Lords of the Fallen 2 boss calls GTA 6 physical disc decision 'unfair'

GTA 6 And as Sony takes its first big steps toward a digital-only gaming future, and physical media takes some hits, CEO Lords of the Fallen 2 Small studios and publishers have declared that it is not fair. Rockstar's GTA 6 It recently became the most high-profile AAA game to completely forgo a physical release, sparking significant controversy.

The future of physical media in gaming has been in question for the past couple of weeks, which has spread from the most anticipated game of the year. GTA 6 Pre-orders opened on June 25, with the bold announcement that it would be a digital-only release, containing only a code in a box at retail, with no disc version ever coming. Shortly thereafter, Sony announced plans to completely cease physical disc production in 2028, and rumors began to circulate that Microsoft was working on a disc-to-digital conversion system, as Project Helix was claimed to be digital-only. Fans are none too pleased with the news, and now even studio heads are voicing that it's potentially unfair to companies that want to give fans what they want.

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GTA 6's physical disc decision claimed 'unfair' by Lords of the Fallen 2 CEO

Joining the discussion about the future of physical media, CI Games CEO Marek Tyminski weighed in on Twitter, stating GTA 6 Digital-only is unfair to smaller studios that still choose to release a physical version because of the costs they incur. Tyminski says it's difficult to justify physical sales due to “low revenue per unit for developers, long lead times, and unnecessary costs in an industry where many are already losing money,” but the studio still plans to launch physical copies. Lord of the Fall 2. Naturally, producing a case and disc to sit on store shelves has a much lower unit cost per game than a direct download digital release, which can hurt the bottom line for smaller studios like Rockstar Games, which are so big that they can eat that cost simply because of sales volume.

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The CEO of CI Games goes into a breakdown of what the typical monetary split looks like for each game disc sold. Tyminski says retail is about 25-35%, distributors 10-20%, and actual physical production costs are about $10, leaving the studio at about $26 per game sold, without accounting for sales or markdowns. Compared to the roughly $49 Tyminski reports the studio can get at the highest margin from digital-only sales, that's a decidedly small number. The CEO closes his series of posts, “From a pure ROI standpoint, the choice is clear.”

Tyminski's statements echo what other developers are saying these days. Significantly, Baldur's Gate 3 The developers spoke after Sony's announcement, saying that while the physical version of the game may have been ridiculously expensive to produce, it was still worth it and made people happy. However, when it comes to the sales breakdown detailed by Tyminski, it seems that publishers will definitely have to weigh how much those physical editions mean going forward.

GTA 6 Not the first AAA game to go digital-only, but it's certainly the most high-profile if it sticks with it. Alan Wake 2 It was an exclusively digital-only release until fan requests showed enough interest in a physical release that Remedy and Epic Games deemed it a worthwhile venture. Meanwhile, Hellblade 2 Another AAA game remains without a physical release, as fans clamor for a boutique company to take limited run games from Microsoft and release them on disc. It remains to be seen whether limited runs and other third-party physical media vendors will take some of the burden off the studios to keep costs down and give physical copies to fans.