'It's Totally, Totally Irrelevant': GameStop Boss Unfazed by Sony's Physical Discs Decision

That's okay, most gamers are unfazed by Gamestop's existence.

Ironic since Gamestop have been irrelevant for the past decade.

Well, then GameStop should be utterly unfazed by people no longer going there after that statement.

Gamestop has been like 80% merch for awhile now. Hardly a game store

All that stock money that people wasted on this washed up semi-scam

So they’re doubling down on all the crap I bypass on the way to the register to ring up my physical game, got it.

If physical media sales are so low, yet many passionate and vocal fans of the brand still own a large number of physical PS4 and PS5 games, why doesn't Sony release a Blu-ray add-on, like the PS5 Pro, and also allow third parties, for example,to release limited physical editions of their games? They could charge a premium, just like Nintendo does. Surely that wouldn't be a loss for Sony?

I mean the petition was started by a lady in Canada that runs a second hand game store and that’s her main bread and butter.

So whilst I agree Sony couldn’t care less about us all on a micro level, neither could she realistically.

She’s hardly the owner of a mom & pop store as many call them, her site even offers wholesale and bulk pricing orders.

It’s just important to point out this whole movement so to speak gained traction due to a company claiming they want second hand games to remain, yet that’s the weakest argument you could put to the industry, as that’s the main area they make no money from.

At the end of the ladies 250,000 signature milestone, she updates with a closing statement “ This was never about one store or one console. It's about whether you own what you pay for. Let's keep it loud.”

That right there again weakens her argument for her true reasoning. It’s about whether you own what you pay for, exactly, and therein lies the issue though doesn’t it. As she’s just another person peddling the fact you own a disc and license but not the game in perpetuity.

I want physical games to remain, but people really need to take this opportunity to focus on what’s important, our rights as gamers. A lady in Canada fighting for the ownership of disc based games has already lost that fight, as you don’t own disc based games.

But the fight for her store to have more money milked from people wanting to play retro games hasn’t ended has it?

And always check charity shops for second hand games over these types of businesses, as an old disc from yesteryear with a license not legal right to play shouldn’t cost anything more than a beer coaster.

Fight for rights not licenses on pretty discs. And don’t be afraid to call out the fact that someone starting a petition due to fear of losing an aging business model isn’t on your side either.

But, better the devil we all know, right?

Well GameStop is an authority on irrelevance.

I dont think Gamestop stopped selling games because the market was changing, it was that Gamestop didnt offer any better deals than other retailers, especially on trade ins.

So they had to pivot.

They actually fell victim to the same thing that Sony is trying to kill off: Competition.

And just to add GameStop has gone the way many UK stores have done, all merchandise and so forth because that’s mainly what was selling. The consumer has driven this demand, and I’m just as to blame as I buy just as much digital.

GAME is even now at the back of a sports store next to jock straps and paddle boards due to literally barely anyone on the high street using it to purchase anything rather than walk through it or parking, and even then preferring to not buy physically game wise.

Otherwise the industry wouldn’t be in this position to begin with.

We need to keep physical options open to all, for preservation, cheaper alternatives, all sorts of arguments, but we also need consumers like me to feel compelled to go into a store like GAME in the first place.

And once I’ve had an argument with a staff member over the game I’m buying, they’ve asked if I want a membership thrice, then used my postcode to find an old membership to then tell me I have points, to then upsell me.

I mean it’s not the physical game I have an issue with half the time, it’s the fact that those selling to me are my age and acting like they’re desperately selling me their wares from their mothers basement.

GameStop has always been a blight. They destroyed the best game store around when they took over Electronics Boutique.

What was he supposed to say? Shareholders are listening. I also believe him that physical sales have declined. The gaming sections have gotten much smaller.

Be honest, how many of us physical gamers buy our games from GameStop or Game?

Just as an odd anecdote, when I used to buy disc based games, it was usually from dedicated games stores.

