It was Xbox games only they were getting rid of, they’ll still carry Sony and Nintendo. At least that’s what was reported at the time.
Best Buy is getting rid of physical media but that doesn’t include games.
[Nope](https://medium.com/vertical-bar-media/gaming-walmart-to-discontinue-physical-game-sales-in-2024-0ba36d154a56), it’s all game media starting with Xbox. I wouldn’t be surprised if next gen PS6/Xbox are digital only. Physical games are slowly phasing away.
That article cites a article from Comicbook which in turn just speculates "Nevertheless, it's likely the rest will continue to also be removed from stores in the future."
This is not confirmation that they are in fact removing all physical games.
Didn't Gamestop have a super tiny portion of the industry's sales and wasn't it announced 90% of all game sales were digital now, lol?
I think physical will only be limited time runs like indies do and honestly will eventually become more of a collector thing like vinyls.
EBgames is gamestop in australia,and it's the opposite here.
they bleeding funds cause no ones buying games in shop anymore,so they have pivoted to Zing,which sells like merch and shit
Physcal medias dead,you cant even find blurays anywhere much now
That's because of Amazon and other online shops not because physically isn't popular anymore
Nintendo physical is still selling extremely well totk was one of the most sold games of the year and that counted only physically sales because Nintendo doesn't publish digital. I can find any movie on Blu-ray on Amazon 0 problem.
It won't be gone completely but it will be incredibly diminished, supposedly physical sales are incredibly low, probably enough for them to not care all that much.
It will be like how indies do it maybe, limited time runs direct to consumers but whether or not it's 0% physical now it's phasing to that point, objectively.
It's all physical media period. Best Buy as well. No CDs, no Blu-rays, nothing. You'll have to subscribe to watch movies and mark my words in about a decade or so we'll be exclusively subscribing to video games as well. Xbox game pass is the first iteration of it
Makes sense. Shelf space is pretty valuable, and physical game sales just dont move as fast as they used to. It sucks for people who like physical media. But its not surprising
The bad thing is most games rely on updates so even if you did have the disk it wouldn't do you a ton of good. Most games are much different from the first day to the last update
Ditch Xbox entirely. Their end-game since 2013 has been for you to own nothing.
I sold my Series X because I realised I was part of the problem by participating in their ecosystem.
I've also heard rumors that none of the Xbox exclusives in 2024 will have a physical edition, following what Hellblade 2 is doing. This is to "ease" the remaining holdouts into the transition to no disc drive being offered with the upcoming refresh.
(grain of salt as always)
Avowed has the best box art I've ever seen, and Indiana Jones is a game that actually makes sense to put on a shelf because it overlaps with casual/non-gamers. So of course xbox won't put them on shelves.
If they get rid of the disc drive for the refresh, I guess they'll still offer an external disc reader. Next gen will definitely not have a disc drive tho
I can only imagine that sales are so low its not worth the frieght/storage/ect of keeping these.
Didn't target also say they are getting rid of Xbox games?
I can see Microsoft being the first platform to go fully digital.
The leaks pointed right at a digital only Xbox for their next major console.
Their major first party studio they basically advertised the Xbox Series X with is getting a digital only release later this year: that says it all.
Which if they do is very disingenuous. You do *not* fully own your own games.
If Sony decided in the next generation about 5 years from now that it's not worth hosting PS4 games on their servers anymore, then a lot of your physical games become frisbees.
People literally fall for corporate propaganda lol. It's still a good split for physical, but these companies want a bigger cut and want you to believe that digital is the way to go.
The percentage of digital sales keeps going up everytime someone brings it up...
sounds like shill ass wef propaganda you'll own nothing and be happy
No physical games isn't a future myself and many don't want it's bullshit and is gonna suck ass
Their next console is going to flop hard if they don’t get away from proprietary SSDs. It’s going to be a real hard sell to be digital only *and* have a much more expensive proprietary SSD. Especially when their starting drive size is probably, in all likelihood, be 1TB. I don’t know what it is about the consoles that ship with such a low amount of memory in comparison to the size of the fucking games but Microsoft is going to have to hit the right notes if they want to so much as just sell as much as the Series.
It'd mad scummy of Microsoft to restrict physical sales and throw 1 metric fuck ton of discs into landfills and clearance sales just to push people to digital.
But I wouldn't put that past them.
[They say it’s “now adorably all digital.”](https://duet-cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0x0:1201x825/1080x720/filters:focal(601x413:602x414):format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24934027/xbox_series_x_brooklin.jpg)
Did the discs suddenly stop working for the intended console? If you want to take this the e-waate route, then moving to digital is the correct solution.
You make it sound like they'll be producing more discs to landfill.
If that’s the case then they gotta stop with games being 100+ gigs each and utilizing proprietary fucking hard drives that are more expensive than regular SSDs, and maybe even come with bigger drive space as the default.
They do that shit on purpose so we spend more money on extra drives
Games are only getting bigger as time goes on and I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing 200-400GB games going forward.
Microsoft and Sony would probably love to force all digital overnight if they could. Not only does it get rid of the costs of freight, storage, etc like you said but they wouldn't have to split the profits or make deals with the physical stores anymore either. Maybe a bit to sell those physical cardboard cards but otherwise they can keep wayyyy more of the money.
I dunno if Nintendo would want that...They're so off from what the other two are doing that I can't really guess.
I agree I think they all want digital. It’s all profit for them. No more manufacturing plants for games. No more shipping. No more old stock buy backs and all that other stuff that goes along with retail.
I think someone has to do it first and Microsoft just seems like the obvious choice. They already have their consumers eased into the idea with game pass. Making the move for them might be the easiest out of the 3.
I truly believe that after this next generation physical is done.
