Best Buy Exiting the Physical Media Biz (not games) in 2024 (Online & In-Store) & Walmart has begun removing physical games. Selling for 3 cents.

[Gamernyc78]

BREAKING/EXCLUSIVE on The Bits: Best Buy is exiting the physical media business for good in 2024 [UPDATED]

BREAKING/EXCLUSIVE on The Digital Bits: Best Buy is exiting the physical media business for good in 2024

thedigitalbits.com

The Digital Bits has learned from industry sources—and we’ve confirmed it with multiple sources now—that Best Buy plans to exit the physical media business for good next year, possibly as soon as the end of Q1 2024.

This includes not just their in-store Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD sales, which the retailer has been gradually phasing out for a couple of years now in their many store locations nationwide, but online sales as well. This means no more Best Buy-exclusive Steelbook titles, and no more titles from Best Buy period.



**Games supposedly not affected and will still be sold in store, see below....

Best Buy to End DVD, Blu-ray Disc Sales

Best Buy plans to phase out sales of DVDs and Blu-ray discs both in-store and online by early 2024, the company said.

variety.com

Walmart removing games

 

[Bryank75]

Direct knock on effect from things like Microsoft buying Activision... allowing Microsoft to push the end of physical by force.

I really hope Nintendo and Sony support physical games into the future and we can easily have access to them.

 

[historia]

Direct knock on effect from things like Microsoft buying Activision... allowing Microsoft to push the end of physical by force.

I really hope Nintendo and Sony support physical games into the future and we can easily have access to them.

I dom't think Sony just going full digital yet,

If they trying to go full digital, they probably would not have incrase the Digital edition price

 

[toadsage44]

I guess I will no longer be shopping at Best Buy anymore because every single time I've bought anything there in the past 10+ years, it's been a physical game or movie.

 

[flaccidsnake]

I guess I will no longer be shopping at Best Buy anymore because every single time I've bought anything there in the past 10+ years, it's been a physical game or movie.

It's like the only place to buy 4k bluray

 

[historia]

It's like the only place to buy 4k bluray

is bestbuy the biggest retail chain in NA?

 

[flaccidsnake]

is bestbuy the biggest retail chain in NA?

in general no (walmart, target...), but they're probably the biggest electronics specialty chain. definitely true on the east coast.

 

[Alabtrosmyster]

Physical games are going the way of the venyl disk, something for the enthusiasts.

 

[Loy310]

If Walmart dont do the same then best buy is transitioning to online only in the next 5 years.

 

[Zzero]

is bestbuy the biggest retail chain in NA?

No, they only sell home electronics and appliances. I would occasionally buy games there but its a terrible place to buy, say, a tv, when you could save hundreds of dollars going to Costco/BJ's/Sam's Club. Like even if you just get a one month membership, buy the tv and leave you still save money.

Question though, I notice that games were conspicuously left out of this article. Are physical game sales continuing?

 

[Bryank75]

I dom't think Sony just going full digital yet,

If they trying to go full digital, they probably would not have incrase the Digital edition price

Exactly, in fact I was going to make a thread on that, asking if Sony are actually encouraging physical games media.

 

[KnittedKnight]

Bestbuy is simply crashing to the online wall of Amazon, Walmart and Target. It was a bigger Circuit City but like it, it's dying slowly.

I still think the future of physical media, for the time being, is not discs like Blu Ray but Nintendo's solution - aka sd cards - your modern cartridge per say.

I myself would prefer sd cards over Blu Ray, along with a cost saving smaller plastic box to house it, say half the size, or perhaps even smaller, as long as the cover art is legible, front and back.

An sd card reader would be much cheaper to manufacture and included in a console, and it would occupy less physical space as well - that PS5 hump is ugly as hell. Win Win in that regard.

An all digital future is slavery compared to the freedom and choice we have now with physical.

 

[Bryank75]

Bestbuy is simply crashing to the online wall of Amazon, Walmart and Target. It was a bigger Circuit City but like it, it's dying slowly.

I still think the future of physical media, for the time being, is not discs like BlueRay but Nintendo's solution - aka sd cards - your modern cartridge per say.

Could Sony continue with a physical option? What do you think will happen in their case?

I'd love them to have something like Nintendo but the size of games on PS might make that impossible. But wouldn't it help with loading?