The reason I stopped buying from these stores was because (with the exception of Pre-orders) they started taking the discs out of the boxes, and storing them in cupboards / draws.
Some of them were so badly stored the discs looked like they were 2nd hand so I refused to buy them at full price.

@ButteredCrumpet I think some people might have been upset about Sony’s announcement even if one store owner in Canada hadn’t said anything.

Games top closed years ago and pretty sure majority of gaming shop focus is Pokemon card instead of video games this days

It's totally irrelevant.....but what's the context he says that in PS? Give us the context or all you're doing is spreading sensationalism. What was said for him to say that, what was he responding to and what did he go on to say in reference?

@Gbarsotini Because that would mean giving third parties the security keys for the system. Not happening. There are reasons why Sony press the discs themselves beyond being a multimedia company.

I don’t think third parties have printed their own games since the Famicom. For piracy, security and licensing money. It’s hard to extract money from people making games for your system if they can bypass you.

It's crazy that GameStop has the coin to even attempt to buy eBay

@ButteredCrumpet With GAME, they got rid of the things that made it worthwhile going there. Trade-ins, rewards program to save money and ability to preorder games instore all gone in the space of 2024.

You can still do those kind of things elsewhere like CeX for trade-ins and get games cheaper at places like Smyths. For example if you want Wolverine PS5, it's £70 at GAME and the PS Store but £63 at Smyths, Argos, Amazon, etc.

GameStop is good for hardware. Thanks to trade incentives, I was able to get the PS5 Pro on launch for $185! Hopefully they’re still around when PS6 comes out so I can get a similar deal on that

@Anthony_Daniels My understanding is they don’t, it’s purely a power move to get into debt with the purchase but then pay it off quickly with eBay’s profits.

EBay is a significantly bigger business. EBay is 5x the market valuation of gamestop

Effectively GameStop are seeking to take eBay’s position in the collectible trading market by force

Here in the US, Gamestop has a small presence. I haven't been to a Gamestop in over 15 years.

@KidRisky Well, of course, people are always upset, there is always discourse and discontented people in every form of society that has anything passionate they hold dear.

But the movement itself has been propelled by the petition, heard mentality on forums and so forth. So I’m just pointing out that the lady that helped to push the movement cares about as much as Sony.

Which to me, in my personal opinion is worth noting. That and her clear misunderstanding of what the legal rights surrounding items she makes a living off selling are for consumers.

lol and people say that digital data are wrong

It’s been there the whole time, in the name … Game… STOP

Gamestop has been irrelevant for years and that's pretty much because of their bad service. Now they became mostly toys and card store.

But a lot of real dedicated games store will be affected by Sony decision to kill physical games. Some owners already talked they probably will closed down their store if there's no more physical games to sell.

@Grumblevolcano Absolutely, and sadly the sales of games in all these stores (other than second hand) is down.

Most of the stores you mention other than CEX (focuses on second hand items that don’t support any company other than themselves), have all been struggling with their high street presence.

Argos could never sell another item again other than games, and if those who want games bought physical there they’d likely not have had to be at the back of a supermarket that’s also failing.

This is my point, the industry of first hand games sales has been failing for years, second hand markets of course won’t be, but then they also don’t support the industry so the industry isn’t exactly going to brown nose them either.

It’s an odd state of affairs, I grew up without needing to go to the back of a supermarket or sports store to buy a physical game, it was just a local friendly bloke/lady who served a game, had a chat and I left.

No loyalty card, no push for anything else. Yet now they went, because people didn’t buy enough physical games first hand from them.

I just don’t think the people who want physical to stay as an option realise just how few they are compared to the masses. Everyone I knew used to buy physical, now I’m one of only a few people I can even think of that bothers.

@ShadowRJ Likely little to none, otherwise they’d be flourishing.

"We weren't selling jack anyway"

@LowDefAl
I must have written it wrong; what I meant to say is that Sony could let some third parties make some limited prints or some special editions with a more premium price for their games. Sony doesn't need to keep their factories open to do this; they have several third parties who press the games for them.
In my view its better then loose those 15% and some goodwill.

