Every Little Helps! UK Giant Tesco Will Stop Stocking Physical Video Games

I thought this was coming. Went in to Tesco shortly after TOTK came out and noticed they hadn't stocked the game at all. Took a look at the other games there and noticed that they were missing some other recent releases.

I very much despise the way everything is going.

Not surprising. While people sometimes still make big deal out of "physical UK sales chart" fact is that physical is in constant decline.

Last time I purchased physical game was in 2018. Yesterday I got Hogwarts Legacy as a birthday present and I was kinda annoyed it was not a digital copy and that I have to put disc in console...

Not to mention I still had the download majority of a game from internet because of patches...

How many comments are we going to see of people saying they'll stop gaming even though we know they won't.

The way things are going, xbox will buy everything and take away option to purchase with only way to access being a $40 a month gamepass sub

Waiting for all the “when it goes all digital I’m done playing video games” comments.

Narrator voice: They won’t be done. 😂

Anybody else think “Every Little Helps!” was the name of a new indie video game? 🤷🏻‍♂️ (Really wish this site would use “ “ around game titles so I would also know when something isn’t.)

@Godot25 Oh my god. The injustice of having to put a disc in… The shame…

Anyone that is surprised hasn't been paying attention.

My Tesco hasnt stocked physical releases for about 18 months so i assumed this was nothing new. Certainly looks like the game industry is going to get its way though with the push to digital.

Finally some good news. Also, can't wait to buy digital only food in the near future

@TripleKing333 Nah. It's not injustice. It's just annoying. Especially if you have more then one game in "rotation" at same time.
I'm currently playing Exoprimal, Cyberpunk 2077, Hogwarts Legacy and Diablo IV. If I had to switch disc every time I want to turn on "other" game I would loose my mind.

They’ve slowly done this over last 2 years near me so not surprised

@Godot25 First world problems. Love it.

It's a shame. Tesco is where I do my shopping and I used to like using my clubcard vouchers on games, usually Nintendo ones since they don't go on sale. Not looking forward to an all digital future at all!

Good. Its about time we stopped destroying the planet to provide people with plastic download tickets. The sooner they disappear for ever, the better as far as Im concerned.

This gives me the impression that the rumoured detachable disc drive PS5 has the disc drive be only available as a separate purchase rather than there actually being a PS5 console box with the disc drive included.

@Titntin Yeah it the games that are destroying the planet. Not the server farms or the continued use of fossil fuels. ***** all those people that would like a choices when buying a games for multiple valid reasons that have been repeated a hundred times each time this come up!

We would love it if these retailers sell their own discounted versions of digital codes to compete with PS Store, Xbox Marketplace etc.

There's no "game industry" agenda to kill physical games here. Tesco are a big profit-obssessed supermarket. If they stopped stocking physical games it was because not enough people were buying them.

@TripleKing333 the games are *also destroying the planet, while the server farms and the continued use of fossil fuels do most of the harm. There. Fixed it for you.

Tesco have been ramping down game sales for a long time now

@naruball It was sarcasm, there was nothing to fix.

I buy everything digital. Games, books, films, the lot. God knows how much plastic and paper is wasted on physical copies but it's too much.

@TripleKing333 yes. Clearly sarcasm. Not a legitimate point.

Outside of FIFA and COD, I haven't seen physical games being sold in Tesco in nearly a decade

@naruball You can’t make an argument that digital is superior to physical because of the environmental damage of one is greater than the other. The impact is equal and if you truly care that much, you would need to stop gaming all together. The PS5 chugs energy, especially when downloading a 100gb game.

If you want to direct your rage at pointless plastic waste, go target Funko.

It may be a sign of the times but it is also worth noting that games have periodically come and gone in uk supermarkets.

I guess the bosses look at the market doing well and want a piece of it but in reality the prices move so fast that often stock will sit there forever because it is too expensive or have to be discounted to compete and by the time supermarkets react the moment is gone for a particular title.

