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Best buy plans to stop selling DVDs and Blu-Rays in 2024.
The Best Buy website still hosts listings for physical video game releases in 2024, such as Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes, including some with placeholder dates after the end of the company’s first fiscal quarter.
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. 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.
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