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Xbox Head Proclaims Blu-ray Dead
Blacklaw writes "Microsoft has sided with Apple in a rare case of solidarity between the two companies, and declares that Blu-ray will be 'passed by' as a high-definition format. In many ways, it's hard to disagree. US markets have seen the demand for legal digital downloads of PC games exceed sales of the physical object for the first time, and Apple famously refuses to put a Blu-ray drive in its Macs, as Jobs prefers to send people towards iTunes to download their entertainment. That said, there's an argument for physical media, too. A recent survey suggested that the majority of gamers prefer physical discs, and digital downloads have the secondary effect of entirely cutting out the popular market for second-hand films and games — a plus for publishers, but a big negative for the consumer."
Eventually, yes...but I think optical media will still be around for a while.
Purely from a gaming perspective, it will be interesting to see if Microsoft includes Blu-Ray in its next Xbox. I doubt the next Xbox will be far enough in the future to support only digital downloads (due to ISP bandwith concerns), they won't be able to just stick with DVD9, and they would be pretty stupid to try to release their own optical format.
All that being said, I'll agree that Blu-Ray is likely the last (or the second to last) optical media standard that will ever hit mainstream status.
Living With a Nerd
In a sense, you are correct in that media publishers have always sought the advantage of being able to control access to their content so that they can charge you many times for the same thing. It's not enough that they can "print money" by charging excessively for that which cost them pennies to produce, now they want to charge repeatedly for things that cost an order of magnitude less to produce.
I have already said "goodbye" to paying for TV. With my last move, I was unsuccessful in bribing the cable internet installer to "forget to block the TV signal" which meant I was faced with (a) hacking on the physical cables and locking devices, (b) paying for the TV services or (c) doing without. I went with option (c). I would simply rather do without. Turns out that while I get fewer digital TV channels than I did with analog, I get some in hi-def and I can watch The Big Bang Theory for free. And while I don't get access to everything else I might want to see, I have found that I don't miss it as much as I thought I would and can do without just fine.
Getting away from the various sources of media has been an interesting experience and I find that it doesn't harm me in the least. On the contrary, I think it was actually good for me.
People are largely addicted to their media streams and are unaware of what their life might be like without all that noise to fill the empty moments and spaces. I'm here to say, it's not that bad! I got a new bicycle and I ride it. It's fun! Build things! Create things! This is how we used to entertain ourselves back in the day and it still seems to work.
What is being redefined, slowly but surely, is what rights you have as a computer user, what your computer is allowed to do, and what rights you have to "purchases" of content. Using encryption marks you for greater scrutiny by law enforcement. In some people's minds, merely using DeCSS or other software is against the law. It gets worse every day, in a little less freedom here and a little less freedom there.