Anyway, nevermind. Still plenty of places to buy your games.

@Godot25 your comment makes you sound ungrateful. Someone got you a present and you were annoyed... Just be grateful they got you something.

@TripleKing333 the impact isn't equal at all. Manufacturing and shipping are huge factors in the production of carbon emissions from gaming.

Server farms are obviously problematic but with more and more games on those servers the cost per game to the environment reduces because the server is already running and we are at a point where digital is many orders of magnitude better for the environment.

@Wheatly Would love to see some stats.

Haven’t bought a physical game in over 10 years. Am fortunate to have always had fast internet. Now me and my wife work from home and have 1000mbps fiber internet and i downloaded Diablo 4 at 75GB in 12 mins. It what i prefer and it works for me. But i like for gamers to have options. Some want physical even tho it’s really just the license on the disk. But still i want them to enjoy collecting games and being able to purchase how they want. But when the majority is going digital it will be hard for retailers to have floor space to stock them. I don’t see physical being completely phased out in a year or two, but it’s time is on life support it seems. I bought the Digital PS5 and my Series X hasn’t had a disk in it. So there is no way for me to help. Everything changes in gaming and this is yet another change.

"The times they are a changing"

@TripleKing333 here is a bit of a summary of a recent study

https://www.somagnews.com/digital-vs-physical-game-replicas-harmful-environment/

For those who buy physical games, I guess everyone but the Tesco loyalists will now be taking their video game business elsewhere. Mission accomplished?

@Wheatly Not that recent considering it covers the period before 2020 before the skew to 80% digital purchases that happened after the pandemic.

Unsurprising to be honest ,everything is goin digital ,cinema is dying,cd and dvds are dead ,we will be in a cashless society in about 10 years ,I mainly buy physical because its cheaper.

@TripleKing333 you got a source for any of that or is this a "dude, trust me" situation?

Or, the most successful machine will focus on physical. Sony and Microsoft are getting thrashed. Just because they say physical is dying doesn't mean it will.

@naruball I need to prove that gaming has an impact on the environment now? Wasn’t that your argument? I was agreeing with you. I was just making the point that you can’t separate one from the other.

@Grumblevolcano “only available as a separate purchase”

I thought that was understood, Sony wanted only 1 box w/ 1 skew for the PS5 and then an accessory. If they sold the PS5 both with and without the disc drive that’s the same thing they’re doing now.🤷🏻‍♂️ I suppose it’s possible we get a Pro later on as a 2nd skew but I think this gen it’s just that slim, they save the 8k stuff for PS6 in a few years. If Switch 3 goes 8k it will take Nintendo 10 years to make a new game.😝

The big tesco near me stopped selling physical games about 1 and a half years ago, I actually thought they all had.

I usually used amazon or smyths anyway

@TripleKing333
"***** all those people that would like a choices"
Thank you for saying it like I didnt. But yes, I would most definitely deny people the choice to pollute and consume when there's a valid alternative.
Thanks for showing once again, that those that pollute the planet most always point elsewhere and say - 'but they are doing it as well'.
Since the shipped version of a game these days is almost always unplayable until its had at least a couple of patches, the only reasonable reason to continue this outmoded and wasteful practise, is no longer a valid point. Having the release version on disk will still be unplayable once the servers and patches are switched off.
There will always be those who refuse to change, and they are welcome to play old games from their remembered glory days, whilst the rest of us enjoy modern gaming. Its clear as day your time is finished, just the last gurgles of resistance to peter out now..

@Godot25 thats a nice selection of games!

@TripleKing333 skewing towards digital makes digital even more environmentally friendly on a game by game basis.

There is a critical mass for digital where it potentially becomes more expensive carbon wise for each new customer but then computing becomes increasingly more power efficient for the equivalent performance.

Regardless, physical is without doubt worse for the environment at this point.

