Bethesda Softwork’s Starfield has not had a great time since its release on September 6^th of last year. Receiving mostly negative reviews on Steam as well as other platforms, the game was poorly received by fans of Bethesda, as well as RPGs in general. Many decry it as wasted potential, suffering from Bethesda’s usual fanfare of release version bugs, feeling rushed and unfinished, as well as just being a victim of the hype culture surrounding big AAA video games in general, especially from such a big studio that many people have championed for their entire lives. But to be pulled from the shelves of retailers like Wal-Mart is an entirely new situation.

[RUMOUR/LEAK?]

Walmart to start removing physical Xbox games in store starting with Starfield. Copies are either going to be 0.03 cents or be destroyed. pic.twitter.com/I74OB0YKCl

— Andrew Marmo (@the_marmolade) January 19, 2024

As stated in the quoted post, this is merely a rumor, but the fact that many find it so plausible speaks volumes to how public perception of Starfield is. If this rumor does hold water, however, that’s incredibly sad news, though not for the reasons you may think. Being sold for 3 cents is, admittedly, hilarious but this is in service of emptying Wal-Mart shelves of physical media. Physical media has been under an attack of sorts in the past few years, with actual disks becoming seen as archaic more and more as the years go by. While now it’s fun to point and laugh at the game that failed to meet expectations being liquidated for 3 cents a pop this could just be the first step in taking physical disks off shelves in the future and shouldn’t be celebrated.

I saw this memo earlier as well (not through these same exact screenshots) – Walmart will prep to remove Starfield Xbox physical copies from their stores but you could get very lucky and get it for 3 cents on Monday (the memo says the system will block the purchase) https://t.co/LUBIq0sbaq

— Wario64 (@Wario64) January 19, 2024

Again, this is all just a rumor. These screenshots have seen some corroboration from credible sources like Wario64 on Twitter but there’s nothing concrete. This could all be an attempt at a sensational headline to stir the news pot, but the fact that its plausible is concerning both for Bethesda’s perception of how their product is received on the market, as well as for the future of physical gaming.