Report: Walmart to dispose of physical copies of Starfield at behest of Microsoft, Bethesda

Walmart has reportedly been ordered by game suppliers to dispose of and/or destroy all physical disc copies of Starfield.

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Starfield will reportedly be the initial first-party Xbox game to be removed from sale at retailers. According to a new employee memo, Walmart will begin taking down physical disc-based versions of Starfield from store shelves and removing the products from sale. The mass de-listing is reportedly at the behest of the game's suppliers, which in this case is Microsoft and/or Bethesda Softworks/ZeniMax Media.

The memo, which has been corroborated by deals maestro Wario64, says that the retailer aims to have all copies of Starfield removed from store shelves and processed by February 5.

The writing has apparently been on the wall for physical media for a while now. Previous reports said that retailer Walmart would stop selling physical Xbox games, possibly because the games didn't sell very much or because Microsoft wants to help further an all-digital future for its Xbox games division.

Retailer Best Buy has also removed all physical DVDs and Blu-rays from its store shelves. Stores like Target have also reportedly reduced the size of its in-store Xbox stands.

Below is a copy of the memo that's been circulating:

Remove and Discard Starfield Xbox Video Game

On Monday, Jan. 22, the Xbox Series X "Starfield" video game will be marked down to 3 cents to prepare for its disposal at store level. Thank you for helping process this item off our shelves!

• Product must be gathered and processed through Claims by Monday, Feb. 5.
• A point-of-sale (POS) block will go into effect Monday, Jan. 22.
• The supplier is funding this action. Stores will not be charged for the pulled merchandise if processed by Feb. 5.

On Monday, Jan. 22:

Accept the markdown to 3 cents in the Me@Walmart app > Availability > Price changes.

• Use the Xbox Starfield On-hands Lookup Tool to see how many units you have in store
• Locate and remove inventory from the salesfloor and backroom.