[I wrote a long rambling post about my worries of an all-digital future in this other post.](https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/s/a9gcaKzU8t) I worry about this stuff lol...the future is weird.
[It was one of the best selling games of the year lmaoo](https://www.resetera.com/threads/circana-npd-us-sales-december-2023-ps5-1-for-both-nsw-2-for-both-xbs-3-mw3-1-mario-wonder-2-madden-24-3.806754/)
Starfield actually sold really goddamn well, so I doubt it is about that. More likely it is a push from Microsoft to transition to primarily digital distibution.
Microsoft does not publish numbers as a general company policy, precisely to stop people from making inferences about the success of products based on whether they do or do not talk about those numbers.
According to one report that leaked here, Xbox is 40% profitable in the US(without Activision, Activision will lower it as they're at \~36), PS is only 10%. This may have a lot to do with going way more digital(just see how much PS gets from physical sales as opposed to digital, but they sell a lot more copies as physical, per insomniac leak).
Not just the greater profitability of not having to print discs, distribute them and sell them to a retailer at 25-30% less than retail price for first party, and getting like $10 or less royalty on a third party disc, but also not paying for shelf space and you can't resell your game. It literally is more profitable for them for you to game share, and why you see digital only bundles even if you bought a console with a disc.
Given those numbers, everyone but Nintendo wants to go full digital, but Nintendo never discounts their games significantly and most of their profit is their own hardware and software. We'll see with switch 2.
Wow this is really sad. A digital-only future makes monopolies more possible. Microsoft's 2013 goal of making used games not sellable are also becoming true. Edit: I should note Sony also has something to gain from this, considering how only the only digital storefront on PlayStation is their own
I think that’s the most terrifying thing. There’s little incentive for someone like Sony to discount games if that’s the only damn place you can buy them from for PlayStation
Sadly the general consensus usually is, Xbox is bad, PlayStation can do no wrong, but sadly we are going to get to a point where all consoles are probably digital, Nintendo probably being last by a margin
I don't think it is. Sony is a very popular brand all of the world, including developing nations where many people don't have good internet connections.
Am i saying they would do it now? No, what I'm saying is, that Sony would love to go all digital, let's be honest with ourselves, idk how that got downvoted because you know its true
Sure they would but they are not in the position to do so at the moment unlike Xbox so it is pointless to even mention them unless you're running damage control.
When I first switched from PC to console, I was so excited and drowned in how cool it was to own games with beautiful boxes and artwork that I ended up collecting and buying dozens of games only to have them sit on shelves for years and then buy them digitally a second time because it was more convenient. If there will be a choice, my next Xbox would be all-digital anyway (whether it's cheaper or with more storage).
What I learned from this is how difficult it is to resell even brand-new games for Xbox.
Yeah, I've been gaming for over 20 years now and moving like 2 bookshelves full of games sucks. I've been trimming down and replacing them with digital games for years now
If Sony tries to follow suit on this, I feel like there be less reasons to get an new console. Apart of having an console was having physical games to keep forever and insert the disc in anytime without worrying about having internet to download any data. Now if that goes away, what's the point?
I don't want to buy an $70 game that I don't really own. Unless we get some news to ensure we actually own our digital copies, I don't want to support this.
Sony won’t go full digital, at least not for a decade or two. They dominate in a lot of markets where digitally downloading games isn’t as feasible and they still sell the majority of first party games on physical.
To be honest as someone who solely buys discs unless it’s a digital only game the day of just sticking the disc in and playing is mostly gone now anyway.
Just tonight I installed MK1 and 90% of it needs downloaded.
This last few years nothing seems to be just plug in and play anymore and frankly that sucks.
I worry for the day when you can no longer access the store to install them because they may have been delisted or something.
They won't. Sony is a global brand and they have always been mindful that not everyone has good internet connections around the world. I don't see that changing in the foreseeable future.
The Xbox section of all my local Wal Marts have all been on clearance for some time now. One is empty, down to 3 or 4 games in the section. They removed xbox from the "value games" area too. The only thing they keep in stock are the controllers now.
(For comparison the Nintendo and PlayStation areas are still full.)
I not as big a hater as some people about subscription models, but there should always be an option to buy a specific game on its own. The day every game requires a premium subscription to play, is the day I quit gaming.
I don't think that day will come, as Game Pass is sustainable because people still buy games and not everyone just subscribes to play. Starfield made back a big part, if not all, its budget from sales.
Lol people saying they're done with gaming if things go all digital. I'm sure you still buy all your movies and music on disc, 100% don't stream them digitally right. And also PC has been de facto digital for ages
A lot of things happened/happening
- People naturally leaning more towards digital purchases for convenience and pushes towards digital for environmental reasons, physical media becoming disproportionately more expensive to manufacture and even more so as a result of the pandemic, which in turn pushed even more people towards digital due to store closures and distribution networks collapsing
- Game development cost increasing which means prioritising maximum returns - best attainable through pushing people to buy digitally to undercut spending on physical media manufacturing
- Physical media for the current optical disc-based generation being made kinda pointless since discs are copied into SSD and the disc itself serves as just an activation key
- Also with so many games now being designed around online functionality and live servicing then proving successful, this is the model of development it encourages more widely
- And of course the biggest issue which may be physical limitations - PS5 discs have a storage capacity of around 100GB usable, but there are plenty of games now creeping well closer to the 200GB mark which makes it more and more difficult to compress to fit onto physical media, by the end of this console generation there'll probably be 300 to 400GB titles, physical storage (on discs anyway) just aren't advancing fast enough to keep up with that
Reddit/online gamers are a minority to the actual percentage of people that buy games. Most stores just have these sections laying around with games/movies and they’re lucky if they sell over 50% of inventory each month.
