Poll: Are discs dead?

[Blindswordmaster]

With the availability of digital distribution, I often wonder if the disc format is dead. I know that we haven't perfected the technology yet, but it seems to me that soon we'll just buy data files and carry our collections on portable hard-drives. Raise your hands if you agree.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

I want them to die. They have size and price, but I miss the speed of carts and want to see a rise in solid state formats.

 

[Death God]

I still buy disc. But your right, they are a dying thing of the past.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

They definitely aren't dead yet. Honestly, the day it becomes impossible to buy a physical copy of any sort of media is the day I stop paying for anything. I'm not condoning piracy here, but in the war between consumers and producers, it should be pretty clear by now whose side I'm on -- and doing away completely with physical media would be a huge salvo from the producers' end.

 

[theSovietConnection]

I don't think we're about to get into an era where we no longer rely on physical media like disks, USB drives, or cartridges. The era of the disk may be coming to a close, but there will always be consumers like myself that just prefer a hard copy. Some also just have a complete distrust of online shopping, be it fear of fraud or that the company may just one day decide "No more data for you" and pull support. Are the reasons always rational? No. But they're there, and until there is a means of easily quelling those fears, and satisfying customers like myself, we will always have hard media.

 

[Aurgelmir]

I want them to die. They have size and price, but I miss the speed of carts and want to see a rise in solid state formats.

Price?

you do know that for most Europeans the prices on Steam is often higher than the price of buying the games on disc? Not to mention Blizzards online store who charges full price for their online downloads.


I personally buy some games online, but I prefer the disc, mainly because its cheaper than online... go figure.

? does not equal $ games people, so stop freaking swapping the signs when localizing the prices.

 

[Dark Knifer]

If they did, then my cd collection would be worth a fortune in a few years. I don't think they will die, just something more common will be used. We still use disks for games though, so it will be a while before they truly die.

 

[crimson5pheonix]

I want them to die. They have size and price, but I miss the speed of carts and want to see a rise in solid state formats.

Price?

you do know that for most Europeans the prices on Steam is often higher than the price of buying the games on disc? Not to mention Blizzards online store who charges full price for their online downloads.


I personally buy some games online, but I prefer the disc, mainly because its cheaper than online... go figure.

? does not equal $ games people, so stop freaking swapping the signs when localizing the prices.

No, I meant versus a solid state physical medium, like thumb drives. 4GB Disc= >$.01 4GB Thumb drive= $20

 

[mooncalf]

I still burn a compact disc when I want to give files to someone (because you'd care more if a friend lost a flash drive) and I never think they might not have a drive capable of reading it, so far from dead I think.

Sure they'll be obsolete some day, maybe even as quick as the one-year-next dissappearance of floppy disk drives/disks, but considering the compatibility of DVD drives and the DVD medium as a whole, I'd say they'll hang around for years.

 

[Ham_authority95]

With the ease of delivering the product to millions of people within hours, digital distribution will become the norm(or already has).

I myself get 77% of my music digitally, but through iTunes so I'm actually paying for shit.

However CD's, like Vinyl, will probably always exist because of a a few consumers who want the physical package.

 

[Aurgelmir]

I want them to die. They have size and price, but I miss the speed of carts and want to see a rise in solid state formats.

Price?

you do know that for most Europeans the prices on Steam is often higher than the price of buying the games on disc? Not to mention Blizzards online store who charges full price for their online downloads.


I personally buy some games online, but I prefer the disc, mainly because its cheaper than online... go figure.

? does not equal $ games people, so stop freaking swapping the signs when localizing the prices.

No, I meant versus a solid state physical medium, like thumb drives. 4GB Disc= >$.01 4GB Thumb drive= $20

Ah.
True. I think we are a looong way from Solid State memory based mediums. Chances are downoads will take over before that.

 

[Discord]

No.. Not now but there getting there just like VHS;

But i'd like to see them become smaller but have Gig's of space and serve as our new Thumb Drives ^__^

 

[Thunderhorse31]

If they did, then my cd collection would be worth a fortune in a few years.

Yes that's true, because nowadays people pay top dollar for 8-tracks, laser discs, and cassettes. I assume my betamax and VHS collections are worth tons of coin as well. Would you like to buy my HD DVD version of King Kong? Only $100!

Games must work the same way too. My collection of Jaguar software is unparalleled, I should sell it all and buy myself a house of solid gold.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

With the availability of digital distribution, I often wonder if the disc format is dead. I know that we haven't perfected the technology yet, but it seems to me that soon we'll just buy data files and carry our collections on portable hard-drives. Raise your hands if you agree.

So, two threads with similar questions within 20 minutes with each other. Couldn't you have made one thread concerning it all?

Nope, it will be a long, long time, before discs are dead. The market for them is still way bigger than just straight downloading.

I'll bring over what I said in your thread about hard copies which you made just before this one. If I am given a choice, I choose to have a disc. With a disc, I know that unless a freak accident happens I will have the information/game on that disc for as long as I live.

I don't trust having all my stuff on a hard drive, because a hard drive has a much higher risk of being damaged than a disc. I've had two whole computers worth of information get destroyed in the past 6 years. But, I still have my music on CD's and game discs.

Until they find a sure fire way to make it so that information on a hard drive can't be lost by virus or other hard drive failure, with the only way it can be lost is the hard drive being smashed, I will keep buying hard copies with discs.

 

[Dark Knifer]

If they did, then my cd collection would be worth a fortune in a few years.

Yes that's true, because nowadays people pay top dollar for 8-tracks, laser discs, and cassettes. I assume my betamax and VHS collections are worth tons of coin as well. Would you like to buy my HD DVD version of King Kong? Only $100!

Games must work the same way too. My collection of Jaguar software is unparalleled, I should sell it all and buy myself a house of solid gold.

Your sarcasim is noted. I shoulf have send in many, many years. Or possible my children would sell it for alot of money.

 

[Nosense]

I still buy disc. But your right, they are a dying thing of the past.

I can agree with this, and while I mostly use Steam for my games I find myself buying the physical copy of games I want for my consoles if I would rather own it than rent it.

 

[blankedboy]

Ugh, OP's avatar looks like Mr. Franklin from Apocalypse Lane until I look directly at it -.-

Ontopic, nah, course not. All consoles still run off them.

 

[KarumaK]

When digital is my only choice I shall raise the Jolly Roger!

 

[dogenzakaminion]

There will always be a market for a physical medium, and with time, the technology will increase to a point where it will still be a competitor to DLC. Hopefully Solid State Drives will take over the specific medium of discs, but who knows.

 

[Thunderhorse31]

If they did, then my cd collection would be worth a fortune in a few years.

Yes that's true, because nowadays people pay top dollar for 8-tracks, laser discs, and cassettes. I assume my betamax and VHS collections are worth tons of coin as well. Would you like to buy my HD DVD version of King Kong? Only $100!

Games must work the same way too. My collection of Jaguar software is unparalleled, I should sell it all and buy myself a house of solid gold.

Your sarcasim is noted. I shoulf have send in many, many years. Or possible my children would sell it for alot of money.

Yeah sorry about that, I'd like to think the same but I wonder if CD's are just far, far too prevalent to be worth anything down the line. Sure people will pay top dollar for vinyl because records are iconic, and the occasional old video game because they're rare, but I don't know that many CD's will fall into those categories. And yeah, the medium is still probably far from dead, so who knows when we'll see any ROI.