Xbox and its Game Pass initiative have quite a digital focus these days, especially when you factor in the all-digital Xbox Series S console this generation. However, today's new report from Eurogamer is interesting nonetheless - apparently, retailer GAME will stop accepting physical game trade-ins as soon as February 2024, including Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S titles.
For those who don't know, GAME is a UK video game retailer and has been around for decades - they're basically the region's Gamestop equivalent. Aside from CEX, which is a media retailer that deals purely in second-hand goods, GAME is just about the only high street chain store you can buy video games from in the UK. If this report is true, GAME stores may only stock new titles very soon.
This is quite a big move and marks a huge change for how the retailer functions on the UK high street. At the moment, most standalone GAME stores are packed with used video games, although the retailer has pivoted to focus more on toys and merchandise in recent years.
For us this isn't a huge deal — we usually buy digital or find our disc-based games online these days — but it marks yet another move towards a digital-focused future. We'll keep our eyes peeled on whether this actually happens next month (and maybe go bargain hunting in the meantime), but according to the report, February 16th is the big day when GAME stops accepting trade-ins here in the UK.