The Blackangel Posted January 17 Share Posted January 17 As much as I hate to admit it, I see things going strictly digital in the not too distant future. Possibly within the PS6 era, whenever that comes. Nintendo would be the only one I could see being a holdout. It would land a hell of a blow on profits for companies. Games are all on Blu-ray discs now, which Sony owns the patent to. So if say Xbox went to strictly digital, and stopped using Blu-ray discs, Sony would lose a shitload of money. I hope this doesn't happen any time soon, but I'm absolutely 100% positive it will eventually. Shortie and Reality vs Adventure 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shortie Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 On 1/17/2023 at 11:06 PM, The Blackangel said: As much as I hate to admit it, I see things going strictly digital in the not too distant future. Possibly within the PS6 era, whenever that comes. Nintendo would be the only one I could see being a holdout. It would land a hell of a blow on profits for companies. Games are all on Blu-ray discs now, which Sony owns the patent to. So if say Xbox went to strictly digital, and stopped using Blu-ray discs, Sony would lose a shitload of money. I hope this doesn't happen any time soon, but I'm absolutely 100% positive it will eventually. With the way most companies are pushing digital over physical now it definitely seems like that is what we will see happen. It may not happen for quite a few years yet but over that time, companies will more than likely push digital out more and more so that people are ready for when that happens. The Blackangel 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reality vs Adventure Posted February 4 Share Posted February 4 Uh oh, I think you have a really good point. Thinking about it, that would no doubt be the direction Sony’s major competitor would want. Actually, take a look at laptops. All computers had a disc drive until I think it was Apple that started making laptops w/o disc drives. I haven’t done my research why, and it bugs the hell out of me too why my own laptop has no drive. I don’t know why laptops went that way and what kind of impact it had on competition in the computer world. Maybe both Microsoft and Apple already gave a right hook to Sony due to that. Game consoles without a disc drive no doubt would target Sony’s blue ray even more. Going even further, DVD players will probably get dropped for good as everything turns digital download and streaming to watch shows, movies, and play games. No doubt all those big companies want exactly that. It gives them control. Consumers lose rights as our right to physical disc drive gets taken away. I say rights because consumers have rights. When disc drives are gone, we will all end up having to pay for a service and subscription for all our entertainment needs. Then they can Jack up any price they want. Then one company buys off another company and you get a monopoly. Sony could be an underdog probably along with Nintendo if they make sure to always offer disc drives. That is what strong competition is, diversity. It doesn’t mean they can’t also offer digital downloads of course, but I believe there are many people out there who support the disc drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Blackangel Posted February 5 Share Posted February 5 (edited) Disc drives are already a thing of the past. If you want a disc drive for your computer, you have to buy an external. Mine is a Blu-ray writer and it plugs into 2 USB ports on my computer. I have burned a few music mixes, but never a Blu-ray. The blanks are too god damn expensive. So it's already a thing in the computing world. Gaming will no doubt follow suit shortly. We already have systems that offer no physical support. Xbox Series S is a good example. Also the vast vast vast amount of Nintendo games are DDL's. I personally have 125 DDL's on my Switch. I only hace 23 carts, but many of them are multiple game carts. So purely digital is already showing it's ugly head. Another thought is that it would hurt retail stores like Walmart, because they wouldn't be able to sell the games. They would only sell cards with download codes, but could never match the amount available through the game store on said console. Edited February 5 by The Blackangel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kane99 Posted February 5 Author Share Posted February 5 11 hours ago, The Blackangel said: Disc drives are already a thing of the past. If you want a disc drive for your computer, you have to buy an external. Mine is a Blu-ray writer and it plugs into 2 USB ports on my computer. I have burned a few music mixes, but never a Blu-ray. The blanks are too god damn expensive. So it's already a thing in the computing world. Gaming will no doubt follow suit shortly. We already have systems that offer no physical support. Xbox Series S is a good example. Also the vast vast vast amount of Nintendo games are DDL's. I personally have 125 DDL's on my Switch. I only hace 23 carts, but many of them are multiple game carts. So purely digital is already showing it's ugly head. Another thought is that it would hurt retail stores like Walmart, because they wouldn't be able to sell the games. They would only sell cards with download codes, but could never match the amount available through the game store on said console. True. I have a few DVD drives sitting in my closet for a PC and I haven't installed them in years. I have a PC I could install one in, but haven't bothered to do it, as I don't ever use physical media on my PC anyway. We'll still see physical media the next gen or two, but I think we're going to see more digital only consoles coming, which will spell the end of physical media. Plus, I think the digital consoles sell better overall, especially since majority of the time they're cheaper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kale Posted February 21 Share Posted February 21 I'd not be too shocked by it. I expect that they will keep coming out with a discless version and a disc version from here on out. I have a Series S and mostly use it for streaming and used it for Gamepass at one point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kane99 Posted February 21 Author Share Posted February 21 One thing I think might happen in the future, is what we see now with these retro mini consoles popping up. I think at some point, we'll see consoles without the ability to play physical media, but I think we'll see new consoles come out trying to bring that back in some way. Idk, maybe I'm dreaming, but I think we'll see some kind of nostalgia cash grab that will feature devices that take physical media again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...