Funny how this happens right after they spike game prices up $20.
>>747420079>Why do think steel casesthey don't actually come with discs
>>747418906Maybe stop planned goysolescence, make a product that's robust and can endure the trial of time for at least 50 years.>BUT MUH GRAFIIXXXX RACE fuck you normiemongoloidsthe elite is talking about getting rid of useless eaters and then they give the green light to fill up landfill with plastic and precious metals. Fuck this golem world. Fuck the economy. Fuck wasting TRILLIONS of worth of ressources because muh green lines on a screen. Fuck this kiked to death world. But most importantly FUCK YOU YOU RETARDED CONSUMERS. ENJOY YOUR SHITSTATION 6 AND THE GAPING HOLE YOU HAVE ON YOUR BOTTOM ACCEPTING AN ENDLESS SUPPLY OF DICKS.
>>747418906It’s opportunity cost. They can use those factories to produces goods that have higher demand and profits.
>>747420229Let's not kid ourselves, Sony can enable the Steam practice of binding games to accounts and having your discs be colorful mug coasters overnight if they wanted to. And you know they want to and they'll do it at some point
>>747420051>Consumers are still willing to pay that added tax if it means the game is fully included and playable from the physical media without installSome are but I doubt most of them are. It's not like digital purchases are uncommon, people were opting for digital when games were the same price physically. If there's a perceived $10 discount on digital, it's a no brainer for them and Walmart and Amazon aren't offering a $10 discount for those third party games that are $10 more expensive on Switch 2 like they are for first party games.
>>747420363It's more cost efficient just to take people's money and provide nothing so I guess they'll do that soon.
Modern physical media is basically a QR code with a bat file that initiate the game download. What killed it is all the early access Steam slop that normalized releasing broken games, so now you just cant actually release a full game on a disc unless you want cyberpunk situation.
>>747419974>It's been 20 fucking years of bluray anon, yes improvements were made to read speeds over that time but it was never a suitable format for vidya to begin with. Installing massive games takes forever and bloats the internal storage requirements.What part aren't you getting: THEY DON'T CARE. Video games have always been a drop in the wider bucket for disc manufacturing. Far more music CDs were sold than game CDs. Far more movie DVDs were sold than game DVDs, and so on. UHD might actually be the odd one where games on UHD BR are actually close to movies on UHD BR, if not ahead.Video games do not drive development of technology, they piggyback off it. You remind me of those idiots that complain about the death of CRTs TVs/monitors as though gaming did it and not household TV watchers and corporate office workers.
>>747420549Wrong. You can insert a disc and download the entire game off the disc without internet.
>>747418906they gotta fund druckmann's games and live services I guess
>>747418906The real question is why people cling to physical media so much. I grew up with the Ps2 and when i moved on to Xbox 360 and could simply install the game through the store it felt so good knowing i would never have to worry about discs getting scratched again, or never having to worry about seeing a cool game online and not being able to find a place that sells the disc.
>>747420324you could just not buy slop and save a lot of money.
>>747420691remember when you were a kid and would resell games to gamestop/babbages/eb games to afford new ones? well some people never stopped doing that and for them this is games getting $30-$40 more expensive so they're freaking out. there's also people that like to collect games too that do keep them.
>>747420691If you're still not able to understand you never will, and it's nobody's responsibility but your own to learn things.Either get your head out of your ass or die frustrated and confused.
>>747418906They don't want to give a cut to retailers and kill the second hand market
>>747420847>remember when you were a kid and would resell games to gamestop/babbages/eb games to afford new ones?I have never done this or understood why people would do this
>>747420504>Some are but I doubt most of them areReally doesn't matter. Like you said, digital is more popular now but having a good physical format would be nice.>>747420551>Video games do not drive development of technology, they piggyback off it.This was true in the 80's, 90's, and early 2000's when gaming was a much smaller subset of the entertainment industry. However, the gaming industry is a significantly larger market than the rest of the entertainment media industry - it DWARFS it, in fact, with an estimated $200B annual revenue globally. That's larger than the music, streaming, and box office industry COMBINED. It is absolutely justifiable to develop a new physical format solely for video games, and nintendo understood this and have done exactly that.The real problem are the greedy publishers are not willing to eat the cost. Hell, they're not even willing to provide the consumer with the option to pay the difference at all, they'd rather pigeonhole everyone into buying digital-only.
>>747420964Gamestop>we'll buy your game for $5>ignore the fact that I'm putting a label on it charging $5 under MSRP
>>747420847If money is the issue then you should not be playing on Playstation to begin with, Steam sales(or pirating the game) will always be cheaper than anything on any console.
