Sony's own Black Friday sales confirm that a disc-drive is a must-have

gamesradar.com:

More games are being sold digitally than ever before, but the Black Friday sales on the PlayStation Store are proof we need to hold onto physical media and disc-drives for as long as possible.

One Redditor noticed that while there are "a couple decent sales on some of the newer games like 25% off Metaphor: ReFantazio [...] 99% of the games are a lot cheaper as a physical copy."

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is currently £59.49 on the PS Store, 15% off. But you can buy a physical copy from Argos for £53.99. Then you could trade it in next year when the next Call of Duty comes out. Digital is easy, sure, because you don't have to switch discs around, but it's not cheaper even though it really should be.

With digital games, there's no middleman, no distribution costs, just Sony beaming the game directly onto your hard drive, so why is it almost always more expensive?

The Redditor notes "You wouldn’t have to buy many games to justify buying a disc drive as you save a lot of money buying physical copies over digital."

This could be Sony wanting more people to buy disc drives, or it could just be that it realizes it can charge more for the convenience of providing a download that means people don't have to go outside.

The PS5 Pro controversially doesn't come with disc-drive, even though the console costs $699.99. Adding a disc-drive costs an extra $79.99, but considering that will let you play all your old PS4 games and buy physical PS5 games at a discount, it's well worth the investment.

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I'll always prefer physical media to digital. With an actual disc, I can reinstall a game no matter what happens to its digital copy. We've seen games be removed from storefronts and even digital libraries before, you don't actually own your digital games. I'm much more inclined to trust something I can hold in my hands.

If you want a discount, check out the best Black Friday gaming deals we've found.