I've always heard that retailers make money from games, not consoles. But if in their eyes, this means a future with even more people buying digitally, then it's bad for business.
So, even if they were to sell the same amount of HW, if this takes-off, it could mean less money for them.

You could even see this as a move to force MS to rethink their new strategy and and also other companies to not follow suit.

It's understandable, but Central Europe isn't the biggest market for Xbox anyway.

Not much. Retailers barely make anything off of the actual consoles. And when they do special sales, they make nothing. The attraction of selling consoles is making a much larger cut off of the game and accessory sales. 

One retailer in Austria (a country they dont do that well in anyways) isnt going make MS rethink their strategy, not in the slightest. 

In fact, I think gameware should adapt with the times instead of being so stubborn and stuck in the 90's. Being like this will only make them burn down.

This isn't happening only with game stores. Many store chains are struggling and closing stores in many regions because of the impact of online stores.

Even if they are small fries, they made a statement. Who knows if someone else will follow... This could help other smaller retailers step up too.
And if they are alone in this, they're still entitled to this move.

The way i see it, it's them saying that they won't support a company that is/will hurt them.

Gotta love this. Totally understandable. MS want all the money and control for themselves. And they're willing to walk over corpses for it. Again. (Just another edition of always online DRM, just with a bit more butt kissing)


MS probably won't care though. They'll just sell those things directly bundled for 50 Dollars or so, as usual.

Very true, sadly.

Physical copies arent going away.

Used games arent going away.

The ability to outright own the game digitally isnt going away.

So how is this another edition of always online drm?

This is paticularly ironic because in game pass you can download the game online, and keep playing it even when offline. Something not possible with playstation now.

And as a business, do you do whats best for yourself and your consumers, or some other business?

By your logic, netflix was very greedy and bad, wanted all the money for themselves, and walked over corpses for it (blockbuster, etc).

This is how retail works. You have to adapt to stay alive. 

Guess retailers hate selling me consoles... I have been digital only for years... it would drive me nuts if I had to switch out games on my switch!

Thanks for the info.

To me, the way they said they dont want to business with Microsoft made them sound stuck in the 90's.

so with the merchindise and board games, it does sound like theyve planned ahead for the digital shift. Good for them.

I also heard on resetera that theyre stopping game sales too, guess that was wrong then. I also wonder what happens if sony ups the ante with ps now and tries to do something similar, will gameware shut them out to? Probably not I would guess.