Current Events > Walmart to stop selling physical Xbox games in 2024.

(+) Yeah! (+)

According to limited run at least.

https://twitter.com/limitedrunjosh/status/1712554666838704169?s=46&t=MclOgjiC_DZiKahxLVoZDg

With gamepass being so successful and the merger finally going through, doesnt surprise me at all.

The only time I ever buy anything from Best Buy is when it's a game that's on sale so I guess I'll never be buying from them again.

I doubt places like Walmart will be stocking many physical games at all sooner rather than later. Just the big annual franchises that people buy as gifts.

Physical Station is best console

Coincidentally now is a great time to get out of games anyway

Damn that is really going to suck for people who hunt sales

They need those locking cabinets for more valuable items, like toothpaste and underwear.

Even Playstation is like 80% of their game sales are digital. Something like 94% of their entire software revenue is all digital.

It's a dying format overall unfortunately. It's gonna be like that sad PC game section of 10 years ago which was just Sims, Blizzard games and a bunch of shovelware point and click games. I guess for consoles that's gonna be Mario, Pokemon, COD, Assassin's Creed, Sonic and sports games.

Punished_Blinx posted...

Even Playstation is like 80% of their game sales are digital. Something like 94% of their entire software revenue is all digital.

It's a dying format overall unfortunately. It's gonna be like that sad PC game section of 10 years ago which was just Sims, Blizzard games and a bunch of shovelware point and click games. I guess for consoles that's gonna be Mario, Pokemon, COD, Assassin's Creed, Sonic and sports games.

No it isnt. Mobile gaming is huge and digital only. PC has Steam which is digital only. Xbox has game pass which canibalized sales on their own platform. PlayStation and Nintendo are very much still physical media giants with some 70-80 percent of sales still being physical outside of various indie darlings which tend to also be digital only.

Rise_Makaveli posted...

PlayStation and Nintendo are very much still physical media giants with some 70-80 percent of sales still being physical outside of various indie darlings which tend to also be digital only.

PlayStation overall is 80% digital.

Nintendo has recently hit around 50%

All of the major publishers are way above 50% for digital now. Not sure what stats you're referring to.

I figured they would have stopped selling Xbox games a long time ago

Punished_Blinx posted...

PlayStation overall is 80% digital.

Nintendo has recently hit around 50%

where are you getting those numbers?

CrimsonGear80 posted...

where are you getting those numbers?

https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2022/07/nearly-80percent-of-all-ps5-ps4-games-are-bought-digitally
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/5/8/AACT2jAAE8AW.jpg

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/02/digital-sales-make-up-nearly-half-of-fy-2023-switch-software-sales-so-far
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/5/9/AACT2jAAE8AX.jpg

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/92559/digital-made-up-77-of-capcoms-q1-gaming-revenues-and-86-total-game-sales/index.html
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/6/0/AACT2jAAE8AY.jpg

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/gamesindustrybiz-presents-the-year-in-numbers-2022
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/6/1/AACT2jAAE8AZ.jpg

I wonder how DLC and micro transactions play into that

those graphs and numbers are from certain quarters in certain regions. these quarters could have seen more digital-only games released. For example it was recently shown that in Japan physical games are still preferred

https://twitter.com/Genki_JPN/status/1710091695868744037?s=20

also seems to be similar in Europe.

Sony should just chill and create a game pass competitor

We can see in Japan that barely anyone is buying PS5 games over there.

Meanwhile Apex Legends second biggest market is Japan. Genshin Impact makes a third of its revenue in Japan. Those games are why people are buying a PS5 over there. Saying that they prefer physical is overall still simplifying it pretty dramatically. Switch is basically holding up the entire 'traditional' gaming market over there and even that is due to the portability of the Switch which has always been more popular in Japan.

I'm not saying that physical games are going to stop being released next year. But we're gonna see stores like Walmart continue to gradually scale things back as more people have move onto F2P games, buying games on sale on digital stores, subscriptions etc.

The physical gaming market is soon just gonna be enthusiasts and people who buy the same IP over and over. It's not gonna make sense for a place like Walmart to have a variety of stock for example so yeah stores like them are gonna scale back to just games people will buy full price for. Which isn't really all that large of a number of titles these days.

Amazon and the like will last a fair bit longer as they don't need to worry about shelf space and enthusiasts can easily order whatever they want.

This stuff takes time. Only now are Best Buy removing physical movies completely.

But overall we're talking about 5% of the revenue of this market. It's not something companies will overly care about as the tide continues to shift. Personally when I go to a department store I can already see how significantly those shelves have shrunk compared to a decade ago.

On top of that yes. There are more and more digital games coming out and less and less physical games.
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2022/02/fewer-and-fewer-console-games-are-seeing-a-physical-release/
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/3/8/AACT2jAAE8Bm.jpg

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/3/9/AACT2jAAE8Bn.jpg

I really dislike the fact that we might lose the ability to own physical games.

I used to be one of the people online who HATED digital media and wanted physical media only, but I've really shifted. I like digital media more because of the portability.

But I imagine there are still a lot of digital media haters on the internet. I wonder what it feels like for them to have the sand slip through their fingers...

CrimsonGear80 posted...

those graphs and numbers are from certain quarters in certain regions. these quarters could have seen more digital-only games released. For example it was recently shown that in Japan physical games are still preferred

https://twitter.com/Genki_JPN/status/1710091695868744037?s=20

also seems to be similar in Europe.

Neither of which matter in the US. It's reaching unsustainable levels for large box stores and gamestop has been and is on life support.

