Support NeoGAF

[abercrombie]

Since this is a more a physical media thread than a BB one, I personally hate swapping carts/optical-discs on my consoles to play another game but already I've been stung from having a games delisted on digital only services.

Get the movies/games/book/CD you love now on physical media or risk having it removed forever or, for worse, changed to fit current day sensibilities.

 

[FStubbs]

If this scenario materializes and the Series X refresh, its successor, and PS6 are all digital only, I can't imagine this will help them very much. If Nintendo is the only one with physical copies at that point, they'll have much more shelf space in stores. There's no way MS and Sony can benefit from this.

The all digital future will happen of course, but the first to abandon physical media will suffer from it a little bit.

They'll also likely be sued for having a storefront monopoly.

 

[DragoonKain]

Best Buy announces this is only true for movies/TV, not video games.

 

[adamsapple]

Video games, and more importantly the steel books are safe!

 

[Mr Reasonable]

Video games, and more importantly the steel books are safe!

I don't personally care for PS/Xbox physical, but I've got a bunch of Nintendo carts that I want Switch 2 to be able to play - I'm going to take this as a positive sign that there's still some life in Physical sales. I assume that Nintendo would be one of the last to leave it behind, but I'm not sure why. Fingers crossed anyway.

 

[deriks]

 

[StereoVsn]

Physical games suck anyway. You get some flimsy plastic case with no instruction manual or anything. You still have to install the game and download patches.

It used to feel really special to have a physical game that was completely contained on the cartridge and came with a manual/artwork and a nice case. Those days are long gone. Now it feels like some cheap annoyance.

Literally the only advantage to physical games is that you can sell and trade them.

That's a pretty damn big advantage though. And again, in Europe physical a lot of times will be quite a bit cheaper on release.

 

[ManaByte]

Best Buy confirmed it.

 

[Thick Thighs Save Lives]

Best Buy will continue to sell movies and TV shows on physical discs through the 2023 holiday shopping season online and in stores, before discontinuing sales in the new year. The company will continue to sell video games. As of mid-2023, Best Buy had 1,129 store locations, with 969 of those in the U.S.

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

This thread should be moved to offtopic tbh since we received confirmation that sales of video games at BB will continue for the foreseeable future.

 

[Kokoloko85]

So you're saying stores should keep managing inventory and dedicating shelf space to a product that's has poor profit margin and is declining in demand…. just as a check against Sony/MS/Nintendo hypothetically discontinuing sale of digital download codes in the future?

Sorry but this seems like a pretty big stretch. Not sure what the profit margin is on digital download cards but it can't be very high. The nice thing about those cards is they're extremely cheap to produce and they have 0 value until someone pays for it, so nobody loses anything if they get lost/stolen/overproduced/overstocked.

Basically they exist because they're a low-cost, low-risk proposition for all involved. Platform holders have little to gain by ending it and even in the unlikely event they tried to end it, retailers aren't going to take any big risks/losses as some long-term gambit to prevent that.

Im not saying anything really, Im thinking out loud.

Surely it makes more money than not selling games at all? If not why have they been selling games for decades

 

[Rocco Schiavone]

It just makes no more sense for companies to spend money on producing discs , packaging and so on.

Disney's Streaming Business Is Still Losing Money. Here's What It Means For the Stock. | The Motley Fool

Before you celebrate the streaming business's shrinking losses, check the direction of its top line growth.

www.fool.com

Spotify grew far more than expected, but is still losing money

In the second quarter of 2023, Spotify saw its million monthly active users climb to 551 million after welcoming 36 million new listeners.

www.engadget.com

Sure makes no sense.

 

[Elder Legend]

Disney's Streaming Business Is Still Losing Money. Here's What It Means For the Stock. | The Motley Fool

Before you celebrate the streaming business's shrinking losses, check the direction of its top line growth.

www.fool.com

Spotify grew far more than expected, but is still losing money

In the second quarter of 2023, Spotify saw its million monthly active users climb to 551 million after welcoming 36 million new listeners.

www.engadget.com

Sure makes no sense.

You are talking about streaming services and not digital game sales which are completely different things. Might want to get a proper comparison before trying for the "gotcha" moment. Close, but no cigar, try a bit harder next time, but not hard enough where your brain cracks. I don't want you to pop your brains now. Reseaching proper date is hard I know, especially when you cannot find anything when you want something legitimate to fit your fake narrative.

GamesIndustry.biz presents… The Year In Numbers 2022

Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox

www.gamesindustry.biz

- 2022 Physical vs Digital

"

 

[Gambit2483]

A shame since Best Buy actually used to be the best buy for videogames
That Gamer Club unlocked was the best thing they had to get people into their stores....and they got rid of it.

They could have increased the price or modified the savings but nope they just killed it outright.

