Digital or Physical, I Still Can’t Decide

Matt says, "The new console generation has began to rapidly bring in the digital age of gaming. However, I’m still skeptical about buying games digitally."

[jc48573]

what makes me sick is how people tend to force on people that digital is infinitely better than physical games. They go as far to question if there is something wrong with people that that prefer physical over digital.

[ABizzel1]

Physical, because more often than not this is the norm, and until it's the other way around, digital is just a secondary option.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/pr...

[xHeavYx]

Physical because I can re-sell games

[ABizzel1]

lol at the two disagrees.

[madmonkey01]

physical for me, as they are cheaper and you can resell them if you are done with it. i usually buy my games from the supermarket rather than game stores too.

[darthv72]

there is only one system this gen that really lets you play from the physical media and that is the wii-u. Strange how Ms and Sony went with installs as required instead of optional but...oh well.

Looking at it from that perspective, the physical games are basically the same as the digital ones with the exception of the need for the disc to act as a verifier to play the game. Other than that check...there is no point to having the disc.

Unless you like the look of them in their boxes on your shelf. plus it is convenient to just pop it in to install if you should happen to uninstall because you are making room for other games.

the BD drives in the PS4 and XB1 are much better than that in the PS3 so if it was due to wear and tear on the laser or motor...I don't buy it. Even the wii-u drive is better than the PS3 and it plays the games just fine from the disc.

[Crazay]

I totally get both sides of the coin. I was adamantly against going all digital for DVDs and games because I feel a great deal of pride over the library I've amassed over the years. But I gotta say that the convenience of not having to go seek out where I last played a game(in a house with multiple systems in different locations). I also like the fact that I don't get yelled at for leaving games and game cases all over the place and the room I'm saving on bookcases filled with games. I have 48 Games for the Xbox One, 8 of which are actual discs. Granted I can't trade these copies in but I haven't traded in a game in years because I'm sick of being ripped off by EBGames.

I think I'm fast moving to the digital side.

There's benefits to both formats really.

[mcstorm]

Im with you on this one I own 2 disk based games for my xbox one and around 17 digital. One disk came with the console and the other was a present.

But my wiiu I own more disks than digital. I have got got a 2tb hdd for both consoles through so I think ill be going digital on the wiiu soon too.

I went digital with all my films about 5 years ago and think gaming will follow too.

[UKmilitia]

physical all the way for many reasons.

price is cheaper for physical

games have issues (unity,driveclub ,bf4)with a physical you can get refunds when a major part of the game is broken as i have done this gen 3 times already.

also resale value.

the only games i would consider buying digital are prob NDogs games.
also nothing better than seeing a shelf stacked with games.

[Vegamyster]

"price is cheaper for physical"

Not on Digital Distributors like Steam, Amazon Digital, GoG ect.

[Volkama]

Sony and MS definitely need to wise up on their pricing, yes. But that's not inherent to digital, that's just those closed platforms.

You can get refunds on digital games too if they have issues. Just call MS/Sony/Valve/whoever.

Resale value is the biggest advantage of physical.

I can tell you something better than a shelf stacked with games: A shelf with space to put things that need to go on a shelf.

[dredgewalker]

I prefer physical copies though digital is fine as long as it doesn't take me days to download. I am a bit more worried with digital copies since if my hard drive fails (and it has happened to me lots of times) I have to redownload everything again and that takes time.

[Vegamyster]

"They go as far to question if there is something wrong with people that that prefer physical over digital."

I haven't seen any body that do that, I've seen people say they'll chose digital over physical when its cheap but never tried to insult someone for choosing physical.

[Volkama]

I've seen plenty of people insult others for buying physical. And I've seen even more people insult others for buying digital.

N4G is nice like that.

[rainslacker]

I've seen it a lot. It's not true of all of them, but on here you see a lot of digital proponents imply or outright say that people who prefer physical are living in the stone age and need to get with the times. It's like they don't understand that the reasons they give for digital purchases just don't matter to those that prefer physical, or that the reasons for people preferring physical are also perfectly valid.

