Kaz Hirai believes disc formats aren't dying yet
by Nick Doerr 
{ Oct 5th 2007 at 4:45PM }
Sony is looking into further media expansion with the PS3, implies Hirai, stating they are "reviewing options for other content to be delivered through PLAYSTATION®Network, including music, movies, and TV, all of which can be found in the Sony family of companies." This is probably what brought up the conversation about the future of discs, particularly Blu-ray. Is the disc a dying format? Hirai shakes his head. "Far from it. For many years to come there will be a place at the table for disc-based content in the world of entertainment. It is about offering consumers options. Some may like the convenience of downloading a game at home, while others will always want the experience of going to the store and talking to the clerks and other consumers about the games they are interested in." Well, we personally just like having something tangible -- we gave up money, so having something to show for it is a plus. How many of you guys and gals like having a physical representation of your spent money? Or would you rather just download it all?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Pistolaero @ Oct 5th 2007 5:00PM
As much as I love gaming, I also love collecting. Cracking open a new game will never get old, and taking everything toward the download only medium would kill that for me. No thanks, I like my games shelved nicely next to one another.
pete @ Oct 5th 2007 5:02PM
lets get physical, physical, i wanna get physical...
BurnZ @ Oct 5th 2007 5:06PM
It depends on what it is, sometimes I like to have something to show (EG: DVD/game collection) and others a download is fine.
PSN: Mr_BurnZ
Parker @ Oct 5th 2007 5:06PM
If Warhawk showed us anything is that that people prefer discs over downloads.
DownwardMonkey @ Oct 5th 2007 5:07PM
Most of the people who claim that physical media is dead are utterly out of touch with the real world and the massive number of non-nerds that use computers everyday. My mum for instance isn't as young as she used to be and would never ever want to move away from actually having something she can hold.
QWERTER @ Oct 5th 2007 5:08PM
@1 i no exactly what you mean so yah physical discs all the way
NNatic @ Oct 5th 2007 5:09PM
I think that downloading stuff is convenient at times, but downloading more than a gig is just too painfull at this point in time. I dont know if it is the Sony network or our residential speeds, but it is kind of a pain in the butt to await the finished download. With that being said, i am in favor of discs for some things... music or videos and small games is cool, but that is about it.
Justin @ Oct 5th 2007 5:09PM
I prefer both.
Anghel @ Oct 5th 2007 5:20PM
For me it depends. If I can get either for the same price then I will go for the one I can get the fastest. I am not waiting 2 hours to download something that I can get in a 5 minute drive to the store for the same price.
bored-at-work @ Oct 5th 2007 5:28PM
Physical content for me!! I like to have the option of selling the game if it sucks or just taking it to a friends house if the occasion arises. I also feel you get more for your money by having the disk with the case, the cover art and the manual. Nothing like the feeling of having a brand new game in your hands. I also like the smell of NEW" LOL!!
derrickgott007 @ Oct 5th 2007 5:32PM
Everyone needs to remember that not everyone has blazing fast internet that makes streaming better than a disk. I know my ISP sucks, and if they went to download only I would have to stop gaming.
Nonhippyhippy @ Oct 5th 2007 5:34PM
there is a limit to how big a download can be.. i mean, who is gonna sit on thier ass downloading a massive game like heavenly sword or killzone 2? thats the whole point of blu ray, to have bigger and bigger games.... focusing on downloadable content is why the phantom died..... that and a lack of publishers....
Ste @ Oct 5th 2007 5:34PM
When it comes to games and movies, I prefer something physical. A download just doesn't have the same "feel". For TV shows and music, I do prefer downloading though.
Kyle @ Oct 5th 2007 5:51PM
Everyone is forgetting about storage. Let's say that the average HD disc has 20 gigs of information on it (though many have more). Even though you COULD download all of that with the higher bandwidths available, would you really want to use up all that space on your hard drive? Would you even have a hard drive big enough?
Ten movies would take up 200 gigs. I already have 10 blu-ray movies, enough for 2 and a half PS3 80gb HDDs. I have a collection of nearly 200 DVDs. If my blu-ray collection ever gets that big I will need 4,000gb of storage... and let's hypothetically assume I have a 4,000gb HDD; now that I've filled it up with my movie collection, where, oh where, am I going to install my games?!?
Microdot @ Oct 5th 2007 6:26PM
i would much rather have the download... but, it wont work for all. i have a fiber connection at home, so i have asynchronous 25mb connection.... downloading a 12gb file is nothing for me. but for someone with a basic cable connection, it would take FOREVER.
the broadband market has not kept up here in the united states. it should have been at the state it is now, almost 6 years ago. we are slowly falling behind, with fiber rollouts taking years to accomplish... technology not progressing to the public due to gov red tape, etc. until the majority of homes can see speeds of 10mb plus, its just not feasible to offer 10-20gb worth of content for download. smaller files work fine... but entire games (ie: imagine downloading resistance) just wont work yet.
Justin @ Oct 5th 2007 5:46PM
@ 12, there's THAT, and then there'd be the need for a HUUUUUUUGE hard drive
Bryant @ Oct 5th 2007 5:57PM
Everyone who says and truly believes that physical format is dying are loco. Just like that nerd Bill.
