A new memo has been sent to Gamestop that states it will no longer be selling digital games at retail outlets. Yes all retail stores will lose the ability to sell any form of digital PS4 games making beginning April 1 making PSN the soon to be only option for all digital game purchases. Mortal Kombat 11 and Days Gone will still be offered digitally at retail for the first week after their respective launches for anyone who might be worried about their pre-orders. Now many may wonder why would anyone buy digital games at retailers anyway?
From my experiences working at Gamestop in the past there are still plenty of people who either don’t have a credit or debit card that can work with an online store or are too young to have one. There are also those who will never trust putting their info into the console in the first place. Many people would also use these digital cards to gift games as the PlayStation Store still doesn’t feature a way to gift games. PlayStation Network gift cards and DLC content will still be available to purchase however making this move less of a hit to those who fit the aforementioned criteria.
Overall this move makes sense and not a lot of sense at the same time. On one hand it saves Sony some production costs of having to make retail cardboard cards for people to purchase thus saving money. On the other it might potentially lose them a sale they might have had otherwise. Also what about still offering codes that are simply printed on receipts instead of those cardboard cards? For me the greatest loss here is just the option of choice.
Share your thoughts on this situation down in the comments below!
The breaking of this new comes courtesy of Wario64