Nintendo's Quiet 2024 Led To 26% Drop In Physical Game Sales (UK)

Never encouraging to hear anything like this. I don't like feeding into the "digital-only future" narrative. But it does make sense why it would be a quieter year.

I thought the Switch generation started off great, when it came to first party exclusives. But after that, it felt like it was loosing steam, with less and less new games. Way to many remasters, and Tears of the Kingdom, mostly reusing the same map, years later, was disappointing. I get the feeling that Nintendo just relaxed, while the console was printing money.
The last game that I got hooked on, was Super Mario Wonder.

I got a Switch 2 pre-ordered, but not sure if I gonna keep it, or wait a couple of months, until there is more NEW exclusives on the console. The only one I'm looking forward to, is Metroid Prime 4. Maybe Donkey Kong Bananza, but the gameplay I've seen so far, didn't really grab me, as I had hoped.
Reason why I'm only interested in exclusives, is because I play everything else on my PC and Steam Deck.

I hope Zelda gets a new reboot on Switch 2.
Something more old-school perhaps, or a smaller open-world, with real dungeons.

managing director Nick Arran stating that cheaper digital games presents a "challenge" for the company.
Isn't Game going out of business? Why would someone from there be a talking microphone for? Is he talking about Digital Shovelware games? Digital Games doesn't mean cheaper games..that's a myth-also Digital games could stay the same prices for years and that doesn't me lower prices. Physical games go down in prices because of market forces and consumer buyin.

I’d love to know how much they sold, as well as the inevitable drop off.

For me it depends on the file size and storage space. With large games of around 15 GB and up, I tend to go for the physical version. It balances things well in terms of not having too many carts to store and making my SD cards last. I may lean more towards digital with Switch 2 with more space on the console.

Please stop running articles like this without emphasizing the context that much of this a top-down result.

The game industry wants all-digital for revenue reasons, but many consumers would still love to buy physical if GIVEN THE OPTION.

If more games were offered physically, more people would buy them physically. Yes, consumers are getting more and more comfortable with trading the convenience of digital for the ownership of physical. However, a lot of people would still buy physical IF they had the option. And that's important context to knowingly exclude from all these "the numbers are down" stories.

Hardly seems newsworthy given how barren the release schedule was late last year. The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and Super Mario Party Jamboree were Nintendo's last "big" new releases.

They didn't even have a major blockbuster release for Christmas.

An all digital gaming landscape would be the sign for me to say goodbye to modern gaming. Thankfully it seems to be fine for now.

Nintendo really needs to start showing digital data in their weekly sales reports. At least for their first party AAA games

I bet there will always be an audience for physical games. But the publishers have to do it right. That means no codes in boxes, game "keys" or other crap like that.

Wow. So could it ever be noted that the fact is there are less physical games to actually buy, so therefore sales of them are down. Give people a choice, don’t force their hand and then report poor sales on the items they didn’t have adequate supplies of to actually purchase from. As such, this article is almost fake or biased “news”.

Physical games as always.
Let's get physical! Physical!
#keepplayingphysicalgames 🤟

It doesn't help that Another Code 3 was a bitch and half to even get physically

@stuie1234 My condolences

@Chocobo_Shepherd It makes for good sounds bites for Publishers whom charge same price over and over.

@stuie1234 Ye, I think the last physical game I bought was Skyrim. Thats 14 years now and I only did that because my connection was really bad at the time.

I bought 6 physical Nintendo games with the original Switch, then I found about e-shop and rebought all 6 digitally in a week. Nothing beats convenience.

@Zeebor15 : Another Code 1+2?

@SillyG Yes. It works for both definitions because only around 4 puzzles were carried over. So it's more a Star Fox 0 situation than Re-Boot Camp

Game publishers want to move to all digital for better profit margins and lack of competition through resale of used games. I would think they have researched this and have numbers showing it benefits them overall, but I can’t help wondering if it really will offset the money from collectors. Does anyone collect digital games? I highly doubt it. Digital games are never out of stock or out of print, so there isn’t any urgency to picking them up. I have MANY unopened physical games I got for good deals waiting in my backlog, but I’m not going to do that with digital games. So instead of owning hundreds of games like I do with Switch, in an all digital future I see myself owning fewer than 20. Not sure that math works well for publishers. Sales of new and used software won’t automatically become a +1 for digital. Perhaps this is part of why the industry is down overall (not the entire problem, but a part of it). Like Hollywood shooting itself in the foot and completely blowing up a working business model with streaming.

