Console gamers: Physical discs or Digital files?

[vdB]

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

The amount of money you save buying digital cancels out that "able to sell" argument.

This has already been outlined. Read the thread

 

[Neely2005]

The amount of money you save buying digital cancels out that "able to sell" argument.

This has already been outlined. Read the thread

Physical games go on sale too and used copies of physical games are cheaper too, especially if you buy them from a private seller or a Mom and pop shop.

 

[Spawn]

I'm probably 75/25 physical over digital. But not really because of preference more just habit in my life.

I'd never spend more to get a game one way or the other.

On computer I'm almost exclusively digital. The last physical copy of a PC game I got was Skyrim or Diablo 3 (whichever came out most recently).

 

[Big McLargehuge]

The amount of money you save buying digital cancels out that "able to sell" argument.

This has already been outlined. Read the thread

The exact same argument has been made for the other side of things in this same thread.

 

[LSnow]

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.

Brand new digital game is ~same in PSstore sometimes more expensive than on retail stores. If we include popular titles they usually drop into the 40-50 price point couple months after release while digital sales its mostly predicated on "sales". Retail stores want to offload lot of the games and resell them at different price points, first 60, then 40 then 30 and below. Everytime i go to buy games from digital stores (no sale) its usually the highend of the pricepoint while retails sell it 10-20 cheaper.

Pstore / xbox store is not steam pricing, if it was steam then i might buy something sometime. Usually cheapest you get a game is ordering online a physical disc.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

The amount of money you save buying digital cancels out that "able to sell" argument.

This has already been outlined. Read the thread

Really? Amazon almost always has a better deal on a physical copy compared to the PS store whenever I look.

 

[LSnow]

Really? Amazon almost always has a better deal on a physical copy compared to the PS store whenever I look.

Thats the point i was making. The argument people think it is that of nebulous overpriced supermarket vs digital game. Its all of the online + retail electronic stores together vs pstore which it usually loses.

 

[tacogeoff]

only physical. The games do I really want when they release are the ones I usually preorder during E3 deals for maximum savings. I don't need them the minute they release so I am fine with getting them a few days after the initial release in the mail. Other games that I may want to play later on I order from amazon when they are on sale from 19-25 dollars.

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

Thats the point i was making. The argument people think it is that of nebulous overpriced supermarket vs digital game. Its all of the online + retail electronic stores together vs pstore which it usually loses.

Yeah, I have looked a few times comparing games on the PS store compared to Amazon and I think Amazon has won every time.

 

[Commander Clueless]

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.

Exactly this.

I personally buy the vast majority of my games digitally (usually on PC, but it applies to the console discussion as well) because they tend to have the advantage of being very cheap months after release.

However, for PS4 games at release, I tend to go physical. Things like Amazon Prime discounts and trade in values are an advantage.

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.

I think we're mostly talking at release. Digital games do tend to have an advantage for sales on older games on average. However, this is by no means always true, so I tend to browse for good deals on physical as well (mostly on Amazon).


Oddly enough, I think we're opposites. I actually prefer digital in general as I find them much more convenient (although it can really hit the data cap hard in a good gaming month ), but I'm not seeing the financial advantage for games at release. Maybe I'm missing something.

As an example, let's say there are two games I want coming within a few months. I could pick them both up off PSN for $80 apiece with no tax for a total of $160. On the other side, I could pick up the first with Amazon Prime for $64 + Tax = ~$72.50, and then trade that in at EB Games for the next game for around $30 worth of value (it varies a bit, sometimes you can get a bonus for trading towards a new release).

In the end, I'm looking at $160 digital or $72.50 + ($80-$30+Tax=$57) = $129.50 physical, plus I have the trade in value of the second game as well.

Of course, this example is based on going through games and not playing them for long periods of time. It doesn't work for everybody, because everybody's situation is different. Also, not everyone has Amazon Prime.

If I was looking at keeping the physical copies, I could get still theoretically get both off of Amazon for cheaper than off PSN.



Also, side note, but season pass is a scam the majority of the time and launch-day DLC is crap IMO. Hard pass on those.

 

[LSnow]

Overwatch: PS store 70€ - Retail 50€
Battlefield 1: PS store 40€ - Retail 36€
NHL 17: PS Store 35€ - Retail 32€
Watch dogs 2: PS Store 80€(can only find premium version) - Retail 38€
Uncharted 4: PS Store 28€ - Retail 35€
FF15: PS Store 70€ - Retail 48€
CoD Legacy edition: PS Store 60€ - Retail 57€ (bought it in retail for 40€)
Titanfall 2: PS Store 35€ - Retail 35€
Dishonored 2: PS Store 45€ - Retail 37€

And most of these games were much cheaper pre-holiday sales. Picked games i would buy at some point.

