During his presentation for the Electronics Investor Relations Day 2015 held this morning, Sony Computer Entertainment President and CEO Andrew House talked about the current shift from physical to digital game purchases, that is also encouraging a move from PS3 to PS4.

"This is a digital era, and core users who are core digital native will move to PS4 from PS3 because it has better network features, and that has an impact on PS3 sales.

I'd like to add about profit and cost, that when I buy downloadable Dragon Quest, it's faster, we can get it earlier, and it's gonna be actually fun, so people are moving from packaged to downloadable purchases."

House was also asked whether the shift to digital download will improve profits:

"Yes, it will have an impact on higher profits, but each region has a different situation regarding users. Of course, in terms of streaming, the US is the most advanced, and there's an accelerating shift to streaming from physical packaged (purchases), but other regions are different. There is a shift, but the pace of shifting is different depending on the region."

Personally, I have to admit that I moved to almost fully digital with the new generation of consoles, but that started a while before with Steam. That said, I can't help but hope that the shift won't remove physical sales completely from the picture any time soon. Call me a romantic, if you will.