EA to Stop Selling Physical Games Entirely In Some Parts of Europe

ign.com:

EA games including FIFA, Battlefield and more will no longer be sold physically in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Scandinavia.

Industry analyst MauroNL shared a report from Games Wirtschaft on Twitter (below), which states that the German-based Electronic Arts GmbH will no longer sell physical copies of its games in these countries, leaving digital downloads as the only option.

"The ongoing shift from physical goods to digital downloads continues to have a negative impact on sales development," EA Germany's latest annual report reads. "Revenue from digital downloads is not processed through EA, but through an affiliate."

We've contacted EA to see if this policy may roll out more widely.

Electronic Arts GmbH, located in Rheinauhafen in Germany, has announced it will no longer sell physical copies of its games across the supply area in Germany, Austria, Switzerland & Scandinavia.Games like FIFA & Battlefield can only be bought digitally.https://t.co/y6bEbvHTbz

EA will "no longer generate any sales from packaged goods" as a result, and the publisher restructured its German business and scrapped local contracts to match the new business plan.

Buying games digitally has slowly but surely become the norm for a lot of players, especially since the launch of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Street Fighter and Resident Evil publisher Capcom said back in 2020 that 80% of its sales were digital, while later that year Cyberpunk 2077 reportedly saw the biggest digital launch of all time.

Industry analyst Dr. Serkan Toto also told IGN in 2021 that "COVID-19 has of course been a strong accelerant for that trend, as some physical locations were simply forced to shut down or people generally were not eager to go out anymore."

GameStop is one