Console gamers: Physical discs or Digital files?

[Butchered]

Only time I buy physical is when I order a game through Amazon to get the 20% off a new title. So maybe like once or twice a year at the most. I bought FF this year and the last games I bought physical before that was when Divinity and Wasteland 2 released on consoles.

 

[JS19]

Always physical. I see no reason to buy digital at nearly the same price when it doesn't have the costs associated with manufacturing print runs. At the same time, the copy also allows for me to sell it instead of being stuck with it for life like I would with a digital copy.

 

[The Gongshow]

I used to be all physical but I've been transitioning to digital. Now i'll just buy physical if theres a good amazon deal

 

[kingsboy11]

The only game I ever bought digitally was a FIFA 17 code on Amazon. I had a 25$ amazon gift card and saw that the code was only 30$ so I ended up only paying 5$ for it which was more than worth it. Doubt I'll have another deal like that falling into place anytime soon.

 

[Unholy Diver]

Generally physical copies, I like to be able to browse the bookshelf for my next challenge.

I will do digital if its a great deal sometimes. Probably about 80-20 physical


It doesn't apply to me but a reason a good bit of people might still go physical is lack of good broadband internet, as hard as it might be to believe there are still large portions of the US that don't have access to hi speed internet, so downloading a 50+ gig game might take days or even longer

 

[Morbo]

Haven't bought a disc in many years now.

 

[tmurfin]

I do miss the smell of a freshly opened game case though..

 

[aleshemsky83]

It was mentioned in another thread but if you own a Nintendo console or handheld there's pretty much no reason to buy digital since almost every game holds it's original value or close to it, especially on handheld.

 

[guinness]

Mostly physical.

Digital still costs the same most of the time on consoles, and I generally can get games cheaper from Best Buy as a gamer's club member (20% off new, 10% off used, and it applies to things like Amiibos), especially if I wait like a month.

Example, I just pre-ordered the physical edition of the Wipeout Omega collection (because pre-order bonus and I love the series), and it's $8 cheaper than the digital edition, because of the discount, but excluding that, both editions cost the same, even though Sony wouldn't have to bother paying for the case, the artwork, and I have to use my broadband to download it with the digital version.

I only get digital if I have to. PSN, Nintendo, and XBL don't hold a candle to Steam.

 

[Hyack57]

My games. Mostly physical with the odd xbox arcade title like the Trials series or Limbo.

But for my kids? Digital all the way. Don't need my 6 and 9 year old wrecking discs as they change games every 15 minutes.

 

[KingBran]

Got into a bad habit of buying new games then getting bored of them too fast and then missing them. I try to always buy digital so I can always go back to that game. And I have many times gone back to games I stopped played for a long time.

I will get a physical game when its an impulse buy at the store or I see a game on sale that's too good to pass up. I would say I am 95% digital for this generation of gaming.

 

[Virtanen18]

This is kind of interesting right now with the E3 20% off everywhere. Normally I'd be all over the physical (probably will get a couple games for PS4), but for my XB1, it just makes more sense to pay more digitally with a friend and split the costs.

 

[Emperoreddy]

So I tend to still like to buy mostly hard copies of my console games. I do own some digital only games on PSN, mostly some HD remasters.

I buy all my 3DS games digitally.

 

[KingBran]

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.

I would argue that being "old school" is NOT supporting stores like gamestop. I would much rather support the local game stores owned by local people. That's whats more fun to me. Most mom and pop shops I have found do more than just games and also sell older games and systems like NES or PS1 stuff. I don't know, I hate gamestop. But in spirit I agree with you.

 

[LickTheEnvelope]

For me it's physical except for some sports games now just because they drop value so fast that I just wait for them to be on sale to grab digital.