The stats and figures don't lie, physical games are dead whether you like it or not.
Need to move with the times and what the data says and these companies know better than upset kids who just want to karma farm and be outraged for nothing.

@ButteredCrumpet So without the petition this would all have blown over in a few days? No one can prove a counterfactual, but it seems reasonable to think that people heard about the petition through social media, rather than running to social media after stumbling across the petition.

I have to ask if you have some kind of animosity towards that lady in Canada, who is milking money out of people wanting to play retro games. Is that your attitude towards every used game seller, or just her?

@Grumblevolcano

For example if you want Wolverine PS5, it's £70 at GAME and the PS Store but £63 at Smyths, Argos, Amazon, etc.

This is true, although it's cheaper digitally through Shopto than any physical option, £59.63 for me on gold tier, or £60.85 on standard.

@Swandivetotheasphalt Nothing change for PS5 sales in Japan. It's still the same 5-10K units week after week and that because digital version is a lot cheaper than disc and Pro version. Meanwhile Switch 1 & 2 hardware and physical games are still dominating the chart.

You shouldn't expect any big change for PS in Japan. Once Nishino announced PS6 with $1000 price point + no options for physical games, Japan will go full Nintendo. You don't even need to check Famitsu charts anymore because there will be zero PS6 games in the chart.

@PuppetMaster The digital PS6 handheld will be massive in Japan.

@KidRisky Oh, I think you’re trying to conflate multiple things here to somehow take out your anger at Sony, instead directing it towards me.

So shall we just clear up a few things before this turns into yet another thread on this site that gets out of control with rage bait bull.

I support second hand, I support first hand physical. I buy music, film, TV and games physically. Though due to convenience of how I use games I buy more digital of late.

All I was pointing out in what I wrote was the following;

To me, as in me, so that won’t be to you, or your opinion, as a person speaking for himself … I find the lady’s blatant misunderstanding of what the rights are surrounding an item she sells misguided at best, and laughable at worst.

And I do not believe in the notion that she is fighting for the preservation of games, as she is not fighting for games on discs to be owned, she is fighting for them to continue to be printed so she can sell them.

Her entire business model relies on discs of today and yesteryear, so one can only assume her intentions with the petition were to mainly support her own business model, not the desires of the community for which she markets to.

However, that’s the interesting part again to me, in that they can both compliment one another. This persons desire to continue the business model they have, can indeed benefit those she may not even care for, and vice versa.

However, for myself, I just found some points she has made interesting along with her intentions.

And no animosity towards her personally either. I just find a business (PNP Inc) trying to petition a business (Sony/PlayStation) because they don’t have a strong business without Sony rather interesting to look at on a personal level.

I mean many second hand games stores could provide a small royalty fee to the industry for each game sold, but they don’t, libraries do, but second hand game stores don’t.

So any second hand game she has sold of SEGA, Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft has had little to any benefit be seen by those companies, yet she expects them to listen.

It’s just fascinating from an observational perspective. Watching those that make money fight for themselves and their justification and how that is latched on to by the wider gaming community.

But no animosity towards any of these companies, I don’t have that much emotional allowance I provide them to begin with to feel that much for them.

I’m simply an outsider to those in this businesses looking in and seeing flaws and intentions on both sides of the fence that are worth noting. Doesn’t mean I want to brick their windows or hate on them for all of eternity.

My comments towards that lady are tame in comparison to many of the comments I’ve seen from those demanding physical stay, that are directed towards humans on social media too.

So use any energy you have to fight for your cause, not me, I also support the cause, doesn’t mean I can’t see the hypocrisy on a company making money off an industry and providing next to nothing to it claiming to be for anything but themselves. Which again, I fully support, but there’s intentions in there that can be selfish and worth noting. It doesn’t mean the actions don’t also benefit us.

EDIT: I think of it this way, you or I bought ten new games today, we support the industry, our hobby and tell Sony to keep physical games around, far more than if she sold 100 physical games second hand.