>>747418906That dollar fifty adds up quick when you're manufacturing tens of millions of those plastic coasters, and that's not even getting into the costs of transporting and handling them.
>>747420259>millennials are now banned from playing any video game on a cartridgeI have a cart collection going back 40 years, am I required to throw all of them out? By the way, it’s still far easier than fiddling with the PC Master Race Battlestation Rig, updating Steam, agreeing to TOS and downloading the 20 GB “remaster” of the same exact game from 40 years ago. YOU don’t remember how things were.
>>747420847Nigger what are people even buying anymore? Fucking Wolverine? Lmao
>>74741976520-30% of physical gets resoldthey also lose on the retailer cutselling one digital copy is just as valuable to them as selling two physical copies going by the numbersthey'd legitimately prefer you pirate than resell, at least with piracy you know you're not getting a legitimate copy
>>747420086https://www.doesitplay.org/you can play 82% of PS5 games without downloading anything or even connecting to the internet
Music and movies belong on physical media because they’re art and should be treated as such. Video games are not art. They’re toys meant to corral the cattle. The handful of decent games published these days are on a Nintendo cart anyway, so either way, slopsumers can eat shit.
>>747421064problem is the up front cost tbqh. the digital ps5 was $399. over time you will save money even with a $1000 pc by not having to pay for your internet or games but a lot of people are too dumb to figure that out. that's why the xbox 360 was so popular, people were too dumb to realize that the cheaper up front cost was offset by having to pay for xbox live.
>>747421158>it’s still far easier than fiddling with the PC Master Race Battlestation RigYou do not HAVE to do that, you can buy a prebuilt. Hell, you can buy a laptop that will perform better than any console.>updating Steam, agreeing to TOSAll this is done automatically for you or through the click of a single button>downloading the 20 GB “remaster” of the same exact game from 40 years agoYou can download an emulator and rom for free.
>>747419834it won't last longer than 2030.
I am not buying a game unless it’s on a disc or cart. If all games cease to be that way, then I’ll stop buying games. What else is there anyway? Remakes and remasters? You think it’s some epic “own” that your demake is digital-only? How about we just not buy it? No one needs this shit.
>>747421349Neither will you
They've been shutting down Blu-ray plants for years because of how much physical movie sales have fallen with the rise of streaming. There's no incentive to make bigger discs either, and the average game will probably be over 100GB next gen. The Xbox blu-ray drive only supports 50GB discs, which is why they were already not requiring the game to be on the disc for basically any AAA release. Sony would have to do the same next gen. The only option for "physical" going forward would be to find the absolute cheapest way to make and verify some sort of game key card.
>>747421341So you don’t want me to pull my N64 out of the closet because I need to buy a $1,000 prebuilt to emulate the exact same game. Why don’t you take my carts from my cold dead hands? What the fuck are you gonna do when I stop buying new games? Send anyone who doesn’t comply to a concentration camp? Is my old shit considered contraband?
>>747421396retard mindsetwe both know it's not about the ownership considering console drm is by far the most restrictiveit always comes down to being so poor you need to sell games with you people
>>747418906>Disc drives cost more than $1.50>They get a monopoly for selling digital games and can charge whatever they want>Get fucked
>>747420979>That's larger than the music, streaming, and box office industry COMBINED.And how much of it is being generated by things that need discs? A new disc isn't going to affect gacha revenue
>>747421158>40 yearsoofI hate to be the one to tell you this but half your 'games' are probably grey bricks now unless you paid some hipster faggot to replace their internal batteries.
>>747421581Alright, then call me poor. I’ll stick with what I have and what little comes out on disc or cart. When that’s gone I’ll have sex with a woman and produce kids. Problem?
>>747421783>implying gachafags wouldn't buy discs that had their favorite idol printed on them with a 0.2% higher chance of unlocking them
Most physicalfags do not actually care about video games at all. They only care about owning plastic and impressing their Reddit friends. Anyone that actually enjoys playing video games know that it simply more practical to download and play them.Hell, anyone that enjoys video games stopped buying consoles long ago.
>>747420691materialism.
>>747421396I'm being completely unironic when I say this: switch to Nintendo.Sony and Microsoft have no real interest in keeping physical alive, and physical media died on PC decades ago. Nintendo is the only one where physical has a future, just beware of game cuck cards.
>>747421818Are you that much of a zoomer that you can’t fathom replacing your own batteries? And they don’t become “bricks”. Holy shit, what happened to this place?
Because they want to arbitrarily delete games from your library and force you to buy them again.Also, they low key just want you to pay a subscription for everything, which they can then rise the price on at will, and people will go along with it because the alternative is being locked out of all of their games and probably having their saves erased.