It's odd that they do so, because I really don't see physical proponents really care if people with digital preference buy digital or not.

I personally prefer physical myself for a myriad of reasons, and couldn't care less how people buy their games.

[s45gr32]

You're going to hate me, I am one of those people. I do have to say that I wish, I was able to return games that I don't like back to the digital store for which I can't. What would make in my opinion digital distribution more appealing would be a Netflix like service for games yeah.

[zero_gamer]

Most digital purchases on last-gen console are no good on the new console. You would expect your digital investment to carry over from generation to generation, but Sony and MS both prove that a digital future is not so bright like they want you to believe.

My decision is to stay physical with console games, with the exception of the odd digital title of interest...when it's on sale.

[jc48573]

what bothers me is that some people think it's ok if they don't carry over because most of them don't care about replaying the games. I respect that, but why judge the gamers that want to own an actual copy like they have mental problems?

[rainslacker]

No retail purchase is any good on new consoles either, so it's not really a pro or con for either side.

However, for those that choose physical releases, they can at least get something back on their investment if they decide to sell/trade in all those games they purchased. Digital is stuck with what they got, whether they can play it or not.

[Gemmol]

I do digital on my Wii U.....I got a 1tb that I bought for 50 dollars and it hold over 20 games, beside the 14 retail games I have.......I have not bought retail in a while so I guess I am on the all digital wave.....I do not care for the box and my internet speeds are quick, my games download in 1hr to 2hr most......and if all games can do PreLoad I would love it even better, I love how quickly I was able to play Smash bros with Preload function.....majority of the game was already download and the last part download as soon as it hit 12 and the game started for me at 12:01 I think playing smash bros....before my cousin since he bought retail...........if you like physical then buy physical....if you do not mind digital then get digital......dont let anyone make you feel bad about your preference.........

if you are interested in the Hard Drive I got here is the link
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0...

I see its for 54 dollars now.....seriously great buy

all you need is a Y usb cable and you good to go I already had one at home but if you do not know what I am talking about here is another link

http://www.amazon.com/OEM-U...

this give the portable hard drive the power needed to work perfect....I like this way because it save me a space from plugging into the wall

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

I do both, out of necessity.
Sometimes it's more convenient to be able to just select a game from my menu rather than having to switch disks out all the time, so digital will always have its place.
But I'll always value physical because being able to take and use my game on another console, and being able to loan out my games to buddies, is a valuable trait in its own right, even if its much easier for a disk to break.

[Razuel]

Digital = account sharing for two w/o restrictions = a big win IMHO. At least for the PS4. I'm just now experiencing the Xbox, so unsure if same but it appears to be.

[madmonkey01]

physical = infinite game sharing

[Razuel]

On one system. Digital is concurrent on two.

[yankolo]

Im digital since day one.

[paul-p1988]

I'm going all digital this gen, I wasn't intending to but once I got my PS4 and noticed all my physical games were being fully installed on the HDD and the disc's only purpose is to tell the console you own the game, I didn't see the point in having multiple cases cluttering my house.
I haven't looked back since, and if you wait for sales and buy the top-up codes online you can normally get the games either the same price, or really close to, the price of physical unlike the extortionate RRP prices of PSN/XBL stores.

[Xof]

Depends on the platform for me. For PC, there's no choice to be had; for 3DS its frequently a necessity; for PS4 its largely a non-issue due to Sony's inability to support digital content and incredibly anti-consumer bent.

[Eiffel]

You can still buy physical on PC.

[CrowbaitBob]

If you consider a code on a physical piece of paper in a box "buying physical" then I guess you're technically correct.

[Eiffel]

Physical copies of PC games still come with discs...do people not know this? Last game I bought physically was Titanfall, came with three discs.

http://i.imgur.com/HenJiSB....

[Ristul]

Yeah, discs too often with built in drm (limited number of installs, always online drm and so on.)

[CrowbaitBob]

Those discs are completely useless for anything other than installing the game attached to that license code. Do people not know this?