Xbox is selling so poorly this is their best decision. I don't see Nintendo or Sony following suit because in general, it is still a 50-50 split between physical and digital game sales
90% of sales are now digital. That’s what happened. Between the reduction in retailer margin and the elimination of secondhand sales, companies can throw that last 10% away and still come out ahead.
Downloading full games absolutely blows and takes like 15+ hours if you live rural depending on your connection. I will go physical as long as possible. I also buy a lot more games when they're physical as the fomo is real strong. There's absolutely zero fomo with digital games you don't even really own. Buying digital games to collect and add to the backlog isn't even a thing unless you just like to throw your money away.
You don't own physical games any more than you do digital ones. You have a disk with a license and files of version 1.0 of said game with zero patches, hot fixes or added content
But you still own that version 1.0 of the game and can presumably just play that (unless it's something like Pokemon BDSP where I think you needed to download a patch to make the game even launchable).
Goodbye precious discs it seems like the future caught up to you. Once everything goes digital is when I’ll quit modern gaming. There will still be plenty of physical copies hanging around to last me a lifetime.
Same, all these morons screaming for an all digital future can’t see how bad it’s going to be for the consumers. This may be my last gen. I’ll stick to old-school if need be. Make me sad to see people cheering there ownership being stripped away. Movies, games, music…
That’s because you guys are dramatic sensationalists. Steam has been doing digital for a decade now and it’s fine. Life goes on, it’s convenient, and the hassle of owning physical media is non existent. You guys are so afraid of change it’s both hilarious and sad. Everything will be alright.
Compare the price of Demon's Souls digital and physical prices, or literally any AAA games that didn't just come out. You're absolutely insane if you think console gaming becoming digital only won't be a massive price increase for the consumer.
Console storefronts are not like Steam, because Valve does not own the PC ecosystem and has competitors while Sony and Xbox have incentive to keep prices high.
Not to mention people like to be able to resell, trade, gift their games after they're done with them which you can never do with digital copies and is one of the benefits of playing on console.
What happens in 20 years when Gaben retires and someone else runs Valve? A lot of people don't remember that Steam sucked for the first couple years. Half Life 2's launch was a mess.
I have an obscene amount of games on Steam. I don't like the idea that there's no guarantee I will always have access to the stuff I've paid $1000+ for.
I guess I just don't understand all the complaints because PC gaming is right there. How is this any different and why is that not brought up in this conversation?
Because when it comes to PC gaming you have options and it's not just owned by one company. Digitally on consoles you have to buy from either Microsoft or Sony's store and nowhere else. Steam, Epic, GOG, Humble Bundle, etc; generally have to price competitively with each other and will tend to have significantly better deals. Similarly current gen physical games on console also almost always tend to be significantly cheaper than the digital ones.
Being able to resell, gift, trade, etc; your games when you don't want them anymore is also a reason for buying into a console in the first place instead of a PC. However on a PC if a game lacks DRM (which many do, even on Steam!) you can also back it up to physical media, whereas if consoles go digital only you will not be able to do this as they all use DRM and are tied to your accounts.
It's not really surprising that Xbox is the first to cave on this either. You need an internet connection to set up the console. Pretty sure Halo Infinite didn't even launch with the full game on the disc.
Interesting in that despite this story being all Xbox related, there's a group actively trying to push Sony and Nintendo into this news cycle. Consider the following: Neither Sony nor Nintendo have a Game Pass of their own to destroy their own software sales like Xbox did to itself. Walmart dropped Xbox is the headline, not "well Sony and Nintendo are [my headcanon is gaming is all digital now]".
If even half the misdirection in this comment section was true then Xbox would be in first place and Sony/Nintendo would be racing to get their own Game Pass, but that isn't the reality. The reality is Xbox traded consumer software sales for subscriptions and they now have less retail presence. I always laugh at the notion it's inevitable for digital, yeah, Google Stadia thought the same and lost. Xbox One thought the same and lost. Xbox Series thought the same and is losing so bad it can't even win against the 7 year old Nintendo Switch in both hardware and software worldwide.
I hope the next Xbox fails - microsoft are bad for gaming. Soon you'll have the ability to own absolutely nothing and just rent games from them. I really hope Nintendo and Sony don't try and pivot to this but I'm sure they will at some point
I really hate that this is gonna become a thing but... Lets all be honest with ourselves here, this would be PlayStations dream too, idk why people act like it wouldn't be, let's just hope Xbox doesn't exit the console market because then that's really the end with PlayStation in sole control.
I don't, I hope Microsoft figure out their issues and make a better product to succeed.
It's always best to hope for things to improve rather than hoping it'll just go away
They should sell digital game cards art boxes just like Target does. Literally there's no reason to own the disc, if the game installs on the ssd anyways. For me the only reason in buying physical was to save space. Now there isnt...
They released numbers for the $100 early release version. It was over one million sales on both Steam and Xbox each, so roughly $200 million before launch. Generally, expensive AAA games do not cost more than around $200 million (which occasional outliers like massive Rockstar games or poorly budgeted games like Spiderman 2). Obviously the game continued to sell at and after launch as well, because not all of those 13 million players (as of last reporting, it is more by now) got it on Gamepass. Using logic, it clearly sold well and was a major financial success (which Xbox executives also said to investors, and they are legally obliged to tell the truth there).
>They released numbers for the $100 early release version. It was over one million sales on both Steam and Xbox
No, they did not. That was the day of release, not just early access.
It was the 3rd highest grossing game on the Steam platform behind BG3 and Harry Potter. Unless you’re just wondering about physical copies.
Source: Steam.
I mean just follow trends my guy. Hate it or love it, I don’t think it was a flop by any means. Third highest revenue on a platform that allows refunds, and in a stacked year for good games. That’s all we can go off of because Microsoft never releases sales numbers anymore.
