As you might know already, Microsoft announced blockbuster news that all of its future first party video games will be available day one on its own Xbox Game Pass service. Well this is good news for gamers, an Austrian retailer is not liking the shift to an all digital future.
As noted by a user on the ResetEra forums, the website GamesMarkt says that Austrian retailer Gameware is livid with the new announcement regarding Xbox Game Pass. With Microsoft providing its first party games on Game Pass for a small price, this will entice less people to buy the physical copy of video games.
As a result of this, Gameware is going to stop selling all Xbox One consoles and has no plans to sell future Microsoft consoles either. They feel this new move gives them no profit of their own and it just costs more money for them to stock Xbox consoles.
The retailer feels Microsoft is doing business on its own, so Gameware says that they deserve to work alone too. Gameware is a pretty famous and established retailer in Austria being in operation since 1989 and serving thousands of customers over the decades.
At this moment, it does not seem like other retailers have been following suit so far. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future when more people embrace digital gaming. That said, physical media might still exist since CDs, Vinyl Records and DVDs still get sold. I feel it’s better to give customers options as physical media is cool mainly because you can lend or sell old games you no longer want. You cannot really sell off digital games for newer games yet…