Some analysts believe that in six years, digital video game sales could completely dominate the market. This paradigm shift began with the generation of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles; however, in the years of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, we may be reaching the final point of no return where physical media is completely obsolete.
Unlike other entertainment industries, game enthusiasts have always reveled in the nostalgic allure of boxes, discs, and cartridges, so why is this acceleration happening now, after years when physical game sales have always been healthy?
Of course, for collectors who like to physically add the latest releases to their shelf with serene diligence, such a change can be intimidating. Will digital dominance necessarily spell the end of canonical physical titles, or will collectors still show interest and spend enough money to keep the market going, perhaps in a new and more specialized form? And will digital technology change the concept of game ownership, standard pricing, and collecting in general?
IGN gathered the views of several video game industry analysts to see what they think of this increasingly sudden change in shopping habits.
Growth in digital sales
Overall sales of digital versions of video games have been slowly catching up with the physical market in recent years. The balance is tilting more and more towards digital, partly because of the trends that have taken hold in recent years, but also because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which is preventing consumers from shopping in person, pushing them to shop across platforms.
Digital releases have reached important milestones in recent years. By some reports, Cyberpunk 2077 experienced the biggest digital launch of all time. Other developers are also finding that digital sales are exceeding their physical sales: Capcom reports that about 80% of its games are sold digitally. A complete guide to choosing the perfect gaming PC is already on this page - https://econotimes.com/Game-On-The-Ultimate-Guide-to-Selecting-the-Perfect-Gaming-PC-1658613.
To confirm this change, Sony and Microsoft have only released digital console models to the market, which do not provide the ability to use physical media and offer attractive and more affordable prices. Of course, if you have a more expensive PS5 or Xbox Series X but with a physical disc drive, you are still given complete freedom to choose the format of the purchase. Is there an online offer you can't refuse? Click "Buy Now" and the game will be delivered in 2 days. Want to make the impulse buy you see in the used bin? No problem.
For years, this freedom has traditionally been taken for granted by gamers. Now the reality of digital consoles is effectively pushing consumers into a very specific digital shopping habit through stores that are under the full control of the PlayStation or Xbox. However, the reason this works is very simple: more and more gamers value the guaranteed convenience of digital technology over the potential physical freedom.
Taking a closer look at sales on a global scale, the idea is that more and more gamers are starting to prioritize digital downloads. Instead of queuing up at GameStop for the latest releases, gamers prefer to wait for their digital downloads to unlock at midnight sharp. Sony's recent results for the third quarter of fiscal 2020 show that digital sales are outpacing physical sales for the entire current fiscal year. You may also be interested in: How to choose a slot machine for a casino
More and more gamers value the guaranteed convenience of digital technology over potential physical freedom
Even if we exclude non-physical games from the calculation, digital sales still have an advantage. If we analyze the overall results of Sony's "Complete Gaming Software" (i.e. all video games) for the three quarters of the current fiscal year, digital sales accounted for 74%, 59% and 53% of total sales, respectively.
This means that when choosing between retail and download, most PlayStation players consistently prefer the digital version of the physical one. This change is evidenced not only by Sony data. In Nintendo's recent earnings report, the company reported that digital sales accounted for 40.9% of all software sales, up 12.3% from last year. Nintendo digital sales also grew by 104.9% compared to 2019.