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Best Buy to end DVD & Blu-ray disc sales
(variety.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
DVD sure, but why Bluray? They’re actually good…
I don't think most people have a device that can play disks anymore it's kind of crazy to think about but I haven't owned something with a disk drive in several years apart from a old cd player I found in the ewaste I keep at work because I don't want to throw it away
Xbox and PlayStation can both play Bluray, so a lot of people still have the option. But who cares if most people don’t want them? Most people don’t want a Chromebook, but they carry those.
Best Buy number crunchers care. Profit is relative to floor space required.
The cheaper drive-less PS5 and Xbox Series S are the more popular models.
And people who “have the option” clearly are not buying disks like they used to. If that floor space was a cash cow, they’d keep it around. Best Buy isn’t a charity. Floor space needs to be driving sale somehow.
In the case of Chromebooks, they could be the entry level price point that inevitably upsells someone to a more capable Microsoft or Apple machine. Or hell, for all I know, that table could be a negotiated requirement from Google. Want to sell Pixel, Nest, Eero, and Chromecast product? Then you need to give us that 8x5 oak table for these shitty laptops.
Edit: also, Google could also be straight up leasing that floor space.
I know a lot of highschools use Chromebooks so that might influence it as well
This generation has diskless versions though.
Xbox Series X and PS5 both have 4K / Blu Ray / DVD capabilities.
And I own neither of these. PC all the way. Last time I had a disc drive was 2008.
If you look at the sale numbers, the overwhelming majority of people aren’t buying disks for movies and games, and when people buy consoles with optional drives, they usually end up buying the cheaper digital only version.
It’s a bummer, but the sales are what they are.