Press F for physical media

There seems to be an uproar on the Internet at the news that Sony will cease making physical game discs for its PlayStation console starting in January of 2028. High speed broadband Internet is so ubiquitous that it doesn’t make sense to waste resources on physical media, packaging, and shipping. Sony certainly has data reflecting gamers’ preference for digital downloads. Steam has perfected this on the PC side for decades. When is the last time you bought a physical copy of a PC game?

Of course, human nature is such that it’s painful to take away something from them. Even if that thing is something they seldom use. You may not have purchased a physical game in years, but you quite like the idea that the option is always there. Now that Sony is taking that away, you write loudly on the Internet at the injustice.

Even taking on Sony’s reasoning for this move to be true, it’s absolute a background ploy to make more money. Digital-only distribution means games cannot be shared. Nor can there be a secondary market for used games. The reason Rockstar is charging only $79 for Grand Theft Auto 6 is because anyone that wishes to play, has to buy. The physical version is only a glorified case with a code to download the game. Surely that code is one time use.

There other loss here is the inability to showcase your collection of games. Bookcases full of game titles will have a definite cut-off point in terms of newness. As someone that prefers analog and tactile, I can understand that pain. Half the reason I buy physical books is to display them on the shelves. You can tell I am a learned man when you see my stocked bookshelves in my Zoom background (tongue fully in cheek).

The one real concern for physical disc aficionados is that when games are solely in the digital realm, the distributor controls the access. You don’t really own the games - you’re at the mercy of Sony in continuing to support the PlayStation platform. It’s a fair question to ask whether or not PlayStation 5 games will still be active when the PlayStation 6 or 7 era come around. Even if you are fully trusting of Sony’s intentions, it doesn’t sit well with people that the potential will soon exist.

But honestly: how often have you gone back to replay a game?

That said, I am optimistic that our friends on the high seas will ensure copies of games will exist outside of Sony’s walled garden. And if that garden ever goes away, coders will surely whip up emulators to replace. It’s the same mechanism that’s been supporting retro gaming for many many years.

I shall still proverbially pour one out for the physical game disc.

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One two three.

The digital driving you

Apple iPhone users in California can now add their driver license onto the wallet app. Supposedly, we can use this mobile license at TSA checkpoints at select airports (including my local SFO). I don’t know about you, but I will for sure still bring my actual driver license. I wouldn’t want to miss a flight on the off chance that TSA refuses to accept the digital version (or the scanner goes down). The same way I still carry at least one physical credit card with me, just in case the digital cards momentarily stop working. Or my iPhone dies a sudden death.

It’s kind of iffy, isn’t it? To put everything important into one singular failure point. A thing that runs on battery is liable to fail at anytime, without rhyme or reason. I can understand those who would never take an electric vehicle on a long road trip. Let’s say my iPhone stops working while I am out driving. But my driver license and insurance information is stored on the device! Does that mean I can’t legally drive - whilst carrying a nonfunctioning phone?

That’s not going to be a problem until a time when law enforcement accepts the digital California driver license. As of right now, we still have to bring the physical card with us out on the road.

Not that anyone should hand over their smartphone to a cop so willingly. I think the idea is to eventually have officers be able to scan our digital licenses? The same way we tap our phones at pay terminals in a store. This would be great a car dealership. No longer can sleazy salespeople hold your license hostage while they browbeat you into buying a car at their price. You want to see my driver license? Here, scan the this. I think that would be brilliant.

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Forever good friends.

Not a fan of digital dash in cars

The hot trend in new vehicles these days is the replacement of traditional gauges in the instrument binnacle with an entirely digital LCD panel. Audi was one of the first to do this with their ‘virtual cockpit’ system, and just about every other manufacturer has or is following suit. Modern Mercedes Benz cars don’t even try to hide the fact it’s digital: the dash is just one wide flatscreen panel, as if someone simply glued a tablet on.

I guess we have the smartphone to thank for this development, and tangentially, Tesla. People prefer lots information available at a glance, so if you want Google Maps navigation overlaid on the typical engine RPM and speed dials, digital is the only way to achieve this. It’s likely cheaper to manufacture, too: one giant LCD panel with software development, versus engineering analog dials gauges in fancy shapes and sizes.

When the Audi virtual cockpit first debut, I was quite impressed: to have the navigation maps directly in front of your vision is more natural and useful than having to look away towards the right (or left for my UK brethren) at the infotainment screen. It’s probably safer, too. Audi’s system also allows configuration for the tachometer be in the center, which is the proper position in my opinion, especially in a car with any modicum of sporting intentions.

As the technology have proliferated throughout automotive spectrum, I’m not so sure anymore about having a completely digital instrument panel. Partly because I love the intricacies and mechanicalness of analog dials (like a fine mechanical watch), and partly due to the concerns about repair cost. We all know how expensive to fix our broken smartphones, so it’s not a stretch to think that if and when the electronics fail on those digital instrument panels, the repair bill will be quite substantial.

But what am I saying? Our generation love leasing and buying things on payment; who’s going to keep a car long enough for the LCD dash to fail anyways.

Lots of Lobstah makes me happy.

Words in digital form

With the advent of digital readers such as the iPad, the way people read books, magazines, and periodicals has changed from the analog medium to one that is entirely digital. For sure it saves the planet infinite amount of trees if the entire production of the aforementioned reading material goes from paper to ones and zeros.

I have tried viewing books and magazines in digital form. I must say for magazines it is great. Most of the time I skim through them anyways. Then I throw it away thus saving me a lot of waste when I can just download them in the PDF format to view them. Not to mention magazines are a full color large format thus it looks absolutely fantastic on a large monitor.

As for books, err not so much. Sure it is just as much of a ease to read them in the digital format as is magazines, but something about having the actual book in my hands still feels much more substantial. Beside, nothing shows you are well read to others when they visit your home and see bookshelf filled with books. You can't really do that with your iBookshelf now can you?

Newspapers you say? I get my news online ever since I got an internet connection. Never was a fan of the ink stain on your finger newspaper form of news delivery.