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Microsoft also shut down departments dedicated to bringing Xbox games to physical retail

Nydius

Member
Remember guys, if buying isn't owning than pirating isnt stealing

Sorry to be that guy but: It never was.

Copyright infringement is a completely different legal classification and is only a civil penalty unless you reach a crazy high threshold to elevate it to criminal charges. But that's usually cases where people are making thousands of illegal copies and then selling them for a profit without permission.

I hate when people conflate copyright infringement and criminal law. A minor pet peeve born from years of having to do software copyright compliance audits.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
I'm wondering if Microsoft is abandoning their retail presence for Xbox entirely at this point.
I could see them killing off brick and mortar sales and going with their online store, their eBay store and Amazon. May not be the smartest move but someone has to go first so it might as well be them.
 

Wizz-Art

Member
Kinda makes sense since the vast majority of Xbox gamers aren't buying physical anyway.

Hell, I haven't bought a new physical game on Xbox since GTA5 released on the 360.
Nearly all my Xbox purchases are digital since the digital storefront opened on the 360 back in the day.
On PS it's roughly 80-20 in favor of digital and on Switch it's 5-95 in favor of physical because of the low storage the system has and their games hold a lot of resale value so I buy all the games physical there and it's the complete game on an sd card instead of a disc with the bare minimum.

I buy my movies mostly physical though because there is no alternative for the same quality otherwise without spending big on a Kaleidescape system. Games are completely the same digital, no difference in quality so I don't mind.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
Adorably Digital.

cute-girl-yeon-woo-finger-heart-4asuwbo7q511qtcb.gif
 
MS goal in the end is simple: enforce streaming and rent. They will do everything they can to achieve that. That's why they are focusing in consolidation to enforce consumers on the model they want.
Well it's coming for everyone. Just look at that new detachable disc drive on the PS5 and tell me Sony wont make a play for +30% on all software sales. We'll see. Wal Mart stopped carrying blu ray movies too.
 
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I'm a physical gamer through and through, but not 100% probably like most. Having said that, I'm 99% digital on Xbox already.
 

Topher

Gold Member
I could see them killing off brick and mortar sales and going with their online store, their eBay store and Amazon. May not be the smartest move but someone has to go first so it might as well be them.

Yeah, if anyone is going to be first, it will be Xbox. There will be a mindshare impact for those who shop and only see PlayStation on store shelves, but if sales are down to the point where games are no longer feasible for retail then a more limited approach to selling consoles makes sense. Also, it really isn't in the interest of retail stores to sell consoles at low margins without repeat traffic for game sales.
 
it really isn't in the interest of retail stores to sell consoles at low margins without repeat traffic for game sales.
It isn't in the interest of Gamestop, but it won't matter at all to Wal Mart, Target, everyone else. They sell Quest, Roku, TVs, toasters. Every electronic device in the entire store is not designed for repeat game sales except like 2 devices. It wont matter.
 
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Honestly haven't bought a physical Xbox game since gamepass, I just don't value those anymore. I still buy my nostalgic favorites like halo for the collection.

My first ever collector's edition I bought was the Halo 3 Legendary edition. At $129.99 which was insane at the time but absolutely had to have it.

Sad day and end of an era. Fuck Phil Spencer and Microsoft
 

TransTrender

Gold Member
Why is it that people are so against physical going away on console but okay with PC doing it ages ago?
The biggest difference for me, is on PC, prices drop hilariously fast on Steam. Not even key resellers. Most any game I want will be $15 or less around one year after launch, and many hit $5 no long after that.
I don't ever, EVER see those types of price drops on Console Digital games.
 

nani17

are in a big trouble
But but Microsoft is amazing game pass is brilliant.

Meanwhile Ubisoft get used to not only your games: ubisoft are so evil.


