I wouldn't say that physical media is dying. I would say that digital media is growing.

Almost all of the people that I know in real life, buy physical copies. I don't know anyone who buys downloads only.

On the internet though, I know quite a few people who only buy downloads.

I don't think that physical copies will ever go out, or at least not where I live.

I really hate physical media altogether. Most of my games I get now, are all digital downloads. All my movies streamed from Netflix. I really dont even use discs anymore when installing an OS. (Unless the motherboard doesnt support boot to USB). I got an old server to try to revive over the weekend. I had to install a Linux distro on there, and I think that its the first time I burnt a CD in a year.

ditto

-Bandwidth caps are becoming more and more prevalent
-Games compete with Netflix and similar high-bandwidth services when you are on a bandwidth cap
-Due to various reasons, DD game prices are often the same as retail, and you are getting less
-DD games often have worse DRM
-Perceived wait-time is higher with DD games (you wait for the whole download) even when retail wait time may be higher (though can oftentimes be shorter)


Nah, disc-based media on the other hand


Slow I'll agree with, fragile I won't. A pressed disc has an expected life many times greater than hard drives. If you aren't a dunderhead with your discs, they won't get scratched. If most people treated their hard drives like they treat their DVDs, their hard drives wouldn't last all of 3 months I'd bet.

As far as I'm concerned pc physical distribution is dead to me, I haven't bought a physical disc in forever.

I still prefer to own something physical, be it games, music, movies, whatever. The only time I download games is if Steam or something has a sale that's just too good to pass up.

Better not.

Never! While digital copies are often more reliable, I don't think I could live without that "new game smell" that comes with a physical one. To lose that would be a sad thing indeed.

yikes, i've only had 1 cd break... and that was for Oblivion because it had a defect in it that made using those normal cd holders cause a crack to appear in the middle of the disc

Yet I can redownload my game onto a new HDD, but I cant take my broken/lost/stolen/ect game back.

Eh, I just burn copies of PC games I buy, since I'm not exactly the safest person for a CD/DVD to be in the care of. I've had my CD-R Morrowind for about 5-6 years, though, which holds the record for least amount of copies I've had to make for my favorite games; just goes to show how much I love Morrowind. Console games, however..I just gotta be really careful.

It'll happen in the future. I think it's inevitable. Right now, most of what I get is from digital download.

If and when wuantum computing becomes a reality, i dont think that those bandwidth caps will mean anything.

much like some of us have seen physical media change drastically within our lifetimes, the difital media and distribution of it is also going to cahnge many times. It shoul d actually change faster.

lets also remember that you wont necessarily have to download antying if cloud computing becomes more prevailent, youre ony sending a comand and recieving a graphic, say for videogames. youre not processing antying locally , and tehrefore, dont need huge files to be downloaded and stored locally.

I agree with this, except in the cases of those with the cheapest/slowest broadband connection, if any, with very low caps where a 2-15GB game would take up a huge chunk of cap space. Right now ours is 65GB for 6mb/1mb a month which is a pretty low monthly cap compared to competitors around here.

Well, you should be able to make an archival copy of your games... Whether or not you can in actuality(consoles) or legally(DRMed discs) is a different matter

but like i am saying with cloud computing as a follow up. you wont be DL'ing anything.
the speed and capacity of my computer wont mean much if all of the computing and storage is being done elsehwere. i just need the small amount of bandwidth necessary to interact with the data.

which brings me to another idea... if you save something to your PC, thats styll as much physical media just as much as a CD/DVD is. youve still got a disc thats physically storing stuff for you.

when you really think about it, something like cloud computing, whrere nothing is actually ever stored on anyting you posess is the only way that consumer physical media could be done away with.
even then, thats just consumer physical media, as it would still be on a server or something somewhere in the physical world.


sure peopels till buy records, but they do it to be kitchy or to keep an art form alive.
I buy actual CDs because i like the artwork.

but most people just use youtube as a virtual jukebox anymore. i see this trend only increasing

Uh, wouldn't the whole cloud computing thing for games increase the bandwidth requirements? They'd have the send you all the information about what was being rendered. Not to mention you'd need to seriously decrease the latency on the connection between you and the server the game was on to have commands you enter occur in a timely manner.

If it requires data transfer outside the local network yes.

ive never had my keyboard or monitor slow down because a file is too big..
Do you see what i am saying now?


lets say you VPN into another PC. Are you worried about the bandwith contraints or processing power of your computer, in order to do something? no, because youre essentially only passing a small amount of video and command signals that are easy for your computer to process and dont take up a lot of bandwidth. its not you downloading 4 gigs worth of game to play it locally thats stuck in the pitpeline,...

am am slo saying if cloud computingbecomes prevailent. if it were the norm and optimized to run as such, i dont think the BW caps that are bing talked about would be such an issue.
bandwidth has also always been pretty fixed, with maybe a few frequencies opening up here and there if theyre de-commissioned from the government or re-allocated from FCC channels to consumer use frequencies. but largely its all the same. we are continually coming up with better, more efficient uses fo that bandwith.

Digital distributors are going to complain and lobby against the bandwidth cap scheme. Netflix are already doing it.

THIS!
Digital is just too convenient.

Nothing will ever replace physical media. If it ever goes away then I'm done.

I've shunned physical media because it's often a good $40 bucks more in stores here than on Steam. If it was the same price in a store as it was on Steam however I'd much rather buy an actual disc, simply because downloading games off Steam uses up about a third of our data cap and can take about half a day to download.

I love my physical media. Despite what the fine print may say, having a disc, manual and case at least gives the illusion of true ownership. I also like the concept of having what I paid for years down the road, especially since I take excellent care of my things. It's hard to imagine Steam going under right now, but policies change and companies come and go. Quite a few of my favorite games are from developers and publishers long since defunct, with a few IPs fates seemingly unknown, unable to be redistributed save for a miracle.

I suppose it sounds silly to most, but I'm just not a fan of the digital world (no, not Digimon). People seem to be rushing into digital distribution for games and film, e-books, cloud computing, etc. Bleh. I was born in the wrong time I tell ya. :meh:

Won't be long before we got computer chips in are brains and are always connected to the internet.