Phil Harrison: physical media to be obsolete, babies will want digital

The end of physical media is nigh! That’s according to Phil Harrison, at least. See, he’s “pretty confident [kids] will never buy a physical media product” in the future – that’s counting CDs, DVDs, games in boxes… Man, could you imagine talking to your future kid? “Err, daddy what’s a dee-vee-dee? Daddy, is it a title of an emo song?”

Here’s a bold remark from former Sony boss, now-turned Infogrames prez Phil Harrison: he thinks that physical media will be facing some rather tough times within the next generation or two.

ThereÂ’s a generation of kids being born today and probably already alive who IÂ’m pretty confident will never buy a physical media product. They will never buy a DVD, they will never buy a CD, and they will never buy a game in a box.

Not a surprising thing to say, coming from Harrison. Maybe he’s trying to convince himself on the matter. He did, after all (along with Atari CEO David Gardner), proclaim that Atari – a subsidiary of Infogrames – will have 90% of their products online in five years’ time.

Talk on digital distribution and its effects on physical media isn’t all that new. While Harrison and the rest of Atari may think that we’re nearing the end of the physical media era, the other side of the spectrum has Sony: their take on the matter is that the PSP Store DLC isn’t a harbinger of death for the UMD format.

If Harrison’s prediction proves true, can you already picture it? Fancy talking to your kid about the Age of Discs in the future: “Err, daddy what’s a dee-vee-dee disc? And uh, I don’t think I even know what a ‘disc’ is. Daddy, is it a title of an emo song?”

• Atari to become ‘just an online company’ in five years
• Sony exec: PlayStation Store DLC not a UMD-killer

Via Edge