Could a Disc-Free PlayStation Actually Lower Game Prices? (kotaku.com)
- Reference: 0185004628
- News link: https://games.slashdot.org/story/26/08/16/1839224/could-a-disc-free-playstation-actually-lower-game-prices
- Source link: https://kotaku.com/former-square-enix-exec-believes-disc-free-playstation-will-drive-game-prices-down-2000724716
What will prices do in a world with no physical copies to share or sell? One former Square Enix executive [3]speculates this could actually drive down the price of games :
> "Digital on the PS store will likely get cheaper," [4]posted Jacob Navok , former Square Enix business strategist. "Current prices are tied to retail. Without physical discs holding digital hostage we'll see a larger spectrum of pricing similar to steam." Navok says that the digital-only landscape will pit major publishers in constant, dynamic competition with each other... "The more the Playstation store becomes digital only, the greater this trend will accelerate," [5]Navok follows up . "You will see more sales and dynamic pricing similar to Steam because publishers will compete among themselves to a greater extent."
>
> [O]n the other end newer games are getting increasingly expensive, even on digital platforms. The fact that Grand Theft Auto VI will be a purely digital release has not caused its price point to budge.
[1] https://kotaku.com/ps5-playstation-5-discs-physical-digital-sony-sticker-label-warning-2000722144
[2] https://kotaku.com/former-square-enix-exec-believes-disc-free-playstation-will-drive-game-prices-down-2000724716
[3] https://www.gamesradar.com/games/sony-killing-playstation-discs-will-make-ps-store-prices-cheaper-former-square-enix-financial-exec-says-and-you-only-need-to-look-at-steam-to-understand-why/
[4] https://x.com/Jnavok/status/2087571981000466481
[5] https://x.com/Jnavok/status/2087715935226380319
Hahahahahahaaa. No. (Score:2)
"The fact that Grand Theft Auto VI will be a purely digital release has not caused its price point to budge."
Yeah, what did you think was going to happen?
savings (Score:2)
Will anyone even be able to get games that are 10 years old or so in 10 years? That's how you save money on games.
Re: (Score:2)
> Will anyone even be able to get games that are 10 years old or so in 10 years? That's how you save money on games.
Generally, yes. This is one area where a physical game might not be available or get extremely rare. If it was a game that did well, then there will be reprints (all those "game of the year" or "classic" editions), but if a game didn't do as well, they often get heavily discounted and then destroyed. Though they usually only get a really small print run.
The question of whether 10 year old games
Unfortunately... (Score:3)
"This title is no longer available and has been removed from your library"
Re: (Score:1)
And, that's what the shiny future looks like.
Either that, or your "purchase" of the game is only valid for 6 months or something, then you have to buy it again.
Betteridge Going in Raw (Score:2)
Digital games themselves did not lower prices, despite them being marketed as doing so without the cost of materials/packaging/handling/shipping, so why would anyone, ever, expect a discless console to lower them?
$5 to $20 games exist now; IARC self-rating (Score:2)
> Digital games themselves did not lower prices, despite them being marketed as doing so without the cost of materials/packaging/handling/shipping
From the summary: "Current prices are tied to retail. Without physical discs holding digital hostage we'll see a larger spectrum of pricing." As I understand this, paid downloads did not lower prices of AAA games because of retail price parity contracts. Paid downloads did, however, make the $5 to $20 tier for indie game pricing viable.
One thing not mentioned in the summary is that publishers of games distributed in physical copies owe a royalty to the age rating agency of each region in which a game is pub
Semantics (Score:4, Insightful)
It could, but it won't.
Re: (Score:2)
It will certainly ensure that you won't be buying used games at a yard sale for $5 a piece 10 years from now, anyway.
Re: (Score:1)
And, it'll certainly ensure that the games in your "library" can be deleted when Sony or whoever decides.
And, it'll certainly mean that you _need_ to have high-speed always-on internet... and, also, that your PS10 or XBox100 has to have tons of storage.
Make them allow alternative game stores (Score:2)
Imagine if Steam, Epic or GoG could publish on the PlayStation as easily as PCs, and even let USB Blu Ray players exist for third party disc releases outside of Sony's control by independents. The game console industry got its start because Activision made third party Cartridges for the Atari 2600, NEVER FORGET game history. We are already seeing the risk of all digital with game delistings and Payment Processors overriding existing ERSB/PEGI ratings forcing legal games to be destroyed. Allowing anyone to
No (Score:2)
any more dumb questions?
Re: No (Score:2)
Sadly, the internet is full of them.
No (Score:3)
That's not how capitalism works. Once you have shown businesses what you're willing to pay they will not cut prices below that. It's called price stickiness. It's why we are going to have long tail inflation long after Trump is finally out of office and his tariffs are removed and his dumb wore in Iran is sorted out by a Democrat.
