Walmart to start removing physical Xbox games in store starting with Starfield.

YuLY said:
Dont worry, I have :)) and they are not even in my house, 1 at parents 1 at a friend. I'm sorted bro, its the only hobby that I have, I made sure it is safe. Fuck them greedy publishers.
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I also do the same, at least two backup copies and backup to online service.

The only big issue is Denuvo. Plenty games still aren't cracked and for those that have cracks I am not sure I trust enough for them not to have malware. So I have my backups but if Denuvo goes belly up, it's going to be unfortunate.

Anyways, it sucks to see physical disappear. I have bought Xbox One and Series physical copies before and have a ton of BC physicals. I might get a spare XSX for this. Hopefully MS doesn't pull the BC service offline when their new "adorable" Xbox comes in or they go 3rd party.
 
adamsapple said:
Walmart are reportedly removing all console physical games, they're just starting with Xbox.

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If they fully go through with it, and the numbers are accurate that 70% of PS sales are physical, then it's not being done as a reaction to consumer trends. It's being done to intentionally kill it because they want it dead.
 
BlackTron said:
Literally all of that has everything to do with COD


What does that have to do with the above points I just made? Also, check the edit I'd made to my post: it's the same as Switch games that come with 10% of the game on the cart. What's the point? Believe me the publisher found a point to make that physical copy.

I could list many examples but there are too many. With your logic, not a single Switch game or port that requires a big download has any reason to exist today. Yet, for some bizarre reason, they make them anyway! And sell them! Insanity!
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I see. So if retailers are removing physical Xbox games from their shelves then what incentive does Microsoft have to ship future versions of COD on disc? That relationship with retailers can't be all that important if retailers are the ones killing it. Will PlayStation gamers just not play COD because they can't get a disc that forces them to download the game anyway?

The gifting aspect is really the only valid point you're making. Sony made it difficult to gift digital games when they removed digital game codes from retail without providing a way to gift digitally other than PS store credit. But when it comes to gifting most suspect most people who would normally get a game in a box would be just fine getting a code for store credit to go buy it. Maybe Sony will finally provide digital gifting options when people can't buy games in brick and mortar stores any more.
 
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BlackTron said:
If they fully go through with it, and the numbers are accurate that 70% of PS sales are physical, then it's not being done as a reaction to consumer trends. It's being done to intentionally kill it because they want it dead.
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Every gaming section in any walmart, target, or best buy is usually an unattended mess. It doesn't look like a section that is long for the world tbh.
 
ReBurn said:
I see. So if retailers are removing physical Xbox games from their shelves then what incentive does Microsoft have to ship future versions of COD on disc?That relationship with retailers can't be all that important if retailers are the ones killing it.
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The fact that it didn't sell on Xbox does not mean that it won't sell on Playstation. Xbox physical tanked because Series S + Gamepass + dearth of worthy games. Triple play.

The idea though was that they would make it physical on a platform that actually sells physical. Again, going by the 70% numbers on PS, if they're accurate. But if the retailers are killing all physical for a different reason than sales -that is, simply because they DONT WANT people to buy physical anymore and prefer to force the choice to get a download card, that's different and could happen.

I'm intrigued to see how it plays out. The generation is dragging, Xbox completely decimated itself and people are ready for a new Switch. Switch numbers are lower just because it's getting old and saturated, not necessarily because they don't want a physical game. So the overall picture may have looked pretty bleak to WalMart in October when they announced pulling out of all physical games (which I only now realized) but it wouldn't surprise me if after shrinking the space from ditching Xbox and then Switch 2 comes out, they think twice. Unless of course, again, the real reason they're doing it is to kill it on purpose.

From my armchair perspective I don't think it's wise to completely ditch it. I think their idea is "if we take physical away, people will buy the same number of games just on our download cards that take up less space!" but in reality they could lose many software sales and becomes hardware whores due to half of those people just buying it straight from the console's online store instead.
 
BlackTron BlackTron Aside from Black Friday, when is the last time you've seen a packed gaming section at a Walmart, Target, Best Buy, or even Gamestop? When was the last time someone you knew even visited one?

Walmart doesn't give a shit about the gaming industry, they just want to make money. They don't want a section of their store that's dead for 90% of the year. The smart play would be to keep that stuff in the warehouse and move physical purchasing to online-only with 2-day shipping(if you subscribe), since online outlets are where most people are buying from anyway.
 
