Xbox has made it clear that its future is digital. Not only do they have a console focused entirely on this section, but a few days ago it was announced that their department focused on the production of physical games closed its doors after a series of layoffs. Now, It was recently revealed that multiple stores in Europe have stopped selling physical games of Xbox.
According to information from Christopher Dring, director of GamesIndustry.biz, Multiple stores across Europe will stop selling physical games. Dring pointed out that in December 2023, these stores told him that they were already planning to restock the Xbox producer, making it clear that they only plan to sell everything they have left in the warehouse. This is what was said about it:
“A major publisher told me just before Christmas that across Europe, several retailers have started not carrying Xbox anymore.
So they just started not selling Xbox games anymore, Xbox is a digital console, the physical performance of the games is really low and ultimately when you sell a console that most people just download games for, It is not like this. It doesn't really benefit the retailer much.
The margin in hardware is usually quite small. “I couldn't corroborate that, I couldn't find which retailer it was, but it was a high-level European editorial chief who told me.”
This should not come as a surprise, it has long been made clear that Xbox is going for a completely digital ecosystem. Not only is the closure of the physical games division an example of this, but Last year, a document was leaked mentioning that a completely digital Xbox Series X is already in production.which would hit the market in November of this year.
This all has to do with the direction the company is taking. By focusing on Game Pass, it is clear that Xbox is focused on growing its digital platform, and that means taking it everywhere possible. Thus, For them it is better that millions of users pay a monthly subscription to have access to all their digital gameswhich are also available on PC and cloud-enabled devices, rather than paying for a disc that you can only use on an Xbox Series X.
However, It is undeniable that this can also somewhat affect your presence in the market., since there are many, especially causal players, who are guided by what they see in a store, and not by a digital ecosystem. On related topics, Xbox reports high growth after last week's layoffs. Likewise, Xbox will help with the development of Palworld.
Editor's Note:
This is a real shame. It's one thing to give greater focus to the digital ecosystem, and another to completely eliminate support for physical games. Beyond economic decisions, this is a problem for the preservation of video games, since titles like Hi-Fi Rush will eventually disappear, and there is nothing, legally, we can do about it.
Via: GamesIndustry.biz
#Multiple #stores #stop #selling #Xbox #games #Atomix