Re: (Score:2)
That is how capitalism works. Competition is a key concept. The big PC game stores have games at all kinds of prices including lots for free. They regularly give away fairly recent big studio games for free. Having to produce physical media is a barrier to competition. Sony is also a barrier to competition, so no guarantees, but it's certainly not because "that's not how capitalism works."
The reason why inflation doesn't reverse itself is because 1) we go to great lengths to avoid deflation and 2) *salaries
Re: (Score:2)
> Having to produce physical media is a barrier to competition
No it isn't. The only barrier to competition is the whole digital signing thing which is true of both physical media and online delivery.
Physical media is dirt cheap and always has been. You can print off 1,000 BDs for $1,000 or less. Virtually every software developer capable of buying the equipment needed to produce a game is capable of spending that. What they can't do is actually get hold of the proprietary Sony keys and digital distributi
No (Score:2)
The lower cost will be absorbed into the pocket of whoever owns the rights.
Remember when digital books were going to make it cheaper to own books?
not even if the games were free (Score:2)
If you don't have a disc then you don't own the game. A download only model is not a price for ownership, it is a rental fee.
As much as I use stuff like Steam (probably 800 games in my library), I also am forced to admit that I don't own any of those games. The moment some companies buys Valve and alters the deal, I lose access to my games.
Re: not even if the games were free (Score:2)
These days with a lot of discs just being a boot loader to download the game and some games requiring always on net access then even a disc isnt a guarantee of you really owning it if it can - in theory - be disabled or deleted remotely.
Yeah, right... (Score:2)
Because making less money is CEOs utmost priority.
They will take the discs away and rake in more profit by reducing delivery costs, limiting reselling and keeping prices equal or higher.
Why not modernise some old tech? (Score:1)
The games industry moved away from cartridges because they could get more data onto an optical disk. Well, here's a radical idea...
They could always go back to cartridges!
A modern cartridge could be vastly more data dense than a 25Gb blu-ray disk. Heck, SD cards (Which will wear out eventually) would be fine. Like the Nintendo Switch.
Re: (Score:1)
A cartridge with just a modified M.2 card with some kind of security thing so you can't just slap it in your computer and copy it could actually work.
Wasn't a similar prediction made for e-books? (Score:2)
[1]Why Kindle Books are priced higher than their print counterparts [goodereader.com]. And going back further, I seem to recall predictions being made that CDs and cassette tapes would be so much cheaper than vinyl. Oops.
[1] https://goodereader.com/blog/e-book-news/why-kindle-titles-are-priced-higher-than-their-print-counterparts
Cost yes, prices no. (Score:2)
Disk-free will lower the cost of making games. That cost savings is not passed on to the consumer. For example, CDs cost less to manufacture than tapes. Towards the peak of consumers buying CDs, they were never cheaper than tapes. Same with VHS vs DVD. Even before Sony announced this plan to remove discs, many "physical" copies were nothing more than the disc case with a digital code inside. The price was not lowered by the fact that there was no disc being manufactured.
This is that same kind of question (Score:1)
As âoeIf we give rich people more money, its bound to trickle down to everyone else, right?â
For me it will be effectivedly $0, so yes (Score:2)
I'm not going to hand over money to Sony for killing off their used game market.
After 2028 rolls around, used PS4/PS5 physical disc games, that I can confirm will work locally on an offline PS5 (or haven't had an online kill-switch of some kind reported yet) will just have to do for my PS needs. Plenty of great games to last me however long I am still gaming. And yes I already buy Steam games so I admit a degree of hypocrisy, but it's the principle of Sony making this change, and the fact that they've alrea
No!!! (Score:2)
Why would they. They are not in the business of providing a fairly priced product.
Bad Car Analogy (Score:2)
Used cars keep the new car markets in check to a degree. Now, if only there was [1]a way to get those used cars off the market [wikipedia.org] ...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_Allowance_Rebate_System
Prices of games have gone down (Score:2)
Prices of video games have gone down, when adjusting for inflation. Looking at a couple of games from the 90s - TIE fighter in the mid nineties cost 50 USD, Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 launching around 2000 had similar pricing. Adjusted for inflation, that's around 100 USD (slightly more) today.
I believe part of the reason for this is digital frontends resulting in a larger proportion going to the developer/publisher - about 50% went to the store, physical production, and physical distribution, now they get to k
The real question is... (Score:2)
The real question is: if they aren't going to subsidize the consoles anymore, are they deserving of any licensing fees from developers?
They are just lowering the barrier to entry (Score:2)
Entry for players, that is. If they can get a console into some shmoe's hands at a lower price point and then continue to gouge that mark on game subscription prices over time, that's what they're after.
Nothing to see here. Business as usual.
Is this April fools or something? (Score:2)
Because: no.
No, it won't (Score:5, Insightful)
No. /end topic.
Re: (Score:2)
It tells a lot about current state of "games journalism" that such a ridiculous claim is turned into an article. One has to be completely ignorant to not have noticed how "digital only" prices, especially for the not-newest games, have been way higher than for on-disc games, for many many years already.