>>747422254>Nintendo is the only one where physical has a futureI sort of doubt the Switch 3 will have carts, their first party digital games are already $10 cheaper and as the price of NAND storage increases due to AI data centers that gap could widen.
>>747422101So video games now have a mandatory $1,000+ entry fee with the PC Master Race Movement. No other way of playing video games is acceptable. No consoles. You MUST pay a tithe to Lord Gaben.
>>747418906They're killing physical so they don't have to pay to make disc drives and so they don't have to pay other companies as much. The insomniac leaks showed that Disney is gonna get 19-26% of net sales for physical copies of Wolverine, and that's on top of the stores themselves taking another 30%. Even assuming other rights holders don't get as good of a deal as that since they're not Disney, that's still a good chunk of each physical copy sold that Sony will never see. This, coupled with adaptive pricing on PSN, means Sony can charge whatever the fuck they want and you'll have no other option.
>>747422425>their first party digital games are already $10 cheaperThey aren't, retailers have been consistently selling physical for the same price as digital regardless of the suggested MSRP
>>747422534That's because Walmart has been price matching Nintendo's digtal pricing but as someone that has Ravenous preordered on Amazon, that's still $70 right now because Walmart didn't list it for $10 cheaper (yet?).
>>747422834Retailers are always going to be competitive with each-other in terms of their pricing, that's why even when physical games have a higher MSRP than digital it hardly matters as the consumer will buy the lowest prices with retailers fighting to the bottom to do it so long as they still get their margins. It will always objectively be a good thing for physical media to remain alive.
>>747422434Right, sorry, i did not know that Consoles and Physical games where given away for free before the internet was invented with the PS3, sorry.
>>747422969My concern is Nintendo "cutting off" Walmart if they continue to undercut their MSRP like how Nintendo spurned Amazon in the past. I believe that Walmart has not actually sold Ravenous yet, they just added a listing a few hours ago(as opposed to right after the direct like everyone else) but it's said "sold out" the entire time and is listed for the actual MSRP. I think that's a valid concern but I'm hoping that eventually Walmart has it in stock and it's $59.99 because then my Amazon order will drop accordingly. > It will always objectively be a good thing for physical media to remain alive.I'm in agreement with this but I'm not sure if the companies are from their perspective.
>>747419038>makes future console cheaperBWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAYOU POOR NAIVE FOOL
>>747423342>My concern is Nintendo "cutting off" Walmart if they continue to undercut their MSRPNintendo won't care one bit as that's not how this business works. Walmart already paid for their shipment of games, Nintendo still got their usual cut. Walmart charging less only affects Walmart's own profit margins, even if they may end up selling at a loss (which some retailers do, for buyer-retention reasons). Retailers are constantly checking the value of what they sell compared to other retailers, and if they have something stocked that hasn't sold for a while they lower it down. You also frequently see retailers get highly competitive when a product launches, but all it really takes is one retailer to undercut the rest for them all to start lowering prices. That's how the retail market works. Going all-digital kills this competition entirely, as a digital storefront instead has a monopoly on the way consumers buy games.
>>747423648If that's the case when why is Walmart the only retailer that hasn't started taking preorders for Ravenous yet? They had OoT listed right away(and probably secured their shipments of that months ago). It's very suspicious that the one company lowering the price of their physical games is the one left out here. I do hope that I'm reading too much into it but it's suspicious.
>>747423881>If that's the case when why is Walmart the only retailer that hasn't started taking preorders for Ravenous yet?I'm not sure, but the most likely explanation is they might not have a known quantity of shipment from Nintendo just yet and therefore don't want to promise order fulfilments of an unknown quantity. The game is a while off from release after all so this would make the most sense.
>>747423962That's not stopping anyone else though and Nintendo really is the kind of company that'd spite a retailer since they have a track record of doing it with Amazon.
>>747418906PC gamer here.Why do you care so much about this? We lost physical games years ago and NOBODY cared.
>>747418906MoneyThere wouldn't be as much pushback if Sony didn't just revoke people's content after having bought it.Usually when a license runs out for something you bought you're still able to keep it, it just isn't publicly available anymore.
>>747422343Oh so you ARE the hipster faggot? Lmao
>>747419038It really is poors crying they cant sell old copies of FIFA anymore huh
>>747424103No one actually cares, it's all performative.
>>747424102Nintendo disliked Amazon because Amazon wanted to negotiate terms that are essentially illegal, it's a little bit of a complex topic for /v/ but the really simplified version is: Amazon wanted Nintendo to subsidize sales of Nintendo on their platform, giving them a better deal than any other retailer possible; this would've been at a HUGE scale too. It's illegal to do this, it goes against antitrust laws in the US and would've led to Nintendo getting sued by the FTC. Nintendo have had a mixed business relationship with Amazon ever since as their business practices are sketchy.
