cross-posted from: https://discuss.online/post/43234456

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/51600451

via: https://designthinkingcomic.substack.com/p/dt-comic-that-thing-you-love

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/49846070

Sega is the latest publisher to make its views about physical media clear, in the wake of Sony's controversial decision to kill off the manufacture and sale of discs by 2028. The president of the Japanese publisher, Shuji Utsumi, noted that he believes physical media is still important, though digital distribution is "crucial", mostly thanks to the "steadily increasing" number of people playing on PC.

"When it comes to titles we call 'full games' for consoles and PCs, we believe that a digital shift is crucial," he notes in an interview with Japanese publication Famitsu. "Of course, consoles are important, but the proportion of people who play on PCs is steadily increasing. Even in areas where consoles are not widely available, there are many people who say, 'I can play it on PC.

"In order to cultivate that market, we believe it is important to strengthen our digitalisation. We tend to think from a physical perspective, so I think we need to be more digitally conscious and become more global."

He then draws on Sega's own legacy, noting that - once upon a time - the company was in the hardware market itself. It learned some pretty important lessons back then, and since dropping out of the hardware race, Sega has found massive success as a publisher. This seems to colour Utsumi's belief in physical media.

"We were originally a platform provider, and of course, we still value the culture of physical media. Rather than completely abandoning that, we are currently challenging ourselves to shift so that we can think about and act on the important aspects of digital media in parallel."

Given the response to Sony and PlayStation's decision to move away from physical media altogether, this is quite refreshing. Many have outlined how a digital-only future could impact consumer rights, whilst others have begun petitioning Sony in the hopes the company will change its mind. The hardware giant seems immovable in its stance at the moment, however, likely emboldened by the fact that even the EU will be unable to influence its decision.

Other creators have begun weighing in on the matter, too, with the most recent comments coming from the creator of the RPG series, Disgaea. Sohei Niikawa believes that if PlayStation kills physical media, it should "get rid of the hardware" too.

Supposedly the change of heart came after "the first security incident that I have felt very viscerally," the Huggingface escape. To me it sounds like he's worried about the competition breathing down his neck and wants someone to come in and call a time-out.

Artificial intelligence labs are in a new arms race to buy up millions of rare books, slicing them open, scanning the pages and pulping the remains — sparking concerns that the last remaining copies of out-of-print texts are being destroyed on an industrial scale.

ISBNdb notes that “print books from the pre-LLM era are structurally guaranteed to be free of this contamination”.

“Millions of the most valuable books have never been digitised. They exist only in physical form, scattered across library shelves, used bookstores, and out-of-print catalogues. We get them to you at scale.”

Going by comments in the post, the required login is coming in waves, so not all people may notice immediately.

Still, as Reddit is strong-arming its way across, maybe worth signaling to people there that the fediverse may be used without an account, so long as there's even one instance that implements logged-out view as the protocol allows it?

I don't have access to my account any longer, possibly VPN ban, though I never tried to recover it so I can only guess why mine is lost, else I'd post myself.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/49846070

Sega is the latest publisher to make its views about physical media clear, in the wake of Sony's controversial decision to kill off the manufacture and sale of discs by 2028. The president of the Japanese publisher, Shuji Utsumi, noted that he believes physical media is still important, though digital distribution is "crucial", mostly thanks to the "steadily increasing" number of people playing on PC.

"When it comes to titles we call 'full games' for consoles and PCs, we believe that a digital shift is crucial," he notes in an interview with Japanese publication Famitsu. "Of course, consoles are important, but the proportion of people who play on PCs is steadily increasing. Even in areas where consoles are not widely available, there are many people who say, 'I can play it on PC.

"In order to cultivate that market, we believe it is important to strengthen our digitalisation. We tend to think from a physical perspective, so I think we need to be more digitally conscious and become more global."

He then draws on Sega's own legacy, noting that - once upon a time - the company was in the hardware market itself. It learned some pretty important lessons back then, and since dropping out of the hardware race, Sega has found massive success as a publisher. This seems to colour Utsumi's belief in physical media.

"We were originally a platform provider, and of course, we still value the culture of physical media. Rather than completely abandoning that, we are currently challenging ourselves to shift so that we can think about and act on the important aspects of digital media in parallel."

Given the response to Sony and PlayStation's decision to move away from physical media altogether, this is quite refreshing. Many have outlined how a digital-only future could impact consumer rights, whilst others have begun petitioning Sony in the hopes the company will change its mind. The hardware giant seems immovable in its stance at the moment, however, likely emboldened by the fact that even the EU will be unable to influence its decision.

Other creators have begun weighing in on the matter, too, with the most recent comments coming from the creator of the RPG series, Disgaea. Sohei Niikawa believes that if PlayStation kills physical media, it should "get rid of the hardware" too.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.ca/c/games@lemmy.world/p/869515/game-pass-was-supposed-to-save-xbox-instead-its-killing-the-company

"Netflix for games" has proven to be far from the ideal solution.