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News The Digital Bits is claiming Best Buy will exit physical media for good in 2024 (not gaming) [Confirmed by Best Buy]

I was gonna share a story about how I remember picking up The Sims and all its expansions at Best Buy, then I remembered that was Circuit City.
 
Yeah it's over for them, including my business with physical games and blu-rays from time to time.

RIP!
 
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I was never against digital. These days though with stores and companies straight up taking the choice away I'm starting to have a lot of issue with it. I'll have to order all my games, music, and movies online before too long.
 
Magic-Man said:
Blu-Rays, DVDs, and physical games take up a good portion of every Best Buy store. I'm not buying this, especially for the games. It would be throwing money away.
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Best Buy surely makes a decent amount on physical games, if nothing else. I know we don't have access to their financials to confirm that, but I can't see it not being the case. (Physical movies I'm less inclined to believe, and I say that as someone who collects them.) This is either untrue, a mix-up, or one of the most boneheaded moves.
 
Magic-Man said:
Blu-Rays, DVDs, and physical games take up a good portion of every Best Buy store. I'm not buying this, especially for the games. It would be throwing money away.
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While that's true of my local best buy as well, I know some people mention how their stores video and game sections have become a shrinking ghost town.
 
For video games, I pretty much only go to Best Buy for Amiibo and even thatā€™s a backup plan to Amazon. The physical games section has been really sad whenever Iā€™ve walked by it the past several years.

Shame. I used to love going to Best Buy.
 
soundchaser said:
Best Buy surely makes a decent amount on physical games, if nothing else. I know we don't have access to their financials to confirm that, but I can't see it not being the case. (Physical movies I'm less inclined to believe, and I say that as someone who collects them.) This is either untrue, a mix-up, or one of the most boneheaded moves.
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I just can't think of the reasoning they'd use for it. The video game section is pretty popular every time I'm there. And why sell the consoles but no games?
 
BassForever said:
While that's true of my local best buy as well, I know some people mention how their stores video and game sections have become a shrinking ghost town.
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The video section maybe, but the game section absolutely not. At least at the stores I've been to. And what's even worse is that the Switch 2 is releasing next year, it seems like a horrible time to get rid of the video game section.
 
Magic-Man said:
Blu-Rays, DVDs, and physical games take up a good portion of every Best Buy store. I'm not buying this, especially for the games. It would be throwing money away.
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It's very possoble that shelce space is served better with other products then physical media.
 
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As someone who avidly collections 4K movies, especially steelbooks, this fucking blows. The timing is strange too given that physical media is finally picking up a bit with Disney+ shows, Prey, and upcoming titles that have been wanted for ages like Titanic, Aliens, and True Lies.

I'll just have to hope either Walmart or Amazon get the steelbooks now.
 
Bleh BB is much more reliable than Amazon for getting NTSC versions of games. Third party sellers as very unreliable šŸ˜‘

Thinking back fondly on the gamer club unlocked days of buying new games at a discount.
 
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I remember one year before they decided to leave the mexican market the movies/games section was pretty much just one shelf only for all of them. The gaming section were pretty much accesories and consoles only and a popular game (FIFA usually)
 
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The Digital Bits has always been focused on film, not games, and looking at the linked article I see that they never mention games once, only DVDs and Blu-rays. So I think their definition of "physical media" is narrower than the thread title here implies.
 
In my mind I still see the aisles and aisles of DVDs in the middle of Best Buy, then every time I go to one I'm reminded it's long been whittled down to like one small cardboard kiosk off in some corner with barely anything on it. They may as well give it up if they've long stopped trying anyway.
 
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This won't hurt Best Buy much at all. With the way I've seen people talk about this rumor, you'd think Best Buy is 90% movies/CDs/Games when that just isn't the case. My local Best Buy store (which is in a very populated and busy area) has a very small physical media footprint. Most of the store is appliances, TVs, Computers, Apple products, and phones.

I actually went to Best Buy with my wife a couple weeks ago because she wanted to look at the apple stuff, so I looked at the games section and was shocked. The Playstation section is tiny, the Xbox section is bigger but half of it is accessories, and the Switch section is the biggest yet also the most bare of the bunch with 80% of the spots for game cases being empty.
 
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Do people have pictures of what looks like a video games section at best buy ?

Since I don't live in North America it's a bit hard to have an idea.
 
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Lugia667 said:
yeah is this about videogames or just movies and music? The article is kinda unclear
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BB currently doesn't sell music CD's. Sounds like this is only talking about tv/movie sales.

From the link:
Best Buy plans to exit the physical media business for good next year, possibly as soon as the end of Q1 2024
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This includes not just their in-store Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD sales, which the retailer has been gradually phasing out for a couple of years now in their many store locations nationwide, but online sales as well. This means no more Best Buy-exclusive Steelbook titles, and no more titles from Best Buy period.
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Iā€™d be incredibly bummed out if this happens as they are my go to place to order games online.

On the anecdotal level, my Best Buy had a pretty decent stock of movies and games so thatā€™d be surprising there.
 
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I used to LOVE going to BB and Circuit City to shop for my CDs back in the day, id get all giddy looking at the selection and the box sets. Now we'll you get why I don't (blows raspberries lol)
 
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I'll be going into my local Best Buy's a lot less if this happens. I love physical media and really hate this is happening.
 
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Guess that's not surprising, given they phased out CDs what feels like forever ago.

I really have nothing against digital on its own, but I vastly prefer physical media. Shame to see this.
 