>>747424103>>747424362PC fags are cuçks used to getting raped, theres a reason pc fags hsve a higher suicide rate
>>747424379Sure but but it's a precedent that Nintendo is more than willing to cut off suppliers. Walmart is devaluing Nintendo's physical games right now, which to me as a consumer is making me order MORE games and causing FOMO if I miss the $10 discount on games that rarely drop in price. But I can see Nintendo viewing it differently, especially if they do want to ween people more towards digital.This could all be nothing though if Walmart lists it for $60 later this week but right now I just find it odd and I do think it's undeniably odd that the store responsible for dragging down prices is the one without any stock at the moment.
>>747424361desu yeah, I sold most of the games I disliked, it gave me an incentive to give more risky games a chance in the absence of a working refund option like Steam, I've since sold all my physical copies and just buy digital games I'd 100% enjoy on a sale
>>747420086>You will always need to connect to the internet and patch the gameConsole "physical games" died the day they shipped a game that needed to be patched and everyone was OK with that.I can pop in a Super Metroid cartridge and it works the same as the day it was made and always will until the silicon in the circuit board corrodes into plastic dust. If a game needs patch 1.09 to play properly then your disc is garbage for the landfill and the game only exists as data.
>>747424881Retailers aren't "suppliers", they're the exact opposite. Nintendo is the supplier in this case, retailers are buyers.>Walmart is devaluing Nintendo's physical games right nowAgain, why would Nintendo care?Walmart already bought their games at wholesale value. I really think you are failing to understand how the retail business actually works anon...Walmart lowering the price is only cutting into their own profit margins from a sale, it does not affect Nintendo in any way whatsoever. A retailer could, if they were retarded, sell a game for $1 and Nintendo would not care. Actually, that's happened before: I bought Yoshi's Crafted World from Target for $1 (presumably due to a pricing error) and Nintendo didn't blacklist them. Why would they? Target is the one that lost money from that blunder.
>>747423503Cheaper to produce. Obviously it will still be sold for more.
>>747420086>>747425210Why you so ignorant, you can play most games straight from the disc and you can cancel any patches
>>747424103You don't miss mall specialty stores with huge fucking jigsaw puzzle box-sized PC games on a shelf?
>>747419039What the fuck?!
>>747425261>Again, why would Nintendo care?Because they get less money per physical sale than digital sale and Walmart is propping up physical sales because of course people will continue to buy physical when it's the same price as digital and everyone else price matches Walmart.Nintendo has every reason to want to go digital only to make more money just like Sony and Microsoft(arguably more of a reason because cartridges use memory that's highly in demand right now). We'll see what happens in a few weeks, if Ravenous is still $70 physical then it means there's something definitely fishy going on. If it's $60 then who knows what the hell happened to cause a big delay with Walmart and only Walmart.
>>747418906Because Sony keeps all of the money from sales made on their own digital storefront. That's the only reason. They don't want Walmart or Target or Gamestop taking a slice. They are convinced that you'll just use their store when presented with no alternatives.>>747419201This isn't true. >>747419868In fact, this article is just over a week old, and is trying to rationalize the removal of physical. Their source isn't Microsoft saying that disc drives are harder to get, but two writers for two separate independent websites claiming that disc drives might possibly be harder to acquire. Digital Foundry even refused to name their sources of this information.It's solely about wanting to cut the middleman out. It's nothing but money. It's exactly why Sony cut ties with Kojima, historically a money printer, while continuing to work on really horrid exclusives everyone is warning them is going to crash and burn. Because those exclusives have no middleman. It will only be sold on the PSN, and nobody else gets a cut, unlike Kojima who insists on an Xbox and Steam release.
>>747418906In 2016, Apple showed every company that you can remove features that used to be standard and you'll still have millions of retarded fanboys who will argue how this is actually a good thing.
>>747418906Logistics, shipping, store display fees.It is all an excuse, though.Let's say a $70 game has a overhead (discs, printing, packaging, shipping, store fees, etc.) of $10 and $60 of profit.If they eliminate the overhead, they get the full $70. That is how finexecs think.Their initial proposal with digital was that the games would be cheaper without the overhead, so games would cost $50, maybe $40.It was a long con and now you're $70, $80, $100 and even $120 in some faggot editions.The sheppard always wins. The cattle always heads to the slaughter without complaint.
>>747418906It costs more than that overall.
