While the video game market moves increasingly towards an unfortunate all-digital future there has been some good news today regarding physical game sales in the United States. Circana, which tracks video game sales in the US, says that the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 helped bump up physical sales which are currently up round 26% on Nintendo platforms compared to a year ago. Circana’s Mat Piscatella said this is very likely a temporary blimp, but it’s a good blip all the same.
This is the Switch 2 bump,” he said. “Physical software sales on Nintendo platforms are up around 26% compared to a year ago, but still down from the year ending May 2024 period.”
“All other ecosystems are continuing to drop by double-digit percentages,” he continued. “Very likely to be a temporary blip.”
“At some point, this will all bottom out – perhaps we’re getting there now – until the console manufacturers decide to no longer produce units with physical drives.”
We have been getting less gamekey cards lately, let’s keep it that way.
I actually slowed on buying Switch 1 games for a while last year and since launch I’ve gotten a TON of Nintendo Switch 2 games physically I’m loving it lol
Btw, I always feel like the doom and gloom on digital future stuff is always blown so out of proportion lmao. Physical media is on the rise across all mediums compared to what it was 5, 10 years ago with vinyls, blu-rays, books etc. People care more and more about actually owning their stuff since they’ve now seen how it can be ripped away from streaming services (with pricehikes also driving people away now) and digital storefronts. Ofc I do think we’re heading in a direction where digital will be bigger, and I say that as a physical media collector across several mediums. But it’ll 1000% never fully erase physical lmao
I think maybe Xbox was heading in the direction of ultimately cutting out discs near-entirely (boutique smaller manufacturers will always strike deals for collectors even if in smaller numbers), and ofc Sony sees how much more they could make by gutting disc drives for consumers that only buy digital (still though why limit yourself from ever buying pre-owned for cheap? Lol)
But Microsoft has seen a leadership change, and the PS6 and new Xbox are years and years off new because of the ram shortage the AI slop epidemic caused. Calling anything right now is way too early LOL. Not to mention the direction public consensus has gone with other industries limiting consumer rights and getting greedier and greedier. I do think both Xbox and PS6 will have digital options at launch, but that’s kind of been the standard for a while now. Not to mention, back when Microsoft said the Xbox One wouldn’t be able to play pre-owned games, GameStop just flat out said they genuinely would not sell the new Xbox at their stores at all, whatsoever. There’d be corporate pushback on digital only considering brick & mortar stores and retailers like Walmart, Target, and Best Buy have shelf space for the games too, not just consoles. Same for Amazon which regularly sells out physical copies. Would retailer stores really sacrifice retail space for a wall of gift cards no one would buy?
Nintendo makes the vast majority of their money on software sales. And a HUGE part of their business is brand recognition across Mario, Zelda, Pokémon Animal Crossing Splatoon and even more. How many of the Mario games sales came from moms at physical stores Christmas shopping and going for an employee’s recommendation or whatever the newest Mario game at the time was? And how many kids have gone grocery shopping with their parents just to see a display or sign or copy of the newest Pokémon across from the plush it’s and cards and toys and told their mom they want that for their birthday? There’s tons of people that just straight up bought Mario Kart because ‘ooh, I didn’t know the new one was out’ before seeing it advertised in store
If anything, I think Nintendo will always have a physical store presence just because of their family-friendly nature. But Playstation and Xbox aren’t far behind. Digital will grow but I think there’s a plateau to that given the state of the world and just the nature of how this industry works.
Anyone who claims that the world will one day be all digital is so funny to me. Like, records are without a doubt antiquated forms of musical media, and yet people still enjoy their unique style so much to the point that there’s an entire growing industry just for them; they were brought back with a new branding calling them vinyls. This is further proof that if there is enough love for collecting media, it will find a way to sustain itself.
Except physical numbers continue to decrease with each passing year, and will eventually reach the point where the big gaming companies no longer see them as worth doing. This has already started to happen, and is only going to continue happening.
Look you can huff copium on this all you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that physical media is on its way out. Learn to deal with it.
Wah wah wah, cry me a river digital boy. Even niches make profit when funds are properly allocated. I buy and support both digital AND physical because there’s a space for both. I genuinely do not understand your emphatic stance on this. None of us are ever going to agree with you, and spinning our wheels on a topic that goes nowhere isn’t how you make friends with people online or irl.
Consider this the last time I ever reply to one of your comments about this topic because as nicely and plainly put as I can be, there is no point in responding to you on this ever again. Have a good one though.
They were always called vinyls
tl;dr No one cares.
I think it’s just what you do when you buy a new console. When I got a Switch 2, I bought a copy of DK Bananza and Metroid Prime 4. It will probably be the last physical games I buy for the forseeable future if digital copies are going to be cheaper.
Have you checked out Walmart or Amazon for cheaper prices? I got both Star Fox and Splatoon Raiders for their digital prices when I bought them on Amazon, plus it was free shipping because I spent over $50. Good deal imo
That’s because they are counting Key Cards as Physical unfortunately
It’s great to see physical game sales getting a boost, even if it’s only temporary. The success of the Nintendo Switch 2 shows there’s still strong demand for owning games in a tangible format rather than going fully digital. Hopefully this trend sticks around a little longer. prontobet casino