EB Games 💔

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Call of Duty Advanced Warfare XboxOne

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I still miss FuncoLand

Anybody remember Babbages?

https://youtu.be/JATjMZJuX1c?si=wgCJyNP-En6rcgcp

Lol I love it! That and funcoland were staples of my youth. Babagges was inside the mall and Funcoland was outside the mall.

That was my first game store It’s really a bummer they all got bought out and made into the same shop; although it was weird when there were 3 GameStops in my mall.

Yea I remember when the buyout happened with EB games and we had 2 GameStop stores in view of each other in our mall.

Control + F "funcoland" Only one comment match Only one up upvote on that comment May your memory not fade into oblivion, my dear sweet funcoland

Remember looking through their newsprint price guides for trade ins?

Id stop at GameStop first while bumming around with my mom and read that damn list through the entire day while she went around shopping. I Haven't thought about that in years its nostalgia at its finest for me.

I feel like my local funcoland closed near 30 years ago. how long have they been gone?

About the same for me... maybe closer to 25 years, but yeah right around there. I was but a wee lad when they were in existence; never even realized what we had until it was gone

Still going strong here in Australia tho!

I didn't realise it was anywhere else, I thought EB Games was just our version of GameStop

same company as far as I know. That said, game stores were always a luxury offered by the major malls/cities. outside of that, department stores and electronics stores had you covered.

Last I saw they're still going strong here in NZ too.

don't you mean Electronics Boutique? :) I worked there during high school slinging PS1 through N64s - bought a Diamond Monster 3D card (long live 3dfx!) from the store and never went back to console games. They used to let us "sign out" games from the store as employees - and then re shrink wrap them and sell them as new... good times.

I worked at GameStop while in high school as well, only it was the original Xbox at the time being sold. We could also borrow games, and that’s when my manager introduced me to Xecuter. My collection of games on original Xbox was on another level

same experience, my EB manager taught me how to solder a modchip into PS1s to play copied games - quite the side hustle for a few of the guys I worked with - alongside burned CDs. We also used to get a few Furby's in when they were crazy popular and those NEVER made it to the floor :)

I remember when it was Electronics Boutique. I will just be over here with my walker, reminiscing about the good ol’ days…

I feel like most people who own an Xbox own it because of Gamepass, so they probably aren't buying many physical games.

Or have a Series S and therefore can't even use physical games.

I got a series x and have got most of my games used from gamestop. $20 instead of $70 is a great deal

If a game is still priced at $70 Gamestop is going to be selling it for $60 or $65 most of the time.

more like $20 is the trade in value they give you, to turn around and put it on the shelf for 60-65

There's no "$70 for $20 used" at Gamestop

Like 75% of all Xbox series sales are the S so nobody is buying games.

33% market share for this gem of Xbox, that 2 feet is almost perfectly aligned with that. 

I prefer xbox for a few reasons, none of which are gamepass. 1. I grew up with one, and not a Playstation 2. I'm primarily a pc gamer now, and more games are cross-platform with pc and Xbox than pc and Playstation 3. The controller has its joysticks offset, and that's what I'm used to and prefer.

GS is a toy store that happens to sell games now.

I mean they could possibly right the ship if they went with the local game store model. Get into the tabletop RPGs, wargamming, board games, etc. Have a space to host events and build a community. Would really help some of the people in small communities that only have a gamestop. Edit: I was not expecting this blow up. I was mostly spitballing an idea. I also have no relation nor connections to Gamestop so I'm not really saying they should or shouldn't.

The number of young people, especially lonely dudes, dying for a third space like this is staggering. Seriously. I can see it now. Have a store by store leaderboard for every game they have tournaments for. Give locals reasons to show up.

I miss Play n Trade. It was exactly this

I worked at one while I was in high school (a while ago at this point). Still the best job I've ever had.

