Ondore 🐉

There is a clear, yet never discussed omission in the cries over PlayStation ending physical media. And it also reveals how self-centered these players are – even as they claim Sony to be some hive minded capitalist evil. As is now well known, when a physical game is sold both the publisher and platform receive less than when a digital entitlement is sold. At the same time, the players spend the same – and as they say, players actually get more than when buying digital. Where is the “missing” money? It’s spent on manufacturing a disc, shipping a disk, managing costly returns, defective disks, stolen disks, etc. And that’s before accounting for grey market sales. What happens normally when a version of the same product is less profitable than an otherwise identical good? It is sold for more. What happens normally when a version caters to a hyper-passionate niche? It is sold for more. What happens when a version – again, to the claims of its ardent buyers – has more value than the (allegedly) inferior alternative? It is sold for more. This is point number one. The very players who are offended by the loss of an option that they, a self-professedly valuable customer group that is actually marginal on the whole… refuse to actually pay for their preference. In fact, they expect everyone else to pay for that preference. Gamers will whine saying “it’s good business to practice to do well by your fans.” Sure. But it’s not “good business” to monetize your most passionate players the least, divert profits to disk makers and retailers not gamemakers or platform subsidizers, let alone offer the “best” version of your product at the worst economics. If Sony were the capitalist evil physical media fans claim it to be… well, there’s an easy answer! If Sony could make as much, or more money from those goods, well then by definition… they would do so! If these customers were, in fact, as valuable as they profess… Sony wouldn’t do this. But these players are in fact Sony's lease valuable customers. And those who purchase a physical disc via resale aren't even Sony's customers. If these customers valued physical as much as they profess… they would pay more! The issue is players want their cake and to eat it to. They refuse to put their wallets where their mouth is. Instead, they want Sony to pick-up the check. And it’s not just Sony. Small studios don't do physical because it is expensive. Even CDPR has to PAY publishers like WB to make and distribute physical discs on their behalf, meaning their margins are even worse than those of Sony or WB with their own games. But again, players just want to say – "deal with it!" Indefinitely! And that’s the problem . There is a global omni-industry (and omni-consumer) abandonment of physical media. Games used to be a tiny fraction of a very large global disk manufacturing and global disk drive manufacturing business. It’s all going away. That means games hold more and more and more of the cost burden. Sony didn’t abandon Blu-Ray (a format they pioneered) in 2024 to screw gamers, they abandoned it because not enough people bought Blu-Rays. And that same dynamic means ALL the factories that built Blu-Ray drives and Blu-Ray risks sit mostly unused, costlier per unit than ever. But gamers? Again, unwilling to cover their share. Happy to receive the subsidy of the global supply chain of the 2000s and 2010s, but now that it disagrees with them, they still refuse to pick up the tab. What narcissism. Do you want to be pro dev? Then tell Sony you will cover the extra costs of physical in your own pocket. If you're unwilling to do this, you're selfish, demanding the rest of us cover the cost of your hobby.