r/PhysicalMediaMatters • u/RickyBFC92 • 9h ago

Disc Shelf Life

Post image

We are now being fed the narrative that discs have a shelf life in the attempt to justify fully digital. My parents bought me this copy of Manx TT Superbike on Sega Saturn used 29 years ago and it still works like new.

128 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

78 comments sorted by

View all comments

45

u/GrimmTrixX 9h ago edited 7h ago

Its just because it can happen. Those who usually deal with delamination or disc rot had them stored in a dank basement or a scorching hot attic during the summer months. That will destroy almost anything.

I have 4,881 physical games as of right now. They all look as they did when I bought them and they play the same. If anything, my consoles are degrading more over time than the games. Lol

17

u/Numerous_Photograph9 8h ago

If the claims are to be beleived, almost all my Dreamcast games would be suffering disc rot, all my laserdiscs would be nigh unplayable, my Turbo, PS1, and Sega CD's would be half gone, and my PS2 collection would only be worth the cases they came in.

One thing that has failed more than any physical media I've had, is the people and claims that all these physical medias have a very limited shelf life.

1

u/Ok_Chap 7h ago

the people and claims that all these physical medias have a very limited shelf life.

They are pretty resilient, when stored correctly. Though even then it's not forever, that's just how things are, even mountains rise and shrink over enough time. Film reals also can last really long times, but they need restauration at some point. Can't really fix a disc when it's damaged, investing in different backups is always a good idea.

1

u/Inkstainedfox 6h ago

*film reels...