>>747425787So now your argument is that Nintendo would choke physical stock because retailers may sell below MSRP and affect digital sales?This is flimsy logic at best.The reality is there ARE stock shortages, including with Switch 2 physical carts (NAND supply issues etc.), which is the most logical explanation for lowered supply of physical preorders right now, but the notion that a retailer deliberately becoming a loss leader* would lead to Nintendo cutting off the supply chain in response is utter nonsense. Nintendo has been in this retail business selling physical media for decades, they are not interested in an all-digital market. If they were, they would have pushed for it by now. Nintendo knows the value of maintaining a physical market as it aids their brand image and helps with long-term consumer retention (e.g. parents buying physical games from retail for their kids), they are not ditching physical any time remotely soon. The hypothetical 'Switch 3' will absolutely have physical games.*loss leader = selling the game at a loss or very tight margin intentionally to attract more customers to your retail storefront
>>747418906It costs them about 60-70% of the game sale.
>>747419038if so few people buy them why is the resale market such a problem?
>>747426490OY VEY you aren't supposed to point that out anon!!
>>747418906Margins. Digital cuts out almost all the middle-men, so Sony gets to keep way more of the profits. The only cost of distributing digital games is hosting and bandwith which is a fraction of what it costs to press discs, print boxart and cases, ship it to retailers and split the profits with them.
>>747419608more revenue, yes, but less profit
>>747426371I think it's ridiculous to act like Nintendo is above the same "line goes up" mentality as everyone else. Digital games make more money and they offer more control. I think you're fanboying a bit too hard here, because why would Nintendo NOT want to ensure games never break street date again after the Switch 1? Why wouldn't they NOT want to kill used game sales that they don't see a penny of? Think of the money that can be made without used copies when their games are still full price years later. The price of Sony's games already are more expensive than they were last gen when on sale, once physical is dead for Playstation, I guarantee the sale prices for Sony's games will be more expensive than they were during the PS5 gen.
>>747426712>>747426712Yeah cause they actually reinvest it unlike Nintendo
>>747426953Physical media MAKES the line go up for Nintendo, this is especially true of their hardware as Nintendo doesn't really subsidize their console hardware like Sony/MS typically do, and retailers won't want to stock those Nintendo consoles without the physical Nintendo games to go alongside them. They know the games sell the system, and consumers buying the system will also buy games alongside it - may as well provide both available physical from retailers. It's just good business for them and has worked for over 40 years.Sony doesn't share the same business model as Nintendo when it comes to the gaming market and corporate ideologies. Nintendo massively values the gift-giving market whereas Sony does not, and some of this will stem from Nintendo's initial success in the gaming market banking on retailers stocking SKUs of NES + ROB back in the day. Ditching physical has no real benefit to their business model as they target families and casual holiday shoppers.This isn't fanboying, it's just understanding Nintendo's business model relies on retail partnerships in a way that Sony's does not. Ergo, if you want physical to stick around in the future, look at what Nintendo's doing.
>>747426064To be fair, 3.5mm is for poors. I'm sure you can find a Motorola or TCL phone with one.
>>747427697I dunno what to tell you man, the lines are just connecting and pointing towards the direction of digital and have been since vouchers, really. It makes sense for them to want to pivot towards digital just like everyone else and you can't blame them after the Switch 1 having games break release date and get uploaded and pirated weeks in advance. For perspective, this is what we're currently looking at where it's legitimately the only physical retailer that's undercutting MSRP not getting copies to sell of their new game:https://www.dekudeals.com/items/metroid-ravenousOOT for comparison where you can see it's literally just Walmart missing from Ravenous:https://www.dekudeals.com/items/the-legend-of-zelda-the-ocarina-of-time
>>747427084hope those half-billion investments into modern classics such as Concord and Wolverine was worth it!
>>747428002>To be fair, disc drives are for poors. I'm sure you can find a PS4 or Xbone with one.
>>747428734No disc drive in my PC, because they're for poors.
>>747428161You're freaking out over preorders for games that aren't even out yet, Metroid Ravenous is over 4 months away my dude what the fuck were you expecting?>piracyDigital games are pirated just as easily, if not faster. Switching to digital doesn't prevent piracy, it only delays it. Worst case scenario, Nintendo may opt to release e.g. the next new zelda game digitally first with a physical a couple weeks later (I highly doubt they would do this), but they are aware that doing this would negatively affect reputation.Acting like Nintendo is executing a plan to move to digital over a 2027 release because of 1 (ONE) retailer's stock is completely unhinged and you know it.
>>747428425You're defending a company for keep their profits over reinvesting it cause uhhh some bad games exist therefore don't reinvest???
>>747428885No, I'm shitting on a company putting out terrible releases instead of a single one of their IPs I actually want to see from them again.
