As part of the transition between bricks and mortar retail and online stores, we've seen High Street retailers stock and sell digital codes for games on a variety of platforms. That practice may well be coming to end, however, as it looks like Sony is about to stop retailers around the world from selling digital codes for their games.
According to a GameStop memo (as shared by Wario64 on Twitter), Sony is withdrawing digital game codes from sale and from now on all digital sales will be handled online via Sony's own PlayStation Store. The note mentions that this change only affects Sony and notes that codes distributed by Microsoft, Nintendo, and PC (Steam, basically) will remain unaffected by the change.
Apparently, the move will come into effect on April 1, and the note says it will affect retailers worldwide, not just GameStop.
We've reached out to Sony and will update you, dear readers, with anything we hear back.