With the Console Wars officially being over, gamers need something to debate endlessly, and the digital vs physical argument makes for as good a fight as any other. Both positions have clear upsides and downsides, and you’re either in one camp or the other. However, some fresh fuel has just been dumped on the fire: did you know that your physical game collection is rotting as we speak, and the valuable discs themselves, rather than outlasting digital servers forever, are rapidly approaching their use by date?

TheGamer just published a fascinating article that looks into Warner Bros.’ new DVD exchange program for those experiencing premature disc rot, sometimes known as laser rot. Regardless of the name, disc rot refers to the chemical deterioration that affects all discs sooner or later, eventually making them unreadable.

This inevitable fate awaits all CDs, DVDs, and Blu-rays. CDs have a 50- to 100-year lifespan, and DVDs are supposed to last between 30 and 100 years. Despite being the newest iteration, the Blu-ray discs PS5 games are printed on have the shortest life expectancy and are only estimated to last around 20 years under ideal conditions.

As the very oldest DVDs ever produced (such as Push Square Editor Sammy Barker’s beloved Mars Attacks) aren’t even 30 and have already begun to fail, it seems that defective discs were distributed at some point, and Warner Bros. is now attempting to make good.

Disc rot can be postponed by keeping your collection in a cool, dry, environment free of humidity, out of UV light, and sealed to prevent oxidation. Still, that’s assuming that your precious discs were pristine and not defective to begin with.

Streaks, spots, shadows, and other discolouration on the underside are all tell-tale signs that the degradation process is underway. As TheGamer notes, it’s ironic that the best thing you can do to preserve your physical game collection is to back it up digitally.

If you have an extensive collection of PS1 games, some of which may be 30 years or older now, it might be time to entomb them in some sealed preservation chamber or, failing that, fire them up again for the sake of old times. Nothing lasts forever, after all.