>>747419038>makes future console cheaper
>>747418906They make more money from digital
>>747428875I'm not "freaking out", the fact it's 4 months out is probably why Walmart was left out in the dust compared to OoT because Nintendo is sick of them undercutting prices. >Digital games are pirated just as easily, if not faster. That's not how it works at all, what the FUCK are you talking about? Nintendo can set it so you can't download the digital copy until they flip a switch on their end right at the release date. > digitally first with a physical a couple weeks later (I highly doubt they would do this)They have done that multiple times in the past with things like Pikmin and just recently the Xenoblade Switch 2 editions. >Acting like Nintendo is executing a plan to move to digital over a 2027 release because of 1 (ONE) retailer's stock is completely unhinged and you know it.I have stated multiple times that it could be nothing, I'm just saying the outcome is likely because Nintendo isn't special, they are going to want digital games if everyone else wants digital games because they make more money and it's not like Nintendo is known to not be greedy. Keep in mind that the start of every pattern will look like an outlier, which is why I said to check back and see what happens later. I feel like my takes are very rational and you're just going way too hard to defend Nintendo. Like, seriously? "Digital games are pirated faster than physical releases"? In a discussion about the Switch ecosystem of all things?
>>747418906scale
>consoles
>>747418906Diesel fuel is $6 a gallon and Walmart takes 30% of every game sold.
>>747419520Sony does not consider soitendo shitty tablet a direct competitor and they said that in multiple occasions.
>>747429535Seems better than selling zero copies and sinking your brand
>>747429587Most users buy digital on Playstation
>>747429535
>>747429528Steamcucks are consoloids, though.
>>747421064physical games are always cheaper than games on Steam. Even When Steam has a sale physical games are still cheaper. And physical games retain some value unlike Steam games that have no value. Physical games don't rely on private servers or internet to play, so DRM is not an issue either.
>>747421279Even if games are not art it doesn't mean that certain games don't mean something to someone. People who only buy digital, which is most people apparently, they don't care about video games at all. They just consume and mindlessly move to the next flavor of the month turd.
>>747429723What type of backwoods dump do you live where a chevron station actually closes.
>>747418906because they cant sell you the same game 5 times if you already own it
>>747419665the war will continue till greater Israel is achieved.
>>747419665Government is planning on it till last till '29 but Israel is pushing for a US ground invasion but we're a couple hundred thousand troops too short for that to be feasible so they're working on recruitment incentives like the GI bill to offer people.
>>747429379>probably why Walmart was left out in the dustAgain, this goes directly against how the retailer market works, as I explained.>That's not how it works at allOh okay so you deliberately didn't read the rest of what I said. It is much easier to pirate a digital game over a physical release, the risk from physical is that copies can leak. They are not pirated faster, they are (potentially) in people's hands faster. That's why I said "Switching to digital doesn't prevent piracy, it only delays it" which you totally ignored. This isn't even getting into preload cracks.Also, no method exists to dump physical Switch 2 carts anyway, so your point was moot regardless.>They have done that multiple times in the past with things like Pikmin and just recently the Xenoblade Switch 2 editions.Yeah, they did it with the Xenoblade Torna expansion as well iirc as well as similar stop-gap releases but that's beside the point - I do not see them doing it with a major new release game, such as a brand new zelda game or 3D mario game. Switch 2 Editions are just upgrades; even the physical S2E releases actually contain a Switch 1 game with a pre-installed S2E upgrade patch, so it makes sense to release the S2E upgrade DLC first ahead of a physical bundle SKU.>Nintendo isn't special, they are going to want digital games if everyone else wants digital games because they make more moneyNintendo makes their money from physical sales. Yes, profit margins are hypothetically higher with digital (although you fail to notice that Nintendo's physical MSRP is higher than their digital MSRP anyway), but Nintendo's business model relies on their relationship with retailers and physical releases for consumers. A consumer will buy the console for the games, so the games need to be out there in stores for all to see.>my takes are very rationalYou are basing a grand conspiracy to phase out physical media on one missing pre-order link for a game that doesn't even come out until 2027.
>>747418906because with physical discs, people can sell the games they're done with instead of getting cunted by a digital market that doesn't allow resale.
>>747426064retards got conditioned into paying more for less and because they are the majority we all get dragged with them.
>>747419526But what about consumer rights and ownership?
>>747418906First: it gives Sony a monopoly over Playstation games.you can't buy games from Fucking Gamestop, you can't sell or trade used games amongst yourselves, et cetera.Second: it stops games from leaking before launch day. There's always some store clerk somewhere who sells a copy of the game early or sometimes even drops a box of games out the back of the truck.Third, and possibly the most important: Sony has been shuttering its factories that make sensors for disc drives. They want to use those cleanroom facilities to make AI related horseshit instead.