Don @ Oct 5th 2007 6:02PM
I downloaded Warhawk when it first came out on the PS Store. I was originally going to wait for the disc but couldn't take it anymore. If a game is offered on either disc or download, I will wait to get it on the disc from now on. Not that I'm having a problem with the downloaded version other than I can't allow my friends to borrow it and that I'm forced to play it under the account that I set it up under (I have 3 accounts set up for our PS3, 1 for me, 1 for my wife, and 1 for my son). Plus, I just like having something in physical form to show for my money. This is why I think the disc format is here to stay and that all this downloadable media stuff won't become mainstream for quite awhile.
derrickgott007 @ Oct 5th 2007 6:36PM
MicroDot is 100% correct. I work in the High Speed Internet and Cable Tv Field and I totally agree the nation as a whole is 5-10 years behind in internet speeds. Fiber does indeed take a long time to roll out, and smaller towns are left to linger. I live in a town where the fastest internet you can get from the cable provider is 1mg!!! And DSL has a top speed of 3mg!
drdre74 @ Oct 5th 2007 6:42PM
I for 1 am not about to download a 50GB game lol! That would take about a week to download on the PSN. I'd rather have my disc than carry around my PS3 if I go to someone else's house and play. Small games like the new locoroco is fine to download.
Brian Spence @ Oct 5th 2007 7:19PM
I need a disc. I hate the feeling that what I just paid for won't be around. I still have freakin' Atari games somewhere. You can't tell me that I'll still have Flow in 10 years.
Andir3.0 @ Oct 5th 2007 7:34PM
Broadband internet is not yet fully saturated in our lives to get rid of discs.
John @ Oct 5th 2007 10:30PM
I subscribe to the idea of going to the store and getting my hands on the disc, playing it, and then putting it in my library where anyone else can come and "check it out". I like having the box, and the art, and the little book.
I don't like downloading things, paying for things online.
Games are like books. You know the smell of a new game?
You want to keep it around, and check it out 5 or 10 years later, see how you've changed, how you haven't, see how the world around you has changed, see what you learn from the book this time. You want to show it to your grandkids, and say, "We used to work 8 naught 5 hours at a burger place, for scarcely minimum wage, with no health benefits, livin on beans and rice, just so we could have enough come payday for we could buy one of these here contraptions. Go ahead, have a look-see. See that? That's blu-ray, baby. Back in the day, blu-ray was the shizzle, see?"
"What is it?"
"It's a disc. It spins, and a laser beam shoots pulses at it and records the feedback it derives from the data embedded there."
"Sounds like a fairly physical process."
"You would think. But before this, things were even MORE physical. Let me tell you about records..."
*
Also, Kaz Hirai has a much better social sense, globally, of how people respond and react, and live, than previous leaders. He is a gracious person, and he has an understanding of how different regions and 'classes' of people will respond to certain things, and what their habits have been, a gentle ruler in a time of relative peace.
And that's appropriate, but it's also appropriate that Ken was at the helm, when he was, because he was the forger, he was muscle and vision. Now we need someone calm and peaceful, and that is Kaz Hirai.
(Ken will show up again around the ps4 thing but not sure how this plays out)
Carl @ Oct 5th 2007 10:35PM
If you can download it, then you can bootleg it.
Truckondo @ Oct 5th 2007 11:21PM
Having physical media also allows the consumer to sell a game when they are tired of it. Imagine if Madden was download only. You couldn't sell your old copies anymore.
B1gC72 @ Oct 6th 2007 7:51AM
well i would hope that physical media isnt dead considering i just bought this PS3 that was severely overpriced because of the brand new physical media they are pushing. i would much rather have something to show for my purchase as well. plus with my internet connection (satellite broadband, way faster than dial up but not that fast by broadband standards), it would take me longer to download a game than to just go to the store and pick it up.
download only games would be fine for some games such as Warhawk though since it is only playable online anyway. so you dont have to worry about people saying "i cant buy the game cause i dont have broadband" because if they dont have broadband, they cant play the game anyway. so if they were going to do it then i should be done like that as to alienate less people.
LW @ Oct 6th 2007 8:04AM
With downloaded games, what happens when your hard drive fails? No game! The failure rate of hard drives is 100%, it just takes time for that to happen.
I want my games on a disc, except for Warhawk and small arcade-ish type games that you're not going to want to trade-in later.
Justin Meltzer @ Oct 6th 2007 12:16PM
I prefer physical disks, because if something happens to my hardware, this way i don't lose everything i've downloaded on the hard drive. Plus the games are too big (that's why they have blu-ray) to save them all on your hard drive.
PSN: jmeltzer
mccomber @ Oct 6th 2007 2:44PM
Physical formats will be around for a good, long time. I predict that we won't see them completely phased out of the mainstream until the vast majority of buyers are completely used to that concept; I don't think that even todays children will be completely comfortable with the idea of downloading all content, since so much of their media is still based around physical items. Even the music we download from the itunes store, by far the most successful download-only service right now, can be burned to disc very easily. Those saying it will happen within the next decade are dreaming. I doubt many of the "experts" claiming it will happen will even see it within their lifetimes.
For me personally, at the same approx. price, I will always take the physical product.
Frank @ Oct 6th 2007 2:58PM
I think if it's the same price (or very close) most everyone wants the real copy. But I think if they started selling games at a sizable discount a lot more people would go for the download one. If the retail copy is 60 bucks, and the download is 40-50, I'd might take the download one.