Otter said:
Physical games are actually more popular than dvds/music if I'm not mistaken and it brings up an interesting point. The reason why vinyls/CDs etc can have resurgence is because it's an open market. "No single company controls the format. Unlike Blu-ray game discs, which rely on standards and licensing overseen by industry groups, any record label can press music onto vinyl as long as they have access to a pressing plant. Many manufacturers exist. There are pressing plants around the world that produce records for major labels, independent labels, and even individual artists. Playback devices are widely available. Any company can make a turntable that plays standard vinyl records. There's no equivalent of a console maker deciding whether the format continues." The future of the games industry has to be a similar open platform and it feels like that will only come from a PC maker or as crazy as it sounds Microsoft/Xbox lol. I hope this future will materialise soon. Because games are so large the medium needs to emphasise that over speed and so SSD storage will still be key. |
This is the key reason the long term situation for physical media for video games had been looking terrible for a while. For future games it's fully controlled by three companies who are incentivized to push digital and eventually get rid of physical. At this point the best case scenario for physical games is Nintendo sticks with it longer than expected and abandons it in the 2040's instead of next decade. I do expect next decade though so we're looking at a likely world within the next 10 years or so where people will still be able to buy physical media for some modern films and music but for outright zero modern games.
