Death of Physical Games Will Not Have a ‘Significant Impact’ On Sales, Resident Evil Publisher Capcom Says

Resident Evil and Monster Hunter maker Capcom has said it won’t see much of an impact from the death of physical game sales, as the vast majority of its titles are already sold digitally.

Responding to a query in its most recent investor Q&A, Capcom replied to a question asking whether the publisher would be impacted by the shrinking physical game market.

Of course, Sony has now said that it will ditch game discs completely for new PS5 games sold from January 2028 onwards, and there’s an expectation that this means the PS6 will be entirely disc-less, too. Indeed, new consoles are already being shipped with warning labels, cautioning consumers of the upcoming changes. Xbox, meanwhile, is believed to be developing a system of transferring game licenses from physical game discs to digital ownership.

Nintendo currently operates on a hybrid approach, with physical games featuring a mix of regular cartridges, Game-Key Cards and digital codes in a box (the latter of which is how the Switch 2 port of Diablo 4 will reportedly arrive). Notably, though, Nintendo has recently incentivized digital purchases for new Switch 2 games by making them around $10 cheaper than their boxed counterparts.

“Approximately 90% of our unit sales are digital,” Capcom has now said. “We do not anticipate a significant impact at this time.”

Interestingly, Nintendo said in its own financial results today that its ratio of digital sales to physical rose slightly — by 2.2 points to 61.5% — though this is still much lower than some other publishers. It’s believed that Nintendo fans in particular enjoy physical game ownership, with ease of use for younger players who can share games between family members and friends, as well as having the ability trade games in.

Capcom is having a hugely successful year, with more than 2 million sales for new franchise Pragmata, and 8 million sales for Resident Evil Requiem. Up next from the publisher will be Onimusha: Way of the Sword on September 4, Dragon’s Dogma 2: Dark Arisen for Switch 2 on October 9, then Resident Evil Veronica next year. The company also has major expansions to both Resident Evil Requiem and Monster Hunter Wilds in the works.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social