INTRODUCTION //
The recent PlayStation 6 announcement got me thinking about something
I'd somehow been ignoring for years.
Physical media is officially dead.
Look, I understand the obvious advantages of the digital takeover. Discs
are slow, easy to scratch, and snap in half when your best friend sits
on them. What I miss is everything else that came with them.
BACK IN MY DAY RANT //
When I was growing up, going to a store to buy a game felt like buying
something that was actually mine. After begging my parents until they
finally gave in, there was nothing like seeing that menu screen when I
got home. Kids growing up with a library tied to an account will never
know what that felt like.
I would always rip the plastic off the case before I even got home.
There was that distinct smell of fresh ink and plastic, and usually one
of those slips you could mail to the developers for exclusive stuff. The
better manuals had full-colour maps, full-page artwork, and a little
blank section at the end for the player to add their own notes that no
one ever used.
But the manuals weren't even the important part. It was what they
represented.
A friend asking to borrow your copy of Metal Gear Solid and returning it
with strange stains on it. Calling family members over to read tips from
the manual to help you get past that one area. Digging out an old
console years later and finding those games still there, exactly as you
left them.
That kind of ownership quietly disappeared.
Today we don't own our media. We own access to it.
Sony just announced that 551 movies and TV shows purchased through
PlayStation Video would be removed from customers' libraries after its
licensing agreement with StudioCanal expired. Terminator 2, The Deer
Hunter, and From Dusk till Dawn are just a few of the notable titles.
I don't mean removed from a subscription catalogue. I mean removed from
libraries where people had already paid for them.
Games can disappear from your library. Movies can vanish because of
licensing agreements. Entire services can shut down without you even
knowing until the next time you try to use them.
Convenience won, and I understand why. I bought a PS5 with no disc
drive. I stream movies and TV shows from a media server because it's
just easier.
Digital distribution isn't the problem.
The problem is that purchasing media no longer means you own it. The
companies selling it still control when and where you can use it, how
long you can access it, and whether it's still there tomorrow.
CONCLUSION - I'M GETTING OLD //
Maybe that's why I still prefer to use local files for music.
Maybe that's why I hang on to my old consoles from childhood instead of
selling them off.
Maybe that's why I care so much about backups, self-hosting, and
preserving copies of the things that matter to me.
I don't miss instruction manuals because they were useful or
informative.
I miss what they stood for.