Console gamers: Physical discs or Digital files?

[Habsfan18]

What's your preferred method?

Up until very recently I was always very much old school in the sense that I always had to have the physical copy of the game. As a collector, I always loved neatly displaying all of my games stacked together on shelving units.

But over time, I've come to appreciate the convenience and ease of going digital. Not only does it save a ton of space in the house, but you can buy a game from your couch and be playing it in no time at all. Plus, as a Canadian, the Playstation Store doesn't charge tax on digital titles (Xbox still does unfortunately) so for a $79.99 game that's essentially a savings of $10 just like that. And hey, not to sound lazy but who doesn't love having a bunch of digital games in your console instead of having to eject and switch discs every time you want to play a new one . Plus with pre-downloads for pre-orders you can pretty much play instantly at midnight if you so wish.

I've also come to realize that games will typically go on sale a lot quicker digitally than they will for the disc based copies, so my digital collection has quickly grown.

So what about you guys? What's your preference?

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[Gardner McKay]

What's your preferred method?

Up until very recently I was always very much old school in the sense that I always had to have the physical copy of the game. As a collector, I always loved neatly displaying all of my games stacked together on shelving units.

But over time, I've come to appreciate the convenience and ease of going digital. Not only does it save a ton of space in the house, but you can buy a game from your couch and be playing it in no time at all. Plus, as a Canadian, the Playstation Store doesn't charge tax on digital titles (Xbox still does unfortunately) so for a $79.99 game that's essentially a savings of $10 just like that. And hey, not to sound lazy but who doesn't love having a bunch of digital games in your console instead of having to eject and switch discs every time you want to play a new one . Plus with pre-downloads for pre-orders you can pretty much play instantly at midnight if you so wish.

I've also come to realize that games will typically go on sale a lot quicker digitally than they will for the disc based copies, so my digital collection has quickly grown.

So what about you guys? What's your preference?

Disc all the way. Part of it is me being old school and wanting to support stores like GameStop and keep them around. Part of it is me enjoying being able to trade in games that either I beat very quick or absolutely suck.

 

[SpookyTsuki]

Digital. Discs if you didn't have to install them

Though I might still go digital anyway. Because discs break easy

 

[Big McLargehuge]

I'm 50/50. Certain games I want to own a physical copy of, certain games I want the physical copy because I expect I'll want to trade it in at some point, and the others I don't really care.

For now I'm physical copies only for PS4 because of having a launch hard drive that can't fit squat. I'm more open to digital games on the XBone because I just have a simple external HD hooked up to it, so no space issues there.

 

[RussianRifle27]

Physical. You can trade them in when you're done/don't like them. You should have to get off your arse and go into public if you want to buy something.

 

[Habsfan18]

I'm 50/50. Certain games I want to own a physical copy of, certain games I want the physical copy because I expect I'll want to trade it in at some point, and the others I don't really care.

For now I'm physical copies only for PS4 because of having a launch hard drive that can't fit squat. I'm more open to digital games on the XBone because I just have a simple external HD hooked up to it, so no space issues there.

Yeah, the lack of hard drive space does suck on the PS4, but the good thing with having unlimited GB for downloads through Cogeco is that I can just uninstall games if I'm not planning on playing them for awhile and I can re-install them whenever I want. Installing a 50GB game isn't exactly super quick though.

 

[Commander Clueless]

If it's a new-ish game, I usually go physical for the trade in value plus there tends to be more deals available for physical at or around release (ex. Amazon Prime) - at least in recent experience that is.


If it's an older one, I tend to look for a digital sale. More convenient plus older titles have very little trade in anyway.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Physical. You can trade them in when you're done/don't like them. You should have to get off your arse and go into public if you want to buy something.

It's been at least a calendar year since I've bought a game physically at a store. With the discount Prime users get for new releases there's really no reason to do so unless you're buying used. As long as being lazy saves me $15-20 each time I'm going to be lazy

 

[Oogie Boogie]

Physical for the most part.
I'll buy digital though if there is a big sale going on for something that I want.

 

[blue425]

Depends on the game.

Digital is certainly cheaper and more convenient, but when those servers go down (and one day they will), you will no longer have access to that game.