I put a comment here a few years back Stating that I believe by 2028 cloud gaming will become the norm just like Netflix it looks like we're slowly moving towards it
 

Killjoy-NL

Member
Well it's coming for everyone. Just look at that new detachable disc drive on the PS5 and tell me Sony wont make a play for +30% on all software sales. We'll see. Wal Mart stopped carrying blu ray movies too.
You ignore the fact that the vast majority of PS5 sales are Disc Edition, not the €100 cheaper Digital Edition.
They also released a detachable disc drive for the latter.
 

Audiophile

Member
If MS go full on digital and even further, no longer make dedicated local consoles in the next gen. I can see a good chunk of the core userbase just migrating straight to PlayStation. If you don't wanna blow a load of cash on a PC at one end and don't wanna play on cloud at the other, then unless you're content with old-gen hardware your only option would be PlayStation.
 
Very valid point.

While some people think that all-digital is the future, it's clear that the masses are buying PS5 Disc over the cheap Series S, which is the best selling Series console.

Xbox will become even less attractive for the average consumer.

Within the next 18 months, I think Xbox won't be seen in physical retail as a hardware brand.

But again, none of this is surprising when you've seen the sales out of Europe and Asia and the fact that despite massive cuts, they were unable to really gain any traction in December in the US.

People are deluding themselves into thinking that Xbox is going to stick around. It isn't. The biggest difference between Xbox and Dreamcast is that Microsoft has produced likely millions of Xbox units and make so much money on digital software that they don't want to give it up just yet.

They will limp into 3rd party support.
 
The future isn’t digital for MS, they’re switching to streaming.
Personally, I think they'll have a digital Series style console and a much cheaper Keystone option. But who knows. We'll see.

I'm surprised anyone on Xbox is invested in physical between Series S, Gamepass, Cloud and Quick Resume. All of that relies on digital.
 
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GHG

Gold Member
The biggest difference for me, is on PC, prices drop hilariously fast on Steam. Not even key resellers. Most any game I want will be $15 or less around one year after launch, and many hit $5 no long after that.
I don't ever, EVER see those types of price drops on Console Digital games.

The plethora of 3rd party key sites are a big reason why prices drop so quickly on PC (predominantly for keys that redeem on Steam). The whole ecosystem essentially mirrors what you'd tend to see for physical media when retailers have excess inventory and need to compete in order to clear stock.

That's why, overall, game prices on PC are far lower than they are on console. As things currently stand, that's not happening on consoles, a huge systematic overhaul would be required in order for people to benefit on those platforms in the same way that people currently do on PC.
 
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Topher

Gold Member
It isn't in the interest of Gamestop, but it won't matter at all to Wal Mart, Target, everyone else. They sell Quest, Roku, TVs, toasters. Every electronic device in the entire store is not designed for repeat game sales except like 2 devices. It wont matter.

It matters if those other products have margins making it worth selling at retail. Otherwise they would only sell direct, like Valve and Steam Deck.
 

Wizz-Art

Member
The biggest difference for me, is on PC, prices drop hilariously fast on Steam. Not even key resellers. Most any game I want will be $15 or less around one year after launch, and many hit $5 no long after that.
I don't ever, EVER see those types of price drops on Console Digital games.

Seriously? I bought the new Like a Dragon almost half off from Kinguin for Xbox and PC.

At least with Xbox you can get games digitally for cheap through the key selling stores.
 

Rockman33

Member
The biggest difference for me, is on PC, prices drop hilariously fast on Steam. Not even key resellers. Most any game I want will be $15 or less around one year after launch, and many hit $5 no long after that.
I don't ever, EVER see those types of price drops on Console Digital games.
I play on steam, Xbox and PS. Whenever I buy a game I go where it’s the cheapest usually. And in my findings they are all extremely similar. Maybe steam used to be that way?

But with your point you think it’s more of a value problem than actually having physical copies?
 
It matters if those other products have margins making it worth selling at retail. Otherwise they would only sell direct, like Valve and Steam Deck.
I'm sure they will figure it out. They can lose a little more on consoles if they make more on digital software. Quest is doing it, and it's cheaper than PSVR2.
 
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