Current Events > Physical gaming media all but dead, report

(+) Yeah! (+)

Yeah, we are entering the biggest dark age for film preservation since the silent era and the vast majority of people are too ignorant or apathetic to notice. It's scary really.

hereforemnant posted...

Yet it remains the largest industry of entertainment in the entire world now, even more so than music/movies & TV combined.

Do you have stats on this? I tried googling about it and found some pretty mixed results, especially when it comes to the size of the movie industry

Video games have always had that element of disposability to them. Before the rise of digital distribution people would often rent games for the weekend or trade them in for discounts. A lot of people were fine with arcades.

It doesn't help that platform holders like Sony and Nintendo don't value the historic purchases people have made and would rather sell their re-releases of a limited selection games over and over to you again. So it's not like you are rewarded for holding onto them.

I think most people these days don't even care about owning a game. They would rather it be free so they can compete or play with their friends.

hereforemnant posted...

Yet it remains the largest industry of entertainment in the entire world now, even more so than music/movies & TV combined. They(gaming publishers) sold the lie that moving to digital would reduce costs & save customers money & it doesn't unless you just wait for the normal fall off in price that's been happening for decades. Opening a store with a single font of income is a bad idea for an item depending on if the good is elastic or inelastic as well obviously.

Video games are incredibly elastic, you're asking for losing money which is why most today split between media, consoles, toys & extra add-ons, plushies & things like that alongside it.

How large is it if restricted to consoles and physical video games?

kirbymuncher posted...

Do you have stats on this? I tried googling about it and found some pretty mixed results, especially when it comes to the size of the movie industry

https://www.gamepressure.com/newsroom/

gaming-market-grows-beyond-cinema-sports-and-music/z03265

Yeah the game industry got bigger than the others years ago, obviously it's gotten even bigger since then. The accessibility of games, the rise of F2P & freemium games has changed a lot because you can always spend 500$ on Genshin, or just buy Armored Core VI one time for 60$.

I answer your question here Blinx, yes it probably wouldn't be as big if it was strictly limited to physical media, but no one wanted to lock out physical media on PC that's just where the profit incentive went over time. It'd still be a 50/60$ Billion a year industry if there was no inflation of digital freemium shovelware & gacha games everywhere, but it was still healthy when you just bought a physical game, got some updates & DLC, but that was it & you weren't downloading 120GB online every single time you bought a game.

hereforemnant posted...

Yeah the game industry got bigger than the others years ago, obviously it's gotten even bigger since then.

yeah see I saw that article but then I also found things like this
https://www.bcg.com/publications/2023/drivers-of-global-gaming-industry-growth

The COVID-19 pandemic spurred growth in various media and technology sectors in 2020. Within media, gaming outpaced other segments with an 8% growth rate to reach $198 billion (versus TV's 1% decline to $408 billion 3 )

which puts it far below TV in 2020 (although it's growing and TV is shrinking, so...)

either way, considering that a significant portion of gaming market share is mobile phone gaming, which is always digital, I think its numbers are a good indicator that people do like digital games just fine

Yeah video games as a whole are booming.

They just happen to be booming in the places that people here want to argue shouldn't count.

If we are restricting it to the traditional video game consoles and the major games that people here care about have then overall all we see is stagnation at best.

Note that this does not mean that specific companies and games aren't booming within that space. There's just less of them compared to how it used to be. The bigger fish in the smaller pond are swallowing up the rest. GTA sells more than ever but nobody is making GTA clones anymore. Stuff like that.

This is kinda skewed. Mobile is the biggest market, so of course it's 100% digital. PS5, Xbox Series are market digital, and PC is 100% digital. Switch is at least 50% physical.

kirbymuncher posted...

yeah see I saw that article but then I also found things like this
https://www.bcg.com/publications/2023/drivers-of-global-gaming-industry-growth
which puts it far below TV in 2020 (although it's growing and TV is shrinking, so...)

either way, considering that a significant portion of gaming market share is mobile phone gaming, which is always digital, I think its numbers are a good indicator that people do like digital games just fine

Ah okay hold on let me rephrase & correct this then.
From what I see, the gaming industry for revenue beats out movie/TV combined, but that the growth rate for gaming's market valuation exceeds movie & TV since it's gone up 149$ Billion since 2006-2019.

