Physical layout: A niche market from Sunset

In a recent study conducted by Video Game History FoundationIt was proved that the physical preservation of interactive games becomes more difficult every day, concluding that only one Thirteen percent These are found around the planet.

console reverse And their respective software, more than thirty years old, has become an object of desire for collectors, while today, the market leans more towards digital distribution where intermediaries have become cheaper and, therefore, costs.

For a decade, the Digital format It showed an upward pattern, which was radically triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic at the beginning of 2020, as a result of which various traditional points decided to change their business strategy.

In the UK, retail store chains, tescojust announced that at more than 2,800 of its establishments, it will stop selling video games on disc or cartridge when they run out of stock and begin distributing only digital content cards.

This strategy is a reflection of what is happening in the European region, from the chain the game Decided to reduce inventory of video games, replacing them with toys or apparel, for better revenue as well as lower cost of sales.

monster GameStop It was also affected, as it closed 35 stores in Ireland, while in the US it restructured its product catalog and tried to stay afloat with exclusive items for pro customers, and announced it would expand its offer to buy and sell retro video games.

However, collectors do not see GameStop as a good option for material reverseSince this is a very large company and they do not meet the quality standards required to market completely legal items, in many cases the presence of reprogrammed cartridges and not their original versions has been detected.

On the other hand, for a few years now, there has been an incident related to the store independent, which is expanding to all parts of the world with significant profit margins; Against the decline of large firms in the face of digital formats.

The physical distribution Video games will not disappear, however, it has become one the niche The specific market that is far from going to specialty stores or supermarkets, because it has already shifted to the concept of the organization “boutique” or on limited-run e-commerce pages.