Why do Disk Drives matter?

[Chrkeller]

RolStoppable said:

Chrkeller said:

There is zero doubt in my mind that Nintendo eventually drops physical, everyone will. It might be a few decades away, but it will happen. The natural consumer life cycle is younger people replace older people. Younger people have little experience, knowledge or love for physical. Today's kids live in a purely digital world and will not be physical collectors the older generation is. This is just reality. Markets change as generational focus shifts.  Easy example, at least in the US, good luck buying a car that has a CD player.  

I doubt that this statement can be backed up by data.

CD players in cars are missing the point. They are inconvenient, hence a thing of the past. But it's different within one's own four walls, so physical music keeps being a thing.

When looking at sales data of music, it's interesting that CD sales have been declining, but vinyl sales have kept growing year after year. When you combine the two formats in the USA, then the physical market seems to have hit its bottom around 2020 and been growing since. So much for the all-digital future, especially when you consider that young people are pretty much the biggest age group when it comes to physical purchases of music.

My takeaway from this, as is the same when it comes to physical video games, is that more and more people have realized that optical media are shit.

I could (probably) substantiate via research but really it is common sense.  Anyone who has kids can see how much the market has changed.  My kids, and their friends, are all digital.  Tablets, fornite, kindle, phones, steaming etc.  

If you want to think kids are walking around with physical media, lol.  

Physical is niche and will, at best, stay niche.  I'll be shocked if the ps6 even has a optical drive.  

Edit

I'm old enough to remember people being skeptical and anti internet....  things change drastically over time.  

Last edited by Chrkeller - on 03 September 2024