![]() While publishers could offer digital versions at a lower price than their physical counterparts, in practice, most publishers keep prices consistent across different distribution methods (occasional digital clearance sales notwithstanding). That's especially true as inflation and higher gas prices have contributed to more and more high-end games bumping their asking price to $70. While game discs are incredibly cheap to produce, overhead costs like packaging, shipping/distribution, and warehousing/retail space cut into the margins a developer can expect from a $60 disc game. PC/console pricing discrepancies aside, it's not an awful point. AdvertisementĮnlarge / A look back at a time when discs ruled the earth. If you limit that list to games costing $60 or more, it becomes practically impossible to find a PlayStation bestseller that isn't available as a disc as well as a download. Looking at the top-20 bestselling PlayStation titles listed on Sony's official store page, for instance, brings up only two "discount" titles released without a disc-based option: $30 PSVR port Red Matter 2 and $22 boomer shooter Warhammer 40K: Boltgun. Still, such disc-free releases are relatively rare when it comes to the kinds of major games that dominate the console charts. ![]() The Alan Wake 2 FAQ notes, correctly, that "it is not uncommon to release modern games as digital-only." In fact, measured on a per-title basis, the vast majority of console games are now not available on disc at all. When you look a little deeper, though, what might be more surprising is that there haven't been more major console publishers willing to give up on discs completely. So it was a bit of a surprise that yesterday's release date announcement for Alan Wake 2 came alongside news that developer Remedy Entertainment and publisher Epic Games currently have "no plans to release Alan Wake 2 on disc," as they put it in a new FAQ. Still, even in recent years, you could usually count on big-budget console games from major studios to receive at least a perfunctory disc release to fill up the dwindling GameStop shelves. Further Reading Physical console games are quickly becoming a relatively niche marketAnyone who pays attention to the game industry knows that the segment of players buying games on physical discs has been becoming less important as physical releases become more and more niche.
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