Wow that's interesting that a supermarket chain was selling video games. Don't usually see that, at least in my corner of the US

@TripleKing333 you claimed that digital games impact the environment as much as physical. The burden of proof lies on you. I'll wait for that proof.

This is sad. I know a lot of people don't care about physical but I think once it's gone completely, games will rarely get big discounts. The physical market is what pushed prices down.

@PenguinLtd are we sure about that? Because I get the impression that over the years at least many Sony and PC gamers refuse to buy games unless they're affordable to them. Can't say the same for Nintendo gamers (prices almost never drop, despite physical copies) or Microsoft gamers who rely on Gamepass for their new games.

About time. A little closer each day.

Sainsburys stopped doing video games, music cd, vinyl and movie blurays a few years ago but they have Argos in all their stores now so you can still get physical video games in Sainsburys

I will miss those days of going to a supermarket at 12 midnight and queueing up with fellow nerds to buy a brand new game.

I can’t believe we’re barrelling towards subscription services and digital store front monopolies with glee, price fixing yay! that new game was pulled as a tax write off whoop whoop! Streaming exclusive, can’t wait!

@naruball You're right I can’t back it up with figures.

I should have said the impact of both is concerning.

I am very curious to know how much power is used by 10 million PS5 downloading a 100gb game on new release day. I imagine it’s significant.

Considering Nintendo games are still predominantly physical I'm surprised they'd scrap Nintendo, too.

Now if we want a real useful video game related legal battle we need to take the digital stores to the mat as we're getting much closer to true monopolies on game sales. Reducing a market of a dozen retailers down to one since source of all games, the hardware manufacturer itself, really needs to be solved before we get there.

I've been digital only for years for my own reasons (eventually you run out of places to put game boxes that don't even have whole games in them), but the price pressure from physical is important to the games ecosystem, and some form of regulation needs to happen on monopoly digital stores, both in games and in mobile, as we've accepted genuine, true monopolies as "normal" thanks to mobile, to the point it's like many have forgotten that isn't a normal or acceptable situation.

@pyrrhic_victory IIRC "Tesco" is actually really basically just "Walmart UK" and is, in fact, owned by Walmart. Never seen one, but I suspect the format is a smaller version of a normal US Walmart, so it's kind of strange they would stop selling them.

well, keep an eye out for the inevitable price reductions in store. they did this not long ago and everything they had in stock sold for silly money, I remember getting a switch for £70

Last time I bought games from Tesco was from Tesco Direct. I miss those days when we used to get two games for the cheapest price around using a discount code

I got 5 games on disc this year, and will carry on as long as possible

They've long since stopped where I live, only ASDA now sell them out of the supermarkets near me and as there is no way I'm walking through that awful sports shop to get to GAME, my days of browsing new physical games are over

@naruball @Wheatly @TripleKing333

Eurogamer covered this in 2021. Its based on an extremely long report (369 pages!!!) on this very topic but here are a couple of links that you might find interesting:

https://www.eurogamer.net/gaming-downloads-climate-crisis?page=2

https://www.eurogamer.net/what-weve-learned-about-digital-gamings-climate-impact-a-summary

@Rob_230 thanks a lot! That's great.

@Rob_230 I was going to say this. I live in a very big town. All of the supermarkets here (which is pretty much all of them) with the exception of Asda have all stopped doing physical entertainment. No music, no movies unless there's a big movie coming out, no games. The only thing you will regularly see in the entertainment section now are toys and books. The latter of which is about 50% children's books, and the other 50% is James Patterson books. 🤔

A pity. I was a fan of their huge discounts on popular releases to get people in the store. I got Hogwart's when it released for £50, and years ago got CoD: MW2 for £25 if memory serves, which was very helpful to the student-me.

I loved buying physical but since the age of having to install games I went all digital. Less clutter and dust too.

That's all well and good, but if publishers want to go digital only they need to cut the price. There is no logical reason why a digital product should cost more than a physical product when you take manufacturing and logistical costs into consideration.

