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Best Buy Announces End of Blu-ray Disc, DVD Sales

It's kind of amazing to me that DVD held on for as long as it has. HD and UHD didn't completely phase it out like I would have thought.

Outside of game stuff and TVs/phones/laptops, I'm not sure what people actually get at Best Buy anymore. At this point almost half of their stores are full of a random tech hodgepodge that I'm convinced has all sat there unsold since it was stocked.

although I was a bit surprised to find that the Puss in Boots: The Last Wish Blu-Ray also came with a DVD since I thought most studios phased out combo packs in the mid-2010s

Thespacemaster wrote:

Say what you want, but having everything digital only can only be benefical in the short term, eventually when the companies/streamers either go bankrupt, lose streaming license or lose original data, they will get lose and overall no way to preserve them, or you might even lose the original vers and stuck with the edited vers, case in point of the star wars old movies.

This is only true if you're not counting unofficial methods for some reason. It's pretty much impossible to have lost media in this day and age. You can watch the original "banned" episode 1 of Osomatsu-san right now if you want, despite it being pulled from every streaming service and never being released on home video in either Japan or overseas. Once something is put out there it's out there forever in this day and age.

If I have to say: the news of streaming providers increasing the price, and removing their "original" films & TV series/miniseries from their catalog may cause people even those that love streaming to seek out physical media. I mean I have some films and TV shows that I liked/loved on Netflix, Disney+, and HBO Max but a lot of them don't have Blu-ray/DVDs thus leaving them unavailable and almost become borderline lost media, how can I re-watch them if they're not available on streaming, and not even available on physical media like Blu-ray?

This is why I predict physical media may see a comeback in the near future!!!

Yet there are also signs of hope. A significant strategic shift by major streamers, paired with the current state of play in the music industry, offers a potential way forward for physical media.

When Netflix launched its streaming business, you could find everything you wanted, from every era of film and TV, available at all times. Everyone else followed that strategy — but now things are changing again.

Warner Bros. Discovery last year began a content purge of its streaming service HBO Max (now just Max), removing thousands of hours of programming. Disney+, Hulu and Paramount+ followed suit, canceling shows and culling old titles. As the cost of content will continue to rise in a post-strike world, even Netflix or Amazon might be tempted to remove titles to save a few bucks.

That strategy shift, as jarring as it is to some creators and consumers, reinforces the value of physical media. It’s a similar state of play with digital downloads, which you might “buy” from Amazon or iTunes, but can be removed from your library at any time. Studios could pull Westworld and Good Burger from Max — but not from your bookshelf.

With titles disappearing from streaming services at a rapid clip, it might be worth opening that DVD or Blu-ray distribution window one more time: Buy it now, before it leaves your subscriptions and doesn’t come back.

Streaming services are being strategic about what sticks around and what leaves their platforms. Major hits such as Max’s “Peacemaker” or Disney’s “The Mandalorian” are unlikely to be pulled from their respective apps.

Meanwhile, underperforming shows and films could be on the chopping block.

“My main takeaway is that nothing is guaranteed to remain on streaming forever. You are paying for a convenient way to watch content, but it is not a replacement for buying a movie or TV show on home video,” Cartelli said.