Console gamers: Physical discs or Digital files?

[Warden of the North]

Yup and if something happens to your in game account or the company decides to shut down their online servers your screwed

I know someone who used another site to buy PC games digitally and once they went under due to steam gaining so much popularity he lost over $500 worth of games when his hard drive went and had no way to re-download them.

Theres downsides to every method.

I have hundreds of dollars worth of games I cant play because my TV no longer is capable of hooking up to the system which operates them or they dont run properly on a new PC. I am now starting to repurchase a bunch of my older games because the systems run them are obsolete. I think ive bought 4 in the past month? FFVII, VIII and KOTOR 1 and 2. When FFXII hits steam I'll be re-purchasing it too

 

[Habsfan18]

Yup and if something happens to your in game account or the company decides to shut down their online servers your screwed

I know someone who used another site to buy PC games digitally and once they went under due to steam gaining so much popularity he lost over $500 worth of games when his hard drive went and had no way to re-download them.

I used to worry about losing my digital games some day as well, but when you consider that almost every game is released with a day 1 patch now that usually features essential updates and gameplay additions (plus usually multiple additional patches over time) wouldn't that pretty much make the physical games unplayable as well if gamers with discs couldn't use any of the patches?

Don't get me wrong, I still love having physical discs to add to my collection, but I'm not really sure if we can use this reasoning anymore to stay away from digital.

 

[Warden of the North]

Digital is the way of the future. Its pretty much that simple. The signs are all pointing towards it.

 

[Neely2005]

Digital is the way of the future. Its pretty much that simple. The signs are all pointing towards it.

Has anyone suggested otherwise? It still sucks because it limits the consumers choices and ability to share / trade / sell games.

 

[blue425]

I'm not anti digital either, if it weren't for emulation/digital there are certain games I may also never get to play.

Battle Garegga was originally only released on the Saturn and now carries a hefty price tag for the physical game. It was recently released on the PS 4 for chump change. If not for this I would not get to play a good home version of it. Sure there is MAME, but that is a bare bones arcade version and that version isn't without its issues.

The other thing that the internets/digital media is great for is the cataloging of old arcade games. Games that never got a home release and whose arcade boards are all but gone.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Theres downsides to every method.

I have hundreds of dollars worth of games I cant play because my TV no longer is capable of hooking up to the system which operates them or they dont run properly on a new PC. I am now starting to repurchase a bunch of my older games because the systems run them are obsolete. I think ive bought 4 in the past month? FFVII, VIII and KOTOR 1 and 2. When FFXII hits steam I'll be re-purchasing it too

Can't you just but a converter? They're at most like 50 bucks

 

[Garbage Goal]

Digital when possible. With the caveat that I don't bother with external storage so once my console's storage is filled I just go disk because I have to.

 

[The Head Crusher]

It all depends, a few years ago it was solely physical as my internet was crap and we had an small data cap. But since moving to town and getting better internet I bough significantly more digital games (also put in a 2tb hard drive). But now I am moving back to the country and am facing the same issues that I had before so I might be going back to physical.

 

[Warden of the North]

Can't you just but a converter? They're at most like 50 bucks

Sure, but eventually those old consoles are going to stop working. Secondly, its more money, which is pretty well the argument this conversation is revolving around.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Sure, but eventually those old consoles are going to stop working. Secondly, its more money, which is pretty well the argument this conversation is revolving around.

Sure but there's maintenance on everything. I mean your situation is kind of unique in itself since most HD tvs do actually still have rgb and composite ports on the back.

And I think it's more than money, if it was that digital would win hands down. I think it's the tradeoff of buying a "license" to a game and buying an actual game for more money that is the sticking point for most people that choose physical.

 

[The Gongshow]

Some gamesI like to own Physical copies (wether its a series I like or a game i'm super into) Some I get digital if theres a sale going on. I don't really care. I have more physical than I do digital

about 12-3

 

[KapG]

Hey to be fair Kap disc based systems can be repaired.

Everything else continues to operate fine so I just go digital. No biggie

 

[tmurfin]

100% digital over the past year and a half. I used to buy a lot of games (1-2 a month at least), so I enjoyed being able to sell the games or return them. But a few factors have changed my mind:
1) My gaming has decreased quite a bit, with work, pets, pregnant gf, etc.. I only buy 1-2 games every 6 months or so, unless there's a deal
2) I got a steal of a deal on an external hard drive.
3) I gameshare with a friend.

