Capcom sales are now 80% digital.

Now I don't know if this is for last quarter or for full year as I never bothered to read the full boring article by Gameindustry.biz but it is interesting that one of the biggest Japanese publisher sales is now almost fully digital. The end of physical media is inevitable, in few years I won't be surprised if some AAA publishers decides to go fully digital and everyone somehow praising Sony for removing the bluray disk tray on PS5.

*Idk what the fuk capcom released physically in 2020 other than Sakura Wars (or was it sega?) so maybe the result is biased. They also don't care about Switch which is a good thing. Well done Capcom.

Capcom says its game sales are 80% digital and rising

Publisher aiming to reduce physical media to just 10% of its game sales in the future

Four out of five games Capcom sells are distributed digitally, and the publisher believes there's still room to grow that share.

In response to a question at its annual shareholders meeting, the company confirmed that its digital sales ratio on games is currently sitting at about 80% and trending upward.

"While it ultimately depends on how our customers behave going forward, for the time being we are promoting our digital strategy with an objective of 90%, since there are some customers who prefer to own discs," the company said. "We aim to continue expanding our business performance by maximizing the benefits of digital sales, which include being able to provide our content both for longer periods of time and throughout the world."

Capcom's shift to digital is happening faster than the company expected. Last year, it reported digital distribution made up 53.3% of its sales. And while the company did expect it to jump in 2020, it only projected that growth to reach 75.4% this year.

- Brendan Sinclair, North American Editor

Source: https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-07-09-capcom-says-game-sales-are-80-percent-digital-and-rising

Digital has gotten better with pricing. I would say I've spent much more on digital this gen now that prices tend to drop very quickly.

That's actually pretty staggering. I'm wondering if this is due to the pandemic specifically or if this has been consistent for a while?

Can't resell games to get rid of them. Still don't see the point of digital.

Time to jack up prices!

Physical games are going to die. The sooner this reality is accepted the faster new laws can be put in place to allow gamers to easily sell their digital licenses.

Not having to switch out discs is cool.

@Pedro: Physical games dying out has nothing to do with the speed in which laws are created for their digital counterparts. That's up to the companies and right now, they don't want us having the ability to sell our digital licenses.

Not much of an advantage. You'll save hundreds of dollars over a generation reselling games you know for a fact won't play anymore. I would only consider digital on consoles if i can get 35-40% off on day one just like on pc. Otherwise its completely pointless buying a bunch of digital crap on your tiny console hdd that you can't do anything but delete when done with it.

@Telekill: Yes it does. The death of physical games as I have stated earlier would force the issue of reselling digital licenses. Right now, there isn't much of a push because physical is still offered. Also it's not up to the companies legally but they can illegally claim it's up to them until challenged in court.

@Pedro: I don't believe it would force anything. If you lose physical media, you simply wouldn't have the option to resell your license/game. That wouldn't change.

@Telekill: Then we disagree on the outcomes.🤷‍♂️

@hardwenzen: yeah you are right.

I only buy games on pc day one that I know can get a discount for.

Though I do tend to replay a lot of games. So I don't mind owning a lot of physical/digital games.

@Pedro: Fair enough.

As someone who very much prefers the physical medium this info has me worried. I’m not going to stop gaming over it of course but I do want the option to buy my games on physical formats to remain.

@Archangel3371: It most likely will because of you old fowls.😛

@Pedro: Good then. As long as it remains available then I will support that option. 😁

smells like damage control by TC for why nintendo outsells sony games.

oh and the next monster hunter and street fighter 6 will be on switch

If the next MH game is a an old port of a 10+ years old game, it'll be on Switch. If the next MH game is MHW2, the Switch will melt during the installation. The Switch can't handle MHW even if heavily downscaled, and that game doesn't look good at all. MHW2 will most certainly be built on their newest engine, and just like RE8, made for next gen hardware. From the release of MHW, you can forget all future MH games unless its old ports from generations ago. Capcom has seen the future of the series, and its not on the outdated hardware by two generations that the Switch is using.

Also, i'd be ready to bet money the next entry in the series will be open world and not zone based. If that's the case, there's even less chances of the potato cpu inside the Switch to handle it even in 5fps.

The sooner physical copies die the better. Less garbage for the landfills

I haven't bought a physical console game since UC4, PC since 2011 (Shogun 2 I think)

I like keeping my games and so with that, it's one reason why I went total digital gaming at the start of this gen, and even on PC, it's so much simpler to buy my games on Steam and I can find great prices compared to physical. I was pro physical during early days of the Xbox 360/PS3 era and slowly crawling towards digital late befoe PS4/Xbox One arrival.

Reselling my games isn't something I like to do, I like keeping my games cause I do replay them from time to time.

Makes sense. Distributing 1's and 0's on physical media is a waste of resources. I hate dealing with discs. Disc drives are noisy and slow. Get 'em outta here.

Then you are part of a small group because most people see the point, even if they prefer physical.

yea the chances are slim however i feel it might be like this gen and ps5/seriex x will get world 2 and switch will get a tradional MH game.

