Why Physical Games Are Not Going Anywhere

A response to a suggestion by Soderlund of Electronic Arts that physical games will be gone in a year, to be replaced by digital being the only available way to get games.

[josephayal]

RIP Physical games

[Reverent]

Yeah, because everyone is perfectly willing to sit around for 2-3 hours for a game to download as a mandatory requirement instead of just driving to the store and picking the game up in less than 15 minutes. /s

[tachy0n]

people in several countries DO NOT HAVE INTERNET ACCESS!!

physical games will be around pretty much forever!

[attilayavuzer]

@jose

Bullshit, physical will be around for many more years.

[L6RD7BLU3]

I just recently made the switch today I sold all of my ps3 games,vita games to go straight digital from here on out. I got $400 for all of my games, i just thought why not i already have PS plus might as well go all digital.

[ScubaSteve1]

tnically you dont own those games through ps plus FYI

[L6RD7BLU3]

I know this, this still doesn't stop me from BUYING games on psn FYI LOL

[Hicken]

Why does this sound like a complete lie?

Maybe because of how ridiculous it is?

Not saying they will, but if Sony chose to shut down PSN, SEN, and all such things, you'd have NO GAMES to play. If you buy something you don't like, your money is wasted. And you can't loan out ANY of the stuff you're buying now. And if your hard drive is fried, look forward to hours of downloading again.

That's all horrible stuff.

[Smokingunz]

Interesting topic. I think this is what the industry wants, only because it'll be more money for them. They'll be cutting out the middle man like GameStop and therefore will have controll over price on games. I believe in the future it may be a possibility but for now I really doubt it only because physical media is still selling and most people like myself prefers physical over digital. CDs, DVDs and vinyls are still around, but at the end of the day it's really up to the industry to faze out physical media if they wanted to, but I know physical media won't be going anywhere for a very long time.

[Freakazoid2012]

It'll save them more than just cutting out the middle man. They wont have to burn those physical copies any more and last I heard that was around 10.00- of the game price. Physical and digital in most cases are the exact same price so that is even more money they can put in their pockets...

To be honest I'd be all for it if it actually meant cheaper games but it doesnt seem to be having any impact on price at all

[greenmeanie]

Exactly! If the games were cheaper, that might be an incentive for me to buy digital. But they cost the same! How do they even justify charging the same? They have no packaging or shipping costs to worry about. I was thinking about buying New Super Mario Bros 2 on the eshop the other day, until I realized it was the same exact price! And then I thought about it, and figured it would take up a lot of memory, plus I couldnt let a friend borrow it, or play it on another 3DS. So I basically said "to hell with that", and I walked myself to the mall and bought myself a physical copy. If they want the future to be digital, they better start charging less. Thats what they do for music. Albums are always cheaper as downloads.

[XXXL]

I remember being a kid on Xmas and opening those games up. Could usually tell I was getting a game by the wrapped box but was still in awe when I opened it. I hope my kids can experience that same fun and not have me whip out the credit card on Xmas morning so they can download it.

[clrlite]

I definitely agree and there are also a lot of practical reasons to own physical copies of games you really cherish.

[timothylittle]

There will always be a need for physical games

[djslapdash]

There will always be a need for physical games. However the way we buy physical games has changed. Physical stores are diminishing. Its getting harder and harder for stores to stay open and with rent and rates always going up, its getting harder.

[3-4-5]

All we are going to end up with in the end is " Storage Units" , which hold our games inside digitally.

They will be cartridges, but you can store 10-50 games on each one depending on how much you spend.

There will be a huge market for Custom Cartridges and certain people will make a ton of money on this.

Basically glorified HD's, but with more of a Video Game feel to them.

So in the end, even if we go all digital, we will end up with Physical copies of something anyways.

^ I'm 90% sure on this.

[mattheckler]

Nice to see so many comments. I hate downloading games -- the only things I download are game demos via XBOX live, other than that, I always go physical.