In recent years, studios have been pulling away from selling physical media. The absence of the ability to buy a physical copy of one’s favorite movies and video games forces consumers to either purchase a digital copy or use a streaming or subscription service to access their favorite media.
Subscriptions and digital purchasing have become more prominent, causing an uprise in digital sales and a major decrease in physical sales. With the age of streaming, with services such as Netflix, Disney+, and Hulu on the rise, some believe that it has caused media companies to become lazier and invest less in staff that handle retail sales of physical copies of their video games. This has been seen with Microsoft, which recently went so far as to fire a large number of people that market games to retail stores. Lovers of physical games have expressed worry that this puts the future of disk copies at a high risk of being forgotten and discarded like the other formats before it.
As someone who owns a lot of disks myself— games and movies alike — I believe there is something special about owning physical copies. Most physical copies come with special features such as posters, exclusive deleted scenes, and documentaries about the making of it. As a collector, I enjoy these kinds of bonus content and memorabilia that give owners a way to show off their love of their favorite content.
Another advantage of physical copies for buyers is that only one purchase is required, unlike with streaming, where you have to pay monthly for a subscription-based service. Owners can enjoy their content any time they want without paying monthly and without the fear that it might disappear from their streaming services one day.
I’m not here to say that streaming services are bad. They are convenient when needed and offer a variety of things to watch, depending on the service. But companies have been attempting to make streaming and digital the only option available to average consumers. Best Buy recently announced that it is removing all of its DVD/BlueRay products from its stores, and DVD/BlueRay players themselves are getting harder to come by. This creates a lack of other options, giving buyers no other choice but to buy digital.
Subscription services for video game access is becoming more common as well, although this, too, has its drawbacks. A few examples of this include Xbox Game Pass, PlayStation Plus, Ubisoft Plus and Nintendo Switch Online. All of these services offer a catalogue of games to play in exchange for a monthly payment. This doesn’t necessarily seem like a bad deal, but what upsets me is that with these services, you never truly own your games. You’re essentially renting them for the amount of time you are paying for the subscription.
With this information in mind, some might think that paying for their games through an online store without a
subscription would mean they own the game, but it turns out you still don’t. If you’re buying any digital copies online, whether that may be a game or movie, all you’re doing is paying for the license to use it, not the game/movie itself. And in most terms and conditions, the company or distributor who’s selling you said license can revoke it at any time.
That means that if a company were to lose rights due to legal issues, licenses expiring, or whatever it may be, they can take it away whenever they want. This obviously isn’t fair to the customers who spent their hard-earned money on these pieces of media but, unfortunately, there is a restriction clause in terms and conditions — that we all totally read before clicking “agree,” right?
This is why physical media is so important. It removes the hassle of dealing with subscription payments with it being a one-time purchase, and the best part is that it is possible to actually own it. DVD is only one form of physical media, with others being vinyl records, cassettes, VHS, and CDs. Vinyls are one of the most popular, having made a small comeback in recent years. Hopefully DVDs do the same.
The decline and removal of physical media has given the rise of streaming and subscriptions a major boost, which is a bad sign for the future of media distribution. One can hope that physical media lives on, but it’s very dependent on what the consumer wants to buy. One thing is for sure though— I’m never giving up my DVD collection.
