I hate to keep saying that everything is getting worse in the world, but it really does seem to be a real thing. While what I'm going to write about today isn't super high-stakes stuff, it's something that's important to a lot of people, including myself. Media keeps changing as technology advances, and everything is becoming more and more digital as the years go by. We saw this a decade ago with video rental stores going away from most cities. Hell, even Redbox, which was the replacement for those video rental stores, is pretty much gone around here, too. Streaming has become the way most people watch their shows and movies now; it's just so much easier to not have to pick up and drop off discs at a location. It seems like a lot of people also prefer to own movies on a digital platform now, versus buying the physical discs to keep in their homes. Makes sense, saves space, and you can easily access everything from one app on your TV.
Video games have faced a similar path as movies and TV shows, as the shift to digital games has also become the way a lot of people prefer to own their games now. This has led to a pretty big change coming in 2028, as Sony has announced they plan on stopping production of all physical copies of games they produce. This is just for their first party games, I assume, but I don't see a world where they release a new console in 2027-2028 that still supports discs if they are already planning on ceasing production of those discs anyway. This choice can also tie into the movie/TV show business, as many people (like myself) use their gaming consoles to play DVDs and Blu-Rays. Just another sign that companies are going to shift completely away from physical media. It's strange because on the music side of things, physical media has never been more popular. People are buying vinyl and CDs more than ever before, it seems. Streaming has its own problems in the music industry, but that's probably best left for another post.
So what does this all mean anyway? Is it even a bad thing to move everything to digital? I mean, isn't it cheaper and easier to release to consumers? Well, yeah, but I think consumers should always have a choice in how they want to consume media, digital or physical. The main problem here comes in ownership. Owning a physical piece of media means having the disc that actually plays the movie or game in your possession. With digital, it's all tied to an account you make, and it's all dependent on what the owners of that site do. A recent example of this problem is PlayStation's movie library. PlayStation has a digital library of movies you can buy and own on its store. Once you buy a movie, it's yours to watch whenever you want... or so we thought. Just a few weeks ago, Sony announced they are going to remove over 500 movies from that platform, and if you happen to own any of those movies, you will lose them from your account. No refund, no credits, just losing a movie you bought for no good reason. This isn't the first time Sony has done something like this, either. They also recently announced they would be closing the PS3 online store for good next year, so no more purchasing digital games for that console. I'm curious to see if that also means you can't download already purchased content, but we will see. I'm sure that's eventually where things will go. The problem with only having the option to buy digitally is that it gives all the power to Sony; you will have to buy through their market if you want to own a game. No more buying games at local stores or online stores, no more shopping around for better prices, and no more buying used copies of games for a lower price. The most anticipated game of all time, GTA 6, is coming out later this year, and THEY even said they aren't going to be making discs for it. Just selling a box with a code in it... how stupid.
Buying a movie or a game used to mean being able to own it forever, as long as you still had it in your possession. Now, companies will get to decide how long you own a product for in the digital space; you will never truly own the media you buy. I can still go back and watch my old DVDs from when I was a kid that I still have. I can still play my old video games from the 1990s that I kept around. What will it be like for us in the future? Will our old consoles be useless? Will we have to keep buying what we already did over and over? Time will tell, but I don't really trust these companies to actually do the best thing for us, as they've proven time and time again that they don't really care about us as long as they make their money.
No comments
Post a Comment