Walmart is reportedly getting rid of its copies of Starfield, a potential omen for physical game sales

Physical games really do seem to be on the way out, as it appears that Walmart is currently preparing to get rid of all its copies of Starfield.

Last year, Best Buy announced that it would no longer be stocking physical media, both in-store and online, meaning there’s one less store you can buy your games from. Now, it appears that Walmart might be following suit, at least with video games. Earlier this week, some screenshots appeared online of a notice instructing Walmart employees to get rid of any copies of Starfield it has in-store, though it wasn’t particularly clear why. Later on, over on Resetera, a user named Rychu shared that they work at Walmart, and that the screenshots in question came from the Me@Walmart app, which is an app specifically for Walmart employees that allow them to clock in, price check items, find where certain items are, alongside other functions.

Rychu later confirmed that the notice to get rid of copies of Starfield, apparently by selling them at $0.03, was real in fact, though it doesn’t seem like you’ll actually be able to buy them at that price, as the purchase will be blocked. While it could obviously be just that Walmart wants to get rid of its Starfield stock (after all, a lot of players are presumably either playing on PC, through Game Pass, or via digital download), buy Rychu also noted that higher ups at Walmart have been discussing scrapping physical game sales for a while.

“Corporate at Walmart has been discussing getting rid of physical games for at least the past year,” Rychu shared. “This specific claims notice is related to Starfield but that doesn’t mean it won’t expand to other things eventually. This is only the beginning.” It wouldn’t be much of a surprise, given the rise in digital sales in recent years. Plus, big games like Alan Wake 2 got a digital-only release, and Hellblade 2 will be the same.

Of course, all of this is just a rumour, so take it with a proverbial pinch of salt, but do prepare for your games shelf to not grow any more in the coming years.