The continuing decline in availability of physical media

I watched a Netflix movie recently called "Leave The World Behind" where basically everything is hacked and all wifi, internet etc is completely lost. A totally forgettable movie but I loved the ending where the kid finds the "ultimate" preppers bunker and there is a massive wall of DVD's etc.

I just thought it was a nice touch as obviously in an end of the world scenario food and shelter is top trumps but physical media that can be used must be a very important item too. Simply for sanities sake.
 
jeffk said:
Super Street Fighter 2 on the SNES was £70. That’s £181.55 in 2024 money - more than the Ultimate Platinum Haaland edition of EA FC 24. :p
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I still remember the mid 1980's when VHS cassettes of movies were uo for sale for silly money like £50-70 a pop until volumes available to be sold went up and the prices came down a lot.

This is an American link but gives you an idea how silly the prices were back then!

Until Top Gun revolutionized home entertainment in 1987, a real, licensed "high-quality" copy of a Hollywood movie retailed as much as $90 brand new in America, working out to about $250 in modern inflation rates.
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I never had one but also remember some of the 'rich kids' at school having Neo Geo's that had very expensive games at the time
 
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Interesting topic. I'm all for streaming however and it's progress. I love how we can get something efficiently and quickly.

For nostalgia sake I've kept all my old 'physical' media PC game plastic box and artworks on my shelf in my office / gaming room. As someone else said all they are now is pretty paperweights but good for memory sake.
 
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Scort said:
Cex aren't much better either imo
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Depends on the game. I picked up a Switch game from Cex for £28. Goes for more on ebay and you be paying over RRP for it new as I think its out of print. Which is weird for RPG's made by SquareEnix.

I have few more I need to get from there. Looking at the physical market certain games are going up in price over the digital downloads.

I think us Millennials and older are starting to see the value in physical media. My friend has Star Wars Episode 3 on VHS, £15 from Blockbuster back in the day. Then you look at the Ebay prices for it :eek:
 
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Best of both worlds, I rip the dvd/Blu-ray onto my server so can stream them at full quality if I choose. Bin the box are and keep the disk as backup in a Polly wallet.
 
willhub said:
Once upon a time it actually felt relatively affordable to buy physical games.
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Yeah, doesn't help when some publishers only have the physical games in some overpriced "Special Edition" tat. Then you are better off buying the digital version.
 
willhub said:
Once upon a time it actually felt relatively affordable to buy physical games.
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I remember not too long ago, that most PC releases could be pre-ordered for about £25 from shopto or somewhere similar.

Now every company wants £50 or more for a digital edition so i simply stopped buying new games.

I just have my cheap xbox live converted gamepass sub, and only ever pick up a game i want once it reaches about £10.
 
I still buy the odd CD if I particularly want the album I like having cover art and just having something to hold in my hand really and I can rip to flac. I buy the odd blu-ray boxset/metal box for the same reason and the streaming versions if you can find them aren't very high definition or bitrate

I must admit I don't buy physical copies of games they're little more than a code in a box anyhow and for the old ones as already stated they simply don't work with modern OS's and they take up a lot of space with the steam library I have I'd probably fill several bookcases and space is a premium here
 
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willhub said:
Once upon a time it actually felt relatively affordable to buy physical games.
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Not sure I agree with that. It hasn't been any cheaper tbh. Xbox Game pass costs £30 a year if you know where to go and gives you access to 100's of games.

My parents would pay £70 for 1 N64 game which adjusted for inflation is £180 quid in today's money.
 
Whinging about cash being gross reminds me of the difference between The View - Same Jeans and Magic Dirt - Dirty Jeans. Millenials never really got past their Mum washing their clothes for them everyday.
 
what about this?

Game publishers have costs to bring it on disc. Think about the games industry now, games are getting continual patches and updates, the servers to host the patch also costs.
Why have 2 seperate costs as a publisher ?
 
TBF I used cash today for parking, much prefer it to entering card details, plus somewhere like Harlyn bay where there's cash or online only there's so many reviews of people not getting data reception and then getting a fine (absolute rip off there used to be a farmer in a shed collecting £3 )
 
Well I guess my very thick teenage scrapbook is full of vintage media I had a bit of a transport thing ,have hovercraft sections as well, what a rebel I was

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Mercenary Keyboard Warrior said:
Physical money is very gross.
I pay particular attention to it when abroad. Its bad enough in the UK, but it some places you need to consider how the local population live who also handle that same money!
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People will lose money at their own peril. One of the worse developments for us as a society is the decline of physical cash.
 
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