Source
- URL: https://x.com/NOTimothyLottes/status/1942665939368997359
- Author: NOTimothyLottes (@NOTimothyLottes)
- Posted: 2025-07-08 19:23:47
Thread
1/ @NOTimothyLottes
[0] “Physical Video Games are Dying…” MVG’s take: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeQ2ukszcq8
Some expanded thoughts on this …
2/ @NOTimothyLottes
[1] I prefer cartridges over digital, most of my game purchases are actually new games for vintage consoles (like NES), and these are physical carts. Last one I bought was https://www.homebrew-factory.com/nes/57-changeable-guardian-estique-nes.html
3/ @NOTimothyLottes
[2] I still buy laserdiscs for old movies, prefer it over getting compression artifacts. If I could buy LDs for modern movies I would do that.
4/ @NOTimothyLottes
[3] Lets talk though about the big problem with non-cart physical games and preservation: Optical ROT! The discs don’t last all that long. My favorite games for PS1 and PS2, they don’t work any more, even on PS1s and PS2s with rebuilt lasers [have a few PS1s and PS2s, not the HW]
5/ @NOTimothyLottes
[4] The ultimate problem with optical media: you’d need to periodically make a copy before the introduction of errors. Which means the only way to actually preserve your ability to play those games is with cracked and modified console HW.
6/ @NOTimothyLottes
[5] One plus side to modern digital at least: my PS4 bricked itself on one of the updates, eventually I bought a PS5, and my entire PS4 library was there and playable. Yet I don’t like to play emulated CRT-era systems, so that wouldn’t fix PS1/PS2/PS3 era stuff IMO.
7/ @NOTimothyLottes
[6] My PS5 doesn’t seem to like to start in 720p (my CRT doesn’t do 1080p), so it’s a pain waiting a long time pressing buttons on a blank screen to get it into 720p. So well the PS4 to PS5 “upgrade” wasn’t all an upgrade … cannot count on future always being better
8/ @NOTimothyLottes
[7] In the old days without using the internet, we fixed for continuous updates for open-source at least via grabbing the latest set of CDs from places like Walnut Creek CDROM [how I got updated FreeBSD/Linux/etc]. The economy existed for cheep optical production.
9/ @NOTimothyLottes
[8] At least some amount of modern game production hits the problem of development that is past an early gold physical media date. Meaning bugs/patches that could have only gone out after a physical copy was cut …
10/ @NOTimothyLottes
[9] Given the complexity of systems and games, and especially with games that are connecting to servers, is it actually possible to completely validate before release? … the answer is likey not for current costs … and systems are volatile too, later driver update = bugs …
11/ @NOTimothyLottes
[10] Physical media worked in the era where systems didn’t get updates, or the game is on HW that had no OS. I would love to go back to an OS-free HW, but how would any HW startup compete with modern OEM scale … hint it only works on vintage-like systems
12/ @NOTimothyLottes
[11] Lets not forget that the age of digital media in theory enabled the small indie guy/gal, because you are not at the mercy of a partnership with some massive physical media production/sales/etc. Even though it worked out in the end only half true …
13/ @NOTimothyLottes
[12] Today indie new-games on vintage HW are getting small run carts. Cheers to that. And well market saturation basically undid the advantage of digital, because any small game is always fighting for eyeball time …
14/ @NOTimothyLottes
[13] I hope the pairing of easy vintage physical media with new vintage games is keeping some creatives doing what they love and making a living at it, but most of them appear to be making digital ports for modern HW to make enough money, which is a lot more complexity too
15/ @NOTimothyLottes
[14] Using the console’s SSD as a cache is perhaps one extreme where a game’s physical content exceeds the practical costs of physical HW, and a case where it’s fully server side content, this can enable things that are not strictly possible with physical media …
16/ @NOTimothyLottes
[15] For instance globally persistent multiplayer game, where your actions change the world for every player, or yield new content generation. One can both love physical media, and well also love what is possible with a pure digital setup
17/ @NOTimothyLottes
[16] The physical SD card as a cart is still ripe with issues for preservation because the SD card will rot just like SSDs rot, due to temp, due to not being used, etc. If we want long term preservation, that needs to be solved
18/ @NOTimothyLottes
[17] Enabling a balance between needs of individual ownership, ability for game devs to make money, and ability for the platform holder to stay profitable is actually a very hard problem …
19/ @NOTimothyLottes
[18] Ownership with right to repair, means ability to make and use a copy before it degrades. Right to repair would also need ability to replace the HW if it goes bad. So locking a copy to a specific HW wouldn’t solve it either
20/ @NOTimothyLottes
[19] It’s easy to get emotional about this topic and fail to dissociate the systems that evolve from challenging real world constraints at the corporate level (VS) the indent/hopes/dreams of individuals at these companies
21/ @NOTimothyLottes
[20] I’m personally always amazed at the effort put into back compat, because in many respects it solves the HW rot problem, along with digital copies, which solves the media rot problem … continued existence requires refreshes
22/ @NOTimothyLottes
[21] Also if you look at what is emerging as alternative methods of funding from consumers, like pre-funding, or post-vertical-slice funding via “kickstarters”, maybe the extreme of that would enable practical traditional physical media that is DRM free
23/ @NOTimothyLottes
[22] Meaning at root the challenges with easy-to-copy media is producer profitability … making it profitable before production removes the risks, and sequels enables re-biasing value based on new consumer expectations