BlackTron said:
The fact that it didn't sell on Xbox does not mean that it won't sell on Playstation. Xbox physical tanked because Series S + Gamepass + dearth of worthy games. Triple play.

The idea though was that they would make it physical on a platform that actually sells physical. Again, going by the 70% numbers on PS, if they're accurate. But if the retailers are killing all physical for a different reason than sales -that is, simply because they DONT WANT people to buy physical anymore and prefer to force the choice to get a download card, that's different and could happen.

I'm intrigued to see how it plays out. The generation is dragging, Xbox completely decimated itself and people are ready for a new Switch. Switch numbers are lower just because it's getting old and saturated, not necessarily because they don't want a physical game. So the overall picture may have looked pretty bleak to WalMart in October when they announced pulling out of all physical games (which I only now realized) but it wouldn't surprise me if after shrinking the space from ditching Xbox and then Switch 2 comes out, they think twice. Unless of course, again, the real reason they're doing it is to kill it on purpose.

From my armchair perspective I don't think it's wise to completely ditch it. I think their idea is "if we take physical away, people will buy the same number of games just on our download cards that take up less space!" but in reality they could lose many software sales and becomes hardware whores due to half of those people just buying it straight from the console's online store instead.
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I mean, I don't think it's necessary to completely ditch physical either. There are people who really want it and as long as it makes sense logistically and financially to do it then I don't see the harm. I just don't think that most people are going to miss it when it's all said and done. For games that ship keys on discs like COD I don't see what the point in physical is unless people just like admiring the Modern Warfare case on the shelf while they dust it, because that's literally all it's good for.
 
Quezacolt said:
Thats not true for most games. Most of them you can play and finish without any issues at all.
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Quezacolt said:
most of the times you don't even need those day 1 patches. you can play the games perfectly fine without it.
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I recall a bunch of people on twitter (cant find them right now) that test a lot of games for their day 1 / no patch / offline capabilities. And iirc a solid quarter is either unplayable or heavily bugged without it. I personally think that's a lot and we can probably only expect that number to rise. Not trying to dismiss your preferences over physical but saying that most of those games are fine without a day 1 patch is not really a progressive mindset towards a problem that is wholeheartedly anti-consumer and will eventually bite you back in the ass.

Imagine wanting to bring any of those games with you to a friend, or to another console in general. Enjoy the several hours of downloading patches before you can do anything. I had this same issue when I brought my Series S with me to Portugal. I couldn't even play Doom 2016 and RDR2 didn't have fast travel and was loaded with glitches.
 
March Climber said:
BlackTron BlackTron Aside from Black Friday, when is the last time you've seen a packed gaming section at a Walmart, Target, Best Buy, or even Gamestop? When was the last time someone you knew even visited one?

Walmart doesn't give a shit about the gaming industry, they just want to make money. They don't want a section of their store that's dead for 90% of the year. The smart play would be to keep that stuff in the warehouse and move physical purchasing to online-only with 2-day shipping(if you subscribe), since online outlets are where most people are buying from anyway.
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I've put a qualifier on my takes that the numbers are actually true, specifically 70% of PS sales being physical. Everything I surmise is based on what makes sense for all players involved to make money doing it. From the publisher stamping a disc to the retailer stocking it. I expect nothing because they "care about games".

Maybe it's just in my area but the VG sections of stores are not decimated. The exception is the Xbox section of best buy. I saw one two years ago and it looked like a pit of despair. Not even a real store. The PS section was well-stocked neatly and perfectly ready for a photoshoot.

Call me an armchair businessman but I wouldn't want to sell a Switch 2 without Odyssey 2 or Zelda BOTW3 ready to go. If all I had were download cards I'd be afraid to sell hardware and have people go home and buy the game directly from Nintendo because that's all they get from my DL code anyway. Harming my attach rate. And the game is the only part you make margin on.

ReBurn said:
I mean, I don't think it's necessary to completely ditch physical either. There are people who really want it and as long as it makes sense logistically and financially to do it then I don't see the harm. I just don't think that most people are going to miss it when it's all said and done. For games that ship keys on discs like COD I don't see what the point in physical is unless people just like admiring the Modern Warfare case on the shelf while they dust it, because that's literally all it's good for.
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You and me don't see the point in buying MGS collection on Switch physical. Most of the game isn't even there anyway. The fact that two dudes on an Internet forum don't see the point to buying it doesn't mean that the publisher sees no point in making it anyway for the rest of the world that eats it up.
 