GameStop has been terrible and mostly irrelevant for years now. Unless you’re going in there for video game merchandise and not actual games.

@Gaia093 their quarterly financials say otherwise

@Gbarsotini For audio in the US perhaps, but for BD’s Sony run their own pressing plants, although less than before. Their Austrian plant is run by Sony DADC. US game production was, ironically moved to Austria although Brazil may also have been involved. Games are only half the output of the Austrian plant. Third parties printing discs for modern systems needs a reliable source. It seems unlikely.

The reason they are converting it to lens production is because they already started making them in the Austrian plant in 2024.

I haven’t seen a Japanese game from this gen but Sony Music/DADC Japan still operate in Shizuoka and somewhere else and they have Chinese plants too.

@Intr1n5ic Are you sure about that when PSP Go doesn't sold well in Japan.

@LowDefAl Hey there! Only asking as you seem like a bit of a fellow nerd haha. Do you happen to know if the bluray production for film/tv media is going to be impacted by any of these processing plant decisions?

As I know we all love games and so forth, but CD’s, vinyl and Bluray is where it’s at for me as far as where I spend the most on physical items. I just haven’t seen documentation out there that speaks of this being anything that’s happening to anything other than games from a production moving/closing/being assigned elsewhere etc.

@PuppetMaster If priced competitively against the Switch, I can see it do well there. I don't think it'll be massive but I think it could carve out a bigger install base than the PS home consoles. Remember ever since the price hike even the Switch 2 has dropped to 25k units per week. Double the 6 year old PS5 at this moment but Nintendo should usually be nearer to 100k a week marker.

@ButteredCrumpet I’m not sure how distributed video BD’s are across Sony as a whole but if half of Austria’s output is games then we can assume the other half is film and/or audio. I suspect those numbers are already going down but they might be fitting into the 10% capacity it sounds like they are keeping. I agree the lack of news from Sony’s other ventures is odd, I assumed this was a Sony wide thing and I don’t see how they wouldn’t be involved in discussions given DADC operates for the whole of Sony as well as third parties

Vinyl is another matter, I have some game soundtracks released by Sony Classical (and whatever that was branded as before) but I’ve not checked the production codes. A lot of them are probably pressed in Czech like most western record releases. I don’t know where Sony Japan make or get their vinyl from

@LowDefAl Perfect, thank you very much for that! Let’s hope it all stays for as long as is viable! I think out of everything physical entertainment media wise, I’d miss vinyl the most, then films second and so on.

@ButteredCrumpet oh the big Forbidden West vinyl box from Sony Classical was pressed in France by MPO.

However Rift apart was pressed in the US by Memphis Record Pressing, itself a division of GZ Media, the Czech firm I mentioned.

@cainhurst94 PSP Go and Vita doesn't sold well in Japan despite Sony gave a competitive price for both handheld. And now you're saying PS6 handheld which could be a lot more expensives than Switch 2 will do well in Japan and even have bigger install base than PS home consoles?

@LowDefAl I have a lot of vinyl that I inherited from my mum and dad too, which is wild to see how it’s changed as in where it was produced and what not. I must admit, I’ve bought a few over recent years that have been a little off quality wise. But I guess the same could be said for many a physical item that’s mass produced.

@PuppetMaster I’m only asking for the sake of interest not baiting etc.

However, as you seem to be confident in what won’t sell well in Japan, do you have any suggestions as to what would sell well in that market?

I only ask as a lot of journalists (not here but others I’ve read over the years), in the Western hemisphere seem to focus on what won’t do well too.

Yet I’d be fascinated to hear from people what they think would do well in Japan gaming wise. They seem to prefer portable for rather obvious reasons (lack of physical space at home, community driven mindset to gaming discussions more so than ours, travel and work more on public transport etc), but is it now just portable would you say?

As in literally do the Japanese market just want portable devices, or home consoles that say Nintendo on them, or is there something else you’d suggest would work?

