RIP VHS

[Captain Obvious]

Yeah, that's why they were one of the first to jump on the CD bandwagon, getting together with a company called Sony to develop a CD-based console . Of course, it's true that they backed out eventually and Sony went on to develop the PlayStation alone, but I don't think this had anything to do with Nintendo suddenly deciding cartridges would remain around forever.

I know the history, I was just trying to make a poorly thought-out joke.

 

[ChrisReid]

This Ashton place you live sounds like a very dark, scary place. Around here PC gaming is still going just fine.

It's only stable for a couple select genres, and even those are transitioning to consoles (RTS, TBS, MMO games). PC revenue used to make up the majority of earnings for publishers/retailers like Electronic Arts or GameStop. It's shrunk to 10% now. Games for cell phones are up to 5%. We're probably a couple years from cell phone games passing PC games.

I think flash memory is the way of the future when it comes to owning physical copies of media. It's almost infinitely expandable and requires no moving parts so very little energy and very few possibilities of mechanical breakdown.

Those are great qualities for flash memory to have, but to actually change to flash memory there have to be reasons why they're not just great, but better than their optical disc counterparts. As much as flash has improved over the last few years, discs are just getting cheaper with greater capacity as well. I would have said that handhelds were a good place for flash media to take over, but UMDs work fine in the PSP. The PSP doesn't have big issues with energy consumption and disc drive breakdowns, and these are practically nonissues with current consoles.

 

[Bandit LOAF]

It's only stable for a couple select genres, and even those are transitioning to consoles (RTS, TBS, MMO games). PC revenue used to make up the majority of earnings for publishers/retailers like Electronic Arts or GameStop. It's shrunk to 10% now. Games for cell phones are up to 5%. We're probably a couple years from cell phone games passing PC games.

Yup. The PC gaming sections of Gamestops and Best Buys everywhere are shrinking into nothingness to make room for more big plastic guitars... and the few mom and pop gaming stores left in this area don't even stock PC games.

 

[Ptarmigan]

I think flash memory is the way of the future when it comes to owning physical copies of media. It's almost infinitely expandable and requires no moving parts so very little energy and very few possibilities of mechanical breakdown.

Though future generations might not be as sentimental and owning hard copies of something will probably become less necessary. I could see PC games disappearing of the shelves entirely within only a decade or two. They practically have already.

I see that too. Blu-Ray kinda like Laser Disc, not too popular. Laser Discs were common in schools from what I remember. I don't know anyone who has a Blu-Ray or PS3.

 

[frostytheplebe]

Those are great qualities for flash memory to have, but to actually change to flash memory there have to be reasons why they're not just great, but better than their optical disc counterparts. As much as flash has improved over the last few years, discs are just getting cheaper with greater capacity as well. I would have said that handhelds were a good place for flash media to take over, but UMDs work fine in the PSP. The PSP doesn't have big issues with energy consumption and disc drive breakdowns, and these are practically nonissues with current consoles.

Well the problem with Flash drives is their price is for memory, and the price has gone way down from what I've seen. I got a real bargain... on sale I got a 64gb one for $80.

 

[Vinman]

Yup. The PC gaming sections of Gamestops and Best Buys everywhere are shrinking into nothingness to make room for more big plastic guitars... and the few mom and pop gaming stores left in this area don't even stock PC games.

It really makes me miss Egghead even more.

 

[ChrisReid]

I see that too. Blu-Ray kinda like Laser Disc, not too popular. Laser Discs were common in schools from what I remember. I don't know anyone who has a Blu-Ray or PS3.

Get some more friends, dude. About 1 in 8 homes have a Bluray player now with that projected to be 1 in 6 by the end of the year. There's already 50% more PS3s sold than there were LaserDisc players even made. The Blu-ray version of The Dark Knight sold 1.7 million copies in its first week.