Best Buy, one of the United States' more prominent technology retail chains, has announced that it will cease sales of Blu-rays and DVDs in 2024. Not only that, it will stop selling physical releases of video games too, merely days after Sony announced its new PS5 with a detachable disc drive.
The death of physical media has been weighing heavy on our minds for some time now, with a dwindling supply of 4K Blu-ray players on the market and Disney already announcing that it will no longer sell physical discs in Australia signalling the end times. However, this might be yet another nail in the coffin for one of the biggest markets in the world.
The report suggests that Best Buy will end physical media sales by the first quarter of 2024. It's also worth noting that the report seems to infer that this will apply to physical brick-and-mortar shops and its online store.
The blame seems to lie on the increase in digital film and game sales, as well as the influx of video game streaming services. Film and television streaming services, such as Netflix and Disney Plus, and physical media formats have lived (mostly) in harmony, although the former has been a clear contributing factor in the latter's slow demise.
While it is worth taking this report with a pinch of salt, as Best Buy has neither confirmed nor denied these claims as of yet, we wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be true.
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