Report: Several European Retailers No Longer Stocking Physical Xbox Games - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 March 2024 / 8,162 Views
Several European retailers are no longer stocking physical Xbox games, according to the head of GamesIndustry Christopher Dring who spoke on the GamesIndustry Microcast.
He said the reason for this is due to how much of a digital console Xbox has become and it doesn't make sense to stock physical games for a console that most people buy digital games for.
"I got told by a major publisher just before Christmas, that across Europe, several retailers have started not listing Xbox anymore," said Dring (via VideoGamesChronicle).
"So they’ve just started not stocking Xbox games anymore, Xbox is such a digital console, the physical performance of games is really low, and ultimately when you’re selling a console that most people are just downloading games for, it doesn’t really benefit the retailer very much.
"The margin on hardware is often quite small. I wasn’t able to corroborate that, I couldn’t find which retailer these are, but it was a proper senior European publishing boss who said it to me."
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Twitter @TrunksWD.
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Microsoft have been moving in this direction for a while now. Having a diminished retail presence won't help mindshare or maketshare though.
I have owned every Xbox console on launch day since the OG Xbox released.
Not having a physical presence for games means a shift to digital, which means that the Series X will be my last Xbox console.
It won't mean much in the end, I'm just a single person... But when buying into a console ecosystem I look for a healthy physical library.
Sony and Nintendo will have me catered for with my venerable PC filling in the Xbox gaps, so it's not a net-loss in my gaming world.
It’ll be my last Xbox too, which sucks because I’ve always preferred them to PlayStations.
Even more disappointed that they aren’t at least finishing out this Gen with physicals. Hellblade 2 is digital only and that means Avowed might be too. I just won’t end up purchasing them sadly until they’re dirt cheap. Really unfortunate.
How does it being phyiscal or Digital stop the games from being fun? How does its format stop you from being a fan?
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Never said the games are less fun, don’t strawman please.
- I never said I wouldn’t be a fan of any games anymore either, so again, stop straw manning.
Not strawmaning, working out how you think. Because if it simply doesn't affect the actual games and you will still have fun regardless, than why does it matter if its digital only?
Probably because digital ownership is not ownership. If he is like me he probably wants to own his games, which won't be possible anymore if they are not available physically.
You do own your digital games as much as you own your phyiscal games.
No you do not own digital games as much as physical. Digital "ownership" is long-term rental, you only have your digital library as long as Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo/Valve allows you to have it.
I know Sony decided to back-track on this, but it shows what they are certainly capable of doing:
https://nordic.ign.com/playstation-5-1/76170/news/sony-pulls-discovery-videos-playstation-users-already-own-sparking-concern-over-our-digital-future
Me being upset over lack of physical and not wanting to support digital only does not equate to me arguing for the fun of a game or being a fan of them. That’s literally what strawmanning is
What reason are you arguing against digital? It doesn't affect the games quality, its the same product as physical. Infact most phyiscal games require DLC to run.
I’m not getting into it because I don’t want to, and I don’t need to either. Based on your comments throughout here it doesn’t matter what I say. If you love digital, great, do you. Stop arguing against options. If people love physical, great, let them do them. Why are you devoting so much time to argue against it. Lmao
If you were really trying to “work out how I think” you simply would have just initially asked why.
Because alot of people love to throw mud at something for literally no reason.
Where the industry leads isnt up to me, however buckle up because you are not going to like the future.
Holy shit dude. I know I don’t like a digital only future, which is why I actively speak against it. How long did it take you to figure that out I wonder.
Speaking agaisnt it, isnt going to change a thing. Stop gaming now if i were you.
Nice strawman arguments.
Whether someone likes digital or not is down to personal preference, there are definite advantages to both options and definite disadvantages to both options.
I like physical copies because it makes life easier when I bring those games forwards to my next console.
I.E. I can play Halo Combat evolved from the OG Xbox on every Xbox console... And even play them network linked.
It makes it easier when trying to sell my games. (IF that day ever comes.)
Pretty sure the Terms of Service states you are not allowed to sell your digital account.
Physical is also cheaper as there is often sales and discounts, more often and more significantly than digital... And you have the second hand market to also draw from.
Games aren't getting any cheaper.
Microsoft pushing for an all-digital console world means that their business is no longer compatible with my lifestyle... So I will vote with my wallet and hand over cash to Sony and Nintendo instead, they have lost a long-term customer.
Which is unfortunate, because I have supported Microsoft with my purchases since day 1.
Where are you getting strawman from?
If you play games only because you own a copy on a disk isnt what gaming is about.
Think how ridiculous this sounds.
Example: I am not watching Star Wars Episode 10 because its only available on Netflix.
Who literally cares if its disk or not. Steam holds the best value in gaming to this date and it is full digital, you get some of the best digital deals, and you dont have to stress where to store your games.