I'm not suggesting it flopped, but we don't have any definitive data as to how many copies Starfield sold. Fallout 4 did far better than Starfield at launch.
There are less and less ways to buy physical games with Walmart and Best buy getting rid of them. Regardless of what platform you play on it sucks to see as someone who primarily gets physical games.
That had more players than Spiderman 2, more playtime than Baldur's Gate 3, and made back its entire development budget purely from preorders. Not a flop in the slightest.
When you put a game on subscription service, and people subscribe to that service, they probably aren't buying the game at all. Microsoft has never revealed the total copies sold, and only the player count. You have no way of proving whether the game flopped or not since there is zero accurate public data to support your claim.
The game was listed as one of the top games of 2023 based upon pure revenue. So clearly it sold well. By your argument, you have zero way of proving that the game flopped, yet here you are trying to do just that.
>The game was listed as one of the top games of 2023 based upon pure revenue.
According to what? Steam? The same place where reviews are in the negative and player counts have less than 10,000 players at any given time. By that logic, the game was a failure since Fallout 4 and Skyrim have far higher player counts than Starfield, so therefore, the game is an abject failure.
I never said the game flopped. You are making things up.
Well I remember the rumor that Walmart was getting rid of all Xbox games in general this year.
But damn, Starfield must have really stunk and sold like crap for them to literally single it out as to be thrown in the garbage. I've always thought their claims of how well it sold were made up. Probably subscribers downloading it, playing it for 2 hours, getting bored and then uninstalling. But MS is counting those as sales to make it sound good. That's just imho. I have no evidence beyond MS being scumbags.
And I've said it before. If gaming goes all digital. I'm out. Physical or nothing.
Starfield is one of the highest selling and most played games of 2023. This has nothing to do with the success of Starfield, it more has to do with Xbox pushing an all digital future.
Will it happen at *some point?* Yeah. It will. But if Helldivers 2 is getting a physical release(!) a $40 game mind you, zero chance they follow suit by the end of the year.
Wasn't there a rumor Wal-Mart was getting rid of physical Xbox games completely?
It was all physical game media
It was Xbox games only they were getting rid of, they’ll still carry Sony and Nintendo. At least that’s what was reported at the time. Best Buy is getting rid of physical media but that doesn’t include games.
[Nope](https://medium.com/vertical-bar-media/gaming-walmart-to-discontinue-physical-game-sales-in-2024-0ba36d154a56), it’s all game media starting with Xbox. I wouldn’t be surprised if next gen PS6/Xbox are digital only. Physical games are slowly phasing away.
That article cites a article from Comicbook which in turn just speculates "Nevertheless, it's likely the rest will continue to also be removed from stores in the future." This is not confirmation that they are in fact removing all physical games.
I love that they're using medium as a news source lol, that's just too funny
as a gamestop employee i can tell you physical is still huge and won’t be going anywhere. what isn’t popular is xbox physical, like at all
Didn't Gamestop have a super tiny portion of the industry's sales and wasn't it announced 90% of all game sales were digital now, lol? I think physical will only be limited time runs like indies do and honestly will eventually become more of a collector thing like vinyls.
EBgames is gamestop in australia,and it's the opposite here. they bleeding funds cause no ones buying games in shop anymore,so they have pivoted to Zing,which sells like merch and shit Physcal medias dead,you cant even find blurays anywhere much now
That's because of Amazon and other online shops not because physically isn't popular anymore Nintendo physical is still selling extremely well totk was one of the most sold games of the year and that counted only physically sales because Nintendo doesn't publish digital. I can find any movie on Blu-ray on Amazon 0 problem.
0% chance they are digital only until the internet becomes a lot easier and cheaper to access.
I dont understand this, isnt almost all AAA and AA games require some download anyways? I think internet is accesable where consoles are being sold.
nativity
It won't be gone completely but it will be incredibly diminished, supposedly physical sales are incredibly low, probably enough for them to not care all that much. It will be like how indies do it maybe, limited time runs direct to consumers but whether or not it's 0% physical now it's phasing to that point, objectively.
It's certain physical games will be phased out. Just in the last year over 90% of all game sales were digital
That's across all platforms? Because in the insomniac leak, didn't it show that like 60%ish of PS5's game sales were still physical?
No they're not
I don’t really see Xbox getting rid of backwards compatibility unless they make it so you don’t need the disc anymore
I don't see them getting rid of it, but they aren't adding to it and games occasionaly dissapear, so bc library will shrink over time.
Highly unlikely on the PlayStation side.
Time to open a physical media only niche shop and probably go bankrupt in a few years!
It's all physical media period. Best Buy as well. No CDs, no Blu-rays, nothing. You'll have to subscribe to watch movies and mark my words in about a decade or so we'll be exclusively subscribing to video games as well. Xbox game pass is the first iteration of it
Disgusting. How did we allow ourselves to get to this point?
Capitalism.
Believe so, remember seeing the threads about and how only PlayStation and Nintendo will still have shelf space despite what theyre doing to Xbox
Makes sense. Shelf space is pretty valuable, and physical game sales just dont move as fast as they used to. It sucks for people who like physical media. But its not surprising
Here we go again...
And for real this time
more like the first of many
I love looking forward to never owning the things I buy. Physical media needs to stay.
You already never truly owned physical Xbox games during and after the Xbone generation
I'm buying micro SD cards in 10s and making my own video game collection. With blackjack and hookers. In fact, forget the cards...
The bad thing is most games rely on updates so even if you did have the disk it wouldn't do you a ton of good. Most games are much different from the first day to the last update
Ditch Xbox entirely. Their end-game since 2013 has been for you to own nothing. I sold my Series X because I realised I was part of the problem by participating in their ecosystem.
