Jonathan Maldonado

The reason "Everything is a Subscription" is because the elites realized that if you "own" things, you are dangerous. If you own your house, your car, and your tools, you can say "No." If you rent your life, you have to say "Yes" to everything.

Wanted to buy cyberpunk today, saw it still at $60 on the PS store, checked how much local retailers were selling the physical and found it for $30. At the end of the day, that’s all this is about. A monopoly only ensures every consumer loses.

PLEASE READ AND UNDERSTAND: We have to talk about the physical vs digital data, A LOT of people still buy Physical games on PS5. More than you think, like WAY MORE! Please read and understand what Sony is doing it trying to FORCE DIGITAL games! IMO this should not even be legal: - FY2025 Full Year (Apr 2025 – Mar 2026) = the digital to physical split was 78%/22%. But this does NOT tell the whole story. Because this is all games sold, not all games that have physical copies and digital! So majority of the 78/22 split don't even have physical, let's look at some real numbers from leaks and stats we have: From Insomniac Leak: - God of War Ragnarök: 76% Physical / 24% Digital - Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga: 63% Physical / 37% Digital - Astro Bot: 55% Physical / 45% Digital - Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: 54% Physical / 46% Digital - Assassin's Creed Mirage: 49% Physical / 51% Digital - Resident Evil 4 Remake: 45% Physical / 55% Digital - Hogwarts Legacy: 44% Physical / 56% Digital - Star Wars Jedi: Survivor: 40% Physical / 60% Digital UK / Europe Retail Data (GSD – 2023/2024): - Astro Bot: 55% Physical (UK) / and 60% Physical (Europe) – 2024 - Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: 54% Physical (UK) – 2023 - Assassin's Creed Mirage: 49% Physical (UK) – 2023 - Hogwarts Legacy: 45% Physical (UK) – 2023 - Resident Evil 4 Remake: 45% Physical (UK) – 2023 - Horizon Forbidden West: 51% Physical (UK) – 2022 People still buy a lot of physical games on PS5, especially when it's SINGLE PLAYER GAMES. When it's more mp then it goes down to more digital. But please don't just listen to the 78%/22% split, those numbers are overall numbers and don't represent the full story AS YOU CAN CLEARLY SEE! Because it's not a fair comparison since all games don't have a physical copy or eventually stop printing it. They are trying to paint a narrative to control prices and take ownership from you, that is the truth and spread it!

Extremely sad to think I'll never release another physical game for PlayStation. Releasing the physical versions of Animal Well was a huge motivator all throughout development. It really kills my desire to develop for the platform. I'm hoping they reverse this decision : (

Everyone is talking about the digital-physical-split percentages. So we will too! The TL;DR: Most of what has been parroted about consumer preference is wildly exaggerated at best, or a mix of a bad faith campaign and severe negligence at worst. Sony has announced the death of physical media because of "changing consumer trends". Most of us can already smell the bullshit it in this fake excuse. It is when we take a closer look that we discover just how much of a lie that statement really is. Let's start by scrutinizing the most repeated number lately: 85 % of sales are digital. This number exists. But in what context? It comes from the Fiscal Year Q4 report for 2025. ONLY IN THIS QUARTER did we get this number. The overall percentage for the entire year 2025 is "only" 78 %. Still sounds bad. Where is the lie, then? It comes with what both sides include. The digital part also accounts for digital-only games. AKA products which didn't give a choice to the customer. You could either add to the digital tally or not play these games at all. This alone should show you how they use statistics to deceive the public. But we are not done. If you look at honest comparisons, like those we got through the infamous Insomniac leaks in 2022, or certain market reports from the UK more recently, you will find games that even sell predominantly physical. Many of which are Sony's own first party titles. So their games sell more physical copies, but they still dare to use consumer preference as the excuse. Not convinced? Let's look at the even broader picture. Researching online we can find an infographic illustrating the development of the physical-digital split over the years. Admittedly, there is a constant decline for the physical share. Abysmal even in the years up to 2020. HOWEVER, in recent years the year on year decline has slowed down and has almost reached a stable plateau. Oh, and have we mentioned that the vaaaaaaast majority of all players own a console that can read discs? 82 % is the number floating around online. We take a page out of Sony's book and just run with it for now. Only, let's add that even the other 18 % might not be digital-only die-hards. After all, there were times when both the disc console and the detachable disc drive were sold out at some point. What would you say does that show about consumer preference? Less than 18 % actually prefer digital. Just with a little research we have come from "85 % prefer digital" to "less than a fifth of the customer base actually does". So why does Sony push for a change? You know by now. Money! Multiple areas they benefit in in an all-digital future: 1) Margins for digital games are simply better. The save the entire overhead for physical production, logistics, customer service/returns, retailer cuts, etc. 2) This is the big one: The death of the second hand market. Or at least they think that's beneficial, if they ignore the facts that second hand buyers can also contribute to digital revenue, and they help with discoverability/word of mouth advertising. We wouldn't be surprised if this comes back to haunt Sony. 3) Pricing monopoly: They set the prices. They decide discounts. They decide the number of sales that happen, if any. The key word is REVENUE! Because that is another great opportunity to play with alarming numbers. The revenue percentage split between digital and physical makes the gap look even wider, of course. Despite selling almost 70 million physical copies, that area generated relatively low revenue. It accounts for only a little over 10 % of the revenue generated by game sales. That's the moment when "reliable" analysts and "quality" media could formulate headlines like "Physical media is dying - Makes up only 10 %". But that's not alarmist enough. They can do one "better". You might ask, "But DoesItPlay?, why do I see people claim that the gaming space is over 95 % digital?" Let's reveal the most evil trick of them all, shall we? Let's take a look at that FY 2025 report again. The overall category is called "Game Software". In here (and subsequently in the blogs of the anti-physical crowd) the biggest lie materializes. "Game Software" does not only include digital and physical game sales. It also accounts for ANY TYPE OF ADDITIONAL CONTENT (expansions, in-game currency, microtransactions of all sorts) and "Other Software", which is not even specified as to what that could be exactly. If we now lump all of this together and check the percentage of physical game revenue, we land at roughly 4,7 %. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the single biggest gaslighting this industry has pulled on you when it comes to lying about consumer preference. It was never about consumer preference. It was about maximizing profits and control over what should be rightfully yours after a purchase.

