Amazon destroys hundreds of sealed PS5 discs because nobody is buying them

Modern retail never stops finding ways to surprise people. Destroying a brand new product often turns out cheaper than selling it for pennies or giving it away.

Things get weird when it's not expired yogurt going under the press, but shrink-wrapped copies of Alan Wake II and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II.

An Amazon warehouse worker posted a photo on Reddit showing a yellow bin stuffed with blue PS5 game cases. According to the post, around 450 different discs were sent off for destruction, with roughly 80% of them being music albums.

Among the visible covers are Goat Simulator 3, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, several copies of Five Nights at Freddy's, and Alan Wake II. Many of the cases are still sealed in factory plastic, and staff were naturally never given a reason for the decision.

The logic behind this is purely accounting. Warehouse space costs money, and nobody keeps slow-moving stock around longer than it's profitable. Disposal can be written off, while selling items for next to nothing risks upsetting suppliers who guard their pricing and brand image.

Giving the products to employees isn't an option either. Handing out free items counts as a gift with tax implications, and taking something without permission is treated as theft, even if it's about to be shredded anyway. Based on the worker's account, the warehouse itself doesn't destroy anything, it just compiles a list and ships the bins to another facility.

This isn't an isolated incident. Back in 2021, British broadcaster ITV found that a single Amazon warehouse in Dunfermline, Scotland, was writing off more than 130,000 items for destruction every week, everything from laptops to TVs.

Governments are starting to crack down on the practice. France banned the destruction of unsold non-food goods back in 2022. Starting in July 2026, the EU will prohibit large companies from destroying unsold clothing and footwear.

The picture is simple: disc sales keep falling, gamers increasingly buy digital, and leftover stock at retailers turns into dead weight. Commenters recalled that back in the early 2000s, GameStop destroyed unsold used SNES and N64 cartridges when it phased out retro sales.