Physical games are almost always cheaper at retail than on the PlayStation Store, report reveals

A new price analysis covering four years of data and 16 PS5 titles has found that retail shops beat the PlayStation Store on price with striking regularity, arriving at a particularly pointed moment given Sony's recent announcement that disc manufacturing for PlayStation games will end in January 2028.

The details:

• The report from Dutch outlet Tweakers, tracking historical retail versus PlayStation Store pricing from July 2022 to present across the Netherlands market, found that physical games drop in price over time and keep dropping, while the PlayStation Store tends to hold games at their original launch price for years, with temporary sale prices snapping back to full once the promotion ends.
• First-party exclusives take the biggest hit: Sony's own titles are described as "almost never cheaper" digitally. Of all first-party games tracked, only Horizon Forbidden West has received a permanent base price reduction on the PS Store.
• Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier's calculations estimate that for a standard $70 game sold digitally, Sony's revenue share is as much as 54% higher compared to a physical sale, giving Sony a clear financial incentive to end disc production.
• Beyond new game pricing, the report highlights the second-hand market, which vanishes entirely when discs stop being manufactured. Retailers will still be able to sell "physical" products after 2028, but only as codes-in-a-box or voucher cards with no resale value.
• The findings have added further fuel to the public backlash against Sony's disc decision, with hundreds of thousands of players having signed a petition calling on the company to reverse course.