@PuppetMaster To be fair there were a number of reasons for that. It was definitely too soon for an all digital push 17 years ago, especially at that price point. Those who had supported PSP and it's umd's now found themselves with an incompatible collection and little reason to switch, and it's form factor was horrible in my opinion and not particularly comfortable to use.

@ShadowRJ I'm not a true physical gamer as I only buy roughly 50% of my games physically and even then I'd sell them as soon as they are done, but with that 50% I would never purchase them from Game.

Before I became an adult I used to go into the Game and GameStation stores near me (Merry Hill Shopping Centre) and buy games, I used to go with my parents or mates with pocket money and look forward to browsing the games, especially the 3 for £20 section. But when you grow up and have access to your own money you start to shop around more for the better deals and do more online purchases. Game was one of the most expensive stores around so I I chose to buy my games off Shopto, Game Collection and Amazon instead.

@ButteredCrumpet A lot of times the issue is the mastering, there are few of the old masters around. It’s the same reason why different press runs of the same album can vary so much, even in the heyday.

Meanwhile all the FF XIV vinyl has been mastered by Bernie Grundman, presumably made easier to arrange because they give his Tokyo studio so much work in mastering the BD soundtracks (over 700 tracks at this point)

@ButteredCrumpet I didn’t mean to come off as angry at you, I’m simply confused by what you are saying.

If you and I are voting for the same politician in an election, but for different reasons, would that bother you as much as this situation seems to? If I vote for a candidate because I believe his policies will lower inflation, and you vote for him because you believe his policies will reduce the deficit, should we hash that out before trying to convince the undecideds?

I don’t think the motives of the petition drafter matter at all, and I don’t think anyone could believe Sony’s decision wouldn’t be controversial absent the petition.

Since motives seem important, I’ll volunteer that I own a grand total of 10 physical games against several hundred digital titles. I’ve found that when you have a backlog and wait a couple of years to buy a game, it’s much cheaper to buy digital so that’s what I’ve done. I care about price first, and know that, absent competition from physical game resellers, games will not get discounted as frequently or as deeply.

So, given my motives, would you prefer that I not speak up about Sony’s decision and embrace the digital future? Honestly, if it’s digital everywhere I’ll just go to PC. I don’t think I’ll be missing much given Sony’s recent first-party output, and at least there are multiple storefronts, which benefit customers even if they only buy from one.

@Intr1n5ic Ok then what's your basis for saying a digital PS6 handheld that could be price at $1000 will be massive in Japan, especially when the market still heavily favor physical release and Nintendo games?

If I was a shareholder or owner of a company and my CEO said something that makes up a full 18% of my revenue was totally irrelevant, they’d be fired that afternoon. 1-5% maybe, but 18% is a chunk!

@KidRisky Oh, see I think this is where it’s getting our wires crossed. I’m not remotely bothered or impacted by this.

All games media, the entire industry could go tomorrow and I’d still need to get up and go to work and look after my child and deal with the world as we all have to.

I know many may genuinely have passions they feel are worth fighting for on a gaming fan site, but I personally don’t feel anything is truly worth fighting for on a website that the company (Sony) won’t sit and read through, and none here will change their minds for the most part.

The only thing Sony historically seem to change cause on when it comes to their branding is financials, so I genuinely don’t like to think my opinion matters a jot, as I think that’s just misguided confidence in myself if I do that.

As for your digital games purchases conflicting with supporting the petition I don’t think they do, I certainly have not said anything of the sort. I support people forging for a better state of affairs for us all, doesn’t mean we have to all shop in the same way or same store.

Same with politics, I don’t mind who you vote for or your reasons.

But this is my point, the gamers in this equation aren’t what’s fascinating to me. We are all inherently selfish as humans and all rather obviously desire cheaper games, as we would be rather silly to not want cheaper forms of anything we hold dear in our lives, especially in this economy.

I also don’t mind where you game, gamed on PC for years and old enough to have watched Valve take away physical PC games whilst no one did anything like this about it. And have a large enough Steam library to realise when I lost my details it was just as troublesome as Sony in getting back.