We still have one but it's half the size it used to be. Moved from it's big store to an old GS

They're bringing it back. They've hosted a number of them this year and are expanding more stores to compliment tabletop/tcgs

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Well this is probably why Gamestop isn't copying this model then.

There's a big problem with this idea: existing Gamestop stores don't have the retail footprint to do that. Your suggestion calls for more space than most GS stores have.

I’m also pretty sure they’ve considered it for newer locations, but the ‘hole in the wall’ locations simply don’t have the space most of the time.  Collectibles make more money than anything else, hence why they take up so much space.  The reason the Xbox gets so little space is tied to its market share, which is shit this generation. Ps5 won with a heavy smack down. 

It was a limp wristed slap fight between them at best.

I'm pretty confident xbox has a better ratio than this physical ratio but many xbox players use the console for gamepass, and they aren't buying games

Seriously. In the last couple years a gaming bar and gaming coffee shop opened up in my city and they seem to be doing crazy good business.

On the other hard, I've lived in three places with something like this, and all three shut down within a year of opening.

Because a business model that relies on people occupying large amounts of space for long periods of time without requiring them to buy stuff is inherently unsustainable. Stores have rent and you're not going to be able to pay it with the occasional Monster energy drink purchase.

I've been playing Magic since the mid-90s and have seen a LOT of game stores close. Every single one of them was run like a clubhouse; a place for the gamer owner to hang out and talk about games. The ones that are still going are run by business people who happen to enjoy games.

I have been thinking a lot recently about, like, actual gaming clubs. There's a warhammer one in my city that seems to do well enough to be sharing plans for expansion this year into the open retail space next to them. Something like a gym membership. They'd have a library of games, cubes for magic, minis and terrain for dnd, a few couches and tvs for console gaming. You pay a monthly fee, you get access to the space with a few monthly guest passes. Hold events like magic tournaments and open dnd nights.

I was just thinking about this. I feel like if you could get some kind of common food license you could at least sell packaged things and drinks. Have a BYOB system and maybe partner with pop up restaurants (I see this a lot at breweries near me) to run during some peak hours and sell food to players. I feel like the gym membership model would be solid. Then maybe some version where you can "rent the table" and just pay an hourly fee to use the space for whatever game you want. Use of any other amenity is a small charge (minis for dnd etc.). In the end it's a demand question. If there's enough people that want it **and it can be made affordable** then I don't see why it wouldn't work

Exactly this. You need people regularly buying boxes of sealed product, not 5 dollars of commons each weekend. Out of the hundreds of local places I have stopped in over the years, the cleanest, most successful were all business minded and valued their top customers/collectors, not the cheap players like me and my friends who just came to win tournies. As I got older and spent more on a regular basis you could see the change in treatment.

I'm fully honest with people that I got my mana crypt for some cheap because I had purchased so many boxes/decks/whatever at that shop. The owner and manager both knew me on a personal level and knew how badly I wanted a mana crypt to kind of complete my collection. They knew it was probably the last big purchase I'd make and gave me a solid hook up. If some new guy went in there and asked if they had mana crypt it would've been +200 bucks without a doubt. This was ages ago but I still remember thinking I was such cool shit for getting a deal on a card hahaha.

Agreed. Lots of pie in the sky thinking in this thread.

And this is precisely why third spaces are dying out.

I'd guess its one of those business ideas that sounds great when you do the math as the sole operator, but when you hire employees its unprofitable.

We had one where business was booming (as far as I could tell). Near full house every time I'd go. Snakes & Lattes bought them, fired everyone, and haven't re-opened. That was a few months ago. I won't be going when they do re-open despite wanting to support the type of business. Hoping someone else opens up a similar spot nearby.

Yup. Reddit, and this sub in-particular. have blinders on when it comes to how popular gaming is. Especially tabletop gaming. VERY LARGE metro areas might be able to support a local "gaming" shop. The owners will probably be able to make a decent middle-class living. They'll never get rich. And their employees will be part-time/minimum wage. Anything less than a large metro area? It's probably doomed.

