Bluray is still alive and well because its the only format that has full quality basically 1:1 media encodes which ironically make up the backbone of full quality media piracy.
No streaming service will ever support 70Gb+ file sizes because they never bothered to implement multicast so it would shred their bandwidth or rely on predownloading which would shred the tiny local storage included on most smart TVs.
You could of course use jellyfin or any other file share protocol to DIY, but you’d better have a stable 100Mbps minimum upload/download speed lol.
I don’t have a source, but I do believe I’ve already seen articles about multiple studios reducing their bluray releases. I think there was one studio which wanted to completely stop all of them even.
Blu ray video is lossy compressed. Lossless video is huge.
After digital: Direct brain implantation. IE all your games are stored in memory. And I don’t mean RAM. It also isn’t YOUR brain.
Guys, y’all did this to yourselves. You didn’t have to use Steam when it launched, but you did because it was convenient.
Physical media started dying the moment people flocked to Steam for PC gaming.
The public wanted this. A niche minority doesn’t. The overwhelming majority of game sales are now digital. Why would companies keep manufacturing discs when almost everyone is downloading their games?
And I know, I know, physical media is better for the consumer. I know about the EULAs, licensing, and the ownership issues. I’m not defending digital media. I’m simply saying: y’all made your bed, now sleep in it.
For the record, my entire game library is digital too, aside from some old Xbox 360 and PS4 games I still have on disc. I’m in the same boat. I’m no better than anyone else.
I just see reality for what it is.
If you want physical media back, stop buying digital games. Stop playing them. Delete your Steam account. Uninstall your games.
What the hell did you think these companies were going to do?
To say that Steam is the one solely responsible for this is misleading. That would mean only gaming is switching to digital only. Spotify, Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, etc are also responsible for killing physical media outside of gaming
Agreed. Streaming services are a whole different can of worms that contribute to this issue.
Physical media has the inherent benefit of being difficult to remove from the customer. Because of the several thousand years of precedent and “argument” has lead to the current protections many countries have.
Digital distribution of Digital goods has significant benefits to the customer and producer over physical distribution. A lot of physical game media at this point is basically a license key and a mostly working game that needs downloaded patches they were still developing while the discs were being printed. The downsides are the current legal mechanisms and that a lot of people involved in the producing would like to continue to eat and pay rent.
Don’t act like this guy.
Yes, I understand. This is the most common talking point I see when discussing this topic, and it’s completely valid.
Ownership is an important consideration. Unfortunately, the buying public has either decided, through ignorance or because they’ve been convinced, not to care about it.
Digital downloads are, by a massive margin, the preferred way to acquire games. The market has spoken.
Like I said, delete your Steam account. Don’t purchase digital games.
Otherwise, accept the fact that we’ve willfully surrendered our leverage to the corporations.
But when I download a game on steam, I can do whatever I want with the file, and play it whenever I want. I can’t say the same thing when I download a game on my PlayStation
Correct. Sony is pure crap.
I know this might get me a lot of hate on here, but I don’t really care and I don’t understand why people are this upset about it. I can’t remember the last time I bought physical media, nor do I know anyone that has. And most games that are released on physical media are unplayable anyways without the obligatory 40GB day one patch - making the entire concept of physical media pointless.
So yeah, idk if people are actually upset about this or if this is just a big outrage over nothing if I’m honest. But maybe I’m just too PC-pilled in my free and open source ecosystem to realize the struggles of living under the boot of a corporation that removes stuff you paid for at will lmaooo.
Console players kinda deserve this. They put everything into a closed ecosystem and they couldn’t justify thier usecase to the masses.
Honestly 90% of the movies we want to watch aren’t on Prime (which we happen to have for non-movie-reasons) and we would need extra subscriptions for each of them. It is cheaper and more convenient for us to buy used blu rays or dvds of the movies. It’s 3,99€ to rent a movie for 48 hours (best case, usually it is some arthouse subscription) or 2,17€ for the DVD on medimops. We watch during lunch break so we usually can’t make it through a movie in 48 hours without stressing. (My spouse does not want to pirate anymore and I support that.)
Our daughter has her own small collection of cartoons and anime that she can choose for a TV treat instead of scrolling through the endless void of the internet.
I love booklets too much to ever let go of CDs.
All of these media are digital! Only digital is no medium but an encoding scheme.
Currently used media are HDD and SSD.
I know that’s not what you meant… But those are all digital…
Some of them are still around just not as big anymore
My personal conspiracy theory is that Sony is trying to kill Blu-ray before it enters public domain. (2028-2030 or so). Single-layer Blu-rays are invaluable for my cold storage backups. So I’m going to keep buying them. And thanks to them, entering public domain, innovation will be possible once again. So, in all honesty, I don’t have that much to fear, as mega corporations also use blu-rays heavily for backups, together with tape.
How’s the long-term stability of Blu-Ray? I know we’re running into problems with magnetic tape and CDs degrading.
There’s M-Discs which are supposed to last 100 years I’ve heard.
Go to your local used game shops! There’s a treasure trove of good shit there.
I have never been to a game shop with prices based in reality. They upcharge the hell out of their stuff and it’s insane.
Thrift stores used to be pretty good. It was a flat few dollars per game the last time I looked at them.
Yeah, used to. But people figured out years ago that old copies of pokemon go for 100€+ on ebay so they are basically hunting every thrift store or flea markets for elderly mothers who sell their sons stuff who moved out 10 years ago and hasn’t bothered picking his old stuff up.
… all of them priced like brand new games. Some more expensive than their original retail price, thanks to inflation.
At least that’s the case in my local used game shops.
But that’s okay. I can find plenty of booty to plunder on the high seas.
Less thanks to inflation and more due to scalpers who will buy them and flip them on ebay if they’re not
Pirated digital backups.
With storage redundancy, of course. Because eventually, your hard drive will fail.
Three places!
Across two medium!
With one of the backups off-site!
I still buy any new music on CD and regularly buy DVDS. I buy more new DVDs than Blu-ray actually.
Me two! Except without the Cds or Dvds or buying
True, but there’s bad digital like Amazon Video, and good digital like GOG.
Meanwhile, vinyl is minding his own business…
Techmoan has entered the chat
Just need a couple to backup a few terabytes of data
Turns out pressing PVC into the shape of a sound wave is so cheap and so easy that people won’t stop doing it
I was thinking of having a vinyl backup of my current favourite playlist but it’s ten hours long so it could take some time
You’re going to have forearms like tree trunks by the time you’re done.
cheap
🗿