Seen several quote #PlayStation's 78% digital full game sales, thus omitting important context. That figure includes countless digital only releases, from back catalogue to indie games etc. Even Capcom revealed 84% of its sales were "older catalog titles", many of which are only available digitally. So using such data is somewhat misleading. To gauge REAL physical demand you need to look at splits of games that released both physical AND digital only. Thanks to the Insomniac leaks, we have such data on PS first party games. Playstation Physical / Digital splits Sackboy - 77% / 23% R&C Rift Apart - 76% / 24% Ghost of Tsushima DC - 71% / 29% Demon's Souls - 70% / 30% Miles Morales - 66% / 34% Spider-Man - 66% / 34% Returnal - 61% / 39% The Last of Us 2 - 61% / 39% Ghost of Tsushima - 51% / 49% MLB The Show 21 - 39% / 61% So per Sony's own internal data, 31/33 first party games from their chart sold more PHYSICAL than they did digital. Uncharted 4 actually has an insane 83% physical split. Granted it only covers through to a few months into 2022, but we can see from other more recent data, things haven't drastically changed. For example GSD data shows ~60% of Astro Bot sales across Europe were physical. So what skews revenue and data more digital, beyond digital only releases and platforms? The answer is games with LIVE SERVICE components, especially multiplatform ones. As you can see from Sony's internal data, MLB has the highest digital split, and it's a live service game. Generally the highly popular live service or annualised games such as Call of Duty, NBA 2K, FIFA etc, have higher digital splits, as gamers are constantly launching them (often daily) and don't want to be constantly switching discs, thus skewing digital/physical splits. It's very different to single player games which are shorter and have different play and consumer trends. So again, context matters. Then there's a MASSIVE audience of gamers that aren't even accounted for in any of this data; the countless consumers that buy and sell used physical games, because they simply can't afford as many new games, but still buy/own consoles, accessories, games, services etc. Everything from poor parents, kids etc. Ultimately, the data rejects the notion physical is dead or meaningless, even if digital accounts for the overall lionshare of revenue/sales, especially when you look at things with the proper context and/or focus on single player tentpole games, which is PlayStation's bread and butter. Keep in mind platforms make a 15% licensing fee from third parties on physical games, while they get a 30% cut on digital. Likewise first party lose a 30% cut to retailers on physical, while they keep all of the revenue on digital. As I said before, this move to kill physical is more about PlayStation trying to make far more profit and squeeze away the last remnants of consumer ownership, control, flexibility and resale, and could have greater negative market ramifications.

What makes you think your digital games are safe? Once again, Studio Canal is pulling movie licenses. Purchases to be outright erased from libraries. It's the same that happened in 2022 and during the Funimation-Crunchyroll merger. Digital is rental! (via Twitter user somatyk)

Nothing's killed my GTA 6 hype faster than locking a core part of its identity behind a $20 upgrade pcgamer.com/games/action/n…

How many AI ones are there?

Finally I have proof that they have trained it with my Github.

There is always lots of talk about how games don't come with manuals anymore but the truth is there are still options out there. But what Fangamer did with UFO 50 is pretty incredible. A full strategy guide, lots of hand-drawn maps and notes, even a fake newsletter. All played as if this stuff really existed in the 80s. This is the most me-coded game I've bought in years. I have yet to even try UFO 50 as I was waiting for the physical version. I'm glad I did because this rules. I'm excited to jump into it soon.

I still think about this comment

File Pilot 0.7.0 is out! Drag & drop from external apps and ZIP archives is finally here, plus dropping files onto other files. Also launching the public roadmap toward v1. filepilot.tech/roadmap

Emyhatsich on Reddit used shaders and overlays to recreate the glare on a Game Boy Color screen. They even have a version that completely negates the backlight, making it hard to see on purpose. It looks sick as hell.

This is your weekly reminder that "Disc Rot" is a corporate-shopped bullshit term used to get you to give up physical media and own nothing. It doesn't functionally exist outside of defective discs or severe neglect (like in this case), regardless of what you read on the Internet

They call me 007.. I am not good at Linux permissions

今日は23年前にゲームボーイアドバンスSPが発売された日です。折りたたみのシンプルな形は飽きが来なくて好きですね〜。実際今も当店では大人気の機種です。昨今では劣化しやすい液晶やバッテリーなんかの交換パーツも探せば入手出来るので腕に覚えのある方は修理してみるのも一興です。（ジョイフル豊田）

yeah man i don’t think my cats are making it

CPUs are getting worse. We’ve pushed the silicon so hard that silent data corruptions (SDCs) are no longer a theoretical problem. Mercurial Cores are terrifying because they don’t hard-fail; they produce rare, but *incorrect* computations!

There are far too many grifters working in the games industry who make a living from selling themselves as ‘gurus’ to the young and impressionable, despite not being very good at their craft or, in some cases, never having shipped a game.