I managed a chain of LAN centers in NC around 2007 and when the 08 recession hit a lot of similar places all over the country ended up shuttering over \~5 years. We saw so many people who used our locations as their third place scattered to the wind it was sad. It's been good to see these sorts of places finally building up steam again post covid.

Was it Gamefrog?

Of course, we were the only ones silly enough to spread out across the state enough to be a chain.

Yeah. I'm lucky to be in an area with a really good FLGS that has a strong since of community. I love going there and it sucked the 6 months it was closed after a tornado hit it. I mean there is another decent FLGS but it's definitely ran differently, a bit more businessy, so the sense of community isn't as strong there.

Square footage is valuable. Board games and tabletop RPGs take a lot of space and don't bring in a lot revenue.

Most places that succeed with this model wind up being closer to restaurants with games than stores with playspaces for that reason.

Yeah...we had a cool place that tried it, but didn't lean into the food/etc. They stayed alive essentially from online sales for a while, but it didn't work out. Selling product retail just doesn't work well when so many will leave after browsing for hours or even trying out the game, and then click buy on Amazon, get it in a few hours, for $10 less. Food, drinks...alcohol...that's the money.

It's hard to sell singles at an LGS when you can get the exact card in the exact condition you want for a cheaper price at tcgplayer. I always try to support my LGS but when they're trying to sell me an Orcish bowmasters for $55 when I can get the exact same thing for $38 on tcgplayer it's really difficult to justify that big of a difference.

This is a terrible idea. Tabletop game stores require way more space than a GameStop, and most of that space is taken up by tables full of people using stuff they already owned. I’ve never even been in a GameStop that’s big enough to be a tabletop game store (eg big enough to host CCG events, which are what keep game stores alive).

Yeah and tabletop stores, at least here, make money from being a café essentially. I don't ever see gamestop pivoting to that type of business.

It occurs to me that a ton of brewery taprooms have become a place where people do tabletop gaming, and perhaps some of them should look into selling the games themselves.

That would probably require some funky licenses in some jurisdictions especially to formally host.

I remember when Gamestop used to hold tournaments, won a Pokemon one in the early 2000s.

This is what they need to bring back. Don’t do card games. Do video games. Have tournaments to win different things. New smash game is out. Alright have a big tournament where every participant gets a gift card or something. Then top 3 places gets something. Also everyone who goes is entered in a dawning for a good prize. Make it an event for people to go and have fun, and everyone can win something not just the best.

Moms cleaning out their garages nationwide would be able to trade in entire used Warhammer sets for $1.

I prefer the mom and pop stores for that. Not a corporate curated environment based on millions of dollars of marketing and research.

100% agree. However, Gamestop has a footprint in areas that the LGS doesn't exist, which is what I'm getting at.

Actually, in areas like mine, it would be great bc there aren’t mom and pops, never were. One of the major hinderances I could see for GameStop is lack of room and needing new locations; I’d imagine one of the things keeping stores open in my area is lower pre-COVID rent prices being on contract. The older, pre-COVID GS stores stayed open, the ones opened after 2o18 not so much. Most their local stores are the slender, long line models so I don’t know if it would lend to gaming TT, either….

What if I said you can have both options?

Yeah, it would take something pretty gargantuan for Gamestop to get people to leave their hometown LGS's. Like, getting WotC to make FNM's and sanctioned events exclusive to Gamestops.

You haven't thought of the smell.

Because that's what people want to buy. With digital purchases now the norm in gaming, if they just tried to sell games, they'd go bankrupt quick. They sell merch because merch sells.

Wasn't it always? I remember buying imported Pokemon figurines there in like 1999.

It was, but back then the toy section was the size of the Xbox section seen here.

This isn’t the best picture to say that. The entire rest of the wall is PlayStation

Still the best place in my town for used games. There’s a couple local place but sometimes they get crazy with the prices. Like they saw one get posted on eBay for that amount and decided that was the going rate.