>>747419475What?
>>747418906blu-ray patient expires lmao enjoy paying full price for your ps6 games years after release that shit is never ever going on sale
>>747431007People dont care about this. I dont mean this dismissively though and its understandable. Most people are content with a 30 ish year non transferable license to a piece of software.
>>747431258DELETE THIS it never happened
>>747431007Lol stop trolling
>>747418906Because optical disc rely entirely on economies of scale. When you sell tens of millions of discs, it can cost only a couple of bucks per disc to produce. But once you dip below a certain quantity threshold, simply maintaining the factories and the supply chains becomes nonviable no matter what the price of discs is.This is even more of an issue for bluray drives. The vast majority of them already end up in PlayStation consoles as discs are a dying medium, but PlayStation alone is not big enough to carry the entire disc drive industry.These are not the kind of products where you can just smoothly scale down production with prices rising steadily in line with lessening demand. There is a sharp cliff on that graph beyond which there is no return.
>>747419324Wow, if only there was one.
>>747418906Because disc read speeds haven't gotten better in the last 20 years, disc size hasn't gotten bigger in the last 20 years, and digital downloads allow developers to put out patches quicker, keep everyone in the same version, and release additional content without needing to release another physical disc. The end of physical was inevitable, and pretty much everyone in the game industry wanted to be done with it.
>>747418906It's not so much the cost of the disc, but the opportunity cost of not using the workforce and facility to manufacture something more profitable "The transition is taking place at Sony's plant in Thalgau, Austria, the last remaining factory within the company still producing physical PlayStation game discs. According to Austrian broadcaster ORF Salzburg, the factory currently manufactures approximately 600,000 optical discs each day."> "Rather than closing the factory or reducing its workforce, Sony is investing in a large-scale conversion of its manufacturing operations. The company has committed approximately $30.1 million to install production lines dedicated to manufacturing precision optical microlenses. These components have applications across multiple industries, with automotive lighting identified as one of the first target markets. "https://www.guru3d.com/story/sony-already-repurposing-last-disc-manufacturing-facility-for-future-optical-technologies/
>>747431563flash storage exists
>>747420086wrong and retarded 85% of games can be played offline with no download
>>747430582> It is much easier to pirate a digital game over a physical releaseIt's easier to distribute it but it takes 1 person to dump the game and then it's the same as a digital distribution which is what happened with big Switch games leaking 2 weeks before the release date.>"Switching to digital doesn't prevent piracy, it only delays it" which you totally ignored.Because delaying it until after release is a big deal. It's the same principle of Denuvo being removed. You want your game secured for launch when all the sales are happening and then it doesn't matter as much. If your game leaks before launch, people pirate it and then don't buy it. >Also, no method exists to dump physical Switch 2 carts anyway, so your point was moot regardless.As of right now. It's foolish to not think ahead because at some point the Switch 2 will obviously be hacked. There is no unhackable console, especially for something with as many exclusives as Nintendo's do.> A consumer will buy the console for the games, so the games need to be out there in stores for all to see.Yeah but a lot of shopping is done digitally these days, it's not like the old days anymore. They can still have code cards in stores regardless, I assume code in a box will die because those cost more than the code cards(Nintendo already does these).>You are basing a grand conspiracy to phase out physical media on one missing pre-order linkDigital games being cheaper than physical games is a massive incentive to buy digital. The price of cartridges can still rise as the price of NAND storage rises, that could become a $15 or $20 gap in which case people are going to flock to digital and you end up with the self fulfilling prophecy that doomed everywhere else.
>>747431587>disc read speeds haven't gotten better in the last 20 years, disc size hasn't gotten bigger in the last 20 years,Strictly speaking that's not true, it's just that new optical technologies have not been made available to private customers because the demand for BR wasnt as big as it needed to be. Optical is bigger an better than ever - just that the target market are now datacenters and governments (See: Optical volumetric storage like Project SIlicia)
>>747418906The drives dont cost $1.50 and they make more money from digital.
>>747428986For THEM you noodledink.
>>747419974Damn, this dude is in the know.