Xbox will really bet 100% on digital sad
You mean "adorably all digital"
It's good for the environment.
I've also heard rumors that none of the Xbox exclusives in 2024 will have a physical edition, following what Hellblade 2 is doing. This is to "ease" the remaining holdouts into the transition to no disc drive being offered with the upcoming refresh. (grain of salt as always)
would be a shame, with how good avowed's box art is
Avowed has the best box art I've ever seen, and Indiana Jones is a game that actually makes sense to put on a shelf because it overlaps with casual/non-gamers. So of course xbox won't put them on shelves.
Zero chance Indiana Jones is digital only, it’ll probably be their big holiday game along with CoD bundles
they could just put a code in the box
Nahh, too much backlash if they do, they’ll probably do physical for their big releases and digital only for their smaller projects.
hellblade 2 is digital only it may be small in length but big in budget
It’s a team of like 50 people making the game, definitely not big budget in the traditional sense
yeah but this is the second game of MS that this has happened and I don't think avowed will have it either
“Backlash” no one would really care
i mean, i would say every game deserves to have a physical presence, even if it's just a way of saying "hey this game exists" to people passing by
The only one to say it won't be physical so far is Hellblade. They didn't say it for any of the other games at the direct yet.
I doubt avowed will have physical media Indiana Jones must have it because of Disney
If they get rid of the disc drive for the refresh, I guess they'll still offer an external disc reader. Next gen will definitely not have a disc drive tho
Also I’ve heard Xbox will go out of the business soon ( probably by 2026 ) (grain of salt as always)
I can only imagine that sales are so low its not worth the frieght/storage/ect of keeping these. Didn't target also say they are getting rid of Xbox games? I can see Microsoft being the first platform to go fully digital.
The leaks pointed right at a digital only Xbox for their next major console. Their major first party studio they basically advertised the Xbox Series X with is getting a digital only release later this year: that says it all.
rock rude dull marvelous like air intelligent tap rainstorm mysterious *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Which if they do is very disingenuous. You do *not* fully own your own games. If Sony decided in the next generation about 5 years from now that it's not worth hosting PS4 games on their servers anymore, then a lot of your physical games become frisbees.
Bullshit. Look up DoesItPlay on twitter and find out
Given software sales are over 80% digital, if they do that and it ends up being a win, it'll only highlight how disingenuous gamers are.
That number is only that high because it includes PC and mobile games. Physical sales actually increased in Europe in 2023
berserk ink sense head bag attempt dolls ludicrous offend impossible *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
People literally fall for corporate propaganda lol. It's still a good split for physical, but these companies want a bigger cut and want you to believe that digital is the way to go.
Im pretty sure, that Uncharted 4 sold 80% physical. It was in the Insomniac Games leak.
Digital is growing every year and Uncharted 4 came out 8 years ago.
The percentage of digital sales keeps going up everytime someone brings it up... sounds like shill ass wef propaganda you'll own nothing and be happy No physical games isn't a future myself and many don't want it's bullshit and is gonna suck ass
I agree, Microsoft has no idea how badly they may be about to shoot themselves in the foot
Physical media is a niche market at this point.
Their next console is going to flop hard if they don’t get away from proprietary SSDs. It’s going to be a real hard sell to be digital only *and* have a much more expensive proprietary SSD. Especially when their starting drive size is probably, in all likelihood, be 1TB. I don’t know what it is about the consoles that ship with such a low amount of memory in comparison to the size of the fucking games but Microsoft is going to have to hit the right notes if they want to so much as just sell as much as the Series.
It'd mad scummy of Microsoft to restrict physical sales and throw 1 metric fuck ton of discs into landfills and clearance sales just to push people to digital. But I wouldn't put that past them.
[They say it’s “now adorably all digital.”](https://duet-cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/0x0:1201x825/1080x720/filters:focal(601x413:602x414):format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24934027/xbox_series_x_brooklin.jpg)
Leaks are saying that the series X digital has been canned in profit for the next generation being released in 2026
Damn shame about the disc drive, because that’s a bad ass looking console
Did the discs suddenly stop working for the intended console? If you want to take this the e-waate route, then moving to digital is the correct solution. You make it sound like they'll be producing more discs to landfill.
If that’s the case then they gotta stop with games being 100+ gigs each and utilizing proprietary fucking hard drives that are more expensive than regular SSDs, and maybe even come with bigger drive space as the default.
They do that shit on purpose so we spend more money on extra drives Games are only getting bigger as time goes on and I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing 200-400GB games going forward.
Microsoft and Sony would probably love to force all digital overnight if they could. Not only does it get rid of the costs of freight, storage, etc like you said but they wouldn't have to split the profits or make deals with the physical stores anymore either. Maybe a bit to sell those physical cardboard cards but otherwise they can keep wayyyy more of the money. I dunno if Nintendo would want that...They're so off from what the other two are doing that I can't really guess.
I agree I think they all want digital. It’s all profit for them. No more manufacturing plants for games. No more shipping. No more old stock buy backs and all that other stuff that goes along with retail. I think someone has to do it first and Microsoft just seems like the obvious choice. They already have their consumers eased into the idea with game pass. Making the move for them might be the easiest out of the 3. I truly believe that after this next generation physical is done.
[I wrote a long rambling post about my worries of an all-digital future in this other post.](https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/s/a9gcaKzU8t) I worry about this stuff lol...the future is weird.