The biggest concern is always online coupled with subscriptions. If your internet is out no game, if your sub runs out no game. The lines of ownership are blurring fast.

@rjejr Disagree, having the detachable disc drive in the PS5 box as an option would still mean the manufacturing process is identical between having it and not having it rather than the current setup where they're 2 different consoles. The disc drive would be like how sometimes you get consoles that have games in the box.

Meanwhile the reason Sony would purposely only have the disc drive as a separate accessory would be to artificially limit stock resulting in consumers being forced into Sony's $70 digital games ecosystem (in contrast to being able to get a physical game cheaper).

I could see either outcome happening but this news article does make the latter seem a lot more likely.

It's because people are too lazy to get off the couch to change the disc.

@NEStalgia Glad to see you raise the very real and mostly ignored point of digital store front monopolies.
I may be pleased to see not needed physical discs disappear (sorry trippleking but I feel strongly on its environmental effects), but that doesn't mean I'm not keen on seeing something happen to break up the digital monopolies.
If there were true competition in the digital realm, I have no doubt that digital prices would be much more palatable, and that would be one less reason for those resistant to change to cling on.

Rarely buy games since 2018 due to subscription models. As someone who games on a budget, paying less than £80/Year for access to all the titles just makes sense as I rarely ever replay games.

While not surprising in the least, it's saddening to see. I love physical media on my shelf and having an actual games library to hand. Not to mention that digital pricing (especially on PSN) is inflated to a disgusting amount. Most likely in the minority on this, but the fact that I can own it and pay less for games are top of the list for preferring physical media.

@stu123 That's like saying remote controls were invented because people were too lazy to get off their sofa to change TV channels.

I mean, it's true, but it's also abundantly clear one is more convenient than the other.

On Xbox side you will still be able to shop around for your digital codes which is good. Sucks for Playstation gamers though.

@NEStalgia I didn’t look it up but isn’t that Asda that is Walmart?

@K1LLEGAL Still plenty of cheap PSN codes online though, which is where most would buy from.

And for those who know what they're doing, the Turkey store game prices laugh in the face of discs. 👍

@rjejr Speak for yourself. When digital becomes the only option, I will stop buying games. There have already been digital only games that I haven't bought. It's quite easy when you have willpower.

With the likes of Amazon, ShopTo, The Game Collection, etc. I'm surprised that Tesco were still selling any games any more - think Sainsbury's stopped a few years ago?

Like some of the others on here, I tend to buy physical because it's cheaper which it really shouldn't be (server maintenance vs distribution, packaging, media production, etc.) I buy some things digitally but so long as Shop To keep selling their discounted wallet top ups, I don't feel too ripped off.
Unless Fony, M$ and Ninty actively kill physical releases, I think it'll be here for a while.

I don’t think I’ve ever bought a game from a supermarket before. I usually order from Amazon with prime delivery like a normal person.

On no, I tell a lie… I ordered Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart from Tesco in Nov 2021 for £25, when it was still £70 on the PS Store. Even cheap store credit can’t get you great deals like that.

I’m also not too bothered about my personal impact on the environment either tbh. I don’t own a Land Rover. Or fly around the globe on gas-guzzling jets. I never want children. And I recycle. Already done less harm to the environment than most - so I’ll keep my physical games as long as I’m able, thank you.

To.be fair Morrisons stopped selling physical a few years back now

Yeah my Tescos stopped ages ago selling games and films. Sad to see but it is what it is.

It’ll suck once physical media is gone for good.

@Rob_230 That was a good read, thank you.

@Grumblevolcano Sony have already confirmed that the disc drive would be an optional accessory, as @rjejr said, as it gives them one line of console manufacturing with one SKU.
The disc drive will be a probably ridiculously high priced add on as PlayStation like fleecing their customers these days, especially outside of their home country of the US.
You have the choice to buy one without or, I suspect, there will be bundles with it included or buy it at a later date.
Only people really screwed are those with the DOA edition (sorry, DOE) as Fony have already said that the new drive won't work on the current mutant consoles.