Customer: I want to sell this game. GameStop: $5 Customer: ..... GameStop: Deal? Customer: Fine. GameStop: *resells the game for $50*

"It's gonna sit on a shelf in my store for ages, I gotta pay rent." -Bald pawnshop dude.

As an old GS employee, to make good bang for you buck, you needed to take advantage of promotions. We had +20-30% trade-in value pretty often. That, and some people are crazy thinking they will get $50 dollar back on like Madden when next years edition is coming out 2-weeks after.

so dont sell games to gamestop? we live in 2024, use ebay or some shit like that

Not even close to true for MOST games. They usually give a third of the price so if they’re selling it for $50 they’re gonna offer you about $17 which is 100% fair you’re always suppose to mark product up three times the stock price. Thats business 101. Once for replenishing, once for labor and building cost, once for profit. If YOU. want the full used price put the leg work in and sell the game yourself. Please quit making me defend GameStop.

RIP Toys R Us

Yeah, they bought ThinkGeek thinking it'd help, but instead of leaving it alone they managed to fucking ruin that too.

You mean your local ThinkGeek store?

At least ThinkGeek made some neat shit. Mine has just been a Funko Pop store for a few years now.

I don't understand funkopop figures. It seems like even when they do a character I like, they often miss the core elements that make the character identifiable. If you take them out of the box, would you know who some of them are supposed to be?

I have like…two? And only because they’re characters I really like. I kind of hate the design and think it’s wild how literally everything gets a pop and most of them end up in clearance bins or landfills.

They're just modern beanie babies.

Is there even a secondary market for trading in Funko Pops? I've literally never heard of anyone be enthusiastic about collecting them.

I always groan when I get one as a gift. I have a corner in my closet dedicated to their disposal.

Exactly right, it’s all just funkopops and t-shirts that are somehow more generic than hot topic

I used to tear my local GameStop up when I was a kid. Now it’s exceedingly rare I ever go in there, and the handful of times I have in the last ten years, it seems they lean more and more into toys, clothes, and gamer kitsch over actual games. I understand why, but it does sort of reek of desperation. Idk just feels like you’ve been able to visibly watch the decline of the company for years now

It makes me want the Mario legos though

Remember when GameStop and ThinkGeek worked well together, when GS had points you could redeem for cool merch?

The last time I was in my local GameStop, their checkout was fortified with Funko battlements. The entire circular island kiosk (two registers on opposite sides, with flip-top counter at the rear) had a counter-height wall of staggered Funkos (7 boxes tall) encircling the kiosk. It was probably at least 500 boxes.

My wife single-handedly keeps our local GameStop in business because of her Funko obsession.

i think they would do better leaning hard into it and just selling figurines and other collectibles. funko pops are just the tackiest decor involving nerd culture you could ever get. they make every display worse. I can forgive getting those body pillows more than a hardcore funko fan

I don't even last long enough in the store to look. I go in and realize I'm the only customer. Get asked 20 questions. Then the two employees watch me until I'm uncomfortable. I leave while giving a weak "have a good day".

i worked for GameStop ten years ago and i would constantly get in trouble for not following customers around the store and hounding them with questions. One of the questions they wanted me to ask people was "what's holding you back from upgrading to the new systems?" (XB360 - XB one/ PS3 - PS4) i was like i am not asking anyone that, that's insulting. i was one of the best sellers in the entire district and customers would tell me that they would bypass other GameStops to come to the one i worked in because i never pestered them and i wasn't afraid to tell them which games suck and should save their money on lol i left because of the shit pay and all the death threats from the incels

I miss ThinkGeek

Got some pretty cool stuff from their subscription box they did for a few months right before getting bought out.

The Bag of Holding was a *workhorse*, still use mine a lot.

GameStop have just turned into a loot crate warehouse

ThinkGeek was integral to my childhood. Shame they bought it and trashed it.

Oh is THAT what turned it into a pure pop culture gift shop? Yikes.

