Perhaps it’s no coincidence that everyone – led by Rockstar and Take-Two – is promoting digital games, but it seems as though they have deliberately forgotten something.

Physical games are becoming less popular; this year, digital versions accounted for the majority of sales. Sony has been the biggest advocate for a future without physical media ever since announcing that it would release all its games digitally from 2028 onwards. While it was already known that the materials and processes required to manufacture physical media resulted in higher costs, a new report indicates that physical games account for around 15% of the retail price.

Game File revealed that physical games account for 15% of a game’s retail price. Therefore, if the average price of an AAA title is $70, companies pay $10 for the disc. Furthermore, this figure does not include shipping costs, retailer fees and other expenses. With digital games, however, companies simply sell a licence to players and keep all the revenue for themselves, since the games are sold exclusively through their own stores. It’s therefore clear why this shift is happening now.

Additionally, reports indicate that physical sales are at an all-time low while digital sales are booming. Although consumers have voiced their concerns, the statistics clearly show that they prefer access to digital media. But let’s assume a game is released exclusively in digital format. In that case, perhaps the titles should be sold at a lower price, since middlemen and production costs have been eliminated. However, that’s not happening. Thanks to late-stage capitalism, where maximising profit is the top priority, players are expected to pay full price.

However, disc-based games can sometimes be purchased new at surprisingly low prices, and they also play a significant role in the second-hand games market. Well, the companies are halting production because they are greedy and want to put an end to that.

Source: Tech4Gamers, Game File