A couple of months ago, news surfaced confirming that Best Buy in the United States plans to stop selling ‘physical media’ as early as the end of Q1 2024. Following that news, a claim appeared suggesting that Walmart is planning to follow in those footsteps, eradicating physical Xbox games and making further cuts through 2024. In the United Kingdom, supermarkets have slashed their representation of physical games, and even the nation’s ‘high street gaming store’ has all but disappeared. So are physical games dying?
In the data, we see a clear trend – physical game sales are declining. It was claimed at the start of this year that as much as 90% of all game sales made through 2022 were digital – but mobiles gaming is included in that figure. Ubisoft has spoken out about the trend, suggesting that there will always be a market for physical games, no matter how small that market becomes. But the data is tangible, and physical games seem to be dying out over time.
There’s a revolution rolling out as we speak. It’s seeing a shutdown of physical games take place around the world. Typically, digital and cloud-based services like PS Now, Game Pass, GeForce Now and Ubisoft+ report consistent growth. The bang for the buck with these services can’t be argued against. By contrast, we’re seeing an almost resolute withdrawal of physical collector’s editions, midnight launch events, and even representation of physical products in stores the world over.
There are all-digital PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles. There are even rumors that suggest Nintendo is working on a cloud-based console. We’re seeing an increase in the popularity of handheld consoles, with devices like the Steam Deck, Lenovo Legion Go, and the ROG Ally experiencing positive receptions and strong sales figures. It was just weeks ago that news surfaced suggesting that Microsoft is continuing to work on its all-digital cloud console – Project Keystone.
And do we need to mention the rise of mobile gaming? Whether it’s mobile esports or the fact that AAA games are making their way onto mobile devices, the most accessible, widespread form of gaming is on a constant uptick. It’s estimated that there are more than 2.5 billion mobile gamers in the world today – and they’re all digital players.
If physical games are abandoned overnight, a paradigm shift will take place in the gaming industry. There will be thousands upon thousands of layoffs the world over as manufacturing facilities, printing firms, factories, and designers find themselves without work. For the longest time, physical sales have been on a decline. However, it’s accelerating now and that’s a very real future that we all face.
For the ‘old-school’ gamers, it’s a crushing revelation. Personally, I predict that digital gaming will almost completely take over in the next few years. The physical boxed market will be restricted almost exclusively to second-hand sales. That’s why Sony is releasing a new PlayStation 5 model with an attachable disc drive, I think. There are just too many advantages to digital gaming, though.
Sure, the cost of digital products remains high, but so does the cost of developing these games. But there are clear benefits:
It’s a huge change from days gone by, but it’s the way it’s going to go. For the most part, the biggest esports games in the world are all available exclusively as digital downloads. Realistically, the market has already said its piece. It’s sad. The young gamers breaking into the hobby as we speak won’t get to appreciate the excitement of unwrapping a boxed game at Christmas. But everything moves on, right?
It’s going to be very interesting to see how the landscape changes in the coming years.
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a “post-covid world”? You’d think we just got through a nuclear winter or something, smh.