Civil Discussion: Will Physical Media die?

[scarmullet]

Streaming and cloud storage is growing pretty fast in userbase, DVD is shrinking and Blu-ray is at a standstill. Could Netflix replace home media entirely?

I say, physical media will exist along side Streaming, formats for videophiles, much like Laserdisc was while netflix becomes the home standard due to the ease of use, as Netflix, though runs at 1080p, it is a lossy format...meaning its compressed. The BD standard now supports 200gb Discs, so lossless video may be possible in the near future...or even 3D at full HD. Due to the compression, it does not look as good, but the average user will not notice a difference (how many average users even have a calibrated TV?)

Wii/Wii U's virtual console, as well as Steam shows that digital distribution can work for gaming as well. I don't know how many games I have bought in the past couple of years that did not have a disc, they had a PSN download code, or a steam code. (Resident Evil 6 Anthology is one example).

Lets keep this civil.

[wiggy]

It most likely will, but not for a while.  The infrastructure in the US isn't such that ANY company can afford to go completely vapor at this point.  They'd lose a huge chunk of their potential customer base right off the bat because of crappy, capped-to-death internet connections.

[larryinc64]

BLARG YOOO STUPID PHIZICAL MEDERA IS DUMB AND YOU ARES TOO GDFSGDSGDSAGSHSHADHSDFHSHFSHGHS.

But In all seriousness,

The Beatles just released there entire studio album discography in Vinyl. Other bands are still releasing/ reissuing albums on vinyl wich just goes to show some formats never die.

I don't think physical media will ever go away, I personally don't know many people who mainly buy digital games and DVDs. People use Netflix when they just want to see a movie once, but I think when people want to buy and own a movie, they get it on DVD.

Music CDs have died down, mostly because people ust put it on a MP3 player or just load it on the computer and never touch the CD after you buy it. But some people still buy CDs.

Most people I know who play games on a TV system, even casually and only play COD and Madden, still get the disc. I think it might be that I'm in high school and most people don't have credit cards to buy things off line. Digital gaming is a big road block to anyone under 18 or so, and they are a large part of the customers who buy games.

The few games I bought on line were a pain. I had to get my mom or my sister to go and do it, and they are eater busy or just not in the mood, convince them that the site is not going to steel their info, and with systems you have to teach them how to use it, I think my mom would get frustrated and give up if she had to operate a Wii. She can barely operate the DVD player on a Xbox 360 with the controller. With systems you do have point cards, which help, but you need a store to get them, but you are in a store already so you could just buy the game there, unless its online only.

Also I think it would annoy retailers if the game company stopped selling physical games. They may not Cary the system.

Edit: @ Wiggy, and we could still loose the connection, If all my games required internet then the week and a half when Sandy knocked out my internet would have been very boring.

I also think many people won't spend $60 on something that does not exist. $1 for a song or $5 for a movie is OK, its not a lot of money, but 1/3 of your paycheck may make you reconsider, especially if you can not return/ sell it.

[wiggy]

Edit: @ Wiggy, and we could still loose the connection, If all my games required internet then the week and a half when Sandy knocked out my internet would have been very boring.

Not sure what you're addressing regarding my post?  I was just saying that our internet speeds and caps aren't fast and high enough for download ONLY to be a reality anytime in the near future.

If console games start requiring a connection to play, then consider me out.  I don't play that way.

[segamer]

Physical Media will die but not for another 20 years. Currently, about 60% of all PS3 and Xbox users are online with their systems. Just because people are online doesn't mean they are buying games. There's nothing to worry about right now.

[larryinc64]

I was adding to your point, Wiggy, regarding internet.

I don't see it ever dying, at least for systems. With Steam, PC gamers seem to buy online more than physical. But only because they are so cheep.
Most people use the internet on their systems for online play and Netflix and whatnot.

[wiggy]

Gotcha

[JDavis]

Also, as someone who lives in Oklahoma, I can confirm there's still plenty of people in this country who are either still stuck on dial-up or who don't even have internet and/or a computer.

[sheep2001]

It's all about the infrastructure, and unless the games/music/movie companies start investing in the infrastructure required to reliably stream, serve, and provide cloud storage to upwards of 90% of the population in the modern world (not just urban areas/big cities), it won't happen.

