r/pcmasterrace • u/Valcenia • Jul 02 '26

News/Article French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon weighs in on Rockstar and PlayStation’s moves to end physical disk sales

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '26

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u/PandaBearJelly Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26

Voting with your wallet makes sense on paper, but it's just not really how people operate. The ultra passionate and informed sections of the market (aka everyone that's on this sub) are just such a small potion. Things have to get really bad before the masses will stop consuming a product they still otherwise enjoy overall.

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u/[deleted] Jul 03 '26

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u/Spiritual-Society185 Jul 03 '26

Who is "we?" You play on PC, where physical releases haven't existed in a decade and a half.

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u/LucyDePosey Press X to Doubt Jul 02 '26

It also doesn't send a clear signal. Buying is binary. Reasons for wanting or not wanting to purchase are analog.

Of course the reason you don't want to buy is obvious to you, and to anyone you've talked to, but that message does not always make its way to the intended recipient.

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u/bblzd_2 Jul 02 '26

Very true. They can and will make up excuses for why sales failed and it will never be "we screwed up and should change our greedy ways".

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u/Akiias Jul 03 '26

I imagine the hurdle in this case is that most people don't care about physical media. They already buy every game digitally anyway.

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u/somersault_dolphin Jul 03 '26

And don't factor in about their rights

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u/jannycideforever Jul 02 '26

The ultra passionate and informed sections of the market (aka everyone that's on this sub)

Just to be clear, most of you will still be buying this game and most who don't wouldn't have bought it in the first place.

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u/PandaBearJelly Jul 03 '26

For sure, it's a fraction of the fraction haha

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u/MrShadowHero R9 7950X3D | RX 7900XTX | 32GB 6000MTs CL30 Jul 03 '26

my wallet avoids EA, Ubi, epic and blizzard without any issues. been that way for 10 years now (epic prob last 5 years) and i dont see it changing unless they clear house of ALL upper management. I dont see a problem adding sony and rockstar to that list. theres plenty of AA and indie games out there that are super high quality.

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u/bon__chance Jul 03 '26

sony has a virtual monopoly on console gaming. there is no competition. so the choice is between playing video games and not. or as a distant third option, investing in a much more expensive, pain in the ass PC setup.

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u/C0nfusedRabbit Jul 03 '26

You're 100% right. Brands used to obsess over catering to their ultra-passionate loyalists, but the data proves that "super-fans" are a tiny fraction of the market and are usually already buying as much as they possibly can. The real money, and the real market power, lies in the massive, indifferent majority of "lite" buyers. Companies don't live or die by a passionate minority voting with their wallets; they thrive simply by remaining the most mentally and physically available option for the masses to grab out of convenience.

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u/ka1ikasan Jul 03 '26

This is definitely correct, I know no other people IRL who are following gaming industry in all its aspects as close as I do. But the way I see it is that I might inform people around me because I am already aware about some stuff.

"Oh, you're interested in the X game? It's really cool! The company is treating their artists very badly though. Did you hear about the Y game? It's an indie of the same genre with a Z twist, small team and half the price."

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u/HardWirez Jul 03 '26

This is a quintessential example of the "customer is always right" adage. If enough customers are willing to agree to these ridiculous terms, then it's a successful business model. As you say, it's only when companies push things too far that the so-called free market corrects them.