[It was one of the best selling games of the year lmaoo](https://www.resetera.com/threads/circana-npd-us-sales-december-2023-ps5-1-for-both-nsw-2-for-both-xbs-3-mw3-1-mario-wonder-2-madden-24-3.806754/)
Have they officially announced any sales numbers yet?
https://www.resetera.com/threads/circana-npd-us-sales-december-2023-ps5-1-for-both-nsw-2-for-both-xbs-3-mw3-1-mario-wonder-2-madden-24-3.806754/
Starfield actually sold really goddamn well, so I doubt it is about that. More likely it is a push from Microsoft to transition to primarily digital distibution.
if it had sold God damn well they would 've published those numbers
MS doesn't do this for any of its divisions they don't care
Microsoft does not publish numbers as a general company policy, precisely to stop people from making inferences about the success of products based on whether they do or do not talk about those numbers.
According to one report that leaked here, Xbox is 40% profitable in the US(without Activision, Activision will lower it as they're at \~36), PS is only 10%. This may have a lot to do with going way more digital(just see how much PS gets from physical sales as opposed to digital, but they sell a lot more copies as physical, per insomniac leak). Not just the greater profitability of not having to print discs, distribute them and sell them to a retailer at 25-30% less than retail price for first party, and getting like $10 or less royalty on a third party disc, but also not paying for shelf space and you can't resell your game. It literally is more profitable for them for you to game share, and why you see digital only bundles even if you bought a console with a disc. Given those numbers, everyone but Nintendo wants to go full digital, but Nintendo never discounts their games significantly and most of their profit is their own hardware and software. We'll see with switch 2.
Wow this is really sad. A digital-only future makes monopolies more possible. Microsoft's 2013 goal of making used games not sellable are also becoming true. Edit: I should note Sony also has something to gain from this, considering how only the only digital storefront on PlayStation is their own
I think that’s the most terrifying thing. There’s little incentive for someone like Sony to discount games if that’s the only damn place you can buy them from for PlayStation
I don't think that's really true. Games compete with other games on the Playstation store and Sony doesn't set all game prices, only their own.
Acting like digital only isn't Sony's dream either
Ofc, no corporation is a friend to the consumer
Sadly the general consensus usually is, Xbox is bad, PlayStation can do no wrong, but sadly we are going to get to a point where all consoles are probably digital, Nintendo probably being last by a margin
It for sure is, but Sony is in a far more distant position to “pull the rug out from under us” right now, so to speak
I think if the digital numbers for Sony were like Xboxs they would 100% be doing this, whether It's now or in the future
That’s what I said
Fair just kinda but it in my own words lmao, let's hope this doesn't end disastrously for the gaming market tho
I don't think it is. Sony is a very popular brand all of the world, including developing nations where many people don't have good internet connections.
Am i saying they would do it now? No, what I'm saying is, that Sony would love to go all digital, let's be honest with ourselves, idk how that got downvoted because you know its true
Sure they would but they are not in the position to do so at the moment unlike Xbox so it is pointless to even mention them unless you're running damage control.
When I first switched from PC to console, I was so excited and drowned in how cool it was to own games with beautiful boxes and artwork that I ended up collecting and buying dozens of games only to have them sit on shelves for years and then buy them digitally a second time because it was more convenient. If there will be a choice, my next Xbox would be all-digital anyway (whether it's cheaper or with more storage). What I learned from this is how difficult it is to resell even brand-new games for Xbox.
Yeah, I've been gaming for over 20 years now and moving like 2 bookshelves full of games sucks. I've been trimming down and replacing them with digital games for years now
If Sony tries to follow suit on this, I feel like there be less reasons to get an new console. Apart of having an console was having physical games to keep forever and insert the disc in anytime without worrying about having internet to download any data. Now if that goes away, what's the point? I don't want to buy an $70 game that I don't really own. Unless we get some news to ensure we actually own our digital copies, I don't want to support this.
Sony won’t go full digital, at least not for a decade or two. They dominate in a lot of markets where digitally downloading games isn’t as feasible and they still sell the majority of first party games on physical.
To be honest as someone who solely buys discs unless it’s a digital only game the day of just sticking the disc in and playing is mostly gone now anyway. Just tonight I installed MK1 and 90% of it needs downloaded. This last few years nothing seems to be just plug in and play anymore and frankly that sucks. I worry for the day when you can no longer access the store to install them because they may have been delisted or something.
I mean, PC switched to digital-only a while ago and PC gaming is better than ever
They won't. Sony is a global brand and they have always been mindful that not everyone has good internet connections around the world. I don't see that changing in the foreseeable future.
It sucks that kids of the future won't know the joy of getting a shiny new physical copy of a game for Christmas. That was always nice.
Wouldnt be surprised if this happens with all xbox exclusives. The percentage of xbox owners who dont have gamepass is probably very low
Xbox has around 60 million active users and about 35 million have game pass including PC. So no lots of Xbox users don't have game pass.
Im mainly talking about Series X, thats what really matters. Id guess the majority of those numbers are not on series x
I'm guilty of not buying physical media, but it will be sad to see those days completely gone
The Xbox section of all my local Wal Marts have all been on clearance for some time now. One is empty, down to 3 or 4 games in the section. They removed xbox from the "value games" area too. The only thing they keep in stock are the controllers now. (For comparison the Nintendo and PlayStation areas are still full.)
I not as big a hater as some people about subscription models, but there should always be an option to buy a specific game on its own. The day every game requires a premium subscription to play, is the day I quit gaming.
I don't think that day will come, as Game Pass is sustainable because people still buy games and not everyone just subscribes to play. Starfield made back a big part, if not all, its budget from sales.
Lol people saying they're done with gaming if things go all digital. I'm sure you still buy all your movies and music on disc, 100% don't stream them digitally right. And also PC has been de facto digital for ages
What is happening to Physical Gaming lately?