But that’s neither here nor there, I don’t mind where or how any plays.

Funnily enough the only thing we seem to lightly disagree on is only one point you’ve mentioned. It’s that you stated the intentions of the petition holder and the motives of these businesses don’t matter to you.

That’s really it, they matter and are fascinating as an observer to me. So that’s all, I just think the motives behind the change can sometimes come back to haunt those that inspired the change in some ways.

The result they get isn’t always one that works for them, but sometimes more so the community they claim to align with.

You buying all those digital games (as I too buy a lot of them), supports Sony and speaks to Sony a lot more than a lady trying to sell us copies of Uncharted PlayStation Classics edition second hand etc.

So no, I know you don’t care, or find it fascinating as to what her motives are. But, that’s the joy of all this, I am different and do find it fascinating.

Much like how people don’t care how a TV works it just works. But there’s a lot out there that care for how it works. It doesn’t mean either is wrong.

So let’s just enjoy being different! We are gamers and share a passion in life, it doesn’t mean we have to share what else we care about within the wider gaming community though.

@Rezium I was about to say you know we are fishing at the bottom of the barrel when we are concerned with what Gamestop thinks about anything.

GameStop are nothing but a tat store nowadays. Thier ceo should not be taken serious.

is this CEO laughing at 18% of its revenue generation, as if losing that 18% won't shutter hundreds of more gamestop locations around the globe? give me a break. we all know this is just PR talk to stop the bleeding and prevent people from selling their shares in the company. that said, this CEO is completely dellusional — his ebay takeover idea is clear evidence of that. the only reason gamestop didn't declare bankruptcy yet is because they closed 1000+ stores in the US alone over the past 2 years, making them more profitable in the process (of course). it is still a failing business on the verge of collapse if they are putting all their aspirations and bets on pokemon cards to carry them through another decade! they should have gone all in on the retro market years ago... the selling and trading of retro games/consoles going back to the ps1 era would be a good place to start. not even sony can take that away!

@Jey887 Well, that's why you all are irrelevant to them lol

Now the 1% of gamers that can't stop crying about the death of physical media can go be angry at Game Stop as well.

@PuppetMaster Admittedly, massive was hyperbolic, although I think it will do very well.

They have to get the price right, whether the state of the market will prevent them from doing that we'll have to wait and see, but I don't expect the handheld to be anywhere near a thousand.

If they can offer the PS5 adopters a seamless way to integrate their library in to a portable option, then I think they have a great chance at being a competitive rival to the switch 2.

@ButteredCrumpet For what it’s worth, I stopped buying digital games when it came out that Sony was engaging in targeted pricing. I deleted my wishlist, unfollowed every game, unsubscribed from their YouTube channel, and haven’t visited the PlayStation store since. My plan was to whittle my backlog down then buy physical copies, and now that they’ve done this it feels like the last straw.

The attitude of the announcement is what really got under my skin: “To better serve this community we’ll be focusing our efforts on the format you’ve chosen…blah, blah, blah.” They think we’re all idiots—or addicts.

Good talking to you.

What an odious company.

Signed - a former employee.

@Intr1n5ic Big chance PS4/5 digital library will be playable on PS6. But digital BC and price are not enough for PS6 to compete with Switch 2.

PS6 needs killer exclusive games that appeals to Japanese taste. The question is can Sony 1st party provide those games since most Japanese 3rd party already multiplat.

@dodgykebaab As someone who buys all physical, Gamestop is the worst place to purchase hardcopies of games. Their "new games" are often already opened and damaged with stickers. Their pre-orders often arrive extremely late. They throw away video game cases by the millions to save on shipping, which means that you as the customer will most likely receive a generic placeholder box instead of the actual case.
So yeah, purchase your games from pretty much anywhere else.

@MrPeanutbutterz Same, same. TOH, RSBs, and marketing relays can bite me.

@KidRisky wow so brave!