But i definitely believe another full monster hunter game is coming to switch. whether it be a potato version of world 2(slim chance) or its own traditional style game.

switch is dominating too much especially in capcoms own home for them to ignore it,

thats why street fighter 6 will also be a multiplat imo and will also be on switch/series x

im almost positive resident evil 8 wont be on switch though.

My buys are 100% digital....

In the vast majority of cases I prefer physical. Just give me the option...

Damn kids get off my lawn. (shakes cane) lol

Could be pandemic related, after all if non-essential shops are closed and people got free time to game it would make sense in last quarter if there was a big shift to digital.

They don't mention period comparison or platform breakdowns, that would be more informative.

Hey if you like physical that's fine (me personally, I don't understand why you'd spend 60 bucks on a game only to sell it back for like 10 dollars of store credit), but I wouldn't say digital is pointless. And why would you want to "get rid" of them? You make it sound like an unwanted pet.

As for the point of digital:

• Generally cheaper, at least on PC. Multiple stores competing with each other, special sales going on, etc.
• Can take your game library anywhere. I can play my game at home, play it on the airplane on my laptop, then when I land at wherever if I feel like it and find a PC somewhere I can load it there.
• If you play a lot of games, you don't need a massive amount of real estate to store your games. I would need an entire room to store my game collection
• Games are ready to be played at your finger tips, it's as simple as looking at your Steam/GoG/etc library. 16+ years of games just chillin' right there.
• No need to drive to the store, talk to people, deal with potentially bad customer service.
• No risk of the game being sold out.
• If it matters to you, you can play games earlier. Most games come out at 00:00 the day they are released, and I don't know any physical stores open that late.
• No risk of optical discs getting scratched or otherwise broken.
• No risk of losing your game, or your game being stolen
• Sheer, general convenience.
• God forbid there is a natural disaster (flood, fire, earthquake, etc) and your home lost, you don't lose your game collection.
• No risk of games being made obsolete due to my platform of choice switching formats, i.e. if Playstation or Xbox went from disc to cartridge, your discs would suddenly not be able to be played on the new console. Not likely to happen, but it's still a reason.
• Not always, but in general, the developer get's a better split of the money when you buy digital.
• Generally speaking, when you buy digital, you get better service; specifically cloud space for saved games, forums, mod support, etc.
• Old games are still available to purchase. I can go and buy a copy of Thief 2 right now if I want, or whatever.
• Independent, niche, and lesser-known games are available a lot more digitally than they are physically. Find me a store where I can buy a physical copy of Factorio, Prison Architect, Kerbal Space Program, and so on.

Not that physical is pointless, but its advantages are waning:

• You can share games
  • Yes, this is a nice feature. As for me personally, I am not in high school or college any more, I have a job, and I can buy (and keep) all the games I want.
• Can trade in games
  • As I mentioned above, it's not a good deal. You're being taken advantage of. I would personally rather keep the game than get ripped off.
• If your internet has a data cap, physical editions help you save on data use.
  • Not necessarily. Every single time I've purchased a game for my PS4 I was required to download 15+ GB updates before playing. How many 20+ GB patches were released for CoD: MW over the last six months? Like ten?
• You can marvel at your physical game collection
  • Fair enough. I admit it'd be pretty cool to have a game library with neat wooden shelves, maybe one of those cool library ladders mounted on a rail, and you can go around and have your games organized by genre :P
• Physical games, especially special editions/collector's editions/etc, come with game art, manuals, and other collectibles.
  • These things are also available digitally, but again, it's sometimes nice to have an art book in your hand to leaf through.

@mrbojangles25: lol i don't sell them for $10 for store credit. That's so 15 years ago. I usually ebay em, and if i were to sell TLOU2, which i will as soon as i'm done, they go for $50 cash, so that's far from the worthless $10 credit.

I rarely replay games that i feel like i've done everything i wanted to do in them, so keeping them to collect dust is a waste of space for me, personally.

yeah next gen will probably be the last for physical game discs..

And if Sony and MS really want to put the final nail in the coffin for physical discs sooner rather then later they should price their Digital Edition systems for $100 cheaper then the Base models.

SInce I am a good guy that bothered to do research, No there will be absolutely no MH World on Switch. But good news, as in this same investor meeting an investor asked a question about MH on switch and the respond was and I rephrase "We are planning to develop a “Monster Hunter” that can be enjoyed by junior and senior high school students, and look forward to future developments".

Switch is for casuals and kids that has so much time to socialize, so wait for that version!

I'd be pissed off if this was the only version coming to my system.

I think I will be getting the Digital Edition PS5. I wait for most games in the PSN sales now and very rarely do I use the optical drive on my PS4. I haven't bought a physical game for over 3 years. Have no interest in selling used games and it is better for the environment.

As I have already saved my money for the PS5 I can keep my PS4 to play blu-rays on there.

that would not work because your not playing a used copy. I even had a game case with a coffee ring on it.

only way it would work is if sony or xbox allowed you to trade games as long the price point of each game is almost the same. no way they let you trade a 20 dollar game for a 60 dollar game.

but once you trade you can download it again unless you pay for it again.

I'm a collector, I will always go for the physical release first, Love having them on my shelf and love being able to take out a game and start playing.

