As we’re all gradually coming to terms with, physical media is on the way out. The video games market is slowly transitioning to digital sales, and the switch has occurred even more abruptly in other industries, where most people prefer to stream movies and music these days. Best Buy, one of the United States’ largest retailers, is allegedly planning to phase out all physical media next year.

The story comes courtesy of an exclusive by The Digital Bits, which specifically references DVDs and Blu-rays, but is highly likely to include some video games, too. Fascinatingly, the site claims that the change will not only target its brick-and-mortar stores, but also its online arm, too. Apparently, Target is also scaling down its operations in this area, as well.

In associated news, Limited Run Games’ CEO Josh Fairhurst wrote on Twitter that he’s heard “rumblings” about Wal-Mart potentially dropping physical Xbox games soon. While this is unlikely to affect PlayStation, where physical media still performs adequately, it’s a stark reminder that the transition to digital is really beginning to snowball now.



Posted: Oct 17, 2023 9:07 pm
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2023/10/us-retail-giant-best-buy-allegedly-binning-physical-media