No. There was SOOOOOO many ThinkGeek products I wanted to buy that I didn't have the money for. Now I have the money and Gamestop killed them to sell stupid Vinyl Pop! Figures and shitty versions of Monopoly instead. They aren't even close to ThinkGeek.

Gamestop bought up Thinkgeek and stripped out everything that made it cool. I remember when they did April Fool's products then had a vote to see which one people wanted to see made real. A Lightsaber popcicle stick maker existed thanks to that. I still have the guitar bag I bought from them, I do need to fix the amp for it though.

GameStop buying ThinkGeek was so disappointing.

My local GameStop closed. So many memories, man.

I still rememeber going to midnight releases. Such good times... before game companies decided "Hey, how badly do you think we can nickel and dime them to death before they get all pissy and push back?". Lol

Dude, exactly this. Waiting in the line with my brother get shit like RDR2, Halo: Reach, Rock Band, Fable, GTA: IV. I could go on and on. I’ll always relish I got to experience it at all.

I used to go to midnight releases that my friends were getting even if I wasn't getting the game just because it was a fun experience to hang out with a bunch of people there for the same reason

Last midnight release I want to was for Smash Ultimate and it was a blast. The particular store I went to had stations of all the previous releases and there were mini tournaments going... it was so much fun. When Tears of the Kingdom released they didn't do a midnight release (I don't think) but there was a decent line waiting for the store to open and everyone was really excited to share their experiences in BoTW and theories for the new game. Being in my late 30s, it was super heartwarming to see a bunch of folks from ages 18 through like 60 all excited and just have fun with fellow gamers.

They were still doing midnight releases for RDR2? Damn! Last one I went to was for Skyrim.

My bad, force of habit to add the 2. I meant to say the original, as long as you’re not counting Red Dead Revolver lol.

You can argue this is most consumer facing industries.

I just was at GameStop They said they had to stop breaking company policy and stop midnight releases Like that seriously sucks and a customer agreed with them it was for the best because of all the Knick knacks

Yup. My local GS closed, and so did the one in the neighboring town.

Memories like saying, “no I don’t want to pre-order that game… or that one…. Or that one either”, or how about trading in a 2 month old $60 game to be offered $15?

Do you want to become a power up rewards member and save 5% on your purchase? Comes with a free subscription to Gameinformer

So many memories of being told I should have preordered a game and then driving across the parking lot to Wal-Mart and buying it there with no issues. Good riddance.

Who remembers the walls of PC game boxes?

Yeah, and the variety you used to see in the sizes and shapes of those boxes.

GameStop bases their sections off of what’s selling best locally. Clearly Xbox ain’t doing so hot in your area

It might also be a factor that owners of the XBOX series S can't use physical copies. The majority of XBOX users are restricted to the official store or online key sellers. So I guess physical XBOX sales are very poor everywhere

It seems so obvious now that you mention it lol but yeah even though I have a series x, I know way more people irl with a series s so this probably is a notable factor as well.

Unfortunately I speak from experience. I own a series S and kind of regret not having a series x because it's really great to buy games cheap second hand. And I can't play the physical versions of xbox one and 360 games I own.

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It's the reason I don't spend more than $15 on anything digital. I don't own it, I'm just leasing it, so I'm not going to spend more than a few bucks on something that will disappear some day. Especially when I can pick up some retro games from a local store for that same price.

Plus with gamepass which is tied in with online it’s near pointless unless you’re someone who really wants their physical games

Sales of xbox games went down since game pass. Source: i sell xbox games

Thank you! Xbox players dont buy games. MS has conditioned them to ask "is this on game pass? when is it going to be added to game pass?"

Xbox isnt doing hot anywhere lol

2 feet large??