I have bought more digital games this year, The Corona Virus definitely had an effect on that, plus I've been on a tighter budget this year (Just bought a house) so the digital sales have been appealing.

I'll keep buying physical as long as they make the games, even if next gen is the last gen for it, I'll switch to digital once forced to.

But I need more than 1TB of space, It's already to the point where I have to delete games and re-install. That's really bothersome to me. I think 2TB needs to be the minimum and the console needs to support internal HDD's of larger sizes

so the monster hunter you played your whole life up until 3 years ago is now trash and for kids and social idiots?

lol the monster hunter you played and fell in love with? lol so what does that make you?

lmao

well at least you admit switch will keep getting that monster hunter love. im sure you wont get nostalgia for playing an oldschool monster hunter when watererddown world 2 releases on your potato station 5. youll be like what was i thinking "my whole life" lolzrs. i mean who wants to play oldschool? those are too hard and sucky graphics. those games suck.

lol

As much as I love Monster Hunter and do have a Switch, the mechanics of World is so good I felt bad for those unable to experience it due to some reason. Its really good and Alatreon in Iceborne just shows devs can still make a hard yet fun monster like the older games. No way I'm coming back to old controls and map design, either dev update the controls and QoL for switch or its an immediate no from me no matter how much nostalgia they throw.

Cannot wait for World 2 on PS5, PC and maybe Xbox. Switch not included obviously.

I'm slowly transitioning to all digital, but I'm not there yet. Got hundreds of physical games, with little room for more of them.

I just wish companies would get their heads out of their asses and make it more convenient.

• provide better ownership rights
• have better digital sales
• transitions from generations with upgradeable options
• better organization/separation of single player and online multiplayer files within a single game; including updates involving expanding file sizes in regards to over-writing/stacking new files
• better managing and packing of files
• better global coverage of fiber internet and larger data limits

All that you nonsense you spout is just pure fanboyism, and not a love or knowledge of the series itself.

And as much as I love MHW, it doesn't get everything right. In some regards it's too mindless and handholding, like the scout flies for instance. the palico's aren't managed and over-simplified, there are too many variants of monsters thrown in simply to expand a minimal and pathetic list of monsters. Some recent additions involve mmo mechanics that stray from the series foundation, and the game's online co op is straight shit compared to GU. Not to mention the absolute lack of local co op features.

A new MH should incorporate good features from both World and past games, and Nintendo fans should get a new game made specifically for Switch, and PC, PS and XB should get a new World sequel with those things.

Capcom should totally scrap loading areas of older titles, and mmo mechanics of world's dlc monsters. The series is too good to ignore any fan base.

monster hunter is monster hunter. world is just a prettier version for all the casuals who arent real gamers to actually have eye candy to get into the series.

no loading in the maps...whoooah wooptie doo....lol

a true fan of the series doesnt give a shit about that stuff. i will gladly play a ps3 graphics version made exclusively for switch and not give a shit about monster hunter casual edition(world). the core game is the same.

As said, if its just the same old game without the QoL of world I am out. Read plis.

too many variants.. Silverwind Nargacuga, Green Nargacuga, Grimclaw Tigrex, Dreadking/queen Rathalos, barroth variants, Rajang variants, subspecies like Sand barioth, berserk tetsucabra, Shrouded Nescylla, Oroshi Kirin and others in the old world.... Did you even play Monster Hunter??

Sure handholding, scoutflies, palico. Capcom can always improve on it. they don't always gets everything the first time and to be frank, I rather have scoutflies than paint. Especially in Iceborne where you can turn off the follow camera for scoutflies.

As again, a throwback MH on switch is cool but no way I am coming back to clunky old MH. Either they update the movement, QoL and monster design as old MH monster is very expoitable due to movement limitation, or I'm out. Done playing it through PSP and 3DS and not coming back.

Luckily MHGU already exist.

nope thats a 3ds game upscaled to switch.

a full switch game will be much better.

@sakaixx: A new Switch MH could incorporate all those new things without state of the art graphics and resolution. It could easily support a base ps4 graphics leveled game with MH features.

What I meant by variants was this: take them out of World and GU and tell me which title has more content, and if it's even remotely close.

Stop pretending a Switch MH title would have to be like old games in the series. It would sell like hot cakes in Japan and the West, just like a new MHW title for next gen systems.

I really don't understand why needs to remove variants to prove your points. MHW and Iceborne together has 70-75 monster in the roster and all monster has moves modified and more unpredictable. its the same amount as you get in MH3U.

Even MH4U has many reused old monster and variants like there is 3-4 variants of seltas, 3 variants of tigrex, 3 variant of fking fatalis and loads of rathalos and also apex and frenzy mechanics.

Also on quest. unlike old games the new games delegates side quests to investigations and this means we have infinite quests unlike in the old games where you just replay quests. I prefer this as it just reduce bloats, why do I have to redo fighting tigrex or barioth in HR 2 or 3 or 4 in the old games.

Hope switch gets new updated mechanics and no, please no exclusives. Discord to chat? ugh stone age tech strikes again.

Capcom, be a pal and revive Mega Man Legends 3 for switch and take my money bro