The future of media in the US is digital. I'm for it and rarely if ever get physical games/movies. What I can't get....I can pirate.

Makes sense, the next Xbox revision kills discs.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/3/6/AAWhExAAE8Bk.jpg

Starks posted...

Sony should just chill and create a game pass competitor

that's ps+ just microsoft actually puts more day 1 games on theirs.

it's not surprising. pc has been basically digital only for like a decade now. i'm assuming they'll probably still have physical games in warehouses and just keep the big sellers as physical games. does suck for us that prefer physical games. plus ones that only really buy during sales. there's way more physical sales that are worthwhile over digital sales when it's only for that game. no buy 2 get 1 free or anything.

also what about the parents/grandparents trying to buy christmas/birthday presents for their kids? can't just buy them an actual game? have to buy them store money instead?

think it's a gen too early for it. i expect next gen to just be digital only. which again sucks for collectors since you can't just have a rare game you could resell or anything. even games you beat you're just stuck with instead of trading it in. would finish off gamestop if it's not bankrupt before then.

SpiritSephiroth posted...

I really dislike the fact that we might lose the ability to own physical games.

Our only bastion of hope in the near future might be ordering copies directly from the publisher/developer websites. Ubisoft recently expressed that they still think there's a market for physical media no matter how small it gets, so maybe they'll do something like that.

creativeme posted...

also what about the parents/grandparents trying to buy christmas/birthday presents for their kids? can't just buy them an actual game? have to buy them store money instead?

They probably do mostly buy store money these days yeah.

But think about the kinda games they would buy and it'll make sense to stock that on shelves for a while yet. Everything else? It's going to probably be limited run stuff.

Actually funnily enough, I was looking to get a game physically for my PC since it's older and cheaper that way...started searching then realized..."oh yeah, I don't even have a DVD drive."

Save 100% on the shipping and creation of the cases and discs....

....Increases standard pricing to $79.99 for the "base" game.

Exactly what I expected years back. While everyone acted like it was somehow going to be a good thing. If you're rich and could care less and always use god tier internet. I suppose?

I'd like Gamepass a hell of a lot more if I didn't feel like it was going to be over $30 a month quicker than you'd think. Remember, it was NOT all that long ago MS tried fucking DOUBLING the price of gold.

Even though I use digital mostly now. The numbers don't tell the full story. That's only because Xbox finally decided to use competitive pricing. Hell I remember in 2013 there wasn't even digital sales on Xbox whatsoever. An old game would lower in price and NEVER go lower than 20 and why the hell would I buy that if its 3-5 at a used store?

Being able to rent and trade games with people is still something I do. Removal of that will actually lead to me spending LESS Money on gaming not more.

I am VERY surprised at not selling online....

I think it's insane that people are willing to fork over extra money just to save themselves a trip downtown when a new game releases, but it is apparently the way of things.

It's sad to see it go and the world to shift to mostly digital. I just can't bring myself to place value in digital movies or console games when you can lose them even after you "buy" them.

Dark-Summoner posted...

Neither of which matter in the US. It's reaching unsustainable levels for large box stores and gamestop has been and is on life support.

The future of media in the US is digital. I'm for it and rarely if ever get physical games/movies. What I can't get....I can pirate.

i dont know why people think physical media will be dead, like, in the next year when its clear large percentages of people still buy physical media. Certain retailers not selling discs anymore doesnt mean physical is dead

i dont understand why having physical media keep being an opinion upsets certain people.

I'd imagine the less they have locked up requiring a staff member to get for you, the less they gotta spend on payroll hours for the electronics department also.

Billyionaire posted...

Coincidentally now is a great time to get out of games anyway

I kind feel like this too overall

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


all the new models can use a disc drive...

Physical Chads...........
It's over....

CrimsonGear80 posted...

i dont know why people think physical media will be dead, like, in the next year when its clear large percentages of people still buy physical media. Certain retailers not selling discs anymore doesnt mean physical is dead

i dont understand why having physical media keep being an opinion upsets certain people.

It doesn't necessarily have to be dead but it being a niche thing that only enthusiasts and collectors bother with seems pretty inevitable. That's where movies and music are at today.

Consoles with an expensive optional accessory for physical media along with small print runs isn't technically a death but it's not exactly the primary market anymore.

Punished_Blinx posted...

It doesn't necessarily have to be dead but it being a niche thing that only enthusiasts and collectors bother with seems pretty inevitable. That's where movies and music are at today.

those percentages are too big for it to be "niche"...

Punished_Blinx posted...

Consoles with an expensive optional accessory for physical media along with small print runs isn't technically a death but it's not exactly the primary market anymore.

the version that comes with the disc drive is most likley going to sell more.

CrimsonGear80 posted...

those percentages are too big for it to be "niche"...

Not really. 20% of overall games and 5% of the overall market for Playstation isn't big at all. That figure will just continue to drop. Xbox seems to be even less than that if retailers aren't even considering it worth to stock their games.

Nintendo is 50% now but that's where the PS4 and Xbox One were. We'll see where they're at with their next system.

CrimsonGear80 posted...

the version that comes with the disc drive is most likley going to sell more.

I don't think that's necessarily the case for the Xbox Series. Which is why something like this is starting to happen for Xbox.

Who says next gen will even have a base model that comes with a disc drive at all?

We've already seen this happen for PC. How many people even bother with a disc drive anymore.

If the next argument is "PC is different' then...why? PC if anything tends to be ahead of the curve.

I like digital distribution for the convenience.

I dont like the fact it potentially destroys the preservation of old games and backwards compatibility, and gives publishers 100% control over when a game ceases to exist.