I get the environmental benefits of digital gaming, but we're already f***ed anyway, so I don't see much point in trying anymore.

@NEStalgia @K1LLEGAL It was Asda that was owned by Walmart for a time, but they sold it in 2021.

@Godot25 Two online only game, and a broken mess of a game.

I genuinely think the last time I bought a physical game from Tesco was like well over 15 years ago. It would’ve been a WWE or FIFA game I imagine.

Tbf to Tesco here. Games take up so much shelve space & the margins must be tiny for them. No one goes to their local supermarket to buy a game.

Good shout on finding some good deals during the clearance sales. Might check it out👍

It’s a shame, and although for me personally it wouldn’t be a disaster, I really hope we don’t end up in an all digital age and the option of disc is there

@K1LLEGAL All those great looking codes with games you still can't resell.

@MidnightDragonDX yeah, as soon as physical is gone they’ll increase digital prices and blame inflation or something (because they aren’t raking in millions in profit already…).

There isn't a dedicated video game store where I live and Tesco is the closest place I could go to pick a game up in person. That said, I usually order things online to be delivered. Are they stopping selling games online as well?

Said it before and I'll say it again, an all digital future reminds me of those obese humans in animated movie WALL- E. Impossible to predict the future of course but this lazy thing about its to much work to get off the sofa and put a disc into your console concerns me. Or while sitting on the sofa doing nothing and eating unhealthy junk food while ordering a physical game on Amazon for it to be delivered to your door without you ever needing to go anywhere, yh was ideal during the pandemic for a couple years but thats over now. Was fortunate enough to grab a physical 4K of The Last of Us tv show today in a real physical HMV store, you know the ones where you have to be standing up and physically lift your muscles on legs to get through the door to enter yh that one. Got some good exercise while being out touching some grass too, weather was a bit crap today though

@RainbowGazelle Ahh, I always thought that was Tesco, but I'm kinda glad to hear the sold either of them! The Walmart global monopoly was a terrifying head canon.

Not too surprising but still kinda sad to see. I still prefer having a physical copy just for stability like in case there's an issue with the game's licensing later on then gets wiped off digital storefronts. Or if I need to sell it later it's nice to have that option. But I guess in a few years all the game companies will get what they always wanted; an end to the used video game market.

I wonder if other stores are going to start going this way too soon? I walked into a US Target with my family on Sunday, and thought I would take a quick peek at the games section. I was shocked, there were only three physical PS5 games in a section that was once brimming with them (although I did see my first PS5 console in the wild).

I have switched to almost all digital gaming-my wife likes to buy me physical games for birthdays and such so I have something to open, but it has been years since I have walked into a store myself and walked out with a physical game (or ordered one online). But I think it would be a shame to see physical releases go for those who want the option.

@Westernwolf4 the Zelda launch at my local target had a small line of people. Strange for a target. Holding games gets people in the store to browse for other things - and it serves as an advertisement for the publishers.

@JackiePriest or trade with pals.

@sanderson72 SKU, I knew I wasn't spelling that right but was too lazy to look it up, thanks. And yeah I could see a holiday bundle w/ the drive and a disc game, maybe even Spiderman 2 this holiday, but then they can charge even more for the game to hide the price of the drive. No point in bundling the drive w/o a game on disc tho.

@Grumblevolcano True that the manufacturing process would be the same, but they would still need two sets of boxes and skews to keep track of, and they would have to decide how many PS5 to box w/ the drive and how many w/o, and then how many additional drives to make, b/c people who wanted them would buy the bundle and people who didn't' want them wouldn't so what would be the whole point of making them detachable and selling them separately if people just bought what they wanted from the start? 🤷‍♂️ They would also need to decide how much of a discount to charge for the bundle. W/o the bundle they can charge whatever they like for each, no conflict.