I have 2000 Steam games and not 1 game i have has been taken down. Only reason i cant play some games isnt the format but the genre itself eg Online games.
Except I wouldn't watch StarWars Episode 10 if it was only on netflix.
I have absolutely zero interest in subscription services with their lossy compression and low bitrates.
I would buy it if it was on UHD blu-ray though so I can actually take advantage of my 85" OLED TV's HDR capability and output it to my 7.2 home theatre audio system.
We are comparatively different people where I prefer quality.
And again... I care if it's on disk. I have already outlined my arguments why I want it on disk.
Your Steam argument is a little different... For one the PC is an open platform which means...
1) If Steam ever goes bust, there are alternative means of acquiring your games.
2) Steam doesn't stop supporting old systems/games "just because". - I can still fire up a game (Half Life 2) when Steam first launched and it works fine.
The 3DS, Wii, WiiU, DS stores have all closed, Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 stores are not far behind... How will I re-acquire those games?
Multiple individuals have already claimed you are making a strawman argument, I suggest you go look it up if you are confused on what it fundamentally is.
So you literally wouldnt watch a movie based on its format?
Too many people are obsessed with the format over the content and it will never make sense to me.
If a game is an absolute masterpiece and its only available via streaming, than ill bite the bullet and Stream it because i actually want to play the game, not look at the box it comes in, which mind you is mostly empty anyway.
And once again, I never said the games quality is affected nor did I say it wasn’t the same product. Strawmanning yet again.
I'll never understand why some people are so against physical media lmao. If you don't want, don't buy it? Nobody is forcing you to buy anything. Just get your games digitally and shut up about it. And the fact they like when consumers have less options to where buy their games is weird, but hey, that's just me.
As for the news itself, I'm not against digital or anything, I just buy games where they are cheaper. Sometimes that's digitally, other times it's a physical copy. The fact that I won't have this choice in future Xbox consoles really sucks. It won't make a difference for them because I'm just one guy, but I'm not sure if I'll ever support their platform in the future. Having less options as a consumer is bad, no matter what your preferences about digital or physical are.
Yeah, 100% agreed. Like, I don't hate digital at all I just prefer getting my games physically. But if someone who's digital only comments on it, they're always cheering on the death of physical media; it's weird. Like they need to feel vindicated somehow or something idk.
By implication, you have to be against it, because with physical media out of the door, there wont be options anymore(basically competition) that will drive the prices down. So no sales prices, even for digital. They will got you by the balls and you'll have pay whatever they'll ask, if you want to play.
The issue isnt hating phyiscal, my room is full of phyiscal edition games. The issue is exactly what you said. The game in phyiscal or digital forms are exactly the same, the experiences are the exact same. Buisnesses have found out that profit margins are better so its the choice they make. I collect phyiscal but i will not let a format stop me from playing a game i enjoy.
Did you reply to the right comment? Profits have nothing to do with what I said and I also didn't say anything about not playing a game because it's digital only. My problem is they are artificially creating a monopoly on where you can buy their games on their consoles.
It's also funny you mention profits because Microsoft is by far biggest company of the 3. Are they really that poor if they can't afford to produce discs? Really? Even on Wii U Nintendo didn't gave up on physical media.
Firstly a companies wealth does not determine they should sell things for sell.
Secondly my point is companies see bigger profit margins with digital which can lead to higher budgets on games.
Thirdly why does it matter if its digital or phyiscal? You dont play video games for fun?
A monopoly makes zero sense. All companies compete digitally and prices are based on competition. Have you heard of Steam?
I feel like we'll be going in circles forever here with you defending Microsoft, so I'll make my last comment here.
Your points about higher profit margins with digital games are all valid, but I think it's a bit ridiculous to bring this up about Microsoft. They are the second most valuable company in the world lmao. If they wanted they could produce games with huge budgets and release physical copies just like Sony, Nintendo, Ubisoft, Activision, EA, Square Enix, and a lot others do. They are artificially creating a monopoly, yes, a monopoly, because unlike PCs you will have only ONE option to buy games on Xbox platforms. (I'm only talking about consoles here, since on PC despite being a digital market there's multiple places to buy a game and even multiple places to get a Steam key).
And for the last time, I don't care if I have to purchase a game digitally, it's the absolute lack of choices that don't sit well with me. I buy games where they are cheaper. If it's a indie game I can understand why it's digital only, but when it's a AAA game from a company as big as Microsoft that's really dumb.
But you have failed to understand how pricing works. Lower prices are based on competition, having options does not discount prices.
These buisnesses will be making more at the current prices.
MS, Sony and Nintendo cannot just up the price because its digital only because than customers will flock to the other console offering cheaper digital games.