Yep not been a great start to 2025. And with the disappointment around the switch 2 pricing I feel it could be a though year.

If video games ever go all digital that’s the day I quit buying new video games

@Gorlock yeah but nothing also beats having a physical copy of whatever game it is you love

@SwitchplayerJohn No chance, Nintendo will still have a physical slot for Switch 3 cartridges, I'll bet you (come back to this comment circa 2033).

This is all a push toward the digital. I'm not a super fan, but there's only so much you can do to stem the flow of progress. They didn't push for those Express SD cards for nothing.

@Jhena when people like me say $80 is the end of my gaming days people laugh me off. We shall see how they treat your kind on your way out.

Get this guys, I’ve been hearing about this console called PC and they’re planning on going all digital. Good luck with that, I say. It’ll probably be the end of gaming.

I mean I will be going back physical if the prices are cheaper than digital. I like digital for convenience's sake. But ultimately its about how much money can I save while enjoying my hobbies.

Okay armchair accountants, get your notebooks ready!

@sixrings
Everyone has different preferences and I can understand why you feel that way. I hope everything turns out well in the end and we both can enjoy gaming for the rest of our lives.

@8bitKirby What exactly it is you do with the physical copy? I had them lying in dust in the predigital era, boxes and all the nonsense. They were kinda attractive to show off 30 years ago on a shelf though, at least some.

I have recently moved to a new house, trashed about half of my things. I really have no intention to gather junk again. And when I go on a trip, should I pack 100 physical cartridges or just pack my Switch with digital games?

I understand someone doesnt have money and needs physical game so they can resell. I can somehow understand the desire to gather boxes. But in the end its about the games themselves (I hope, otherwise it gets into whole new level of weirdness).

If Nintendo would cancel digital store and go full physical, would I quit? Nah, I would dislike I have to physically change cartridge in console everytime I want to play different game sure (it got on my nerves so much that I rather bought my initial games second time as stated previously), but I would still want my dose of Zelda BotW etc.

Market will take care of price.
I've hardly bought new games before, I'll hardly buy new games after that. Used game are the way (especially for those who buy lots of games, like me). The amount you save can be orbital on a yearly basis.

"Attributed to" means caused by whereas "contributed to" means caused. It seems these were mixed up in the second paragraph.

GameKeyCards will make sure it will be worse this year

Sigh

@Gorlock
Missing the point entirely.
Try 2MBit wifi for a week.
Good Luck downloading AnYtHing

10 years?
Where are the servers.
Thats quite the shortsightedness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdKsBOwmx_E

I do agree with "swapping games sucks" notion tho.
I buy games I know for sure I'll play alot twice (digital&physical) cause I hate cart swapping)

@Gorlock I just enjoy having the physical product to hold my hands and it actually feels like I own the game plus I feel like I’m wasting money if I buy games digitally. And you not wanting to have to get up to change your games just shows that you’re lazy and that’s what’s wrong with people nowadays they just want convenience over things that actually make sense

GAME managing director should ask himself why on release day of The Legend of Zelda Echoes of Wisdom his store had zero physical copies and didn’t know or cared it had dropped when I tried to buy a copy in store. Maybe that’s why ‘the last bastion’ is shutting its doors. Sad for the employees and for gamers.

@Alcea

In 10 years I might be dead, either way I dont remember when I last played 10 years old game. Maybe DA:O. Maybe it was 10 by my last farewell playthrough.

No Starlink in your location? Works wonders where I live, there is no decent connection otherwise. Can surely recommend.

@Gorlock
I don't think so.
My WiiU games still work fine tho 🙃

@Alcea

It’s really a matter of perspective. Like in my current move to a new house, I have trashed all of my original CDs, DVDs and Blu-ray’s. Heck, I have trashed half of my books and paintings.

Gaming is a big hobby of mine but if I lost access to my Steam library today (which is far larger than my Nintendo library), I would shrug and rebuy the 6 games I currently play elsewhere. It’s not like i worship my library.

Either way have a good and productive week.