Hideo Kojima Worried About Digital-Only Future - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 November 2021 / 4,052 Views
Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima via Twitter says he is worried about the future where physical media no longer exists.
"CDs will be gone soon," said Kojima. "When I think about it, I still buy them. Even though I have them in bulk."
"Eventually, even digital data will no longer be owned by individuals on their own initiative," he added. "Whenever there is a major change or accident in the world, in a country, in a government, in an idea, in a trend, access to it may suddenly be cut off.
"We will not be able to freely access the movies, books, and music that we have loved. I would be a have-not. That's what I'm afraid of. This is not greed."
The digital video games market continues to grow year-over-year. Sony and Microsoft have two next-generation consoles that come without a disc-drive, the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition and Xbox Series S, respectively.
CDs will be gone soon. When I think about it, I still buy them. Even though I have them in bulk. Tangerine Dream box set. pic.twitter.com/iWdM3j2Kyw
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) August 5, 2021
2/2
— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) August 5, 2021
We will not be able to freely access the movies, books, and music that we have loved. I would be a have-not. That's what I'm afraid of. This is not greed.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.
More Articles
As controversial a figure that Kojima is in the gaming world I would find it hard for many to disagree with him.
In fact, this may be the most correct thing he has ever said, lol.
His concerns of a completely digital only future have serious ramifications not only on what we can own and consume but also on other areas like history. Certain films/songs have already been scrubbed off the face of the earth by certain groups due to them being too "controversial" for the times.
It is not outlandish to think that some games that we played even 10 years ago could "offend" some out there and be completely removed from all digital platforms.
Say what you want about those "old school" gamers but their insistence on purchasing physical copies of games may just give them the last laugh.
-VIDEOGAME 1984? NINJA APPROVED-
This is the good thing about the pirating scene is that they can keep a lot of this stuff a live. I personally have my own home media server for all my movies and TV shows. Anything I want to keep is placed on that media server so that it's never lost. 23TB of data with most of it backed up on separate drives.
He speaks the truth. It's okay to have multiple ways to own things. But a future where ownership simply doesn't exist? I think anyone with common sense can see what will come of that--and it's not good.
Every time the server goes down on Xbox live or PSN and you can't access anything , that when you realize how scary what Kojima is saying. Also, during a snow storm our internet got cut off for a few days and my digital only Xbox series X was rendered useless. Imagine living under an authoritarian political system and over night they request that your access to your purchase be revoke. I totally agree with Kojima calling this inevitable but scary.
Well people wont be able to sell physical copies for $2m+ anymore
i buy most of my story driven games physically but with online service focused games i buy digital due to the game changing so much that u end up with a boot disc
it's pretty much got to the point that your just renting a licence now.
Digital only is bad enoug,h, but it also seems like companies are also wanting to keep your content tethered to the Internet so they can control your access to it.
As long as you have SOME type of peripheral in your POSSESSION, which will most likely always be a certain, then technically speaking, digital only is a myth. In other words, sure I may just own...say the controller....buyers will demand storage INTO that controller device, which is capable of keeping all data recorded on it....so data is still in your possession.
I think we should be looking at more like format evolving into storage, rather than format evolving into digital only.
Are you familiar with DRM? You can have the software but still not be able to use it.
Are you familiar with hacking and piracy? You can distribute as many hard copies you'd like but it doesn't stop people from stealing your work.
Would you mind clarifying your line of thought? I'm not quite sure what led you to this comment, so there might be a misunderstanding somewhere.
Fcck no. You heard me. Lol. I'm jk. There definitely was a misunderstanding. One thing, for me at least, is whenever communicating online, everything is implied and nothing is implied at the same time. My original post was implying the removal of certain DRM limitations...if it ever got to the point of all digital.
Recently, something happened to me, and i realized how important the CDs are.
In an attempt to delete a virus on my usb pendrive, i infected all my executable files, installed or uninstalled, on my pc making their sizes 0 Kb. Some of the programs were installed way back 2013. I used to have a habit of backing up all my files on DVDs, but it came to a time i stopped because the stores around my area were not selling them anymore. So i combed through my huge collections of burned DVDs to retrieve some of them. Saviour at last.
Well, this might be a problem in some decades. The "system" will own most of the things and control us!?
I do agree with him... but is do this make it easier or harder for the GP partnership that was rumored?
The problem is there's a pandemic and digital is the safest and logical way to go!
If there wasn't such a virus physical could be going strong to this day!
Physical has been on the decline for many, many years now. It's not about the pandemic, although the pandemic might be speeding up the change.
Gaming industry is funny. This concern about access to games being cut off will never happen in digital world. You see no other industry worried about such phantom menace, only in gaming industry you will see devs pushing this narrative games can suddenly disappear the clouds
Have no idea what happened to you, but Scott Pilgrim is available to purchase on both PS4 and Switch stores, it didn't "dissappeared", the game still there. If companies shut down stores then blame the companies
Before the recent re-release the game was delisted for years, it did disappear for a good while, it wasn't a case of shutting down stores.
@Bristow9091
Ok, the moment I saw this comment I went to my ps3 and re-downloaded scott pilgrim, mvc, and mvc2. I just played all three of them just fine. Aside from my own personal proving, go to psnprofiles and you'll see people have still been playing these games recently
Either something is wrong with your account or you're lying.
Now, you still have a point with the digital future issue. Tetris on IOS is a prime example. People PAID for that and can't access it anymore.
And the fact that 3 people thumbed up the post without actually checking for validation is ridiculous lol
Delisted yes we know that. That wasn't the point of contention. Them not working was.
But they do work. I literally downloaded and played those games after I saw your post. My suggestion is to get in touch with Sony
Because I paid for my versions of those games as well. All I did was go to my download manager and grabbed them and they played just fine. And I'm on the PS3 as well
even go on psnprofiles you see people playing them.
Just tell them you have a license dispute. They do fix them because I had one a few years back
Well games are different because many games are online now, servers can shut down, etc. That’s not really a physical vs digital case I guess though, more just a situation that happens. I own Battleborn digital on Xbox and physical on PS4 and neither work now.
People get caught up in ownership but fail to realize you don’t actually own the game when you buy physical, just a license to use the disc. Personally the convenience of digital far far outweighs any “good feelings” I’d have about buying physical.
Essay Pro