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Best Buy is Exiting the Physical Media Business in 2024 (Online and In-Store)

jshackles

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
thedigitalbits.com

BREAKING/EXCLUSIVE on The Bits: Best Buy is exiting the physical media business for good in 2024 [UPDATED]

BREAKING/EXCLUSIVE on The Digital Bits: Best Buy is exiting the physical media business for good in 2024
thedigitalbits.com thedigitalbits.com

The Digital Bits has learned from industry sources—and we’ve confirmed it with multiple sources now—that Best Buy plans to exit the physical media business for good next year, possibly as soon as the end of Q1 2024.

This includes not just their in-store Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K Ultra HD sales, which the retailer has been gradually phasing out for a couple of years now in their many store locations nationwide, but online sales as well. This means no more Best Buy-exclusive Steelbook titles, and no more titles from Best Buy period.
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JPSLotus97T

JPSLotus97T

Member
Sad times for Best Buy. I have no reason to shop there anymore after this.

It sucks because I have fond memories 20-25 years ago of going there every Tuesday, to see what the new release DVD's were and then buying a few. Sign of the times I guess.
 
Magic Carpet

Magic Carpet

Member
I was in there buying Quest 3 assessories lately and all over the store are items that REQUIRE some service that you have to sign up for and have internet access for it to work.
doorbells, locks, thermostats, speakers, cameras, all needing services.
 
Deerock71

Deerock71

Member
RoboFu said:
yup it’s inevitable, first physical games go away.. then consoles themselves.
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Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom GIF by Indiana Jones
 
LordBlodgett

LordBlodgett

Member
This is inevitable. Almost everyone in western countries under 30 is used to streaming or digital as their main form of media consumption. Not to mention all the older gamers who have gotten used to the convenience of digital like me. First thing to go was CDs, then DVDs, then Blu-rays, and finally video games. We do not need physical media anymore in the west, there just aren't enough benefits. Now for parts of the world where internet sucks physical media will continue to be a thing. Only thing I've used Best Buy for in the last 5 years or so is for looking at TV's or appliances before purchasing. Even that is becoming less and less important as we have more and more high quality online video reviews.
 
Dacvak

Dacvak

No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
Best Buy will eventually go the route of Toys R Us and Circuit City, as will a lot of the remaining retailers. It’s sad, but I buy 95% of my stuff online, so it’s not like I’m helping.
 
Erkuza

Erkuza

Banned
Stores always made really low profits if at all on video games sales. The only reason stores like Best buy sold them was to get people into their stores so they buy other stuff while shopping. Now that less and less people are buying physical I think bestbuy doesn't think it's worth the floor space anymore.
 
AREYOUOKAY?

AREYOUOKAY?

Member
They must really want to go out of business. Fuck this. It’s going to be even more impossible to find copies of games that don’t look like shit since GameStop is full of incompetent minimum wage idiots that open up new copies and sell you something that looks like it belongs in the trash.

Online buying? Good luck and pray that your game arrives safely since your postal workers are also idiotic low paid morons that don’t care how your stuff arrives.
 
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G

GloveSlap

Member
Terrible. Best Buy was one of the last stores pushing 4k bluray sales on black friday. Amazon typically just matches other store sales.

I know some stores wanted to switch to a consignment system on media, but studios/etc. refused. They might have better off taking that deal.
 
Hustler

Hustler

Member
That sucks, I still earn a fair amount of reward points by occasionally buying physical media from them with my Best Buy credit card. I may have to just switch over to exclusively PSN now.
 
Sethbacca

Sethbacca

Member
Yet another nail in the coffin of physical releases. Looks like a precursor to an all digital next gen. Ugh....
 
Fbh

Fbh

Member
The article doesn't make it clear if they'll be dropping videogames too (which I imagine sell exponentially more than DVD's and Blu Rays). Hopefully at least those stick around, more options to buy is always better and though I'm not from the USA I always thought Best Buy had decent gaming deals
 
Naked Lunch

Naked Lunch

Member
I still buy the odds and ends blurays thru Best Buy.
The final Evangelion movie and Terrence Malicks' A Hidden Life for example.
Im not jumping thru the hoops of shifting streaming services to watch my favorite movies. Its on one one day and gone the next.

Its been free shipping for any dollar amount for a while now thru Best Buy.
Ill miss it greatly for that aspect.

Like someone said - its the way of Circuit City for BB - and physical media in general.
Im not seeing the vinyl resurgence equivalent anytime soon, if ever again.

For gaming in general, I went digital a long time ago for modern stuff. All the modern day patching makes most physical games useless anyways.
 
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digoutyoursoul

digoutyoursoul

Member
March Climber said:
The same thing that happened to VHS. Keeping it around is a loss of money and dead weight. The good news here is that the smaller businesses out there will now see a small bump in profit for the enthusiasts who still like physical media.
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VHS is another form of physical media dude. The situation here is that any physical media will not be available to purchase .
 
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demigod

demigod

Member
Fuck Best Buy. I was still shopping there until I found out that they changed their points system this year. You can only get points now if you use their credit card.
 
MiguelItUp

MiguelItUp

Member
Dream-Knife said:
Best buy has been bad for gamers since they got rid of that membership that made all games $47.
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Yeah, honestly, I know a lot of people buy physical there in some areas, but I personally know tons of people that stopped buying there once they stopped. Now they all just order online or go to Gamestop. So, not much is going to change.

"Writing on the wall" yadda yadda yadda, physical media still sells and it's been shown to. There's no reason it can't continue to coexist, I'll never understand why people are so adamant to do away with it, especially for consoles.
 
Doom85

Doom85

Member
LordBlodgett said:
We do not need physical media anymore in the west, there just aren't enough benefits.
Click to expand...

Permanent ownership is kind of a nice thing to have, given by now we know streaming services are not guaranteed to keep all their series, games can be permanently delisted, etc. Nobody “needs” physical media (ignoring the fact digital isn’t “needed” either, it’s not air or water or something like that ), but let’s not pretend this is something that should be celebrated.
 
Represent.

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
LordBlodgett

LordBlodgett

Member
Cyberpunkd said:
I don't understand this, the traffic this brings must be insane.
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I mean I have seen some really good deals on the Best Buy steelbooks, like $5 for Cyberpunk 2077 almost made me bite if it hadn't also been on a massive sale digitally. I think that those big deals are symptomatic of the fact that they are selling less than they expect.
 
March Climber

March Climber

Member
digoutyoursoul said:
VHS is another form of physical media dude. The situation here is that any physical media will not be available to purchase .
Click to expand...
You're focusing on the wrong thing here.

VHS became dead weight when DVD sales went up.
DVDs became dead weight when Blu Ray sales went up.
Blu Ray is becoming dead weight because digital sales are going up.

It is dead weight for places like Best Buy, Walmart, and Target.
 
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