RIP bargain bin: The price impact of Sony’s disc-free PlayStation plan

再见，廉价光盘：索尼无光驱 PlayStation 计划对价格的影响

Since Sony announced that it was planning to stop producing physical PlayStation discs in 2028, many people have been justifiably worried about how they will maintain ownership and long-term game access in a disc-free world. But halting production of PlayStation discs also means eliminating the market for cheap used PlayStation discs, which are often available for well below the price of a digital download. How much is this disc-based discount worth? To find out, Ars analyzed how the prices of 19 current top-selling PlayStation games varied between digital downloads and physical discs (both new and used). We found that, while used discs are the cheapest option for most games for most of the year, the frequent and periodic deep discounts offered on the PlayStation Store often undercut the cheapest game disc options. That state of affairs will likely persist even in a future without PlayStation discs.

自从索尼宣布计划在 2028 年停止生产实体 PlayStation 光盘以来，许多人理所当然地担心在没有光盘的世界里，他们将如何维持游戏的所有权和长期访问权限。但停止生产 PlayStation 光盘也意味着消除了廉价二手光盘的市场，这些二手光盘的价格通常远低于数字下载版。这种基于光盘的折扣到底值多少钱？为了找出答案，Ars 分析了 19 款当前最畅销的 PlayStation 游戏在数字下载版和实体光盘（包括全新和二手）之间的价格差异。我们发现，虽然在一年中的大部分时间里，二手光盘是大多数游戏最便宜的选择，但 PlayStation Store 频繁且周期性的深度折扣往往比最便宜的光盘选项更划算。这种情况即使在未来没有 PlayStation 光盘的世界里也可能会持续下去。

For our analysis, we started with Sony’s list of the bestsellers on the PlayStation Store. We eliminated any games that weren’t available on a physical disc, then used the database over at PlatPrices.com to determine both the “Standard” price and the lowest “Discount” price offered for those games on the PlayStation Store in the last year (as well as the total number of days the discount price was offered). For physical game prices, we checked the current price for a new game disc at Amazon as well as the pre-owned price offered by GameStop. We also analyzed pre-owned disc prices on eBay, taking the average price of the last five successful sales for that game (including shipping) to assess a fair market value. In some cases, we added in the price of included DLC to ensure a “standard” game disc was content-matched with a digital “special edition” bundle. For PS4 games with “enhanced” PS5 editions, we added the price of that downloadable upgrade (if any) to the price of the PS4 discs.

在分析中，我们首先参考了索尼在 PlayStation Store 上的畅销游戏列表。我们剔除了所有没有实体光盘版本的游戏，然后使用 PlatPrices.com 的数据库来确定这些游戏在过去一年中 PlayStation Store 上的“标准”价格和最低“折扣”价格（以及提供折扣价格的总天数）。对于实体游戏价格，我们查询了亚马逊上全新游戏光盘的当前价格，以及 GameStop 提供的二手价格。我们还分析了 eBay 上的二手光盘价格，取该游戏最近五次成功交易的平均价格（含运费）来评估公平市场价值。在某些情况下，我们加入了附带 DLC 的价格，以确保“标准”游戏光盘的内容与数字“特别版”捆绑包相匹配。对于拥有 PS5“增强版”的 PS4 游戏，我们将该可下载升级的价格（如有）加到了 PS4 光盘的价格中。

A quick glance at the results shows that the “Standard” price for games offered on the PlayStation Store is usually an incredibly raw deal. That digital price was the most expensive option available for 15 of the 19 games we looked at (including two where it was more or less tied for most expensive). In some cases, games that were six to eight years old (i.e., Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey) were still being offered digitally at their original launch price of $59.99, even while used discs were available at GameStop for just $9.99. If you’re buying on the PlayStation Store, it almost always makes sense to wait for a sale, where the “Standard” digital price is reduced by 40 to 80 percent in our sample. During these periodic sale periods, downloading the game became the cheapest available option in a slim majority of the best sellers we looked at (10 out of 19). In many cases, the deep digital discounts meant a download could be had for 50 percent or less than even the cheapest used disc prices.

