Tesco to drop boxed video games

Tesco to drop boxed video games

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Digital points cards will remain.


Tesco logo.
Image credit: Tesco

UK supermarket giant Tesco will end its sale of boxed video games.

That’s according to a report from GamesIndustry.biz, which states that shelf space dedicated to video games will be dropped from all of the chain’s 2800 stores.

The firm is blaming the rise of digital game sales, and will continue to stock digital points cards.

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No further stock of boxed video games will go on shop shelves once current stocks run out.

It means you won’t be able to go into Tesco later this year and buy a boxed copy of EA Sports FC 24 or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

You will, however, be able to buy store credit for PlayStation or Xbox or Nintendo Switch and then use that digital currency to buy from the PlayStation or Microsoft stores, or the eShop, direct from your console.

The shift from physical to digital sales of video games over the past decade has been hard to ignore, with other game retailers going out of business. It’s a move which has only been accelerated further by the pandemic.

UK sales figures quoted by GI.biz state that of June’s four biggest games – Diablo 4, Final Fantasy 16, Street Fighter 6 and F1 23 – less than 18 percent were sold via physical copies.

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