BlackTron said:
I've put a qualifier on my takes that the numbers are actually true, specifically 70% of PS sales being physical. Everything I surmise is based on what makes sense for all players involved to make money doing it. From the publisher stamping a disc to the retailer stocking it. I expect nothing because they "care about games".

Maybe it's just in my area but the VG sections of stores are not decimated. The exception is the Xbox section of best buy. I saw one two years ago and it looked like a pit of despair. Not even a real store. The PS section was well-stocked neatly and perfectly ready for a photoshoot.

Call me an armchair businessman but I wouldn't want to sell a Switch 2 without Odyssey 2 or Zelda BOTW3 ready to go. If all I had were download cards I'd be afraid to sell hardware and have people go home and buy the game directly from Nintendo because that's all they get from my DL code anyway. Harming my attach rate. And the game is the only part you make margin on.
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How about this, if what you state is true then this should be a business boom in sales for Gamestop. They have been circling the drain lately and they have no choice but to offer physical goods.

For them, other stores closing down their gaming sections should be a gift from the heavens. This is that 70% Playstation gamble that people here are hanging onto so heavily.

Let's see if it works out.
 
wolffy66 said:
Every gaming section in any walmart, target, or best buy is usually an unattended mess. It doesn't look like a section that is long for the world tbh.
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Isn't that more of a sign of poor departmental management though? I used to work in retail that had a videogame section and management was very strict about the order and cleanliness of every department by eod
 
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Frustrated World Cup GIF
 
Dutchy said:
I recall a bunch of people on twitter (cant find them right now) that test a lot of games for their day 1 / no patch / offline capabilities. And iirc a solid quarter is either unplayable or heavily bugged without it. I personally think that's a lot and we can probably only expect that number to rise. Not trying to dismiss your preferences over physical but saying that most of those games are fine without a day 1 patch is not really a progressive mindset towards a problem that is wholeheartedly anti-consumer and will eventually bite you back in the ass.

Imagine wanting to bring any of those games with you to a friend, or to another console in general. Enjoy the several hours of downloading patches before you can do anything. I had this same issue when I brought my Series S with me to Portugal. I couldn't even play Doom 2016 and RDR2 didn't have fast travel and was loaded with glitches.
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I played RDR2 without patches, and didn't have any issues at all with the game, 0 bugs during my entire playthrough. My entire gaming library, with the exception of Cyberpunk (the ps4 version), i can play from start to finish without any patches and without any issues whatsoever.
 
There seems to be some legitimacy to this as half our xbox section was just delisted the other day (meaning we took everything out of the case to be clearanced. So now we just have one xbox case left)

But chanced are its being removed in favor of another nintendo case
 
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March Climber said:
How about this, if what you state is true then this should be a business boom in sales for Gamestop. They have been circling the drain lately and they have no choice but to offer physical goods.

For them, other stores closing down their gaming sections should be a gift from the heavens. This is that 70% Playstation gamble that people here are hanging onto so heavily.

Let's see if it works out.
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The problem with GameStop is that average Neogaffer can do a better job running that company. They can't manage the stores, can't stock, can't even send a new game copy as actually new.

Hence the issues. Even a windfall of Walmart and perhaps BeatBuy stopping carrying physicals won't help them because GameStop management is inept.
 
BlackTron said:
It's good for relationships with retailers, for gifting, and because people simply buy Playstation games in a box. 70% of sales there are physical. The biggest deal game is going to have a presence on the shelf.

People misconstrue that Xbox pulling out of physical is a sign that physical doesn't matter. It's a sign that Xbox engineered the demise of their own physical market. Now they can play by the same rules as the industry veterans who aren't shooting themselves in the foot. Expect physical publishing from MS on PS/Switch for big games.

edit: it's the same as Switch games that come with 10% of the game on the cart. What's the point? Believe me the publisher found a point to make that physical copy.
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But they aren't buying them from big box stores, at least not in the numbers that makes the floor space worthwhile. Having physical games in a dedicated space adds nothing to the buying experience - they can provide more information, trailers etc online. So you are catering to the increasingly small market of people that don't or can't purchase stuff online.
 
