I might be preaching to the choir, but with the way things are a purchase doesn’t necessarily confer ownership.
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You can say that again, and again, and again. I want to start collecting physical media, particularly DVDs, but I haven’t had the time to start on it yet.
At this point even physical media is starting to get eaten by these ownership-eroding practices, though. Region-locked DVDs and DVD players were a thing that still impacts people buying DVDs online today. Game cartridges might not even include the full game anymore (ex: Switch 2 game key cards).
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yeah physical media is good when you want to actually own the media you have. with all the practices of drm and stuff it makes physical media one of the only options to actually own what you’ve payed for.
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I’ve read dozens of these articles, and I still keep clicking on them whenever they show up! I recently got linked to one that cited my music discover post here:
I like the listicle format of this one especially. Looks like it’d be a good reference for another blog post on the topic some day.
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Talking about physical media is my shit, so Im totally fine with being the choir, keep it coming lol. Also feels like a great comprehensive article on the topic, and I like the “case studies” that it lists.
I have lots of DVDs and CDs. Especially collecting DVDs now of my fave movies or featuring my fave actors. Maybe this is an unpopular opinion but Im a BluRay hater. The ugly curved blue boxes? Yuck. The non-uniform size with DVD cases? Get it out of here! The fact that there’s limitations on where you can actually watch them? WTF! I typically watch on my Xbox 360 and even regional DVDs usually dont have a problem but BluRays do for some reason! I haven’t bought a new release in like a decade but I might this year because Im kinda worried that copies for certain movies/shows that I really like wont be available later. Like the Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie BluRay is kinda ugly and will end up costing me like 30 euros with delivery but it does come with a DVD and Id hate to not be able to buy it later…
Ive never had Netflix or any streaming service so I cant say I really know the benefits of having one but I never saw the appeal. Id always rather pay a bigger price for the thing I actually want. Also really pisses me off when I can’t have access to a piece of media, so I will turn to archives and other means lol. But yeah, thanks to flea markets, buying movies and music ends up being cheaper actually.
Warner Bros. Discovery removed 87 titles from HBO Max in 2022 and 2023, including finished films it did not release elsewhere. The removals included animated series such as Infinity Train and Summer Camp Island. (Infinity Train was later released on Max and Tubi.)
This was so wack. My fave cartoon of all time Motorcity also never had a physical release and isn’t available seemingly anywhere now, I guess on Apple? Its a Disney XD show and somehow you cant even watch it on their shit.
The Flashpoint Archive has collected over 150,000 Flash apps to preserve them after Adobe’s shutdown. The Internet Archive emulates thousands of retro games.
I love Flashpoint so much, does anyone else use it? It’s like my entire childhood in one spot! I think Flash being shut down the way it was tragic. A lot was saved but a lot was lost too…
In March 2024, Ubisoft shut down the servers for The Crew and removed access from libraries, including for disc owners. The game required an always-online connection to start. The shutdown prompted the founding of , a campaign challenging the practice of rendering purchased games unplayable through server shutdowns.
My brother was very involved and kept up with this situ. Screw Ubisoft.
By 2021, Titanfall had become unplayable online due to unpatched security vulnerabilities exploited by hackers. Owners of the multiplayer-only title, which had retailed for $60, could no longer access the game.
This one hurt me personally.
I think my personal prize for worst company bullshit has to go to Nintendo when they tried to brick people’s modded 3Ds’s or something with an update that came years after the console was already discontinued…
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I use Flashpoint! I downloaded it for Poptropica, but I really ought to play some of the other games on there. I’m glad people worked to preserve so many flash games
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hell yeah, Ive maybe played Poptropica only a handful of times but I remember it being fun. I first found flashpoint when I was desperately looking for this game called Avatar U that used to be on the teennick site. Not a very good game but essential part of my childhood
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I always buy the physical copies of games when they’re available because I’ve been burned on losing my entire Wii digital library when the Wii Shop shut down. It’s not too big of a deal because now you can mod your Wii and acquire ROMs, but Nintendo actively shuts down modding projects for their consoles all the time.
This issue is beyond games/music/movies/tv, etc too.
I miss the era of computing where you had your own collection of software and data and files that lived on your device. Your computer was the repository of your digital life. Your photos, music, documents, movies, games, were all in one place and were all yours. It brought a nice sense of physicality and ownership to computing.
But now everything is a subscription that lives in the cloud. Nothing is local anymore. And just like this blog says, it can be taken away from you at any time. Just this morning, Sony announced that they’re shutting down the digital stores for the PS3 and PS Vita (The Verge) while at the same time announcing that new Playstation games won’t be available physically starting January 2028. You would think they would understand the irony of making these announcements on the same day…
Obviously the cloud and cloud-based services are a cool innovations that make new features possible. But it’s become the default when it isn’t the best solution all the time.
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I’m a big fan of physical media, but I also like DRM-free digital files that you actually own. My spouse and I have a nice collection of music downloaded from Bandcamp, for example. It’s cool to be able to save space and stream from our Jellyfin server, and I can always make a CD if I want.
So I feel like the main issue is not owning things. If I can still read an ebook when the online store dies, that’s fine. If not… That sucks.
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