A lot easier to just ship ALL PS5 in the same box for the same price then sell the drive. Easy peasy.

And yes they probably will limit the drive, and charge booku bucks for it, to push people towards digital, that's the entire point isn't it? 😝

@NEStalgia Oh ok. I've heard of Tesco, but I assumed it was strictly a grocery store, like stop & shop or Publix. Makes sense when you put it that way

If physical copies disappear completely, I'll start jailbraking my consoles and wear an eye patch. If you can't own anymore games and have to download them anyway, you might as well stop paying for it.

Gotta make that room for even more womens clothing!
Also kinda sad, that the only physical place left you can buy physical games is Game or Cex and well....

@IMustardMitt Good luck finding a new hobby, you probably have about 3-5 years to find one. Maybe 7-8 years w/ Switch 2 before Switch 3 launches. 🤷‍♂️

@MrMeeeseeeks nothing wrong with a land rover 😎

All I'll say is it's probably quite a sad day for young kids who play games, who's parents probably pick up those games from supermarkets. But hey, there's still Amazon.

it's a little bit depressing for presents etc too, I suppose. Nothing says "I don't know you very well" like a Giftcard 😅

For me, I can't remember the last time I bought a game from a supermarket, and the last physical games I bought were Cyberpunk and AC Valhalla for ps4. But I then bought AC Valhalla digitally for PS5 as all I could get was a digital PS5 at the time. And I've not looked back since.

Physical gaming is here to stay. There will always be enough-to-make-a-difference amount of people that don't have a good internet connection.
And with games getting bigger and bigger, i don't think digital only is ever gonna happen

I wish people understood that these days a physical release is nothing but a piece of plastic that acts like a key, you still have to down load most of the game from the internet and all that piece of plastic does is give you the small bit of exercise, when you need to change you disc.

When a games service is turned off that disc may as well be a coaster!

@lolwhatno I get your point but with games getting bigger and bigger, they won’t fit on disc’s.

In the last few years I've bought physical games from: Argos, Asda, Very, Jd williams, Base (now called Hit), Amazon, HMV and directly from Nintendo. As long as theres physical games to buy, I will. Its also nicer for gift giving and is better than a PS/XB/Nintendo top up card

@Mio_Nakashima We like to play a game every time we go near a book section of a shop (bookshops don't count) of count the number of James Patterson books. Our record currently stands at 8. This is also considering other prolific writers like Stephen King, Scott Mariani and Clive Cussler (RIP) usually have 3 at most, and that's usually pushing it!

@stu123 for me it’s not being lazy, but taking advantage of Quick Resume. Not having to worry about kids taking the disc’s in their room to play and not teat it right. Storing cases somewhere, god forbid a fire or house break in and lost or stolen. The list of advantages for me are endless. Is convenience one of them? Sure, but it’s not being lazy. Who takes 50 CD’s in their car to listen to music? Movies i can see physical being decent still. But most games need the internet and patches to even work. There’s just not a lot of advantages left for physical. There’s still some and i hope they stick around for those players. But the mainstream players are speaking with their wallets and it’s digital taking a huge lead. Stores can’t have space being taken up by things with low profit and smaller unit sales sold.

@Titntin The earth survived getting bombarded with asteroid billion years ago, I think it's arrogant to think that we humans somehow "saved" the earth by not making blu-ray games disc.

@Rmg0731 That is 100% the goal they are shooting for.

Digital all the way baby!!!!

@Titntin i always buy physical but only because i get them so much cheaper. There was no way in hell i was paying the digital price for diablo 4 or any other game. If there was digital store alternatives i'd buy the game from the digital store that offers the best deal. Until that happens i'll still buy physical.