 

[Puff]

 

[historia]

Could Sony continue with a physical option? What do you think will happen in their case?

I'd love them to have something like Nintendo but the size of games on PS might make that impossible. But wouldn't it help with loading?

Nah

Catridge are ways, ways more expensive than BD discs.

Nintendo catridge costs 75%+ of what 32GB SD Card UHSC-1 costs. Meanwhile triple layers BD discs costs just as half of that.

With next nintendo console coming around, that costs gonna comes even larger

 

[Bryank75]

Nah

Catridge are ways, ways more expensive than BD discs.

Nintendo catridge costs 75%+ of what 32GB SD Card UHSC-1 costs. Meanwhile triple layers BD discs costs just as half of that.

With next nintendo console coming around, that costs gonna comes even larger

But surely with such a huge percentage of gamers still buying physical on big releases, they will need to keep doing some physical releases and distribute them widely.

 

[KnittedKnight]

Could Sony continue with a physical option? What do you think will happen in their case?

I'd love them to have something like Nintendo but the size of games on PS might make that impossible. But wouldn't it help with loading?

They should continue with physical. It's in their best interest to do so. Erasing physical as an option gives into MS/Amazon's push for an all-digital ecosystem where they have all the advantages. If console platforms like PlayStation stand on its hardware, one of the pillars of that is also the option of physical media and all the markets it opens up not just for consumers but also retail at large, online or otherwise. That is to say, this ecosystem that surrounds physical media is part of the appeal of console hardware, and makes it harder for all-digital market disruptors to barge in and take the premium games market with them (away from Nintendo and Sony). At the end of the day, only a few execs will decide on this, when it should be done by committee with certain rules in place - aka, always support physical.

Sony has stuck to BluRay cause they more or less made it happen but the future for physical is sd cards - small form factor, scalable storage capacity. The problem is economy of scale pricing. On the one hand they'll save on hardware costs, and form factor for every console sold while on the other, an sd card of 150 gigs is costly if not bought in extreme bulk quantities and thus that will present a problem for third party devs that are not under big publishing umbrellas. Thus, a reliable solution must be found here, and Sony must be at the forefront. Nintendo is already there but they don't move the bulk of third party software that Sony's PlayStation does. Incidently, Nintendo's split of digital vs. physical is much more favorable to physical than Sony's split of the very same. Meaning the casuals don't mind it that much. It's the fucking hard core gamers, in their infinite stupidity that are giving in to trading freedom for convenience. PC gamers being the first casualty, thanks to Valve's Steam stewardship, and MS's failed one at that - which aligned anyway.

Microsoft can burn in hell with their all-digital future. They're what they're, and they can not hide it, just try to fool idiots and shape perception until they get you by the balls.

 

[Zzero]

Could Sony continue with a physical option? What do you think will happen in their case?

I'd love them to have something like Nintendo but the size of games on PS might make that impossible. But wouldn't it help with loading?

It helps with loading, assuming the dev is too lazy to properly allocate HD space in gameplay and is also more durable than discs for portable devices, which is why Sony went from UMD to standard carts for the Vita. That said, its really the space and durability concerns that led to Nintendo switching formats and I wouldn't expect Sony to unless they were to go over to a hybrid device.

 

[historia]

It helps with loading, assuming the dev is too lazy to properly allocate HD space in gameplay and is also more durable than discs for portable devices, which is why Sony went from UMD to standard carts for the Vita. That said, its really the space and durability concerns that led to Nintendo switching formats and I wouldn't expect Sony to unless they were to go over to a hybrid device.

With NAND chip getting cheaper, I expect read-only NVME probably the next push for Nintendo.

Sony, probably still stick with BD because of BC.

 

[Zzero]

The problem is economy of scale pricing. On the one hand they'll save on hardware costs, and form factor for every console sold while on the other, an sd card of 150 gigs is costly if not bought in extreme bulk quantities and thus that will present a problem for third party devs that are not under big publishing umbrellas.

As a Switch fan I find the opposite to be true. Small publishers that cater to the hardcore crowd splurge on full-sized cards when necessary while big publishers like Ubisoft, Embracer, BandaiNamco and Take 2 do not and often require the big white "fuck you" full game download required warning across the case's front. Including for "easy" shit like 360 ports and compilations.