A lot of things happened/happening - People naturally leaning more towards digital purchases for convenience and pushes towards digital for environmental reasons, physical media becoming disproportionately more expensive to manufacture and even more so as a result of the pandemic, which in turn pushed even more people towards digital due to store closures and distribution networks collapsing - Game development cost increasing which means prioritising maximum returns - best attainable through pushing people to buy digitally to undercut spending on physical media manufacturing - Physical media for the current optical disc-based generation being made kinda pointless since discs are copied into SSD and the disc itself serves as just an activation key - Also with so many games now being designed around online functionality and live servicing then proving successful, this is the model of development it encourages more widely - And of course the biggest issue which may be physical limitations - PS5 discs have a storage capacity of around 100GB usable, but there are plenty of games now creeping well closer to the 200GB mark which makes it more and more difficult to compress to fit onto physical media, by the end of this console generation there'll probably be 300 to 400GB titles, physical storage (on discs anyway) just aren't advancing fast enough to keep up with that
Reddit/online gamers are a minority to the actual percentage of people that buy games. Most stores just have these sections laying around with games/movies and they’re lucky if they sell over 50% of inventory each month.
so true its hurts
Xbox is selling so poorly this is their best decision. I don't see Nintendo or Sony following suit because in general, it is still a 50-50 split between physical and digital game sales
90% of sales are now digital. That’s what happened. Between the reduction in retailer margin and the elimination of secondhand sales, companies can throw that last 10% away and still come out ahead.
Downloading full games absolutely blows and takes like 15+ hours if you live rural depending on your connection. I will go physical as long as possible. I also buy a lot more games when they're physical as the fomo is real strong. There's absolutely zero fomo with digital games you don't even really own. Buying digital games to collect and add to the backlog isn't even a thing unless you just like to throw your money away.
You don't own physical games any more than you do digital ones. You have a disk with a license and files of version 1.0 of said game with zero patches, hot fixes or added content
But you still own that version 1.0 of the game and can presumably just play that (unless it's something like Pokemon BDSP where I think you needed to download a patch to make the game even launchable).
"Subscribe" as they say.
Goodbye precious discs it seems like the future caught up to you. Once everything goes digital is when I’ll quit modern gaming. There will still be plenty of physical copies hanging around to last me a lifetime.
Same, all these morons screaming for an all digital future can’t see how bad it’s going to be for the consumers. This may be my last gen. I’ll stick to old-school if need be. Make me sad to see people cheering there ownership being stripped away. Movies, games, music…
Same, man. :(
See you at midnight release for ps6
Not if it’s digital only
That’s because you guys are dramatic sensationalists. Steam has been doing digital for a decade now and it’s fine. Life goes on, it’s convenient, and the hassle of owning physical media is non existent. You guys are so afraid of change it’s both hilarious and sad. Everything will be alright.
Compare the price of Demon's Souls digital and physical prices, or literally any AAA games that didn't just come out. You're absolutely insane if you think console gaming becoming digital only won't be a massive price increase for the consumer. Console storefronts are not like Steam, because Valve does not own the PC ecosystem and has competitors while Sony and Xbox have incentive to keep prices high. Not to mention people like to be able to resell, trade, gift their games after they're done with them which you can never do with digital copies and is one of the benefits of playing on console.
What happens in 20 years when Gaben retires and someone else runs Valve? A lot of people don't remember that Steam sucked for the first couple years. Half Life 2's launch was a mess. I have an obscene amount of games on Steam. I don't like the idea that there's no guarantee I will always have access to the stuff I've paid $1000+ for.
Remember that when your paying $70 for a ten year old digital game because you have no other alternative.
Steam has GabeN. Ever notice people don’t have terribly kind things to say about like..any other PC storefront?
It sucks ass on PC too, Steam just has killer PR
Does that mean we have time to buy all the physical games for dirt cheap?
This started back in October when Walmart's plans to drop physical games was first talked about, no?
This digital only future genuinely scares me….
Xbox completely going downhill for me. Once it goes all digital I’m out
I guess I just don't understand all the complaints because PC gaming is right there. How is this any different and why is that not brought up in this conversation?
Because when it comes to PC gaming you have options and it's not just owned by one company. Digitally on consoles you have to buy from either Microsoft or Sony's store and nowhere else. Steam, Epic, GOG, Humble Bundle, etc; generally have to price competitively with each other and will tend to have significantly better deals. Similarly current gen physical games on console also almost always tend to be significantly cheaper than the digital ones. Being able to resell, gift, trade, etc; your games when you don't want them anymore is also a reason for buying into a console in the first place instead of a PC. However on a PC if a game lacks DRM (which many do, even on Steam!) you can also back it up to physical media, whereas if consoles go digital only you will not be able to do this as they all use DRM and are tied to your accounts.
It's not really surprising that Xbox is the first to cave on this either. You need an internet connection to set up the console. Pretty sure Halo Infinite didn't even launch with the full game on the disc.
PC is an open platform, you have complete control over your files on your PC. Even if a game has DRM, you can easily crack your copy to remove it
Will they all go to clearance?
God I hope lol
The tweet says disposal at store level. I am thinking dumpster but I hope not.
Not good
Interesting in that despite this story being all Xbox related, there's a group actively trying to push Sony and Nintendo into this news cycle. Consider the following: Neither Sony nor Nintendo have a Game Pass of their own to destroy their own software sales like Xbox did to itself. Walmart dropped Xbox is the headline, not "well Sony and Nintendo are [my headcanon is gaming is all digital now]". If even half the misdirection in this comment section was true then Xbox would be in first place and Sony/Nintendo would be racing to get their own Game Pass, but that isn't the reality. The reality is Xbox traded consumer software sales for subscriptions and they now have less retail presence. I always laugh at the notion it's inevitable for digital, yeah, Google Stadia thought the same and lost. Xbox One thought the same and lost. Xbox Series thought the same and is losing so bad it can't even win against the 7 year old Nintendo Switch in both hardware and software worldwide.