 

[Rocco Schiavone]

You are talking about streaming services and not digital game sales which are completely different things. Might want to get a proper comparison before trying for the "gotcha" moment. Close, but no cigar, try a bit harder next time, but not hard enough where your brain cracks. I don't want you to pop your brains now. Reseaching proper date is hard I know, especially when you cannot find anything when you want something legitimate to fit your fake narrative.

GamesIndustry.biz presents… The Year In Numbers 2022

Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox

www.gamesindustry.biz

- 2022 Physical vs Digital

"

I have no idea why you have to make such a fool of yourself.

You claimed there was no point in selling physical media, which is complete and utter nonsense. Whether it refers to video games or music or other media doesn't give a shit. Your stupid list of sales is of no use to you when the sales figures from digital media are compared with physical ones.

As long as you make money selling physical media, they will exist. Now please go back to your clown school.

 

[NeverYouMind]

I don't think I have ever bought those things from them despite buying quite a lot of DVDs. So, I guess I have no horse in this race and hope that they will still sell reasonably priced electronics and appliances in the future.

 

[Edgelord79]

Inevitable. Obviously their numbers were trending downwards for physical media like other places. Sad to see, but it is what it is.

 

[Demigod Mac]

This happening in 8-15 years would not surprise me one bit.

 

[newtypepilot]

so it's only movies and tv shows. Games unaffected...for now.

that's still a idiotic move because they are just killing off another revenue stream, and essentially giving that business to their competitors like Walmart or Amazon. Now there's even less reason to go BB.

And the thing is the streaming landscape is highly fragmented. People is starting to realize having to pay multiple subscriptions is dumb, and the fact that streaming service can remove certain shows and movies from their library instantly. DVDs and Blu-rays will always be a revenue stream for the studios so they have no incentive to stop making them.

 

[recursive]

We do not need physical media anymore in the west, there just aren't enough benefits.

Sure for the casuals that have a 42 inch TV, sitting 15 ft away using TV speakers that might not be able to tell the difference. You cannot compare the sound/video quality of a 4k blu ray to streaming, it is night and day.

 

[Dthomp]

so it's only movies and tv shows. Games unaffected...for now.

that's still a idiotic move because they are just killing off another revenue stream, and essentially giving that business to their competitors like Walmart or Amazon. Now there's even less reason to go BB.

And the thing is the streaming landscape is highly fragmented. People is starting to realize having to pay multiple subscriptions is dumb, and the fact that streaming service can remove certain shows and movies from their library instantly. DVDs and Blu-rays will always be a revenue stream for the studios so they have no incentive to stop making them.

Yup, I've taken to buying some of my favorite series on DVD/BR when affordable because you never know when they may never be available or highly editted. The last time I watched Scrubs on Hulu a few years back I noticed how alot of the music in the episodes had been changed from original airing and DVD releases or the series. I hate shopping at Walmart but if it's the only place I can get games going forward, I guess they get my business. I enjoy walking into a store and picking up a game, BB had already lost alot of my interest when they swapped to just paper pictures of the games on the shelves and I could no longer see the back of games for stuff I know less about what it is.

 

[NahaNago]

so it's only movies and tv shows. Games unaffected...for now.

that's still a idiotic move because they are just killing off another revenue stream, and essentially giving that business to their competitors like Walmart or Amazon. Now there's even less reason to go BB.

And the thing is the streaming landscape is highly fragmented. People is starting to realize having to pay multiple subscriptions is dumb, and the fact that streaming service can remove certain shows and movies from their library instantly. DVDs and Blu-rays will always be a revenue stream for the studios so they have no incentive to stop making them.

Nearly all of the physical stores are nearly getting rid of their movie sections. Best buy has been just one display of movies for a couple of years now, target now only has the new releases at the front of the store and one display in an area close to the video games, and walmart in my area just went from a whole aisle to 4 dvd shelves. These changes also all happened in the last few years when these places remodeled.

 

[ShadyAcshuns]

I fucking hate Best Buy. Bought a tv from them, they use Fed Ex to deliver it, but the moron drops the tv package in my pit bull pen, so 4 of them eat the damn tv. Customer service tells me to return the product for a refund. What am I supposed to return, dog shit? Fuck BB and feed them fish heads.

 

[[Sigma]]

Doesn't say videogames so im good. I will continue to buy my physical games from Best Buy til they say they're done. They deliver my games day 1 and offer steelbooks a lot of times so they'll continue to be my go to.

 

[Urban]

Best Buy? More like No Buy, amirite?

Dunno why but i read that in Videogamedunkeys voice

 

[LordBlodgett]

Sure for the casuals that have a 42 inch TV, sitting 15 ft away using TV speakers that might not be able to tell the difference. You cannot compare the sound/video quality of a 4k blu ray to streaming, it is night and day.

