Physical video games in stores

[bluenote]

Admittedly, I don't go into EB Games and Best Buy much anymore, but I happened to stop into both on my lunch hour today to see what they had. Their stock of video games is shocking! I'm not kidding, Best Buy must have had 30 or so XBox One and 30 PS4 games. Basically, just the newest releases. No cds at all anymore, and their movies/tv dvds are basically gone, only a fraction of what they used to have.

EB Games was better, but not by a lot. Half their store is just pop culture stuff, and there was a lot of unused floor space.

I know the majority of us on this forum prefer physical media, but are we seeing the beginning of the end for physical media? Will it just be a niche product? We've been hearing the warnings for years, but man, I have to say that it's not looking good.

[Rookie1]

My Best Buy has a solid selection of DVDs & CDs. They also have a solid selection of games as well. Of course, it is newer stuff. Thats usually how it is will all retailers though. They keep their shelves stocked with the latest and greatest. I wll say that the CD section is dwindling, but that goes without saying really considering music has been targeted for digital release for almost 20 years now, more so than any other medium.

[scotland]

The transition from one media form to another is interesting.

In music, cassette tapes co-existed with viny for a long time, then with CDs - which did seem kill off vinyl. Digital music downloads came along and really took over. In books, we see the digital ebook now co-existing with the physical books. DVD movies pretty quickly overtook VHS tapes, but Blu Ray really has not hurt DVD much. However, streaming movies must be hurting physical movie sales a lot. PCs went wholehog on digital downloads, but consoles kept a lot of physical digital. It all has reasons, such as cassette tapes being better in cars, but its interesting to try and predict the changes.

[mbd36]

The transition from one media form to another is interesting.

In music, cassette tapes co-existed with viny for a long time, then with CDs - which did seem kill off vinyl. Digital music downloads came along and really took over. In books, we see the digital ebook now co-existing with the physical books. DVD movies pretty quickly overtook VHS tapes, but Blu Ray really has not hurt DVD much. However, streaming movies must be hurting physical movie sales a lot. PCs went wholehog on digital downloads, but consoles kept a lot of physical digital. It all has reasons, such as cassette tapes being better in cars, but its interesting to try and predict the changes.

Vinyl has made a comeback. The last time I went to Books a Million they had records there.

[Rookie1]

The only problem with new vinyl is that its expensive, and there are very few factories that make them anymore so you get inferior sound quality from new stuff compared to the old, and a lot more flaws in the batches.

[CharlieR]

Another format that is surprisingly popular is cassettes, Rise Against's new album wolves is coming out on cassette next month, and vinyl seems to be more popular than ever.

I guess that proves that there is a market for many different formats. As far as games, I have noticed more download cards and pop culture material in game and electronic stores, but there are still a good amount of physical games.