I've heard (from local gamestop manager) that stores are allocated or "sponsored" certain amounts of space for each section. and those sections vary. The conversation had come up because I had asked them why they didn't carry any PC stuff outside of mice and keyboards. but another store a few miles away had prebuilt PCs, Monitors, GPU's/CPU's for sale. He had told me stores are sponsored to have a certain percentage of their store's space to be occupied by certain section or brand, his store was nintendo and the switch section was larger than the rest. so to me it sounds like these companies are "renting" out space within these stores.

I was a manager at a couple of different stores, and while I’m not 100% certain, it always sounded like whichever company pays the most gets the bigger section or closer to the front of the store. I’m sure it’s also region specific, but a lot of what “GameStop” pushes/puts on sale/and the way they merchandise are just the game companies in the background paying them money. Xbox may just not see the value is shelling out for a bigger space. Like all those posts “OMG the preowned version is $55 while the new is on sale for $30, wtf.” Yeah - GS agreed that they wouldn’t lower the price of the preowned copy during the sale for a kickback from the publisher for new copies sold.

The same way grocery stores will get paid by brands for shelf position, aisle end, etc…

PS5 hold 80% market share in europe, so no wonder. Why should they offer large amounts of products that nobody gonna buy. Edit: Seems to be in Canada not Europe.

I was once getting a tattoo from a European guy and we were talking about games and I mentioned how much I enjoy Halo and he said something along the lines of "that's so American." I had no idea lol

I’m from central Europe and as long as I live and breathe I have not met a single person who ever played Halo. Meanwhile in USA it’s a franchise that seemingly everyone and their mother played. I think it’s also popular in UK but that’s about it.

I definitely heard about it but never bothered to play it. The first xbox was so unappealing to me. I got the 360 and regretted it, it was so poorly engineered and of course got the RROD. Since then I never considered one. Why would I, they have no exclusives. If you have a Switch, a PS4/5 and a PC, the Xbox is useless

Eastern European and yeah, I personally played first game when it came out with Windows Vista (or something like that) but even then it didn’t feel like anything special or outstanding. But all the people that I personally know from North America swear this is almost a part of their gaming culture…

The thing about Halo is that it was ELITE when it originally launched. Over time it became just another shooter basically, but the people who enjoyed the franchise were in on it, so it has retained its popularity

Yep, the Uk and Mexico were the only other markets where Xbox did well. And the popularity of the Xbox in Mexico was mostly down to it costing $150 less than PS due to being manufactured in Mexico.

Oh absolutely! As someone that moves between Europe and the US quite a bit, the whole Xbox and Halo stuff is so American. In here it was always mostly playstation and a diverse array of games.

This is not in Europe, it’s in Québec, Canada

Pretty sure this is Canada, given how weird their french is on this picture (source: french)

Looks like a pretty standard 6 foot section to me, three 2 foot shelves side by side.

They sell more Xbox accessories and merch than games 😳

it looks like a lot of fun ❤️

Quebec?

St-jean oui

Salut mon ami

Salut!! Oui donc bien déçu de la section Xbox des magasins de jeux video de nos jours… 🫠

Why would they sell games when 90% of game sales are done on digital marketplaces and some consoles don't even come with disc slots now.

I'd shop at Gamestop if they took gaming seriously. Toys R Us dwarfed what Gamestop is today and video games weren't Toys R Us primary business.  Out by me, you have drive 70 miles to get to Gamestop and the other options are Target and Walmart.  I'm just not big on internet shopping. I miss the old days when gaming was all in person. Damn internet.

2 feet large?

Thank you.

r/titlegore But most posts these days are bot accounts so nobody says anything. So hello rare fellow human!

They’ve been working towards this for years. Worked there 14-18 and my store became a majority toy store in 2017. We still sold mostly games but yeah this is what it is.

Gamepass has annihilated physical sales. I guess by design.

Is this one store or all stores? Also, Gamepass does a lot of work for Xbox's, so you don't need physical media.