There's so many other places to buy physical games anyway, I'm not surprised tesco is gonna stop,but I much much prefer physical myself and physical isn't going anywhere anytime soon ,giving people options is always the best way if you like digital that's cool and so it is as well if you like physical ,physical for me and it'll stay that way for me personally cheers

@Titntin what make you think you have any right to deny people what they want? Gross entitlement? What makes you think you know exactly how things are being polluted and which is causing more harm? A single bad article wheaty posted or gross ignorance? You have no clue, not saying I do either.... but I'm not the one declaring they would cut everyone's choices off if they could either.

@Wheatly More digital means they pollute less? Do you think before you speak or...?

This is old news, surely? There were some ridiculous sales 3-4 months ago in Tesco stores nationwide when it was announced they would be leaving the games market. Elden Ring was as low as £6.25 in some shops. I picked up GoWR and GT7 for £30 each, but GoWR dropped as low as £12.50 in some stores. This slashing of prices was to clear all the stock and the most popular titles all sold out very swiftly back in March. It was a little bizarre to see the frantic shoppers, all clearly directed by sites like HotUkDeals. Tesco’s decision to stop selling video games was common knowledge months ago.

GAME, HMV, CeX and other similar entertainment stores in 10 years or less will all be replaced by the 9th greetings card shop in your local town selling even more useless paper and cardboard, replaced by even more 1 pound bargain stores selling even more useless plastic items, replaced by even more fast food chains selling even more useless junk turning many humans into more obesity each week with maybe less than 3% of their entire menus being actually healthy, replaced by the 12th coffee shop in your town selling even more overpriced far to sweet crappy coffees🥱💤. Literally zero reason to go to any big shopping centre soon

@Vega37 sorry but you have misunderstood.

The environmental damage per unit is less for digital and the per unit damage decreases the higher the percentage of sales are digital.

While this will apply to some degree with physical too it will be far less marked and physical is always more damaging.

@Vega37 Im not denying people anything. Im simply taking joy that the natural evolution of games consumption will lead it to be less wasteful and damaging.
Im not a retail outlet refusing to supply you, or even a campainer affecting such decisions. You are witnessing the changes that reflect the natural evolution of a digital medium market as it grows to the future.
Responsible or not, Im allowed to take satisfaction in seeing the market slowly evolving to what I consider is a slightly better ecological outcome.

This happened like last year in my 2 local tescos, so old news to me. Went digital around 2018 and it's the best thing i've done gaming wise.

@Northern_munkey Hi mate. Yeah the cost differential is really the only valid case for sticking with it and I dont blame you. Its rediculous that digital prices are not cheaper than pysical and I hope one day digital store fronts get some real competiton.
I buy psn credit via shopto or similar, so I get %15 discount that way, but its still not competitive. Happy to pay the extra to not swap disks tbh.. I get back issues that make disk changes difficult at times! 🤣

@KaijuKaiser Lot of it going around today. Seems everyone has a reason to never play x or support y again in the gaming world.

Ok, I won't repeat myself. I just say it is sad when companies force people into bad things. And "digital only" is bad thing.

Once physical is over for PlayStation, I'm out and done with the brand. I'll transfer entirely to PC. Sony's stubborn refusal to address the idea of country migration means that I can't move to another country with my digital library. At least not without jumping through a bazillion hoops and workarounds I'm not prepared to. The solution for me, then, is just to go to a platform that understands not everyone wants to live in the same place forever and allows you to update your country or residence to your new home.

Digital is amazingly convenient, until it isn't.

@Nyne11Tyme
That, along with pricing, are my major issues with the push for all digital. If I could play the game offline like I could my Xbox 360 digital purchases, I'd be more accepting of this, even if I do prefer physical.

I’m reasonably fine with a digital era, only two things really bug me about it. One is games hold their price unreasonably, subscription models mitigate this (as do sales ofc) but sub models have their own risks around losing availability etc.

