Episode #173: The Long, Slow Death of Physical Media

Fuel Your Fandom

Feb 16 2024 • 1 hr 38 mins

Not every technology has what it takes to survive. As the inevitable progress of tech has unwaveringly marched on, we've seen countless types of storage media come and go. Punch cards gave way to refrigerator-sized disc drives, which in turn gave way to floppies, then smaller floppies, then magnetic drives, optical drives, solid state and now cloud and streaming data. It's all efficient, convenient, and cheap. That said, the slow death of physical media hasn't been without its share of problems. As long as a given piece of information only exists as ones and zeros in the ether somewhere, there exists rampant opportunity for chicanery – such as a gaming executive going on record as saying, "You'll need to get comfortable not owning your games." In this episode, Saint and Jim break down what the death of hard storage means to those of us who enjoy entertainment. And believe this: the irony of doing so on a podcast isn't lost on either of them.