- Analysts suggest Sony won’t reverse its decision to end physical disc production
- Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of Kantan Games, says Sony will wait for the backlash to pass
- Toto adds that “Digital is just too lucrative” for the PlayStation company
Sony plans to end physical disc production in 2028, but despite pushback from fans, analysts suggest the PlayStation maker won’t reverse its decision.
The announcement has caused a bit of an uproar within the community, and while fans online continue to urge the company to backtrack on its decision, including creating a petition that has amassed over 247,400 signatures as of writing, Sony remains silent on the matter.
Others are also PS5 users protesting the plan by cancelling their PlayStation Plus subscriptions, with many fans encouraging others to do the same.
However, according to Dr. Serkan Toto, CEO of Japanese game industry consultancy firm Kantan Games, the boycott won’t change Sony’s mind on the matter.
“I sympathize with physical media fans, but Sony will not reverse this decision,” Toto said in an interview with IGN. “They of course knew what the online reaction would look like, and they now wait for this storm to pass.”
Toto put it down to digital being more profitable, and the number of players cancelling their PS Plus subscriptions wouldn’t be enough to persuade the gaming giant.
“Sony has over 120 million active PlayStation users,” he said. “Around 50 million people subscribe to PlayStation Plus. As a thought experiment, let’s say 500,000 cancel in protest, that would be just 1% of that business gone — of course not enough to Sony to start rethinking. Digital is just too lucrative.”
The profit margins between physical and digital games is significant, especially when you consider digital sales for first-party PlayStation games.
As IGN calculated, a game like The Last of Us would offer Sony 65% of the profit from a physical copy, 30% to the retailer, and 5% to production costs. For digital sales made from the PlayStation Store, Sony would retain 100% of the revenue, but for third-party titles like Call of Duty, the company would keep a 30% cut of the asking price.
“Their current profit margin has been too weak for years now, so they feel like they must act,” Toto added. “From an economic perspective, digital sales just make too much sense especially for platform holders.”
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