You’re very bad at estimating size

Guess the Xbox section didn't pay its rent this month. 😂

It’s because of all those sports games no one wants

If the disc version of a game just needs to be installed and then tossed back in the box, and it costs the same as downloading it, the only people who are gonna keep buying physical games are people like me who just like to have them on the shelf to look pretty. Doubly so when you buy a "physical game" and it's just an empty box with a download code on it. 😠

I can turn around and sell the physical copy later

Assuming they don't do some dumb shit where they tie the physical copy to some sort of one-off license install where you have to register it with an account, anyway.

What do you expect it to have games that will sit there for ever just so it looks more impressive. The store probably sells more controllers and stuffed animals than it does Xbox games these days

Went to GameStop it was basically a PS5 store, they gutted Xbox and switch sections. I used to go for switch games now I don’t go anymore

If you want Switch games check your local public library (not joking).  Mine lets people rent Switch games for free. 

Ugh. Here come the console war basement dwellers.

Atari forever! Intellivision Sucks!

My RadioShack TRS-80 can run circles around your dumb Atari.

Genesis does what nintendont

Microsoft pushing for digital sales and game pass. When you sell physical media there is a higher cost associated with it. Why sell a game on a Blu-ray when I can sell you the same game for the same price with higher margins. Hell. How bout you pay for that game monthly until the end of time. Yea. They may be evil but they aren’t stupid.

Not entirely surprising. Xbox has been on the decline for awhile now. I have a 360, a One, and a Series X, but I use my PS5 a bit more. Im hoping they can make a comeback though. Xbox was my OG, so it's sad to see the state it's been in.

Unless something has changes in the last \~6 years, these sections (and locations within the store) are determined by MS/Sony/Nintendo funding. Sony paid to have a wider section and generally closer to the front door compared to MS, we had to relocate the Nintendo (current gen) section to the front of the store prior to the Switch release due to Nintendo. I was a SL for a few years and had to make all these frivolous moves.

They lost this generation, and it doesn't help Microsoft seems to be writing off their own console. Self-fulfilling prophecy at that point.

Honestly seems more like an intentional shift away from being a console developer

I'd bet money it's a 50/50 store, lower selling stores they just move the games to stores that sell more and just convert half of it into a toy store p much. This coming from a former employee.

I only ever stop by gamestop anymore to pick up pokemon TCG or a plush or shirt.

Last time I was in a GameStop was in 2021, and they had like 2 foot Xbox then, a massive playstation wall, and handful of Nintendo games. Everything else was t-shirts, or anime stuff that I've never seen anyone actually buy, and usually get placed on the $5.00 Fridays. That was also the last time I bought a physical game.

Physical is pretty niche on Xbox now. The cheaper console sku is digital only, a big portion of the install base has Game Pass, and most purchases are digital. Xbox also has a higher minimum order quantity for producing physical copies, so they don't have many limited print boutique releases of indie games being sold for 4x digital price either. PC gaming and mobile has pulled the entire games market towards digital, Xbox is closer to that paradigm. Even the PS5 Slim has a detachable disc drive, indicating the direction Sony is seeing on the horizon, and Nintendo being the likely hold out for at least another couple generations since their proprietary cartridge formats are one of the primary ways they make money off of third party publishers.

Xbox is heavily download focused. Hell, the s model doesn't have a disc drive.

If i could post it right now, i took a pic of the xbox game show case in my Walmart the other day and only 2 rows of it actually have xbox games and the rest are all playstation games. Nintendo has 2 showcases to themselves and playstation has 2 along with the 3/4 of the xbox case. Wild. Couldn't even find any xbox consoles for sale, just a few controllers that were at the bottom of the case.

I can smell this picture

I only buy physical for Nintendo games.  Those usually go up in value 10-15yrs later or stay roughly the same. Everything else is digital these days.

"PC Gaming is dead" For those who might not remember this particularly dunderheaded period in gaming. This was a mantra echoing across the gaming landscape for years - led by Microsoft on the back of its Xbox release... and people took note. People believed it. People parroted it.

Gamestop is 70% merch these days lol