For physical software, it’s super hard to buy it if stores aren’t stocking it.
The Xbox section doesn’t really exist at Target, Walmart, or Costco anymore, and it’s on the way out at Best Buy. Naturally that’s going to have an impact on sales.
Further, Microsoft doesn’t seem interested in physical sales anymore. I probably would have bought Avowed if it existed in meat-space, it doesn’t. I had a really hard time sourcing Indiana Jones and Outer Worlds 2.
On the hardware side, I already have this generations worth of hardware (PS5, XSX, Steam Deck), and I’m not interested in all the baggage on the Switch 2.
Plus, hardware prices are up.
So the surprise would be if sales hadn’t gone down.
and of course, this will be misconstrued. The executives will shout “look! people don’t want physical ownership!” and the push to digital rentals will continue… and result in even higher prices when they pull a Netflix.
If it goes all digital next generation I won’t be bothering. I didn’t leave gaming, gaming is leaving me.
Cool, cool, plenty of backlog to get through…
Execs genuinely couldn‘t care less about what people want. They are the architects of this trend away from physical media.
I’m making the prediction that any hardware that isn‘t essentially just a screen that connects to the internet will become more and more expensive to the point no one can afford them. Major brands that we all know and use today will withdraw from manufacturing end consumer products.
I‘m guessing 10 years from now virtually everyone will be forced into cloud service subscriptions for gaming because the hardware to run these games won‘t be sold to us anymore. For a while Chinese companies might try fill the void the likes of Nvidia and AMD left but that will be short lived too.
You will go retro and learn to take care of your soon old timer hardware that will become ever more pricey to fix as spare parts get more rare and ridiculously expensive expensive or you will own nothing and be happy with that.
Yes this is all speculative but it‘s a vision of the future that becomes more and more obvious to me by the day.
Alternatively, the bubble collapses and the video game industry needs to be rebuilt
This is misplacing cause and effect. The shift to digital has been happening for years now. They cut physical production because fewer people were buying it.
Xbox is just a subscription rental business at this point, Microsoft doesn’t seem interested in gaming outside of that.
The problem is if nobody sells affordable hardware or hardware at all anymore, the only path they can go is cloud gaming. That means from here on onward ownership is dead.
Yup!
Physical versions only have value of they are complete and relatively bug free, and originally purposed to avoid big downloads.
Nowadays day 1 patching may be the same size as the install or larger negating half the point. The other half is lost because almost everything is a subscription, multi-player, or delivered with too many bugs as a beta test.
Collecting physical copies is a thing, but is niche.
they need to make a new disc that can handle all that space
SD cards.
deleted by creator
Go Trump! God I love winning.🙃
I just want to lick a couple more Switch cartridges fresh out the box. Is that too much to ask?
Uh… What?
They have a bitter taste on them so kids don’t swallow them.
That doesn’t feel too surprising. There’s nothing really new to buy in terms of hardware; likely everyone who wanted a specific console now has one. And others like myself are waiting: I want a Switch 2 OLED, but that’s not available yet.
And there’s also the fact that many game releases now suck, with no real must-have titles for console to boost sales right now. And new physical titles are expensive.
It’s just a dip caused by a combination of factors. If GTA VI releases next november, the chart is going to look like a rocket taking off.
And there’s also the fact that many game releases now suck
I don’t think I’ve ever had more great new game releases, personally.
Worst physical hardware and software sales since 1995 so far. Switch 2 won’t be its first holiday next year and potential price hikes from storage and ram next year
On a related note I had a hankering for playing the Etrian Oddysey games and went to look for it at the Nintendo Switch store.
Eighty fucking dollars for the trilogy remaster. Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum I guess.
…what physical games and hardware?
what happened in 1995?
The market was just way smaller back then. Video games weren’t a mainstream hobby yet.
PlayStation 1 had only just come to America a month or two prior, and the n64 wouldn’t exist for another year. Basically, it was just arcade games that were popular at that point, some snes games, and some ps1 games in Japan.
Imagine “gaming” being just donkey kong, street fighter, mario, and contra, and a ps1 cost $300 usd.
“Gaming” then was about as popular as virtual reality now.
It’s like all these overpriced new games have more people waiting for sales, I know I sure have
Not sure why anyone would buy games at this point.
There are so many games available for free, and any new ones kinda suck donkey balls. Couple that with a shitty economy, grocery prices are through the roof, and it’s no surprise people aren’t wasting money on video games as much.
Because the new ones are great. There has been no shortage of bangers for the last few years.
If you say so.
deleted by creator
Meanwhile I bought an Xbox Series S and PS5 and a Switch 2 plus a bunch of SSDs all in November lol
Having a knee injury plus not much else to do plus a 75 inch TV I bought back in September will do that for you lol
If games don’t come on physical media, what’s the point of a physical device?
What do you play the digital media on?
Anything. Xbox, PS, PC, whatever. But there’s no reason to be constrained to one device/platform anymore.
Those are all physical devices though. I agree platform exclusives aren’t good for anyone but the companies but it does seem like most are moving away from that model with these newer generation consoles.
And that’s worth talking about in relation to this article too. But also, you buy those devices at retail, and we’re down 27% from last year.