& Blinx, the problem isn't that digital gaming or mobile gaming is bad. It's that there's a lot more predatory & manipulation going on there that affects the industry as a whole because it's leaked into the console/PC gaming space. If there were regulations put forth, like what china is doing with mobile gaming which I honestly 100% agree with, then you could assess where each lies because they get managed differently. Like for profit & non profit, traditional gaming & consoles being managed to not have all the predatory MTXs, battle passes, season passes, DLC, slot machines, & all that have to be in mobile games strictly or heavily constrained if they exist in the former.

I'm not arguing that it's good or bad. It's just what it is.

It's leaked into the console and PC gaming space because that's what people are deciding to spend their money and time on. Which is why these stats are the way they are.

We can argue for regulations or whatever but chances are it would just lead to people spending less but still playing the same games. If people wanted to buy $60-$70 single player physical games that's what they'd do. But most would rather play the hot multiplayer games with their buddies.

These stats came out recently too.
https://www.gameshub.com/news/news/six-year-old-video-games-study-playtime-2024-2638826/

According to Newzoo, the biggest competition that publishers will face going forward will be Fortnite and Roblox, thanks to their unique content pipelines. With both games relying on audiences to create new experiences, both games remain fresh and consistently engaging for their players.

Fortnite and Roblox allow creators to build unique content, resulting in players getting new experiences on a consistent basis, Newzoo said. This third-party strategy lets gaming platforms like Fortnite and Roblox stay ahead of the content treadmill Its essential for studios to remember that they are competing with these platform behemoths for a share of limited player hours.
Shockingly, the Newzoo report also outlines that new, non-annual titles only made up 8% of the total video game playtime in 2023, with the top five new titles played being Diablo IV (1.4%), Hogwarts Legacy (0.8%), Baldurs Gate 3 (0.6%), Elden Ring (0.3%), and Starfield (0.35%).

There is hope for those looking to launch a new game in this environment, but Newzoo notes that publishers and developers will need to be aware of current market conditions, and which games are dominating the space, before they lean into new forays.
Whats most clear from Newzoos report is that gaming habits are currently shifting dramatically, with various factors contributing to older games being more popular and appealing to the current market. Any new games will seemingly face an uphill battle to find and establish their potential audiences in the coming years.

It is what it is. I mean what people here consider the peak of video games is now over 20 years ago. It's inevitable that the way consumers spend and interact with games will change as we age up. No real point worrying about it as long as there's still stuff we like to play.

Killed by corporations making the discs glorified activation keys, still needing the entire game to be downloaded. I'm sure they'll try and spin it as regular people being tired for the format or something

Yeah the content generation systems that Fortnite & Roblox have are pretty crazy because the proportions they're giving back for creative license to use the content people come up with are pretty fair from what I remember? Wouldn't be a bad idea to invest in Tencent, depending on how china's regulations go, since content generation in those games will be huge in the future like that article shows.

Fine by me

The convenience of digital simply won over consumers against the purported benefits of physical.

Easy to pad them numbers when you count FotM gacha purchases in there

the insomniac leaks showed that most Sony games still sell more physically

CrimsonGear80 posted...

the insomniac leaks showed that most Sony games still sell more physically

Sony is also on record saying this;
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/jim-ryan-i-would-love-a-world-where-hundreds-of-millions-will-enjoy-our-games

"We're talking about games stacking up against music, we're talking about games stacking up against movies. Music and movies, they can be enjoyed by almost limitless audiences. And I think some of the art that our studios are making is some of the finest entertainment that has been made anywhere in the world. And to kind-of gate the audience for the wonderful art, wonderful entertainment that our studios are making... to gate the audience for that at 20 or 30 million frustrates me. I would love to see a world where hundreds of millions of people can enjoy those games."

Which is why they're porting their games to other platforms like PC.

If you look at specific things yes you can find examples of physical being important. But what you're looking at is a specific part of the video game industry that hasn't grown in over a decade that is gradually being chipped away by digital sales on top of everything else.

Sony is also building a new physical disc manufacturing plant in Brazil

kirbymuncher posted...

are you for real because I find it sort of hard to imagine there are even that many different physical switch games

Admittedly, about a third of it is from Limited Run. Been getting all of their numbered releases and some of their distribution games. Throw in some imports (Super Rare, Red Art Games, and some things from Play Asia), and the rest are standard NA retail releases.