Second one is very much dependant on where you are, I’m in Oxfordshire, UK and bound to the best internet I can currently get which caps at like 72mb’s or somesuch. That’s considered pretty decent in uk on BT (the major provider here) and faster connections are generally heavily dependant on location and only slowly being rolled out and unless you’re in the city hearts you probably won’t have it. (God forbid you rent and it’s off the main road, you’re screwed then), as such downloads are often painfully slow taking 2-3hrs for midsized titles and bigger updates taking an hour in and of itself.

Essentially, I’m fine with a digital future but can everything catch up to it please!

In my country, Tesco stopped stocking games a few years ago...even back then it was more or les just Steam codes or retro PC games.

I've never been to Tesco's to buy a game anyway and forgot that even sell games. Only reason I go to a Tesco is for a quick meal deal lol.

I feel a bit sad that gamers are choosing digital over physical ownership, because for some owning something that you can hold in your hand is great.

Everytime I put the disc in I get a sense of joy and tradition to start or continue that journey. If Sony were to go full digital, I would be done with them and openly embrace steam.

@number1024 Oh trust me they will find a way (either like RDR2 100GB on 2 discs)
Too many people have terrible internet and companies can't afford to lose them (yet)

@NinjaNicky Oh, don't get me wrong. I was glad I got Hogwarts. It's just...that it would be even better if it was digital.

It's like if you are kid and you wanted red Ferrari toy car. And you got black Ferrari toy car. You are happy for it, but it would be even better if it was red.

@lolwhatno maybe but the value isn’t there, especially since physical says in most countries are dropping fast. It all comes down to economics and if 1000 people but digitally and only 10 buy physical, the cost of pressing, cases, delivery, simply doesn’t make sense.

I’d like to see the return of big box games with proper manuals but that’s not happening.

I don’t think Sony will ever care that you don’t have a good internet connection, they will simply tell you to take it up with your council, stop wasting money on bs projects and use it to bolster internet to the community. You know what, I can’t argue with that logic because rich corporations can’t control what your council does unless they are your council.

I too hope physical doesn’t go away but I also can’t see it sticking around as a prevalent source. Maybe a solution is, if you want a disc you can but that direct from Sony. SE sells discs for some older games but are slightly more to cover transport costs.

Such a shame physical will always be king and often the big box stores sell the games for less so is definitely a loss to gaming

@Godot25 couldn't you return the game to the shop and swap it for vouchers for the console you're on?

@number1024 You may be right, only time will tell ig

@NinjaNicky Nah. Return-in price was too low

Where I live I think Smyths toys is this biggest seller of new games, Game has retreated to like a concession at the back of a sports shop. Currys sells a little I guess there's Argos but that's not as big as it was. Mainly online shopping for physical or buy digitally.

This has been obvious for many many months. The game section got smaller and smaller with less linear shelf space devoted to all game systems, switch, Xbox and playstation.
Asda are the same. Like Tesco, they hardly stock CDs, DVDs or video games.

It's a shame, as these superstores played their part in closing down the smaller video game shops like game exchange, and even places like Game, who now seem to have retreated from their own high street stores into sports direct stores.
As soon as the competition is gone, they then stop selling the games too!
Tesco did some mad deals like ps5 sackboy disc version for £2 recently. It was clear they were just clearing out all their existing stock

Nobody really cares about discs anymore, heck I stopped caring last gen when they made the move to turn discs into little more than physical DRM. They still force you to download most of the game data it seems, and it doesn't save you any space at all. I always get better deals on digital sales anyways.

@Wheatly That all depends on how long a digital game is kept on servers, how many servers are needed, how many are on but unused just wasting power waiting for you to need it? You can't simply state physical games are worse because plastic and call that the truth. Its the same with all the people that think electric cars are so great for the environment but forget about mining cobalt for batteries, shipping back and forth across the globe just to simply assemble them, and most importantly where the power comes from the charge their "zero emissions" vehicle. The longer digital lasts, the more damage done actually, because they have to continue to consume power to exist on a server. Physical games do not. The answer is not as simple as you think.