Hideo Kojima raises concerns about extinction of physical media: “Аccess to it may suddenly be cut off”
In the era of digital data, you can’t fully own the things you buy. And that’s what famous game designer Hideo Kojima is afraid of, speaking about the future without physical media.
The Metal Gear creator shared his thoughts on August 6. “CDs will be gone soon,” Kojima wrote. “When I think about it, I still buy them. Even though I have them in bulk.”
It led to him speaking about the world where people will no longer own digital data. According to Kojima, “access to it may suddenly be cut off” whenever there is a major change or accident in the world, government, idea, or trend.
“We will not be able to freely access the movies, books, and music that we have loved,” the game designer wrote. “I would be a have-not. That’s what I’m afraid of. This is not greed.”
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Eventually, even digital data will no longer be owned by individuals on their own initiative. 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.— HIDEO_KOJIMA (@HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN) August 5, 2021
Kojima’s words make sense when looking at the statistics of digital game sales. Over the last few years, a lot of companies started to make the majority of their revenues from digital copies, less relying on physical sales.
According to SuperData, players spent $126.6 billion on digital games in 2020. Of course, mobile and free-to-play titles accounted for most of this sum, but the trend of going fully digital is here.
Kojima’s concerns also come amid the rise of subscription services like Xbox Game Pass. Buying digital copies or paying a monthly fee to play games is way more convenient than purchasing disks, but there is also a chance that people’s libraries might be gone due to various factors.