[Eiffel]

@CrowbaitBob

What does that matter? It's a physical box that holds physical discs that hold digital data.

[garrettbobbyferguson]

"You can still buy physical"
"No you can't"
"I have a brand new copy with disks. Here's even a picture"
"Those don't count because reasons!"

[CrowbaitBob]

Considering a huge issue in the debate of Physical vs. Digital is the idea of being able to sell or trade your physical copy, I think it matters quite a bit.

Edit: @Eiffel

Reaching? Are you new to the Physical vs. Digital argument or something? That's the whole reason everyone freaked out about Xbox One going always online, because a digital future would mean you can't rent, trade or sell your used games. That "physical" copy of that PC game you own has no value beyond your ability to hug it and kiss it and look at it on a shelf.

[Eiffel]

@CrowbaitBob

You're reaching. You're bringing up something irrelevant to the original point discussed. I stated that one could still buy physical on PC, even providing proof. You have no argument.

Edit:

That debate has nothing to do with my original point. It's humorous that even though there's clearly discs in that physical copy of my game which as you stated before would otherwise be a "piece of paper in a box", you're too proud to admit when you're wrong. You wanted to move away from what was clear proof to counter your earlier statement. As I said before, it's irrelevant.

[s45gr32]

Amazon still sells physical copies for PC games, yes its odd but Amazon still does it anyway.

[Xof]

Of course. You can still find a few disc games in WalMart, and the odd collectors edition from an Indy studio.

The point is that the vast, overwhelming majority of PC games are only sold via digital distribution retailers. It is therefore effectively impossible to be a PC gamer today without embracing digital distribution.

[MNGamer-N]

Physical always if possible. Digital for Indie titles not on disc. I like holding a game in my hands and being able to resell and collect.

[KentBlake]

I went digital-only a few years ago and I'm not looking back.

[DirtyMagician]

Definitely physical discs, I like to hold what I own.

[hkgamer]

its definitely digital for me, but for games i know i will love i would probably be stupid enough to buy both.

not because i wont to support the companies. i just like digital convinience but also like to have a physical copy of good games.

[CrowbaitBob]

Switching discs is a relic of a bygone era.

[Spotie]

And yet physical games are selling more copies than ever.

Strange.

[Gemmol]

so are digital, they improve year over year

[Workshyskiver]

I much prefer digital games on my a Pc and would rather have them on my PS4 but its too expensive on the PSN so I end up buying physical copies and trading them in against the next game i want, only got one actual ps4 game at a time though.

[1Victor]

Mcardle I used to do that by a game and trade it till I purchased DB ultimate 32 and trade it only to find out it was discontinued and the price when 10x higher used and new was $1500 on eBay 😢 2 weeks after I traded it 😭

[1Victor]

For me its physical I noticed that some digital I've purchase on the ps4 it need to check online for confirmation when the network is down for X or Y reason and I try to play games like the metalgear 5 demo or the injustice games. I don't know if the new games are coming like that but I'm not buying digital specially with my stupid cable company dropping my signal out of the blue 😡

[MCTJim]

For me its digital this gen because I dont trade in my games.

[kingPoS]

What happens when a publisher pulls a marvel vs capcom 3. That's what really bothers me, I usually don't buy an unused game day one, sometimes it's a year or more later. When it comes to digi games, you're at the mercy of a publisher's license to a game. Worse than that are the titles that have been completly redacted, even from a personal download list.

That's why I prefer both the assurence of a hardcopy...and the convenience of a download. Simply put, I enjoy the best of both worlds.

Gateway MT6706 2008

[pompombrum]

Seeing how people are being denied refunds for digital purchases of Master Chief Collection, I'd say physical purely for safety against developers/publishers releasing pre alpha games onto the market. Having said that, Origin has a solid refund policy or so I'm lead to believe.

[s45gr32]

I agree on the refund part as far as digital is concerned.

[eclectified]

For me, physical (for now). Until digital becomes cheaper, like it should be, and storage becomes more abundant, I'll continue to buy physical. 500GB on current gen consoles isn't nearly enough and Vita storage is way overpriced.

