The Digital Bits reporting that Best Buy will stop selling physical media (including 4K/Blu-ray/DVD) possibly as soon as end of Q1 2024, both in-store and online https://t.co/qreCJJhZZDpic.twitter.com/8g41sXoYqM
— Wario64 (@Wario64) October 12, 2023
As initially reported by The Digital Bits, and then confirmed by Variety, Best Buy will be ending the sale of DVDs and Blu-Ray film and movie media in 2024. Even more worryingly, as reported by The Verge, there are some sources indicating that "Best Buy won’t even sell physical movies online, including 4K titles and special-edition steelbooks." This has been part of a trend at Best Buy to move away from non-hardware sources of tech media as Best Buy discontinued selling CDs and all forms of physical music media in 2018. For fans of film and movies, this leaves small stores and Amazon as the primary sources for physical film media, including steelbooks and special-edition versions of move home releases.
After this news related to Bey Buy broke, Josh Fairhurst, the CEO of Limited Run Games, stated that they had an insider at Walmart indicate that Walmart is moving to explore a similar policy related to physical game media, but the phasing out of physical game media would only target Xbox games initially. If that proves to be true, which for now is unconfirmed, may encourage the current slate of console manufacturers to lean into all-digital video game consoles and streaming even more than they have already. Less in dispute is the point that Fairhurst made about Best Buy and most major retailers throttling down their orders of physical game media, and Fairhurst's claims were supported by others in the industry.
It should also be pointed out that the phase out of physical media has disproportionately impacted different regions of the world than others. For example, Disney announced in July 2023 that they would stop shipping physical media to the entire continent of Australia. Also, with Sony stating that they have no plans on making 8K Blu-Ray drives, that pretty much puts console manufacturers in an odd position when it comes to future proofing or planning their next generation of consoles if they want to consider the presence of physical media. Though, if we are being generous, the failure of 8K as a standard is multifaceted with few still adopting TV screens that support it.
So, what do you think the future holds of physical media in games and elsewhere? Is the next generation the one where we see one of the console manufacturers bite the bullet and go all digital?
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