Update: EA has made a statement rejecting reports that it will stop selling physical games in some parts of Europe, and that things will continue that way.
Business will continue as normal.
“We have not stopped the physical distribution of our games in Germany, Austria or Switzerland, and players will continue to purchase our games from retailers in the region,” a company spokesperson said. “Recent reports to the contrary are a false reflection of statements made in EA Germany's statutory financial statements.”
Big change for the physical game market. fifa, battle field and more, EA, EA play, EA games, EA Sports games will no longer be physically sold in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Scandinavia.
industry analyst MauroNL. Games Wirtschaft shared a report on Twitter (below) stating that Germany-based Electronic Arts GmbH will no longer sell physical copies of its games in these countries, leaving digital downloads as the only option.
“The continued shift from physical products to digital downloads continues to have a negative impact on the sales market,” EA Germany's latest annual report states. “Revenue from digital downloads is processed through an affiliate, not EA.”
IGN contacted EA to see if this policy could be implemented more broadly.
As a result, EA "will no longer sell any packaged physical products". It restructured the German market. Shelved local contracts to match the new business plan.
Buying games digitally
It has slowly but surely become the norm for many gamers, especially since the release of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Street Fighter and Resident Evil publisher Capcom said 2020% of its sales in 80 were digital. He reported that year saw the biggest digital launch of Cyberpunk 2077 of all time.
Industry analyst Dr. Serkan Toto also says in 2021. “COVID-19 has forced some physical locations to simply close. “Since people are no longer willing to go out, it has of course been a strong accelerator for this trend.”
After several years of grappling with the physical playground, GameStop and the company NFT market He is one of the victims of this after encouraging him to start new ventures such as
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