Does average person understand that all disc media dies too?

Sony is phasing out disc-based games, raising a question on Hacker News about consumer understanding: do people realize that physical media—whether games, movies, or music—doesn't last forever? CDs and DVDs degrade over time, often within decades. Most consumers assume that owning a disc means they own it permanently, but the physical media itself eventually fails, separate from any corporate decision to stop manufacturing or supporting it. It's a blind spot in consumer awareness: people conflate format obsolescence with media durability, unaware that their collection is literally degrading on the shelf.

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