True, can't argue there. Issue is that for 90-95% of people regular old blu-ray quality is good enough, and most streaming is comparable or better than that. There are always going to be people who want vinyl records, 4k Blu-rays, collector edition video games. Those are not going to go away. Heck there are people who will pay more for lossless audio downloads. The point is that those are all niche. I will expect all of these will be available in specialty stores or online, but the mass market stores are going to dedicate less and less space as most become satisfied with streaming quality or have the internet for streaming to be functional.

 

[Shadowstar39]

I think we ought to be thinking about things like this from time to time. "Buy local" is becoming "buy in giant warehouse size stores with national distribution networks." As smaller businesses disappear and what's considered a small business gets bigger and bigger.

I've had really good experiences with Amazon, but I try to buy elsewhere if I can. If a product is the same price in two places, then I think it's a good idea to spend your money in the place where an individual is more likely to benefit from your money, or employs locally, or is less likely to create a monopoly. You likely won't change the world, but you might keep someone fed or employed by taking a moment.

This. I go to antique and specialty shops for games why because I can find deals and people who know their stuff. Also rare older games, retro consoles and the like.

I got official monster hunter joycons for $50. Wizardry tales of the forsaken land (ps2) for $35, skyward sword, punch out, dead space extraction, twilight princess, trauma center, and a wii motion plus all for $70... (Wife has a wii console which I didn't so I am buying what I can find.)

Now my purchases are mostly 2nd hand here. But think of a all digital world this goes away. It's sad. They kill off a digital game it's gone for good. I have a few digital only games on ps3 that never got ported (cloud berry Kingdom, trash panic, last guy, Tokyo jungle etc..). If Sony kills downloads to ps3 those games won't be there. Yet I can still go buy suikoden 2 or any of my favorite ps1 games.

What we need is a merger of new games and old stuff with gaming merchandise and arcades. A new type of brick and mortar store. Maybe have pinball and gaming meeting tables along with pnp. I think a store that is customer minded could do great. Gamestop sort of tried this but they don't offer a hangout vibe. They don't have anytjing older than one gen before.

Botromline physical needs to be here. An all digital future is bleak. A game pass ridden throw it away gaming will bring on the race to the bottom. Quantity and loot boxes/micros over quality single player content. Just look at phone games to see our future if physical goes away.

 

[Shadowstar39]

Physical games suck anyway. You get some flimsy plastic case with no instruction manual or anything. You still have to install the game and download patches.

It used to feel really special to have a physical game that was completely contained on the cartridge and came with a manual/artwork and a nice case. Those days are long gone. Now it feels like some cheap annoyance.

Literally the only advantage to physical games is that you can sell and trade them.

Really, you don't like being able to get games at a better price. When its $20 for a new copy , 15 for used and still 60 digital. Yeah that physical is there. The digital prices would go down less if there was no physical media to compete with. Also digital rights can be taken away. The company removes the game due to some bs licensing (songs or whatnot) and bam no more game.

I guess you don't own a Nintendo switch? Most of the games are self contained on cart. Those carts help a lot as storage is limited. Even with a 512gb sd card I can't install everything. This is where carts help too, I can pop in and play a cart. The patch content will already be on the console from last time or it will be a quick download.

 

[Shadowstar39]

About 15-20% of the US still doesn't have access to high speed internet. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/personal-finance/millions-lack-broadband-access/#:~:text=Currently, some 42 million Americans,of at least 3 Mbps.

There are many in especially rural areas that just don't have the bandwidth to want to be downloading 200+ gb games. Much of the country still has 20-30 mbps service. We're talking almost an entire day to download a single game if they don't want to do anything else with their bandwidth like watch a movie, or work, or play games while waiting for their game.

I appreciate the flexibility of having the option to choose between digital and physical myself and typically buy whichever is cheapest, but for many people it's just not a valid option.

Yep, also some have satelite internet , which is shit. Some companies are even metered still or with low datacaps. My in-laws are in the country by a mountain. The major phone companies don't go there. They need satelite. For cell phone reception you have to be on one side of the house and even then its 1 bar and flaky. Their satelite internet is so slow (not 2400 bps that I had as a kid slow, or 56k in the late 90s slow, but more like early 00s broadband slow) It drops a lot too. This can't be used for games or downloading 100+ large files. (maybe if companies gave you the option to choose lower texture packs. Id imagine if you have a 1080p tv you don't need a 4k texture pak that takes 80 extra gb. )

Best buy is just acting retarded. Short sighted, so short-sighted.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

Online too? Such BS.. that's the only reason I ever went to BB.

 

[DownLikeBCPowder]

I need to sell my old physical xbox 360 games that are not backwards compatible.

What ya got? Interested.