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Catsylvania said:
For video games, I pretty much only go to Best Buy for Amiibo and even thatā€™s a backup plan to Amazon. The physical games section has been really sad whenever Iā€™ve walked by it the past several years.

Shame. I used to love going to Best Buy.
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for me they still have lots of games its just that they've stopped stocking the shelves full for some reason, most titles are on an blocked employee only shelf at the front of the store

edit: actually iirc another one in a completely different state has this same issue so this could be a company mandate to 'help' consumers get used to the end of physical stock
 
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That's a shame, but it's presumably not a big money maker for them if they're cutting it. Lots of inventory and store space that they could dedicate to other things.

It will feel weird to see if it comes to pass, though I won't have much reason to even go into Best Buy if it does.
 
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Not surprised movies are going. The section keeps getting smaller and smaller as the years go by.

The game section is still sizeable, at least for Switch and PS4/5. Xbox is pitiful, and I can see that getting dropped soon
 
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Kind of worrying because BestBuy has historically been one of best places to score launch day consoles, my local one always get surprisingly high number of consoles making camping overnight in line largely unnecessary.

Guess I could still do it for Switch 2 and go elsewhere for physical games if they in fact stop selling physical games
 
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Starbreaker said:
I was never against digital. These days though with stores and companies straight up taking the choice away I'm starting to have a lot of issue with it. I'll have to order all my games, music, and movies online before too long.
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?

Taking the choice away was always the endgame. It was obvious fifteen years ago. I thought the people advocating for digital knew this and just thought the benefits outweighed the downsides.

If things continue as they are the best choice you'll get are increasingly expensive limited physical editions like Vinyls and 4K Blu-Rays. And PC software shows even that isn't guaranteed.

And this goes double for closed systems like consoles where Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have absolutely been looking forward to having a monopoly on the sale of games on their systems.
 
crepuscule said:
?

Taking the choice away was always the endgame. It was obvious fifteen years ago. I thought the people advocating for digital knew this and just thought the benefits outweighed the downsides.

If things continue as they are the best choice you'll get are increasingly expensive limited physical editions like Vinyls and 4K Blu-Rays. And PC software shows even that isn't guaranteed.

And this goes double for closed systems like consoles where Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo have absolutely been looking forward to having a monopoly on the sale of games on their systems.
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To tell you the truth, I've seen it coming since the xbox one reveal even though I never wanted to admit it. I've been gaming since the 80s and I can remember when this was a simple hobby and I would rent the majority of games and enjoy them on the weekends or occasionally after school/at a friend's house.

Over the last 8 to 10 years I have been trying to scoop up movies, tv shows, music, my favorite games when possible because I knew we were headed down this dystopia of not owning things anymore. They're going to turn everything we consume into a service, and when that happens I'll stop playing the game and just walk off the board.
 
Starbreaker said:
To tell you the truth, I've seen it coming since the xbox one reveal even though I never wanted to admit it. I've been gaming since the 80s and I can remember when this was a simple hobby and I would rent the majority of games and enjoy them on the weekends or occasionally after school/at a friend's house.

Over the last 8 to 10 years I have been trying to scoop up movies, tv shows, music, my favorite games when possible because I knew we were headed down this dystopia of not owning things anymore. They're going to turn everything we consume into a service, and when that happens I'll stop playing the game and just walk off the board.
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At the moment I have zero media subscriptions and itā€™s getting harder to keep it that way given how much stuff is gradually being paywalled behind them to maintain access. Iā€™ve got enough running costs for stuff thatā€™s actually essential. If I subscribed to music, tv and games services it would still be more per year than I would otherwise spend and Iā€™d lose it all if I stopped. At this point Iā€™m quite happy with just buying or downloading the few things I want, rather than maintaining multiple monthly fees that add up to hundreds of pounds a year for a pipeline of content that Iā€™m largely not interested in.
 
Best Buy confirmed Friday that it is ending sales of DVDs. ā€œTo state the obvious, the way we watch movies and TV shows is much different today than it was decades ago,ā€ a Best Buy spokesperson said in a statement to Variety. ā€œMaking this change gives us more space and opportunity to bring customers new and innovative tech for them to explore, discover and enjoy.ā€


Best Buy will continue to sell movies and TV shows on physical discs through the 2023 holiday shopping season online and in stores, before discontinuing sales in the new year. The company will continue to sell video games. As of mid-2023, Best Buy had 1,129 store locations, with 969 of those in the U.S.
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variety.com

Best Buy to End DVD, Blu-ray Disc Sales

Best Buy plans to phase out sales of DVDs and Blu-ray discs both in-store and online by early 2024, the company said.
variety.com variety.com
 
When I was Christmas shopping last year, it was already basically impossible to find any sort of physical music outside of local record shops, so it's not super surprising that this is happening. At least for non-interactive media, the physical selection available at most stores has already been in rapid decline over the past year or two.
 
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Iā€™m glad games are safe for now, but thatā€™s still a huge bummer TV and movies sales are ending. It sucks the only big electronics store left is slimming further down :/
 
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Between this and Rightstuf shutting down itā€™s been a bummer for physical media on TV and movies.
 
Machrider said:
Physical media unfortunately is gonna be toast.
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If we look on the bright side there's oodles of media and games already available from decades past that will stay in circulation. It might get a little pricey for some of the games that are more of the rarer variety but I'm sure we'll have at least PS5 (maybe PS6, big maybe) and Switch 2 before it goes completely extinct. If MS wants to be fartknockers and go completely digital and bow out now then poop on them lol.
 
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