Will Xbox games disappear from physical stores soon?

The debate about physical and digital ownership has been going on for quite some time, along with the concept of ownership. Is a digital copy of a game really ownership? Is the physical copy of the game ownership? It is true that we have a CD in our hands where the game files are located, but even these games rely on servers that the developer can shut down at any time, which we have experienced in the past.

We totally understand the appeal of physical copies of games, having grown up in an era where that was the only format we knew. There is also no better sight than when you look in the closet or on the shelves and see all the games you have ever bought and played. Of course, then you touch your wallet and shed a tear for all the wasted money, but you tell yourself that it was worth every cent.

Physical games, however, could be gone very soon, at least for Xbox consoles.

During a conversation between James Batchelor, CEO of GamesIndustry.biz, and Chris Dring, the site's head of gaming, on the Games Industry Microcast on January 30, Dring was asked what he thought about Microsoft's latest wave of layoffs. Among the nearly 2,000 workers the company has laid off are reportedly people responsible for distributing Xbox games to physical retailers. Dring weighed in on the dilemma, saying that "many retailers" simply aren't selling Xbox consoles anymore.

“Just before Christmas, a major publisher told me that several retailers in Europe had stopped selling physical Xbox games,” Dring said. “They simply stopped selling Xbox games because Xbox is now mostly a digital console, so physical Xbox game sales are very low, and ultimately when you sell a console that most people just download games for, it doesn’t make much profit for the retailer. The margin on hardware is often very small.”

“I couldn’t confirm that,” Dring continued. “I couldn’t find out who these retailers were, but I was told this by one of the well-known European publishing bosses. So I’m taking his word for it: Xbox (Microsoft) is moving away from physical sales.”

Does the same fate await Sony or PlayStation games? For now, Sony's games look better. The Spider-Man franchise has seen most of its sales at retail, meaning that for now at least, Sony will stick with physical copies of the games.