How Long Until Physical Media Becomes Extinct?

[_xxx_]

That's what people said about vinyl LP sleeves...

Nah, that was more about vynil itself. You still have the lyrics and pics with a CD, so that's not a problem. But if you stream stuff, you have none of that and also no media which you can also use in your car, on your workplace, etc...

 

[sytaylor]

Nah, that was more about vynil itself. You still have the lyrics and pics with a CD, so that's not a problem. But if you stream stuff, you have none of that and also no media which you can also use in your car, on your workplace, etc...

Mere nostalgia, with a streaming service they could give you exclusive videos with the artists and interactive content. There are ways around everything. Except fat people on oxford street.

 

[D3v0ur3r]

Bringing back this thread as opposed to starting a new thread about the same thing.

So almost 2 years later what do we think now? My wife & I are looking into (maybe) getting a franchise & an obvious one would be Play & Trade. For those that may not know its basically a Game Stop type store. At any rate, something I have to consider is, how much longer till physical disk's are completely gone? With content & game downloads for both Consoles & PC's how many more years till the Consoles & PC are forced into Downloading all new & older games?

Are the next consoles going to be absent of a disk drive is the real question? My PS3 has the ability to upgrade the HD to a much larger then its 80 gig so say 4 years from now the PS4 is out & gasp! No disk drive! What do the big brains here think as of today looking into the very near future?

 

[ShaidarHaran]

I don't think physical media will completely die out until broadband is universal, and cheap. It's all about the delivery method at this point, and the internet infrastructure in the U.S. just isn't up to the task quite yet. Plus most people don't want to pay $50 a month or more for fast internet access. $20 is an expense they can justify, but high-speed DSL, Cable, & fiber optic are out of the reach of most homes currently, both in terms of availability and cost.

 

[D3v0ur3r]

I spend about 130 a month for my 20mb down 5mb up Fiber internet combined with the phone & TV. That's with 1 DVR & 4 other TV boxes as well as premium extra $ channels. Its actually surprisingly cheap compared the the standard coaxial cable providers I had been using for years.

With channels like HBO, Cinimax, Showtime & others that are (On Demand) which are movies that are streamed to my house (free as well as some for $) already having a pretty decent library to choose from, along with all the game demo's & games that can be downloaded on the consoles, I can see disk being a thing of the past well within the next 10 years or less. just my opinion of course. Not to mention music as downloads as well.

 

[ShaidarHaran]

I spend about 130 a month for my 20mb down 5mb up Fiber internet combined with the phone & TV. That's with 1 DVR & 4 other TV boxes as well as premium extra $ channels. Its actually surprisingly cheap compared the the standard coaxial cable providers I had been using for years.

With channels like HBO, Cinimax, Showtime & other that are (On Demand) which are movies that are streamed to my house already having a pretty decent library to choose from, along with all the game demo's & games that can be downloaded on the consoles, I can see disk being a thing of the past well within the next 10 years or less. just my opinion of course. Not to mention music as downloads as well.

Lucky bastard. I pay about the same right now just for regular HD cable w/1 HD DVR box (no premium movie channels) and cable internet. Fucking monopolies. Damn Comcast.

 

[D3v0ur3r]

Ya, we have I think 3 providers in my area & Comcast may be coming here as well.

Verizon (who I use).
Brighthouse.
Knology.

& I am not for sure if Comcast is on the way or not.

 

[MulciberXP]

...

 

[vazel]

A big reason I choose to buy instead of warez something is that so I can have a physical archival copy that isn't stored on my HDDs(which can fail at any moment) or on DVD-Rs(which store their bits in a dye which rots).

The reliability of what you bought with online distribution relies on a corporation, for the company to still be there and for them to still allow you to redownload what you've bought several years down the road(what if one day the suits decide their old catalogue isn't worth keeping online anymore, look at how MS and Sony have now declared we don't care for backwards compatibility and no longer emphasize it as a big feature like they used to who knows if bc is going to even be a feature in their next consoles).

Most importantly I like the nice warm feeling of having them stacked in my bookcase in their cases(or covers in the case of comic books). The day online distribution becomes the only way is the day I stop buying.