快速浏览结果可以发现，PlayStation Store 上提供的游戏“标准”价格通常非常不划算。在我们调查的 19 款游戏中，有 15 款游戏的数字版价格是最昂贵的选择（包括两款价格基本持平的情况）。在某些情况下，已经发布六到八年的游戏（如《使命召唤：现代战争》、《刺客信条：英灵殿》和《刺客信条：奥德赛》）在数字商店中仍以 59.99 美元的原始首发价格出售，而 GameStop 的二手光盘仅售 9.99 美元。如果你在 PlayStation Store 购买游戏，等待促销几乎总是明智之举，在我们的样本中，“标准”数字价格在促销期间会降低 40% 到 80%。在这些周期性的促销期间，下载游戏成为我们调查的畅销游戏中多数（19 款中的 10 款）最便宜的选择。在许多情况下，深度的数字折扣意味着下载版的价格可以低至最便宜二手光盘价格的 50% 或更低。

But waiting for a PlayStation Store sale isn’t always a great deal. Even with those deep discounts taken into account, a used disc was still the cheapest option for seven of the 19 games we looked at (for two more, the cheapest disc was roughly equivalent to the discounted digital sale price). For a game like Dark Souls III, for instance, you could still save $10 by buying a used GameStop disc instead of the $30 “sale” price on the PlayStation Store.

但等待 PlayStation Store 的促销并不总是最划算的。即使考虑到这些深度折扣，在我们要调查的 19 款游戏中，二手光盘对于其中 7 款游戏来说仍然是最便宜的选择（另外还有两款游戏，最便宜的光盘价格与数字促销价大致相当）。例如，对于《黑暗之魂 3》这样的游戏，购买 GameStop 的二手光盘比 PlayStation Store 30 美元的“促销价”还能再省下 10 美元。

While a cheap disc can be purchased pretty much whenever you want, getting a deal on the PlayStation Store means being vigilant enough to monitor the few days a year where the best price is being offered. For the bestsellers we looked at, those discount prices on downloads were only offered between 13 and 33 percent of the time. In some cases, an eager digital buyer would have to wait multiple months for a weekslong sale period to pop up if they wanted to take advantage of the generous digital discounts. Remember, too, that buying a game on disc means you can resell it again when you’re done, getting back a percentage of the purchase price in the process. This kind of de facto discount won’t be an option in PlayStation’s disc-less future.

虽然廉价光盘几乎可以随时购买，但在 PlayStation Store 上获得优惠则意味着你需要保持警惕，时刻关注一年中仅有的几天最佳价格。对于我们调查的畅销游戏，这些数字版折扣价格仅在 13% 到 33% 的时间内提供。在某些情况下，急切的数字版买家如果想利用这些慷慨的数字折扣，可能不得不等待数月，直到为期数周的促销期出现。此外，请记住，购买实体光盘意味着你在通关后可以将其转售，从而收回一部分购买成本。这种事实上的折扣在 PlayStation 无光盘的未来将不复存在。

The pricing structure for PlayStation games in a disc-free world won’t necessarily mirror the current pricing on the PlayStation Store. Right now, cheap disc games exist as a sort of release valve for pricing pressure, setting a competitive price that digital sale pricing has to at least take into account as an alternative. If used discs are simply not available for future PlayStation games, PlayStation owners won’t have any other option to buy a game outside the PlayStation Store. That lack of alternatives might mean publishers have less impetus to offer the kind of deep discounts for downloadable versions that are currently common.

在无光盘的世界里，PlayStation 游戏的定价结构不一定会照搬目前 PlayStation Store 的定价。目前，廉价光盘游戏作为一种价格压力的释放阀，设定了一个竞争性价格，数字促销定价至少必须将其作为替代方案纳入考量。如果未来 PlayStation 游戏不再有二手光盘，PlayStation 用户将没有其他渠道在 PlayStation Store 之外购买游戏。这种缺乏替代方案的情况可能意味着，发行商提供目前常见的深度数字版折扣的动力会减弱。