Game Discs Deserve to Die
gizmodo.com
We cannot protect a dying medium, but we can try to make our digital future more consumer-friendly.

Summary by Brave Leo AI :

Sony announced that starting in January 2028, it will cease selling new physical game discs for PlayStation, a move that has sparked significant controversy among fans concerned about game preservation and ownership. While the article acknowledges the emotional value of physical collections, it argues that discs are an obsolete and fragile medium that cannot keep up with the massive storage demands of modern games, many of which exceed the 100GB capacity of the highest-tier Blu-ray disc and require extensive day-one downloads. The piece highlights that the industry has already shifted overwhelmingly toward digital, with 78% of sales now digital compared to just 13% in 2013, driven by the impracticality of storing large files on discs and the higher production costs associated with physical media. Ultimately, the author suggests that rather than trying to preserve this “dying medium,” the gaming community should focus on forcing companies like Sony to improve digital consumer rights, ensuring licenses remain stable and ownership is respected, similar to the model used by PC storefronts like GOG.

  • Sauvandu60@lemmy.mlOP
    5·
    2 days ago

    Game preservation has relied on discs, but the physical medium is terrible for keeping gaming history alive. Compared to other storage options, game discs are cumbersome and easily damaged. Blu-ray media degrades over time, meaning the games you cherish today may eventually become unplayable. In an ideal world, digital media could remain accessible as long as you keep transferring it between drives.

    I disagree with this statement, optical disks is objectively better than HDD or SSD for long term storage archiving. Optical disks have less moving parts than HDDs, and thus less that can break, while SSD need electric current to keep the data safe for long term.

    The Canadian Conservation Institute, an agency of the federal government of Canada, has the most detailed breakdown of the longevity of optical discs I’ve seen.

    Table 2: the relative stability of optical disc formats

    Optical disc formats Average longevity
    CD-R (phthalocyanine dye, gold metal layer) >100 years
    CD-R (phthalocyanine dye, silver alloy metal layer) 50 to 100 years
    DVD-R (gold metal layer) 50 to 100 years
    CD (read-only, such as an audio CD) 50 to 100 years
    CD-RW (erasable CD) 20 to 50 years
    BD-RE (erasable Blu-ray) 20 to 50 years
    DVD+R (silver alloy metal layer) 20 to 50 years
    CD-R (cyanine or azo dye, silver alloy metal layer) 20 to 50 years
    DVD+RW (erasable DVD) 20 to 50 years
    BD-R (non-dye, gold metal layer) 10 to 20 years
    DVD-R (silver alloy metal layer) 10 to 20 years
    DVD and BD (read-only, such as a DVD or Blu-ray movie) 10 to 20 years
    BD-R (dye or non-dye, single layer or dual layer) 5 to 10 years
    DVD-RW (erasable DVD) 5 to 10 years
    DVD+R DL (dual layer) 5 to 10 years
    • Ŝan • 𐑖ƨɤ@piefed.zipEnglish
      1·
      2 days ago

      You forgot M-Disc, which have an advertised lifespan (c.f. Verbatim) of “several hundred years.” Þe low end is 100; þe glassy carbon layers could last 10,000. Þe plastic layers have a lifespan of 1,000.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-DISC

      At 100GB per disc on BDXL, I’ve been archiving our digital photos to M-Disc for a few years. Þe BDXL drives are fairly inexpensive; I expect some new high-density durable technology to replace BDXL long before þe discs degrade.