What doesn't make sense about this CEO's overconfidence is he's still talking about a large reduction in revenue and that's not something "totally, totally irrelevant" for ANY business.

They stopped being a video game store of any relevance a long, long time ago. They make no effort to be good at what they do. If you want anything but a AAAAA game they overstocked, forget it.

@Rezium I buy my games from the PlayStation store, and like the majority of people, I'm fed up with this self defeating "outrage" over game discs.

No matter how much people moan and cry about it, game discs are old fashioned and not fit for purpose. Most AAA games can't fit in the 100gig limit now and most indie games are digital only.

People are going out of their way to create a culture of negativity which will only harm the game industry.

Going to hurt Sony because you can't have discs anymore?
Why? Does Valve do discs? Does Xbox? Does Nintendo? No. No one else does discs.

I'm unfazed by his support for the current US president also. What a tool.

No one gives a crap about GameStop besides investors. The only unfortunate problem with a GameStop closing is what would be of the workers. That's the only thing that matters now, especially if they don't care about physical media.

GameStop really does need to change their name. Most of their stuff is merchandise.

@dodgykebaab Lets dissect this, shall we?

>No matter how much people moan and cry about it, game discs are old fashioned and not fit for purpose.

Well, it’s the only medium that Sony can’t take from us if our account gets removed. I don’t call that “old-fashioned.” Delisted games are also a factor. Discs aren’t forever, but they exist outside of account/license expiration. Try buying a copy of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 1-2, Transformers Devastation, etc digitally. You can’t.

>Most AAA games can't fit in the 100gig limit now and most indie games are digital only.

Games can come on two discs. The fact that programmers need more space isn’t a compelling one. Also, the existence of digital-only games does not mean physical games must cease to exist.

>People are going out of their way to create a culture of negativity which will only harm the game industry.

If a “culture of negativity” is what fells the game industry, then the game industry was far weaker than anyone thought and a crash would be inevitable either way.

>Going to hurt Sony because you can't have discs anymore?

Yes. By not giving them money for anything digital since their announcement and not buying a PS6. Well spotted!

>Why? Does Valve do discs?

PCs are a different animal altogether. You can back up pc games. You can strip the DRM from them. You have more than one store, like GOG for example. Sony allows none of those things on console.

>Does Xbox?

Well yes, actually. They haven’t announced no more Xbox discs, you see. And if they do, then I’ll be fine with them, too. They’re on the way, but they have the chance to do the funniest thing ever with Helix.

>Does Nintendo?

They still do physical media and that’s the equivalent of a disc. So yes, they do.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk! It’s rather sad that physical folks are quite happy to also purchase digital games (I was and did!) but those who advocate for digital only seem almost gleeful that those who prefer physical media are being shut out. It’s very telling.

Everyone's instant attempt at low hanging fruit jokes as they can't accept that Gamestop pivoted to all that merch because of the decrease of game sales might be the most symbolic part of this whole situation.

Joke about the name all you want. Gamestop makes more money from hardware sales than software.

Like, just the -existence- of digital was enough to effect them long before this and it's also why it got worse and worse every gen as digital content got more and more convenient. That includes streaming games and instant catalogs.

And while Gamestop was cheeky whenever PSN was down for a day and took advantage over the fact that people forgot they could even access their digital games, they were still absolutely right to be so. People weren't buying physical games as much. This happened at least twice! No one learned anything.

People aren't going to like to hear it, but the push to change platforms to PC all gen also didn't help. Ideally you should be free to choose where you want to play, but when people migrate in waves strictly to a platform that doesn't sell physical games to begin with, while another lets people play new full priced ones digitally for dirt cheap on even other platforms with something like GamePass... and then another platform half steps their physical game approach... all on top of the momentum of digital content sales each gen, the explosion of live service in general, and the introduction of digital only console models...

Yeah, that's definitely the recipe for it.
The best they could give you to capitalize on the formats that are actually selling is the hardware, some currency cards, and possibly a code for that kind of stuff.

In other words, barely a difference.