 

[flyingkiwi]

Installing FFXV atm and one weakness with physical is becoming apparent, that I can't play Forza while I wait. I wish Xbox had the play while installing feature. I don't think this is enough to turn me fully digital, but I am glad I have the odd digital title to pass the time while my drive is in use.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

I guess I'm still old school. I buy physical books, records for music, and physical copies of games. I like a lot of the art on most vinyl covers and enjoy having a physical box for a video game.

Plus with reading, nothing beats the smell of a good book and physically turning the pages for me.

I would say the only thing I've cut down physical copies on are movies and TV shows, unless it's a show or movie I know I'll rewatch a ton or love I'll get a physical copy. I used to buy a ton of movies to have a nice collection, that has pretty much died.

 

[Burner Account]

For the longest time I've leaned towards physical to give myself the resale option. Now I have more money and play a lot less, so the convenience of digital has won me over for the most part.

 

[Supermassive]

The sales on Xbox Gold games have convinced me that digital is the way to go. Microsoft ensuring forward compatibility on digital games going forth is also a huge step up.
I'm around 50-50 right now between physical and digital, and am comfortable with going full digital from here on out. Current gen console games aren't collectible anyhow, unless they're Nintendo.

 

[LSnow]

Retail is significantly cheaper even if we exclude gamestop and other used games stores, also you get a physical copy which i dont see as a negative in anyway unless you buy a lot of games. PC its the opposite as you cant even get retail games anymore at best you get empty box with steamkey and save couple hours of downloading.

 

[chicagoskycam]

Retail is significantly cheaper even if we exclude gamestop and other used games stores, also you get a physical copy which i dont see as a negative in anyway unless you buy a lot of games. PC its the opposite as you cant even get retail games anymore at best you get empty box with steamkey and save couple hours of downloading.

It's not if you include the deals they have digitally only a month out from release.

You're also dealing with scratches, disc read errors...ect. If you play alot of games it's annoying searching and changing discs.

 

[Devourers]

Retail is significantly cheaper even if we exclude gamestop and other used games stores, also you get a physical copy which i dont see as a negative in anyway unless you buy a lot of games. PC its the opposite as you cant even get retail games anymore at best you get empty box with steamkey and save couple hours of downloading.

I don't get it. Is there some sort of digital tax in finland of 35% I'm unaware of?

Because I like physical copies but the main reason I almost always buy digital now are as follows:

1) No tax on PS4, for an 80$ CAD game (93$~ with tax) it's a savings of 13$ even at launch
2) Sales. The games notoriously go on sale months ahead of time on digital. Titan Fall 2 already 50% of retail? BF1 roughly 33%? When you see Titan Fall 2 for 39.99$ + 0$ tax versus 79.99$ + 13$ tax the difference is major. It's 53$ off in total 93$ vs 40$...

Then add to it the fact that some games you're going to want to buy all the launch day DLC and/or the season pass immediately anyways, may as well just buy all that together with 0 tax.

Like I said, I prefer having a physical copy but it's way cheaper to go digital, especially if you're willing to wait 2 months after release but even 93$ vs 80$ for me it's roughly 15% more to buy retail.

 

[vdB]

Well said Devoures. The choice is pretty clear at this point. Anyone who defends physical copies simply doesn't like change.

 

[Big McLargehuge]

Why the hell is it an all or nothing argument?

One of the biggest reasons I haven't gone all-in on digital games is that they do tend to be more expensive... i.e. they don't go on sale as often and don't have the same kind of pre-order deals that retailers offer. As an Amazon Prime member I can get a physical copy for ~$20 less within the first two weeks of release.

Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of games I own digitally because they were on sale, but I'm talking about newer games.

We're moving to a digital-only future and that's fine, but we're not there yet and there's still pros and cons to both sides of the argument.

 

[Neely2005]

Sure, but eventually those old consoles are going to stop working. Secondly, its more money, which is pretty well the argument this conversation is revolving around.

All of my old consoles still work. And all of my current TVs have the necessary connections for them. What connection do you need that your TV doesn't have?

 

[Neely2005]

Well said Devoures. The choice is pretty clear at this point. Anyone who defends physical copies simply doesn't like change.

Or they like to be able to sell, trade or share games as has already been outlined.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

Or they like to be able to sell, trade or share games as has already been outlined.

Like I said before, I also enjoy having a physical library as well. I have a library of books, vinyl, and video games ranging back to original NES. I also like to have the cover and box art. It's another pro in my mind.