2024-02-10 04:26:00
If, like me, you attach importance to the physical format of your games, then what you are regarding to read may make you tremble a little more for the dreaded future: a completely dematerialized world.
For years, the sales strategies of certain manufacturers and publishers have been pushing more and more towards digital, even going so far as to ignore the physical format as evidenced by HI-FI Rush from Bethesda and Alan Wake 2 from Remedy. Recently, Microsoft closed the departments dedicated to the physical distribution of Xbox games. A fact which testifies to the all-digital shift desired by the initiator of Game Pass who no longer hides his desire for “all-digital”.
The Richmond firm believes a lot in the cloud to the point of concluding agreements with numerous Samsung manufacturers in order to integrate their cloud gaming solution into their televisions: a game pass subscription, a good internet connection and a compatible controller are enough to take advantage of a good part of the Xbox catalog. Bye console and shelf full of games.
In terms of figures, nothing reassuring for collectors since according to Gamesindustry.biz in 2023, the sale of boxed games represented $9.5 billion (a decrease of 3.8% compared to 2022) while the digital game market reached $174.5 billion (an increase of 0.8% in its side).
At the point of sale level, we should point out that for months the Xbox shelves in stores have been reduced to nothing. This goes even further: several big names in mass distribution have even stopped the listing of Xbox games. If Microsoft is moving forward at full speed, the other behemoths in the sector are not left behind…
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#Dematerialization #gaining #ground #Xbox #lead
