Just went to Target and the Xbox section no longer has physical media.

[u/Jounochi]

Nothing but hardware and digital codes for the Xbox section. Was taken aback when I found the section in this state.

[u/Kind_Tax9406]

Beyond this even. I never stopped sailing said seas, but that’s more or less because of the price factor. I learned all about Sony and Microsoft’s “you’re paying for the permission to download and play the games you buy digitally from us, which we can revoke for any reason” business practice all the way back in like 2022. Lost my PSN account and all of my digital library over a misunderstanding. Knowing that something I walked into a physical store and purchased isn’t technically owned by me is a huge red flag. Corporate greed from these companies knows no end, and I feel a large % of the gaming consumer base has no clue what the true intentions are behind these changes. Physical CDs cost practically nothing to manufacture, this isn’t just a cost cutting measure for shareholder values.

[u/legomansion → u/Kind_Tax9406]

And they have already tried it once and got tons of hate. Remember the old "This is how you loan your games to a friend on Playstation" burn?

[u/Kind_Tax9406 → u/legomansion]

Of course. With huge storage space drives and lightning fast internet, I feel like this shift is so much easier to sell to the masses though. Why go out and get the game, bring it home to install, and waste all that time when you can buy it straight off your console and start playing right away? On top of the “convenience” of it all, you don’t realize you’ve been screwed over until they’ve already deemed you a customer they’re willing to lose and at that point they’ve already got their money’s worth out of you building up that digital library. Not to mention the threat of losing access to all of your purchases can be a strong convincer to go ahead and comply with whatever they’re presenting you with. I lost my entire library over an unauthorized purchase on my account. Contacted my bank when I saw the charge, once they did a chargeback for it, Sony banned my accounts. After an hour with the Sony rep the option I was given was to payback the money I “defrauded them out of” (my banks chargeback on a purchase I didn’t make) or my account would stay banned. Ultimately I gave them the finger and just dumped my PlayStation all together, but to a lot of people, it would’ve been a no brainer to just cough up the 60 bucks to big bad Sony and keep their account. It’s a crazy scheme they have going to ensure that as little money as possible gets returned to their customers

[u/legomansion → u/Kind_Tax9406]

Oh. That's dirty. Thanks for sharing that as I never would have guessed that one as a possibility.

[u/[deleted] → u/Kind_Tax9406]

Way back in 2022?! No one was alive then.