Prince Albert store weighs in on protecting physical media

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Another part of the argument surrounding the gaming industry is the lack of content provided with physical copies today compared to what used to come in the box. Older games would come with a manual, booklets explaining lore of the game, sometimes maps and posters related to the world of the game, secondary discs containing demos of other upcoming games, and more. Now most game discs don’t even have a manual in the case, just the disc with empty tabs to hold a non-existent manual. 

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According to Beeds however, other forms of physical media are coming with more extra content than ever. Lots of today’s movies come with secondary discs containing bloopers and director’s commentary, but it’s vinyl records that are really adding extra value for their listeners. 

“You get little posters inside these vinyls these days. There’s so many amazing things that come with the vinyl when it’s your favorite musician. I bought an expanded Eminem LP, and it came with a lot of cool things. I can’t even remember everything that was in it. Nice poster in one of them. You just don’t know what’s going to come. Every artist is different in what they want to do for their fans. Taylor Swift puts a lot of weird things in her vinyls.” 

A large reason for the switch to streaming services is the access it gives compared to the price. A person can spend about $8.99 per month for Netflix’s lowest tier subscription, and they can get access to hundreds of movies and TV shows. Someone buying physical DVDs would pay the same price for just one movie. Music and gaming have similar services such as Spotify and PlayStation+, pay a monthly fee and you get access to all the music you want, or in the gaming side you get access to a select list of games. 

The problem with streaming services and online purchases is that the service can decide whether or not to host your preferred media on their site. One day you could be watching your favourite movie, listening to your favourite song, or playing your favourite game, and the next day you could lose access to it because the streaming service no longer carries it.  

With physical media, you have access to what you paid for forever. 

“Everything seems to be slowly obsoleted in the digital world. There’s certain things you can only find on VHS, certain things you can only find on DVD or Blu-ray. There’s specific items that aren’t on digital platforms for people to find and watch.” 

Beeds recalled one family who stopped in recently and has been using physical media as a bonding experience with their kids. 

“I’ve had a family come in and they claim that they shut down every streaming device they have and they bring their kids in once a week.” Beeds continued, “They say they have it forever, and their library, since they’ve done this over the course of two years I believe, has actually accumulated to be a nice little collection of movies and video games that their kids will forever own. They get to go out as a family, find that perfect movie, they each pick one, I think they bought 3 that day, and they go home smiling.” 

Physical media has found a way to survive in the music and movie industries before, and now the clock is ticking towards 2028 for gamers to protect physical media in their own industry.