This has nothing to do with me defending MS, its me stating the direction and reasoning to a all digital future. PCs did, and more people game on PC now than when they offered Phyiscal copies.
Sad day. The same is happening in the US too, Starfield was recently delisted at Walmart, presumably as a trial run for delisting all Xbox physical games soon. Best Buy has been talking about delisting Xbox games too from what I've heard.
Hats off to the rabid fanboy in this comment section. Microsoft's favourite customer, lol.
And..thats a wrap for me , once sony and ninty does that iam done with gaming.
Why?
I'm curious what effect this will have on game stop. Will gamestop sell game cards, or consoles if they can no longer entice people with used games?
Will they just go harder on Nintendo/Playstation products? Will brand stores work out a deal (small but still) with Nintendo/Playstation. Games on the shelves is free advertising after all.
Similar curiosity with Amazon. Amazon has a used game market. I don't know much about their digital market though. I'm sure how many people would buy from Amazon if they can get it directly from Xbox.
The remaining and future Xbox customers as a whole probably don't care enough for physical games to jump ship to Nintendo or PlayStation as their primary platform.
Game Pass has killed a lot of physical sales for Xbox, in addition to barely any data present on a lot of Xbox game discs and a changing market that is predominately digital distribution across the board.
I remember a year or so ago we heard that some stores in Europe stopped selling xbox consoles as well.
Is that true?
It's a matter of semantics: "chose to", "were forced to" or "sales dried". Considering the figures I'd say it's the latter.
Well, looks like next gen it'll just be PlayStation & Switch for me, assuming they continue supporting physical media. It's looking like MS is getting out of physical software entirely, in which case I'm done supporting them. Considering that the overwhelming majority of PS5 units sold are the disk drive version, majorities of most major first-party titles sold on both PS & Switch are still physical, and that neither are not even remotely as aggressive as MS is in pushing digital, it's likely that Sony & Nintendo will still support physical games for a good bit longer.
Honestly, I think people are shooting themselves in the foot by going digital. Sure, if your specific circumstances make owning physical copies unfeasible, then buy digital. But when you buy digital, you own nothing. You sacrifice ownership and therefore power over your purchases. "Possession is nine-tenths of the law," after all. Keep that mind when making your purchasing decisions. Don't let convenience be the sole deciding factor. Knowing what you know about how executives think (see what that Ubisoft exec said a couple of weeks ago) and seeing incidents like that whole licensing dispute between Sony & WBD where Sony would have been forced to remove Discovery content from people's PlayStations, just ask yourself if giving up ownership and control is worth not having to get up and swap disks out.
As for me, I'll still be buying Blu-rays, CDs, and physical games until the bitter end. Any company that takes that option away from me shouldn't expect my support.
It's all about preservation over time which off course also applies with music movies ect. Preservation against potential censors, unnecessary remastered movies or musics... The only way against that beside physical is piracy so...
Yet I'm full digital on my series x. but still I'm glad to be able to play some of my physical 360 games on it. The problem with physical in this gen is that too many times (if not most) you DO NOT HAVE THE FULL GAME ON THE DISC. and sometimes it's just worse: you just get NOTHING beside some key that gives you the right to download it. Even on Nintendo Switch it happens.
Physical games in this gen are not as relevant as before because of that. :(
i went all digital on my xbox few years ago gamepass has killed it.. most games that come out for it are just boot discs you have to download most of the content anyway. im all physical on switch and PS5
Did they just stop selling games or did they stop selling the console itself as well?
I assume they still have the consoles and controllers ect.
MS Xbox One future comes to pass in the end. Considering they're promoting a service that cuts out retailers entirely, not surprising either.
Its going to happend in the US soo as well, since MS themselves closed the department responcible for physical releases. We got told that physical spending on games, for xbox is less than 10% recently.
Gladly Playstation as a brand is vastly more powerful and relevant than Xbox and may keep physical media still in the plate.
If Sony follows the same route tho, it's over, and I'm likely just dropping consoles altogether at this point.
I feel like it'll happen sooner or later, but I still want to believe it won't.
Sucks for those who still like physical.
Seems like it’ll be fine though. Been this way on PC for a long time now.
Well, only 10% of Xbox owners buy physical. Sony have 40% while Nintendo has 60%.
It's funny. I've been on board with Xbox since day one and I'm just one of those gamers that has no interest in digital only consoles.
They're making the switch for me easier than it should be.
Hahaha the beginning of the end for this console
I just her bob dylan the times are changing right now
Well it's not like Microsoft doesn't want to run in this direction. It just happens slightly faster, as they probably intended. I would find it interesting, if they let you at some point convert your physical library into digital licences for your account or let them slowly die, selling disc drive accessories for their next gen system for backwards compatibility.
