Best Buy Will Reportedly Stop Selling Physical Media

A surprising new report claims that Best Buy will cease selling all physical media in the near future, including video games and Blu-Rays. According to multiple sources for The Digital Bits, physical media sales could cease from the retailer as soon as Q1 2024. While this isn’t all that surprising on the retail side of things, it will apparently apply to online sales, as well. At this time, the retailer has not commented on the story, so readers should take this with a grain of salt until we get official confirmation. However, a number of video game fans have already voiced their frustration on social media. 

The “Death” of Physical Media

Predictions on the death of physical media have been circulating for several years now. The streaming era has put a big dent in sales of DVDs, Blu-Rays, and 4K discs, while digital releases have taken a chunk out of physical game sales. This has been exacerbated by companies like Sony and Microsoft, who have both released all-digital versions of their game consoles. However, there are still a lot of people that prefer physical media over digital, most notably gamers. While digital releases have their benefits, there are just as many negatives: gamers that buy a digital game they don’t enjoy are then stuck with it, and have no option to sell it through GameStop or eBay. Digital storefronts will also eventually go offline, making it impossible for newcomers to access those games, as we saw just this year with the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U eShops. 

Companies like Limited Run Games and Super Rare Games have fought against the rising tide of digital media, offering limited print physical releases for games that wouldn’t otherwise receive them. Those companies have found success with gamers, and some releases tend to command a lot of money on the secondary market. Companies like Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have an incentive to move away from physical media, but a lot of gamers have reason not to embrace an all-digital future. 

Video Game Streaming

While game streaming has yet to be embraced in a major way, companies like Ubisoft are betting it could be the next big thing; the company recently signed a major deal with Microsoft over the rights to stream Activision’s games. There are some benefits to game streaming, including the fact that it gives consoles the ability to play games that would otherwise be too powerful for the hardware, which is something we’ve seen with games like Microsoft Flight Simulator on Xbox One. Of course, there are also negatives; for one, internet outages would prevent players from accessing the games they paid for. More importantly, some regions simply don’t have internet quality capable of streaming some games. 

Best Buy’s potential exit from physical media doesn’t mean that physical video games will die anytime in the immediate future, but it could be yet another nail in the coffin. The video game industry has yet to totally move away from physical game releases, but there could come a day when all-digital is the only option. 

Do you think physical media is dying? Do you prefer digital games? Share your thoughts with me directly on Twitter at @Marcdachamp or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!

[H/T: Wario64]