A rumour was circulating yesterday that North American retailer Best Buy is dropping physical media as soon as the first quarter of 2024. Now Limited Run Games boss, Josh Fairhurst, has tweeted that he has heard that popular retailer Walmart is dropping physical Xbox video games soon, and of course, this could also apply to other physical media. Neither companies have confirmed this, so it is a rumour at present.
Rumour: Walmart dropping physical Xbox games soon, could expand to other media
Oh, thank goodness it’s just M$ Xbox physical games. Now if it said Nintendo Switch or PlayStation physical games then i might be worried. It’s cool everyone It’s just M$ Xbox physical games, for a second i thought it was serious.
I think you missed the point, it says “could expand to other media” meaning they could also do that for Nintendo and Sony games later on
I figured as much, i was joking because the article only mentioned M$ Xbox and doesn’t specifically mention what other media is. It might be cd’s or DVD’s or possibly Nintendo Switch and PlayStation physical games.
It is all games, Best Buy is doing the same.
Never going to happen, at least for a long, long time.
This is all BS. There is no way these stores are going to stop carrying games, which bring kids to the store with their parents and on and on. People go to pickup a PS5, switch, etc and then get a large screen TV and sound bar. This includes Best Buy, they will probably bow out of blu-ray, dvd music game but not games. The games sit in a cabinet, a tiny section of the store and brings the store money. This is the largest trumped up story I’ve seen all year, and there have been some doozys. The stores would be fighting to keep these sections at all costs as it brings them a lot of sales with very little outlay.
This may be a tactic from certain game manufacturers to see what the outcry would be as it costs them a ton to print labels, make plstic cases, press disc’s (carts in nintendos case) to out a game out for physical release. And then you can resell it which they would love to only do digital so they can sell you over and over. Yeah, so no one buy this crap.
Physical in store games not online. I see it happening because there are just huge numbers of games out there to sell so it makes sense. I am all for physical and am a collector but with the number of games out there I find myself buying most online already.
Ew, digital storefronts
This is only in store and will still carry in warehouse for orders online. Fact is physical games are still a big thing but there are hundreds of titles for each system out there which causes a headache for these stores. Sales and inventory do better kept online than trying to figure out what games people will buy. All digital will not be a thing until game prices drop for them as these companies are already cheating people out of their money on those sales.
I myself will not and have not bought a digital only game at full price or even half price ever and will not start. There are plenty of games out there to hold me over for ten lifetimes so I am good with waiting a couple years if I have to to buy the game just like I did with MK11 Ultimate, 2 years and got it and all characters for $11 and Tekken 7 bought it 2 years after release for $8.
If the rumors are true that the next Xbox will be digital only then it makes sense. Also this is just Walmart, not sure why some people are panicking.
If this actually ends up happening, it could be a boon for places like Gamestop and other smaller game stores. These larger stores would essentially be removing themselves from this market and leaving a huge hole in their wake.
Nice post