As fans protest PlayStation‘s decision to end physical disc production in 2028, a notable game industry analyst says it won’t matter to Sony and that the company’s reasoning for it outweighs any negative fan sentiment. PlayStation recently became the first major console manufacturer to adopt a digital-only future, and very few people seem happy about it.
Sony’s controversial decision to cease PlayStation physical disc production in 2028 has rapidly become one of the most controversial decisions the company has ever made. Among fans online who have voiced their displeasure at the announcement, notable developers from games like Baldur’s Gate 3 and Animal Well have even joined in, with many stating that physical releases were a reason they even wanted to make games in the first place. Most recently, PlayStation fans have begun unsubscribing from PS Plus en masse to send Sony a message that they want physical games back.
Analyst Says PlayStation Fans Won’t Stop Sony From Ending Disc Production
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Image via Sony -
Image via PlayStation -
Image via PlayStation
Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of game industry consultancy firm Kantan Games, recently spoke to IGN about the ongoing PS Plus protests. In his view, none of this will matter to Sony, as the company will weather this PR storm and proceed as usual afterward. The CEO claims that even if 500,000 of the company’s 120 million subscribers cancel their memberships, that would be only 1% of the subscriber base and would hardly move the needle for Sony to act. Additionally, while physical disc sales have been expected in the gaming industry since its inception, digital sales now far outweigh physical sales, and the profit margins are too good for Sony to renege on its digital-only stance. Toto states, “From an economic perspective, digital sales just make too much sense, especially for platform holders.”
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.
Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)
Although the loss of physical PlayStation games in 2028 is a huge disappointment, the decision makes sense from a financial perspective, and it’s not just Dr. Serkan Toto who says so. Recently, the Lords of the Fallen 2 CEO, Marek Tyminski, has gone on social media to say that GTA 6 going digital-only is unfair to smaller studios that still want to support physical discs, as profit margins are so small they likely can’t cover the costs of launching on physical media like a big studio can. Both Tyminski and Toto have thrown out numbers for what studios and publishers can expect to gain from a digital vs. a physical release, with Tyminski saying studios are likely seeing around $26 per unit, and Toto saying that Sony would get a 15% licensing fee cut from every third-party game it sells.
Compared to digital, Tyminski stated that a studio would get about $49 per digital sale at the highest margin, and Toto stated that Sony would get roughly a 30% cut from digital licensing of a third-party game. First-party PlayStation exclusives are another story, though, as a digital-only Sony-produced game would be a 100% profit for the company. Needless to say, if PlayStation really wanted to expand those profit margins, going digital-only is the way to go, which would also soften the blow when games like Saros start making the news for low sales figures.
Dr. Toto’s concluding remarks have even expressed as such, stating, “Their current profit margin has been too weak for years now, so they feel like they must act.” As tech prices soar and the cost of producing games continues to rise, it seems this could have been inevitable. GTA 6 just became the first major AAA game to go digital-only at $80, and it could have emboldened many publishers to do the same in due time until Sony was the first to plant the digital-only flag. While games like Alan Wake 2 tried and failed to be strictly digital after fan outcry, it seems like GTA 6 and Sony might be the pioneers of a digital console future, for better or for worse.