On top of that, there needs to be a huge rethink from the service providers about removing download caps. 

And lastly - there's the piracy.  You take away the physical media from the millions of people out there who want a tangible product, and what do you give them in exchange for paying for a download vs a dodgy download.  A gold star and a guaranteed place in heaven isn't going to cut it for most people.

I do think some companies are going to go for it sooner than others (i'm placing a bet on Sony Entertainment,  they are already cutting down on what you get in a box with tangible media for alot of games...ie:no physical instruction manual), but i feel certain it will come back and bite them in the ass.  The others will sit back and see what happens, and hopefully learn from those mistakes.

[Forte]

Physical Media will always exist in our lifetimes; seeing as how old folks still cling to landline phones and records and dialup internet and other such things that are long since obsolete, companies still have to cater to them. As such, when we become old folks and demand physical media for our games, music, etc, they'll have to pander to us too.

[UncleBob]

Does anyone "cling" to dial-up internet?  I know there are folks who can't get anything else that's in a reasonable price range... but my guess is, they'd give it up if they could.

[ShoothimNow]

I live in the boonies, and I have a 1.5mpbs internet connection.  I get offers to upgrade ALL THE FREAKING TIME, but when I call my internet service provider.. "I am sorry, your location is outside of our coverage area and you are unable to receive any internet from us", EVEN THOUGH I DO GET INTERNET FROM THEM!?  Took me about 2 years to get it where I am at right now, but it is slow as molasses =(.




Also... I'm shocked no one mentioned this yet... If games "ever" go "digital only", expect to:
1) Download you games A LOT OF TIMES for space issues,
2) Upgrade your HDD and have many spares
3) Properly label what is on each HDD
4) HOPE TO GOD YOUR HDD DOESN'T DIE

A Wii Ware Game is what? Lol?  2MB's?  Starhawk (Single Player Campaign) for PS3 was 10GB's, and that IS NOT the full game lol!

Streaming games over the internet would not be a viable solution for everyone, because I certainly CANNOT do that at my current location.  Downloading the game would take about 4 days just to download 10GB's (I am not kidding), so if I REALLY wanted to play a game that is DL only, expect LONG waits, as well as HDD space losses.

Many know I use Vudu (better than Netflix IMO), Captain America HDX download is 8GB alone.  As stated before, there is a loss of quality from streaming, but if I wanted to download my other 755 movies (based off Captain America's size), that would be 6040GB's, or ~6TB's.  THANKFULLY many HDX movies are ~2-4GB's in size, but my PS3 is only 320GB (280GB after System Format Files).  I just... don't have the space to own digital copies.

Luckily, owning HDX doesn't mean that I am stuck with HDX only, I can watch the SD version free of charge if I want to watch a movie right off the bat.  HDX = ~4.5mbs, SD = ~1.5mbs (JUST enough that i can watch a movie if NO ONE ELSE IS ON THE INTERNET)

[laurenhiya21]

I think it's possible, but I doubt it will happen anytime soon...
It better not anyway, I love my games in a nice little row on a shelf
(plus my Internet sucks, and I doubt it will get better anytime soon :/)

[palmer6strings]

I personally would rather have physical media.
I also think if everything goes digital the country will be worse of in money flow wise because there will be less of a trade market.

All in all I highly doubt we will ever lose the physical media that we have. My guess is instead of cd's we could possibly go to USB. I've seen some bands (Lamb of God comes to mind first) release all thier albums of flash drives that had print on them. They actually looked pretty sweet if you aske me.

Like I said though, only my opinion.

[wiggy]

^^^ The used market is nothing compared to new retail. All those big-ass chain stores would find themselves without product to sell, and the margin on hardware is tiny when compared to the margin on software/media.  That would put some serious hurt on the big box stores, not to mention any of the stores like Game Stop that pretty much rely on media sales exclusively in order to stay in business. Those places would be completely wiped out.


Shoothimnow, that concern over HDD space is sorta moot. IF the powers that be moved to DL only media, then you'd better believe that multiple TB drives will get does into DVRs, PS4/5/6, Xbox 9,423, Wii UVWXYZ, etc. That's really the easiest part about the DL only equation to sort out, especially as SS drives become more and more affordable.