 

[sabresfan129103]

I'm all about digital now: books, movies, games, you name it. If you asked me that 6 years ago I would have thought you were crazy to want something in digital. Now I realize all that **** does is clutter my house. The only time I want something physical is if I'm collecting it.

 

[chicagoskycam]

I have not bought a disc since Xbox One came out. Picked up a 2Terabyte external a year ago. I can't imagine these games are holding much trade in value these days, they seem to go on sale within 60 days.

I love not having to change discs. I don't see how Gamestop is going to survive.

 

[syz]

Depends on the game.

Digital is certainly cheaper and more convenient, but when those servers go down (and one day they will), you will no longer have access to that game.

Every game has a 10 gig day one patch now anyways, so you'll never really have access to it again once the servers go down.

 

[Habsfan18]

Depends on the game.

Digital is certainly cheaper and more convenient, but when those servers go down (and one day they will), you will no longer have access to that game.

I've thought about that, but I highly doubt the PSN or XBL servers will ever fully go down unless Sony or Microsoft goes out of business or for some reason eventually bows out from releasing hardware.

Games stay with your PSN or XBL account so I'm sure they will find a way to have your digital collection follow you to the next console, especially with how popular digital has become over the past few years. I can't see it getting any less popular either, at least IMO.

And syz makes a good point. Most games lack essential features anyways until the day 1 patch.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

I don't think any gamer really should worry too much about losing their games from Sony or Microsoft, both of those companies are so big with so many revenue-producing sides of the company that imagining them failing to the point that all of their servers would simply cease to exist is rather hard to imagine any time soon. It may be a pain in the ass to get older games, but that's kind of the case as it is...I've kept a few of my childhood consoles and most of them won't even work with modern TVs (and I don't have the space to just have a spare CRT laying around so I basically just have them for the sake of having them).

Games will be lost...but the extreme majority of them are going to be multiplayer-only games for obvious reasons. Having a hard copy of Evolve isn't going to help you a decade down the road.

 

[Rhaegar Targaryen]

The only digital game I have is NBA 2k17, and that's because you got it early that way.

However, my friend is giving me his Xbox One and the disc tray is slowly failing so I may turn 100% digital on the Xbox One

 

[The Nuge]

Used to be all physical, but a friend and I started doing the digital game sharing (set each other's console as your main console), so it's basically all digital now

 

[Neely2005]

Physical. I like to be able to trade games with friends and family.

 

[Morozov]

Physical for the resale value and digital is not a cheaper option in my country, in fact digital is regularly significantly more expensive.

 

[Diamondillium]

I chuckled when all 4 options had the exact same amount of votes.

I'm 99% digital nowadays, but I occasionally make an impulse purchase and buy a disk in a store. I just prefer not having to deal with getting up and changing disks. I'm never going to bother with resale anyways so that's a nonfactor to me.

 

[FLYLine27*]

99% hard copy. So I can sell them back

 

[flyingkiwi]

Physical for the resale value and digital is not a cheaper option in my country, in fact digital is regularly significantly more expensive.

Digital in NZ is a pretty big rip off. I might get the odd backwards compatible or arcade style game but that's about it.

I use EB for the return policy, price matching with Warehouse or JB if I have to.

 

[blue425]

Every game has a 10 gig day one patch now anyways, so you'll never really have access to it again once the servers go down.

Wow. I had no idea.

To be fair 95%of what I play are shmups and fighting games between the 360, pc, and Dreamcast.

Guess I'm biased toward physical

 

[Nuckles]

When I first got my xbone I liked digital more (as I have been a PC gamer for the past 3 years), but the longer I had it the more I realized that console games are so terribly compressed/optimized that a game that should be 10GB is 50GB. It takes a long ass time to download these oversized games and it takes up so much damn hard drive space that I'm liking physical copies more. It's faster to install and I can trade it in or lend it to friends when I'm done with it.

The Witcher 3 on PC is like 35GB and Halo 5 on xbone with all its patches is over 100GB...

 

[Chaels Arms]

In theory I'd rather have physical due to the resale value but digital has just become too easy. After switching to Fios my download speeds on PS4 are so much better that it's just too tempting to be able to buy a new game and start playing from my couch in 10-15 minutes.