Edit: Just took a count. At the end of 2023, I was at 625. From there, I'm currently at 676 physical Switch games. Again, that's mostly from Limited Run. Didn't realize I was already so close to 700.

Galaxy brained people have already switched and accepted the digital revolution. One day the others will join us in the 21st century

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Yeah I have a few laying around still as well, like Army Men: Toys in Space & the old Freddie Fish adventure games

The games industry will have to force an online only market OVER MY DEAD BODY!

Alucard188 posted...

That is an improper conclusion to draw from that when it says 'all spending'. That would include all spectrums of video games, their DLC content, and microtransactions.

True, but the article I posted a few post later did say that (at least for Playstation) there is a 2-1 split between Digital and Physical.

So while it's not as extreme as the headline may have you believe, it's fairly obvious that physical gaming is a dying media.

The last time I bought a physical game was 2006.

CrimsonGear80 posted...

the insomniac leaks showed that most Sony games still sell more physically

Not according to this article:

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2023/11/physical-games-represented-just-4percent-of-sales-for-playstation-last-quarter

Zooming in on PlayStation's physical/digital sales split (which looks at units sold rather than cash), just over two thirds (67 per cent) of software sales were digital in Q2 2023. This is a slight increase year-on-year, but down compared to Q1 2023.

So that was from around this time last year.

hereforemnant posted...

It's the entire culture of gaming & movies/social media that has moved us to quick consumerism & consumption of products that has pulled physical media into a more niche area.

Definitely one of the big reasons that there aren't really any "Modern Classics" when it comes to movies.

So many people will watch a movie once at the theatre, or once on streaming, and then never watch it again.

Unlike in the past, where you would see it in the theatre, then the anticipation would build for the DVD release, and then there would be another build towards it being on HBO or Cinemax.

Movies would get watched DOZENS of times, and that really doesn't happen much with movies that have come out in the last decade or so.

I do not understand the tweet, the vast majority of those listed do not even have physical options so what is the point in lumping all of these together. Is the number supposed to offend someone or prove some point that seems totally meaningless when all of those false flag statistics are tossed in?

In ten years everything will be required digitally, you will have to rebuy your entire library of Atari-PS5 games at full modern game price, and you can lose access to even old retro games if the developer decides to ban you or don't want people to play that game anymore and will intentionally leave some games as lost media to force people to buy their older software.

This is the future.

bigblu89 posted...

Not according to this article:

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2023/11/physical-games-represented-just-4percent-of-sales-for-playstation-last-quarter

So that was from around this time last year.

that's total sales. the leak was specifically pointing out PS exclusive games. which is significant for Sony.

Doe posted...

The convenience of digital simply won over consumers against the purported benefits of physical.

Yep. Fuck those midnight releases, I can have the game installed and ready to play at midnight. Sometimes even a frw hours earlier. I think in the last 5 years I've only bought one physical game.

ForsakenHermit posted...

PC gaming poisons everything.

This is backwards.

https://twitter.com/MatPiscatella/status/1778046551233085766

It ain't dead but it's sure dying and long past its peak.

CyborgSage00x0 posted...

This is backwards.

PC gaming brought digital distribution, always online and so many other destructive practices to gaming. And that's not even getting into how PC fanboys are way worse than the big three console fanboy groups put together.

I really hate PC gaming.

I switched to 100% digital the moment I learned about gameshare. I used to buy and resell to Gamestop equivalents but the 50% off day 1 with gameshare beats what they gave back to me. I play a lot of multiplayer games too and its even better for that since those are the games I dont sell at all because I play those for years and years.

Also play mobile a lot through Apple Arcade and the selection is pretty good, beats what I can buy on Switch tbh and it has the best quality ratio of any storefront to date. They completely forbid any form of mtx too.

Physical Bros in denial of Digital Supremacy

Up

FL81 posted...

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a9a61c8a.png
thanks Mr. Corpo-Talking Head, but I'm going to continue buying Switch cartridges

There was a dude similar to him before. I forget his name. He would predict trends and be wrong every time. Say Nintendo is coming out with a VR headset. The gamers know Nintendo won't do that seriously. This guy just likes the attention and the influence it's brings. It's save to ignore anything he says. He's a know nothing

gamerofNS posted...

And yet, my Switch collection is at 600+ physical games and growing.

You lie

MistyKnight posted...

You lie

We need pics nao