Sony would have more digital sales if they didn't fuck with people's libraries. The only way to be sure that you can still play some PS games is to have a physical copy.
It is dumb to trust physical media with copy protection. Those discs don't last nearly as long as you think they will and you have no way to make a proper backup. You are trying to solve a legal/societal problem with a technical workaround, that never really works out.
Any time a company says "People don't want x" what they mean is "We don't want people to want x", usually due to money, effort, control, or a mixture of the three.
Because it all routes through one digital storefront without the possibility of competition, so digital pricing on console storefronts is artificially high.
Plus, they’ve already shut down stores on older consoles and people have lost games. That’s less likely as console companies learn how to make competent digital storefronts and account systems, many have felt the burn of losing all your digital purchases on console and won’t let it happen twice.
We have one shop, we dont own the games, unwarranted bans are a thing - locking you out of your games, sales are shit tier and they keep adding advertising and necessitating online.
I ended up with a disc console, but I admit it makes up a minority of my usage. I just wanted to be able to play old PS4 games, and blu-ray movies. Most of the games I play are on PS+ or purchased digitally.
Yeah, the digital price only goes down for sales, otherwise even years after release you're paying full price. With discs you can buy from whatever store you want and usually prices go down a lot within a year (which you should wait anyway because games are too buggy at release).
And you can usually snag a used copy for even less without losing out on anything. That’s the main reason why I would never get a digital only console. But also, I‘m primarily a PC gamer, so I’m tied to digital only but at least I‘m not bound to a single store.
I must be in the minority that prefers digital and went digital for good since the 7th generation, SCII HD bought on the X360 still plays on XSX. I only buy physical when it is an import not available in the store in my country such as DOAX3, thank you Play Asia. I have a diskless XBox and Playstation, so I play the imported games on the Switch. If I didn't have a Switch and if the Playstation versions weren't more censored I might see a reason to get a disk drive for it.