My point is that at least for me physical copy that you own, that has value, that you can trade in, isnt a negative. In that world i dont see any point switching to digital until developers (ps store has improved a lot in past years) start giving competitive prices throughout the year, and dont always default back to 69.99€ after sale. Because on that scenario you just cant justify paying double, or even triple price on your game.

 

[chicagoskycam]

The fact that a digital copy is the same cost at launch as a physical copy defies logic, there is a cost associated with a physical copy. There has to be some policies in place to protect retailers.

 

[Warden of the North]

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.

Not in Canada its not.

 

[Warden of the North]

The fact that a digital copy is the same cost at launch as a physical copy defies logic, there is a cost associated with a physical copy. There has to be some policies in place to protect retailers.

Probably. But consider that the cost of packaging and the disc itself is literally pennies. I suppose the other costs would be distribution.

 

[syz]

Only reason I played FFXV was because I got it for $50 Canadian on Amazon.

They ****ed up the shipment and I got it a week late, but hey. Still saved $30.

 

[Habsfan18]

Only reason I played FFXV was because I got it for $50 Canadian on Amazon.

They ****ed up the shipment and I got it a week late, but hey. Still saved $30.

FFXV was also listed at $52 Canadian on the PS store for a week or two. It may even still be.

Seemed like price-wise, retail and digital sales for games were almost identical this holiday season.

 

[Devourers]

Not in Canada its not.

Yeah. Seems it may depend on where you live and whether or not you're talking about day 1 launch vs waiting a couple months.

Me, I'm usually the type to just wait for a sale. I don't have Amazon Prime either.

For me, I go to stores and often see games that are more than 50% off launch price a few months later on PSN and the store still has them at 79.99$! To be fair though, I'm not scouring for deals I'm just basing it on what I see when at Wal-Mart, Bestbuy, ToysRus etc. I remember seeing the new Tony Hawk for less than 50% of launch price and Wal-Mart was still selling it for 79.99$+tax as an example.

But I must admit, I don't deny physical is better if you're the type to flip games fast.

 

[Commander Clueless]

Yeah. Seems it may depend on where you live and whether or not you're talking about day 1 launch vs waiting a couple months.

Me, I'm usually the type to just wait for a sale. I don't have Amazon Prime either.

For me, I go to stores and often see games that are more than 50% off launch price a few months later on PSN and the store still has them at 79.99$! To be fair though, I'm not scouring for deals I'm just basing it on what I see when at Wal-Mart, Bestbuy, ToysRus etc. I remember seeing the new Tony Hawk for less than 50% of launch price and Wal-Mart was still selling it for 79.99$+tax as an example.

But I must admit, I don't deny physical is better if you're the type to flip games fast.

I think you've hit the nail on the head.

I fall into these categories, so it makes sense (at least in my mind but who knows what goes on in there ).

If you don't hit either of those, saving the tax on digital does make sense for sure.


If you wait for the sales wherever you can get them, even better!

Even without Prime, Amazon actually has some decent sales from time to time. I recommend checking them out if you're bargain hunting.

 

[Nemesis Prime]

I only buy digital if it's cheap af.

If I'm paying full price for a game I'd rather buy physical. Shouldn't be selling at retail prices for digital, that's dumb.

 

[Neely2005]

Not in Canada its not.

If you search a little it usually is.

 

[Ralph]

I only do physical copy when I buy a collector's edition. I only do that for Naughty Dog games.

 

[Morozov]

In my experience physical has been cheaper 95% of the time. That's not even factoring in resale value.

In fact PSN is usually the absolute most expensive price in my country which is just ridiculous. Rarely in their sales they become competitive but in general it's more expensive to buy digitally and often significantly so.

The only benefit of digital for me and in my experience has been yay I don't have to change disk and I guess you could argue convenience of having within hours as opposed to going to pick up or next day delivery.

Pretty small arguments compared to the cheaper price and ability to sell/trade/lend.

 

[rangerssharks414]

I always get physical copies. Heck, I don't even download music digitally. I like having physical copies of discs.

 

[aleshemsky83]

Alan Wake going down due to licensing issues, it will likely be coming back up with the music removed. Last chance to buy it in its original form.

 

[PALE PWNR]

Physical for AAA titles and stuff that will retain some resale value, Digital for sports games and stuff that isn't worth all that much after being sold.