3 ms·
Honestly, I've had many more game CDs (or DVDs) fail than I've lost access to Steam games. Sure, in the long run, physical storage beats anything, but in the me
by tsimionescu 2y ago
Honestly, I've had many more game CDs (or DVDs) fail than I've lost access to Steam games. Sure, in the long run, physical storage beats anything, but in the medium term, and for regular users, it's actually very likely to deteriorate quickly.
- mathgeek 2y agoIn the long term, most original physical media will degrade over a few decades. It's the ability to create new backups/copies and port media to new formats that beats everything.
- actionfromafar 2y agoPressed media will last an incredibly long time if produced correctly and not subjected to violence.
- mathgeek 2y agoSome CD-specific stats here from about 16 years ago at the Library of Congress (which thankfully disregards CD-R's and the like): https://www.loc.gov/preservation/resources/rt/CDservicelife_rev.pdf https://www.loc.gov/preservation/resources/rt/CDservicelife_...
- actionfromafar 2y agoIf I read that correctly, about half of the CDs will have failed after 200 years.
- mathgeek 2y agoThat's my reading of it as well. For personal archival purposes, that's very risky. For "some of it will survive" purposes it's great.
- ajsnigrutin 2y agoSure, but you can rip it, save it, backup it, restore it from a backup, "download the backup from a torrent site", etc. It stays available. Even other media, like gameboy/nes/snes/... cartridges can be ripped and stored for eternity, and full game collections are easy to store on current storage mediums. Most people will play the game when they buy it, for some time... in modernish times, the cd/dvd will be used only once (no one expects you to keep the cd in the drive anymore when playing), so the disc should be good for a decade+, much more than most of the modern game services stay online, and requiring them even for single player games is a scam.