Reality In 8Bits: Kiss Your Blu-Rays Goodbye

MaxLevel: "The value of a Blu-Ray will depreciate during the next gen of gaming. With HDD installs being unavoidable through either format and the ability to store digital items on cloud servers, the value and convenience of digital copies are elevating. Do you think the PS4/Xbox One generation will be the final generation where physical copies will be the standard? Here is why I think it will."

[ZBlacktt]

Phyical forever! Collectors editions will never go away. Forcing gamers down a path never works. Look how we changed policy just on this Next Gen to come. A digital copy has less of a emotional connection to me. I can't hold it, read it, look at the artwork, etc. It's all part of the experience. I'm a collector of games and I can pull one at any time and recall all the memories of the day I first bought it. Having a first version of a game, vice a remaster or reprint. Having a GOTY Edition all still on one Blu-ray disc.

All digital sucking up your HD. Upgrading that at some point because it's going to happen. Renting cloud space for more storage because again it's going to happen given the length of these consoles life cycles. I ran over 200+ games on my PS3. All without having to load the full game on the HD. I did the base install, beat it and would delete it. It's a 80g Phat PS3 too. But putting the game back on the console is not big deal. Not like downloading the whole entire game over again.

Install speeds, my god this has been the nightmare thus far with anything digital. Brb, taking 10 hours to download a game. Thank goodness you can download and play the game as it downloads in the background now on the PS4.

Out of sight out of mind. That's what digital means to me.

[Malik4Play]

I hope you're right man...

[MazzingerZ]

The eternal discussion and yet it has yet to be a current situation, it will be gone when it's time and that means when it really (technically) can be replaced by digital, which is the only I care, that it keeps working as it is meant...digital or physical...my personal opinion

[B-radical]

Agreed I'll always be a physical man :D

[SilentNegotiator]

Games are always growing in size and physical media is always proving to meet that demand. I don't fear any near end to physical media in gaming.

btw, is the guy in the video supposed to be funny or creepy? Because if it's the latter, congrats to him. All I know is that lattes are not consumed that way.

[Malik4Play]

Thanks haha. I definitely aim to creep all

[1OddWorld]

boobs

[B-radical]

Ass

[kayoss]

Hahha he forgot to mention the bandwidth caps that Internet provider are starting to implement.

Me: he'll yeah! Downloading my new next gen now. It's only 50gb
Internet provider: bam! You reach you cap.
Me: my game is not finished downloading yet
Internet provider: sorry you either have o pay more for bigger caps or wait until next month to finish Downloading.
Me: Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu....@$#!!!!

[KonsoruMasuta]

No, it won't stop after this gen. Do you really think today's gamers, the ones that went completely ape @%&* over Microsoft's policies, will change their mind of the subject only 5 years from now? Today's gamers are too conditioned to physical copies. You have to ween them first. You can't just magically get up, say "No more physical disc", and expect it to go over smoothly.

[B-radical]

Cant get cool little limited edition statues with digital copys now can we

[Nicaragua]

Sure you can. You buy the collectors edition box set and it has a download code in it instead of a disk, your toy and other useless shit is all still there in the box.

[GenericNameHere]

I don't want to watch the video, but that picture brought me here. Is that a Blu-Ray disc?? If so, man, you gotta take care of your stuff. BR discs are pretty durable and scratch resistant, so to do something like that to one... You better have children or else I recommend you go all digital.

It's been over a year, and I still haven't forgiven my cousin. He probably left my Gran Turismo 5 somewhere his baby brother could grab it. I miss that game :(

[Hicken]

No, it's not. It's just a blank CD or DVD, in all likelihood.

As for the article, sorry, but no. Physical isn't going anywhere, as the massive size of full-digital installs, coupled with slow internet speeds and bandwidth caps, means not as many people as the author thinks will be able to capitalize on a fully digital generation. And it's not like things will improve significantly enough for the next gen, either.

I mean, it's POSSIBLE, but currently doesn't seem LIKELY.

[Visiblemarc]

So sick of this nonsense. Games just keep getting bigger and internet improvement in the west moves at a snail's pace. Why do people think this will change with 50gb games coming on systems with 500 gb drives, might I add.

[_QQ_]

Nope i will never stop buying physical for games i really like.

[Parapraxis]

Complete nonsense.

[evil6eric]

The one thing these people fail to bring up every time there is this digital is the future nonsense is that most people have a bandwidth limit now and days. I get 200gb a month, sure that seems like a lot, but i am constantly streaming Yo Gabba Gabba! for the kids, Stream movies for the wife and I, and I buy games. At 50gb a game I might be able to buy one a month. If I go over my bandwidth I get charged $10 per 10gb. So long story short, until our infrastructure is updated in this country, this just isn't viable.

[TheOrion]

Yeah, they suggested that was going to be the case for PS4/XBOX One and it just isn't.

I've said it before, the day games consoles stop producing games on physical media is the day I stop playing games consoles.

[KimoNoir]

bluerays will become far faster as time goes (better technology) by to the point where HDD installs aren't as required as they are now. Although HDD installation is far more preferred by me and pretty much everyone... Microsoft and Sony aren't gonna sell you a 1 TB HDD for cheap.