[STEAM] RIP bargain bin: The price impact of Sony's disc-free PlayStation plan

[Steam 0]

Since Sony announced that it was

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, 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.

Our prices are so low, you'll think we've suffered brain damage

For our analysis, we started with

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. We eliminated any games that weren't available on a physical disc, then used

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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).

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