>>747418906There are many reasons why.>They make more money selling you the game on PSN>Games on the PS6 and PS6 handheld are intended to be interoperable>They won't bother developing/supporting a completely new portable format (like UMDs) for a handheld where the lion's share of their profits come from digital sales>Games are just getting way too big for discs>They can shave some money off the console itself if they sell it without a disc drive (like what they did for the PS5 Pro and Digital Edition)Frankly, I think it's a death knell for the brand but I'm over it. I've got most of the games I want for PS5 physically and I'm also an idort so I can still get physical media for Nintendo games or just DRM-free games on PC in general. Who will really suffer from this are the PlayStation diehards with massive collections, and Sony in general since they're sacrificing their fanbase for normalfags who buy FIFA and COD once a year and the rest of their spending is on microtransactions. The customers they're relying on are fickle and can move at the drop of a dime, that's not the case for people with massive physical media libraries.
>>747419038This has been proven false.The comparison of digital sales to physical has included digital ONLY sales into it. Which is an unfair comparison, because if a game is digital only of course 100% of it's sales are digital.If you compare sales from a game released both physical and digital it's still a significant number.
>>747419868No, you're seeing them cast that much as a MSRP because it's nintendo and they can get away with overcharging.but unlike digital you can get them 50% off.
>>747418906Because a download costs Sony a mere 2 to 5 cents. That adds up when you sell millions of copies. You also can't resell digital-only games, which further increases Sony's profit margin.
>>747421926>implying gachafags wouldn't buy discs that had their favorite idol printed on them with a 0.2% higher chance of unlocking themLove live did this in 2013. It gave you SR (not even UR) exclusive copies.
>There is nothing that can replace blu-rays with today's game sizesHolographic versatile disc.
>>747422101Most digitalfags do not even play the videogames they purchase, because they buy them and completely forget they own them and haven't even "downloaded" the game because it's just a single line of text in their 200+ game library.
>>747431863>delaying it until after release is a big dealDigital doesn't delay piracy until launch day for every market. Major games require digital pre-loads days in advance. The second the game unlocks in an early time zone like Australia, it gets decrypted, dumped, and goes live globally. The West gets access to the pirated digital file up to 18 hours before their own official digital launch. A physical leak 2 weeks early is usually just one guy posting spoilers outside of very rare exceptions (like the TotK dump); a digital dump on launch night is much easier to execute and share to the masses.Also, retailers absolutely hate code cards. Stores make almost zero profit margin on gift cards or digital codes, and it gives consumers zero reason to walk into a physical storefront. If Nintendo tried to replace cartridges with cardboard code cards, Walmart and Target would retaliate by stripping Nintendo hardware of its prime floor space. Physical shelf presence is a massive, multi-billion dollar marketing billboard Nintendo refuses to give up. Why do you think Nintendo even introduced Game Key Cards? Think about it.Your NAND memory point is also economically backwards. Yes, there is a major global NAND shortage right now due to AI data center demand, which is exactly why physical supply is tight. But temporary bottlenecks happen in tech cycles all the time. Over a console's actual lifespan, fabrication costs trend downwards and flash memory gets cheaper per gigabyte. If cartridge costs were a terminal threat to their margins, Nintendo wouldn't have just invested heavily in manufacturing a brand-new cartridge format for the Switch 2. It should normalize by around 2028 if you've paying attention.You are still trying to justify a massive industry-wide corporate conspiracy over 1 (ONE) single missing pre-order link on Walmart for a 2027 game.
>>747424103PC isn't a monopoly. Most people might use steam but there are alternatives and stores that sell products that steam won't sell. You aren't locked into only buying from steam.Consoles don't have that luxury. So it becomes a monopoly, thus $100 games.
>>747432749Some big games like Elden Ring do simultaneously world wide releases because of that. Some games do not allow preloading either.> A physical leak 2 weeks early is usually just one guy posting spoilers outside of very rare exceptionsIt was quite a few games on the Switch to be fair, basically every major release leaked a week or 2 early and if the games were digital only that'd have been delayed. Doubly so if Nintendo didn't allow preloads and their games are fairly small in file size so they could get away with that. >Walmart and Target would retaliate by stripping Nintendo hardware of its prime floor space. The question becomes, does Nintendo need it in a world where more and more shopping is done via Amazon? Physical shelf presence is losing relevance just like a lot of physical media is. Do you think physical shelf presence matters for new CD releases? Did people stop listening to music because of that? > It should normalize by around 2028 if you've paying attention.It's been moved to 2030 now. Which is why it's a significant issue. It may get moved again so that 2030 date isn't even final. This is why I'm more of a doomer than you here, my info is a bit more up to date about how fucked things truly are.https://www.techpowerup.com/352156/sk-hynix-ceo-says-memory-shortage-will-last-through-2030
>>747418906Complete and utter control which leads to an actual monopoly.
>>747418906digital sales mean retail doesn't get a cutswitching their bluray manufacturing to microlens manufacturing makes them more money all the talk about how many people buy physical doesn't matter because of the above factors
