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

Guys, stop hyperventilating about the end of disks, every game will be out there in perpetuity. If or when any of the digital stores close you will never be locked out of the content, you will just download it from somewhere else.

Also you can just buy cold storage and keep a local copy of whatever you buy digitally if you're that worried about. It's just switching from a plastic disk to a hard drive.

Yes, it kills 2nd hand sales unfortunately, but hopefully with regulation in the future we can finally get the right to transfer a digital good.
 
Fucking finally. Most retailers over here have hated Xbox ever since Game Pass was on the rise. Hella overstock and an unclear picture of how well things would sell.
 
Coffin Dancing GIF
 
HerjansEagleFeeder said:
Sony will follow, guaranteed. They're expanding rn to platforms that don't have any physical media to begin with.
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I realize that it's a battle we'll eventually lost, but I would bet it's almost certain that PS5 Pro will keep the drive and possible that PS6 will offer it in some way. There are no guarantees with Xbox, especially since the leaks told that the Series X refresh was being planned to be all-digital.
 
poppabk said:
Yep, time for all the physical only people to accept their digital future.
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You know what the timing of this news is a bit ironic because a few hours before being posted here I ordered 2 XSX physicals (Atomic Heart and Resident Evil 4 steelbook version).

Guess I'll stick with mostly BC titles from now on (main reason why I bought the SX anyway). And all the new multiplatform games will be bought on PS5 since they'll keeping supporting physical media for the foreseeable future.
 
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Maddux4164 said:
Isn't the MAIN problem with physical now….

That it's barely a working game? It's useless without the bevy of patches and updates it gets

So in the end, physical games in 2024 aren't really the game anyhow. It's merely a rushed version of code on a disc. That's the main reason I'm kinda "meh" on physical

Nintendo kinda stands alone on this and typically they ship full and playable games
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Thats not true for most games. Most of them you can play and finish without any issues at all.
 
xrnzaaas said:
I realize that it's a battle we'll eventually lost, but I would bet it's almost certain that PS5 Pro will keep the drive and possible that PS6 will offer it in some way. There are no guarantees with Xbox, especially since the leaks told that the Series X refresh was being planned to be all-digital.
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Besides the fact that we recently got confirmation that physical sales are still the majority seller for Sony through the Insomniac leak there's also the fact that the physical sales in Japan is still thriving to this day so Sony would have to make a conscious decision to drop the Japanese market if they ever go full digital which is something I don't see them doing any time soon.

Maybe we can come back to this discussion when the PS8 is around the corner but for now I feel confident in believing things wont change at least for the next two systems.
 
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The Fuzz damn you! said:
If that's the case, then it really makes no difference. The point is that MS aren't paying more than they received in order to reclaim these copies, which I think the post I replied to was implying.
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The opposite actually, they are basically giving back ALL the money in order to destroy this inventory. This money was meant to recoup the costs of printing the discs, warehouse operations, shipping etc.

This is actually a complete financial loss.
 
I think a lot of people don't read this news right.

It is not an active move (Xbox or Walmart pushing for going digital by removing physical option ), but a reactive one (Starfield does not sell and retailers have a lot of dead weight physical copies of the game in their stock that they want to get rid off)
 
Flabagast said:
I guess it only sold kinda well on PC, and sales on Xbox consoles must be below 1 million globally (to the fans before jumping to the throat, think two minutes, if it had sold well Walmart would not take this decision)

Todd and Phil when thinking about the 10 million sales potential which were forecasted on PS5 and that they decided to let go

Cupcake-dog-stares-PTSD.gif
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Yes, but there is no physical PC version to remove from shelfs.
That's why it's only talking about the Series X Version. It's the only one in existence.
 
Shane89 said:
i'm 90% digital owner since mid PS4 era, but i want a console with disc drive. I'll probably never use, but i want it, lol
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Same, my PS5 has never had a disc in it's drive, aside from a movie to check it worked. Almost the same on my Series X too.

I'll take the option if it's available, but tbh, I think it won't be long before there's no option.
 
twilo99 said:
As a long time PC gamer I had no idea how important plastic boxes were to console players even to this day.
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i still miss physical games for pc. Steam is nice and all, but most games requiring it showed me it was an issue when my friend gifted me MGS5 for pc for my bday, and when i put the disc on my drive, it only had the steam installer on the disc, so i had to download the entire game. Took me 2 days until i could play it.
 
BlackTron said:
I'm more worried about having the entire game on a disk. I don't really care about the packaging if the game isn't even in there.
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That's the thing. Physical is no longer what it was generations ago.

With the exception of Nintendo, everyone else has day one patches and updates that render those physical games incomplete.
 
SmokedMeat said:
That's the thing. Physical is no longer what it was generations ago.

With the exception of Nintendo, everyone else has day one patches and updates that render those physical games incomplete.
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Yeah that's why the amount of physical games I've bought in the last 5 years is

Switch: 15 New
PS: 1 new, 15 used
Xbox: One New Cyberpunk 2077 for $5
 
SmokedMeat said:
That's the thing. Physical is no longer what it was generations ago.

With the exception of Nintendo, everyone else has day one patches and updates that render those physical games incomplete.
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most of the times you don't even need those day 1 patches. you can play the games perfectly fine without it.
 
Simpkin92 said:
Goodbye Xbox it was a good run (I guess?) been a huge fan since 2008, but these last few years were painful. I'll be getting a PS5 by summer, a switch 2 when it comes out and start building my PC to play your future releases. I'll never really understand why you couldn't just be normal like us Xbox fans wanted. Adieu
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Eulogy thread?
Eulogy thread!
Thanks original xbox for being the place to play kotor 1 and 2 which got me into playing games hardcore. And Jade Empire was fun af. So was Ninja Gaiden. And for Halo 2 which blew my 14 year old mind. If only you werent so infected with microsoft corpo culture, your platform would have thrive.
 
I want to see a pic of someone laying on top of 100 copies of starfield.
 
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ReBurn said:
What good is a physical copy of COD when you have to download the whole thing anyway?
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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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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.
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What does any of that have to do with COD? Whether you buy physical or digital you still have to download over 100 GB to play the game. The only benefit of a physical version is resale or trade-in value, and both suck in relationship to games that are actually on the disc.
 
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ReBurn said:
What does any of that have to do with COD?
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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.
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Literally all of that has everything to do with COD
ReBurn said:
Whether you buy physical or digital you still have to download over 100 GB to play the game. The only benefit of a physical version is resale or trade-in value and trade-in, and both suck in relationship to games that are actually on the disc.
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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!
 
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.
Click to expand...


Walmart are reportedly removing all console physical games, they're just starting with Xbox.

 
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