Okay this is pretty unprecedented...a freaking bethesda game from the same year being sold for chump change. No matter how you look at it its a terrible look. I don't want xbox to abandon ship but damn..third party might be the only option.
 
Codes 208 said:
There seems to be some legitimacy to this as half our xbox section was just delisted the other day (meaning we took everything out of the case to be clearanced. So now we just have one xbox case left)

But chanced are its being removed in favor of another Nintendo case
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That is interesting. Nintendo seeing value in still investing in retail shelf space?
 
BlackTron said:
If they fully go through with it, and the numbers are accurate that 70% of PS sales are physical, then it's not being done as a reaction to consumer trends. It's being done to intentionally kill it because they want it dead.
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I highly doubt only 30% of PlayStation sales are digital.

What's the source?
 
StereoVsn said:
The problem with GameStop is that average Neogaffer can do a better job running that company. They can't manage the stores, can't stock, can't even send a new game copy as actually new.

Hence the issues. Even a windfall of Walmart and perhaps BeatBuy stopping carrying physicals won't help them because GameStop management is inept.
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This is part of the gamble. If the consumer is left with Gamestop as the only corporate business option(with multiple locations) to buy games, what will they do?

That's the question.
 
March Climber said:
This is part of the gamble. If the consumer is left with Gamestop as the only corporate business option(with multiple locations) to buy games, what will they do?

That's the question.
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They buy from Amazon or other online retailers. Now, if GameStop management could get their head out of their ass, that would be a different conversation.

Also, I doubt Wally World will stop carrying all games. They would be strange as there is still going to be physical generations with PS5 Pro, PS6, Switch 2, etc.

That's a lot of sales between consoles, accessories and games. Plus it gets customers into store for other things. It would seem shortsighted to dump it.

Xbox is a different proposition since they are going fully digital so less opportunities for sales. Well, and due to GamePass Xbox customers simply buy less games anyways.
 
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SABRE220 said:
Okay this is pretty unprecedented...a freaking bethesda game from the same year being sold for chump change. No matter how you look at it its a terrible look. I don't want xbox to abandon ship but damn..third party might be the only option.
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They aren't selling it. The price reduction is just some internal stock taking process not a real discount.
 
2 Walmarts in my area were recently renovated and the big game displays are gone and were replaced by tiny 4-foot units for xbox, ps and Nintendo.
 
Iced Arcade said:
2 Walmarts in my area were recently renovated and the big game displays are gone and were replaced by tiny 4-foot units for xbox, ps and Nintendo.
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Same here. Before the renovation there was a wall of cases 24 feet long and 8 feet high. After the renovation each company has a case that's 4 feet high and 4 feet wide for both games and consoles.
 
reinking said:
That is interesting. Nintendo seeing value in still investing in retail shelf space?
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Its more about stock on our end when it comes to cases. We have a ton more Nintendo games than xbox. As for why or what we get in, generally even with the new releases we barely get any xbox versions (a box of new releases usually averages for us about 3 ps4, 4 ps5, 3 xbox and about 4-6 switch) its kinda crazy honestly.
 
This reminds me of getting strategy guides for 1 cent at gamestop back in the day if you could get to them before they pulled and destroyed them. I'm curious if anyone will actually get one.
 
GloveSlap said:
This reminds me of getting strategy guides for 1 cent at gamestop back in the day if you could get to them before they pulled and destroyed them. I'm curious if anyone will actually get one.
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Managers would leave those out on purpose. Easy "item per transaction" add. ;)
 
Boy, the mood in this thread changed a lot after all physical console videogames was added to the removal process in this thread!
 
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Quezacolt said:
I played RDR2 without patches, and didn't have any issues at all with the game, 0 bugs during my entire playthrough. My entire gaming library, with the exception of Cyberpunk (the ps4 version), i can play from start to finish without any patches and without any issues whatsoever.
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Good on you man. Keep ignoring the actual point of my post.

Man, people nowadays won't ever budge when it's about admitting that they've said something outrageously stupid.
 
On the one hand, absolutely hilarious to see them start with Starfield, as if to say it singlehandedly decided the fate of physical media by being such a steaming pile of shit.

On the other hand, physical media dying is the most awful thing to happen in gaming and home media in general so this is not funny.
 
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