Physical media as a topic is such a red herring. Discs are going the way of the cassette tape you guys, no matter how much you pout and stomp your feet.

And I'm speaking like I'm annoyed, because I am, because all your pouting and foot stomping is taking focus off of what SHOULD be the main issue, which is digital content ownership rights.

@IntrepidWombat See also - "Game Protection". My heart sank into my stomach the day I landed into work and realised I'd have to push this with every game transaction.

I'm in a small town in Ireland - it was downright hilarious following some of their marketing directives. Answering the phone "hello GameStop small town Ireland, the home of Hannah Montana" (I was there during the Wii/360/PS3 generation)... "Is that, is that the Game Stoppers?! Do you have the Intendo Wiis for sale?". Sigh.

Though the bemusement of them when I handed in my notice after (checks notes) graduating from university after persuing a degree the entire time I worked there to a field I broke my ass studying for will always give me a chuckle.

@MrPeanutbutterz Hah, yes, same era here - I started as a US EB Games ASM just before the 360 launch right around the GameStop buyout, got my own store, and left about a year after PS3/Wii. Those kinds of phonecalls were daily!! Wow, it's incredible how small town Ireland and small town Arkansas people can sound equally like bumpkins, isn't it? Middle management was huge on those silly Gameplay Guarantees. Oh, reservations and subscriptions too! We'd fall all over ourselves to get $5 out of someone to reserve a game or $15 to subscribe to Game Informer. I felt slimy after work. I left when we get a new district manager that told us on a weekly conference call that trained monkeys could do our jobs better. That was a whole saga unto itself.

It's one of those jobs where you're glad you did it so you at least know what it was all about, but maybe you wish you hadn't because knowing how the sausage is made makes it less appealing. I'm glad I don't work in retail anymore; the respect that I have for those that do is boundless. I'm glad you got to leave on the note you did - getting on with your life's work, that's just the best.

@tangyzesty I can also say no matter how hard you stomp your feet, Sony, MS, Nintendo and all these billions of dollar companies wouldn't grant better digital ownership over total control where they can easily delisted digital games, movies, or music from their store and users library.

Heck, digital only owners will stomp their feet more when Sony and these billions of dollar companies gonna rise standard games price from $80 to $90, $100, $150 etc because they don't have second market who can act as a limiter to hold them down anymore. They have full control while giving customers a big giant middle finger.

So, we need physical as well better digital ownership. It's not one or the other.

Of course they're going to say that. Gotta fool the investors.

While many times they'd ask me about their merch I'd always say no. I was never interested, I paid $100+ on retro games, do I look like I care about merchanise the rest of your store offers? No. XD

But 2/3 for sure, the moment I saw them creep in more with merch and try to force it on me I just kept ignoring and only went hmm they have the modern games there, the retro ones there and that's it. I never wanted their merch, never have bought it.

Unless there is enough of worth games I don't have and care about in 2nd hand stores, EB/Gamestop aren't doing much for me really.

Casuals don't care about physical, young people 'do or don't if it's presented well by Youtubers and TikTokkers' so otherwise, what difference does it make. The rest of us grew up with the older ways of doing things and either we care, or moved to deigital and don't carea bout a license, or we do.

The rest is if people that rip/archive can get the files digitally, offer them possible in emulators, archive temp files and more from cloud, or just not bother as games will continue to suck anyway.

I mean at least with music it's in multiple places or you 'find ways to go about it' but that's only with niche music or other agreements or brand name changes. RIP some I've seen with old artist songs gone and yet I know they are available elsewhere.

While Movies, TV shows people went physical after going for the same comfort ones. Others just eat up whatever. Games are going their ways. Physical will be whatever it is, digital will be whatever it is.

Can we digitize food I can't wait for that? Sigh.

Audiences aren't intelligent enough or care enough at all. Anything is possible so anything with be possible.

I'm mostly upset over the anticompetitive aspects vs the actual discs disappearing. I actually can't remember the last disc I purchased. A good compromise would be to offer an external drive, but the greed is blinding Sony.