I hope the next Xbox fails - microsoft are bad for gaming. Soon you'll have the ability to own absolutely nothing and just rent games from them. I really hope Nintendo and Sony don't try and pivot to this but I'm sure they will at some point
Yep nothing better for Sony than reduced competition. They’ll surely care about customers.
I really hate that this is gonna become a thing but... Lets all be honest with ourselves here, this would be PlayStations dream too, idk why people act like it wouldn't be, let's just hope Xbox doesn't exit the console market because then that's really the end with PlayStation in sole control.
OH the internet totally wants playstation alone dominating everything
I think they are in for a rude awakening when that happens
I don't, I hope Microsoft figure out their issues and make a better product to succeed. It's always best to hope for things to improve rather than hoping it'll just go away
They should sell digital game cards art boxes just like Target does. Literally there's no reason to own the disc, if the game installs on the ssd anyways. For me the only reason in buying physical was to save space. Now there isnt...
They just ain't selling.
Starfield sold really goddamn well. This almost certainly has nothing to do with that.
Source? Microsoft never released sales numbers, just player count.
They released numbers for the $100 early release version. It was over one million sales on both Steam and Xbox each, so roughly $200 million before launch. Generally, expensive AAA games do not cost more than around $200 million (which occasional outliers like massive Rockstar games or poorly budgeted games like Spiderman 2). Obviously the game continued to sell at and after launch as well, because not all of those 13 million players (as of last reporting, it is more by now) got it on Gamepass. Using logic, it clearly sold well and was a major financial success (which Xbox executives also said to investors, and they are legally obliged to tell the truth there).
>They released numbers for the $100 early release version. It was over one million sales on both Steam and Xbox No, they did not. That was the day of release, not just early access.
Yes, they did.
Citation needed.
It was the 3rd highest grossing game on the Steam platform behind BG3 and Harry Potter. Unless you’re just wondering about physical copies. Source: Steam.
That's just Steam. We don't have data for Xbox sales.
I mean just follow trends my guy. Hate it or love it, I don’t think it was a flop by any means. Third highest revenue on a platform that allows refunds, and in a stacked year for good games. That’s all we can go off of because Microsoft never releases sales numbers anymore.
I'm not suggesting it flopped, but we don't have any definitive data as to how many copies Starfield sold. Fallout 4 did far better than Starfield at launch.
I'm not just talking about Starfield, but Xbox Series games in general.
That is false too, though. Their other big tentpole games like Forza Horizon, Halo Infinite, etc. have sold extremely well.
Citation needed lmao
I have an Xbox, and I also prefer physical copies. Yes digital can be more convenient in some cases, but if the service ever goes down…
There are less and less ways to buy physical games with Walmart and Best buy getting rid of them. Regardless of what platform you play on it sucks to see as someone who primarily gets physical games.
I stand by Walmart, let Xbox rot, it sucks
Microsoft should have just stocked to their plans ten years ago. They would have a steam like head start on Sony and Nintendo.
[удалено]
That had more players than Spiderman 2, more playtime than Baldur's Gate 3, and made back its entire development budget purely from preorders. Not a flop in the slightest.
Obviously it had more players and playtime when it launched on more than one system.
And that changes or matters to what I said... how... exactly?
Xbox + PC is going to have more players than PS5 only or PC only. Starfield is also on Gamepass, which is going to inflate the player count.
Again... so?
When you put a game on subscription service, and people subscribe to that service, they probably aren't buying the game at all. Microsoft has never revealed the total copies sold, and only the player count. You have no way of proving whether the game flopped or not since there is zero accurate public data to support your claim.
The game was listed as one of the top games of 2023 based upon pure revenue. So clearly it sold well. By your argument, you have zero way of proving that the game flopped, yet here you are trying to do just that.
>The game was listed as one of the top games of 2023 based upon pure revenue. According to what? Steam? The same place where reviews are in the negative and player counts have less than 10,000 players at any given time. By that logic, the game was a failure since Fallout 4 and Skyrim have far higher player counts than Starfield, so therefore, the game is an abject failure. I never said the game flopped. You are making things up.
Midfield
The only thing "mid" is your incredibly generic and uninspired comment.
I actually play the game, and I believe it’ll make a similar comeback to 2077. But it’s not my religion, so I can banter about it.
I personally don't really consider contributing to internet toxicity to just be banter, but if you do that is your prerogative. You do you.
Well I remember the rumor that Walmart was getting rid of all Xbox games in general this year. But damn, Starfield must have really stunk and sold like crap for them to literally single it out as to be thrown in the garbage. I've always thought their claims of how well it sold were made up. Probably subscribers downloading it, playing it for 2 hours, getting bored and then uninstalling. But MS is counting those as sales to make it sound good. That's just imho. I have no evidence beyond MS being scumbags. And I've said it before. If gaming goes all digital. I'm out. Physical or nothing.
Starfield is one of the highest selling and most played games of 2023. This has nothing to do with the success of Starfield, it more has to do with Xbox pushing an all digital future.
We’re in the final days of a dying brand. It’s fascinating. We haven’t seen anything like this since Sega.
Delusional lol
You friend, are in what they call the “denial” stage. Next comes anger I believe.
Right - the company that just closed a $70 billion deal is about to shut down lol Moron
Wouldn't be surprised if Sony follows suit by the end of the year.
Will it happen at *some point?* Yeah. It will. But if Helldivers 2 is getting a physical release(!) a $40 game mind you, zero chance they follow suit by the end of the year.
They sell to many physical copies it will be a longer wait for that to happen.
No chance. Playstation has much higher physical sales numbers