Perhaps if I had a 3DS, depending on the cost of the games, I could see going all digital as microSD are cheap.

My question for going all digital would be, what happens when a provider of digital goods goes out of business? What happens to all that content we paid for?

[Illusive_Man]

Do you sell your games, do you like clutter?

Start there.

[rainslacker]

I don't trade in my games, and I'm OCD about clutter, but I still buy physical. I'm a collector though, so that's a different level to add to the question.

I can say for every argument that is pro-digital, I can say why it isn't relevant to me, or why a particular reason also has it's drawbacks.

If MS had managed to get their game sharing working then I think that would have been the only thing I couldn't have complained about if it had been all it was said to be by some.

Only place I buy digital only is PC,because I don't collect PC games, and they have extremely limited resale value in most cases.

[iistuii]

Buy a game at an online store at a good price, play & complete it & sell it on getting money towards a new game
Or
Buy a digital game at a ridiculous price, play & complete it & have it stuck on your HD or delete it to make room. The choice is yours....

[Klonoa-dreamtraveler]

always physical. there collectables and i can get a refund or sell them if i need to or if the game is a disappointment. i also like to to go out to buy them than sit at home and download and i dont end up using all of my memory on downloading games when it can be used for other things than to take up space and i want to be able to take the game wherever i want like going to a friends house or letting them borrow a game meaning i have full control of the product i bought than having it just digital.

[maniac76]

If u wonna be greedy,go digital.that way noone can borrow ur shite.everyone has access to a walmart in such places.not everyone has net.why pay a cheapo price for disc then pay or get dlc discounted.why not pay the extra 20 for the digi download,then shell out for ur season pass.

dont save money,waste it.like everyone else. Long live over priced frownloads.long live greedy corps manipulations lolz

[Vegamyster]

To me it depends on the Price, when i see something like Dishonored $5 or Sleeping Dogs for $4 and many others on Steam i can't help myself :P

[iistuii]

Of course that's different. I've got over 100 steam games that I've got in the sales. But a game on PSN that's £59-99 that I can buy physical for £35 new & can sell on later is why I'd not consider it.

[WhiteGamerInc]

I would prefer digital, however if the harddrive or whatever the game/DLC is on fails then that is lost. We need a voucher system or something for me to go completely digital.

I love having discs but at this point with ps4 and xbox 1 being very quick and snappy with loading times, I would rather keep discs as a secondary option if the copy on a harddrive fails.

[Gemmol]

I doubt that happening to my hard drive for my Wii U the Toshiba Canvio 1tb that I got for 50 dollars, but if it did happen, all I have to do is plug in another hard drive and download the games over and I will be fine

[uth11]

I slightly prefer digital for not having to hunt down the discs, which always seem to be in the wrong cases via the kids.

But I don't have the greatest internet connection, and games that are multi-GB I prefer to buy physical. I also get the trade-in argument.

On the PC, using physical discs for older games is especially annoying. Sometimes they won't install/work properly on newer PCs due to copy protection. Thankfully GoG has allowed me to buy all-digital versions of some of my old games for cheap

[marlinfan10]

Ive gone completely digital on xbox. Its the cheapest option with game sharing then not having to fumble around with the boxes and disc is a huge plus also. My friend and I split every game so its $30 each which is less than youd pay if you bought the disc and returned it when finished. When I used to use disc id return games and end up having the urge to play them months later, with digital I dont need to worry about that either.

Ps4 im about 50/50 though. I dont do game sharing on there so the only digital games I buy are games like tlou and mlb that I know I wont want to return

[lemoncake]

I usually go physical but some of the sales recently have swayed me into buying digital, I prefer digital but usually the price difference is just too much and doesn't decrease in line with the physical copies.

[USMC_POLICE]

Usually I do physical bit if I'll be keeping it and doing a lot of multiplayer like GTA or battlefield I'll go digital for the ssd load times.

[kingPoS]

I'll settle for both!

Collectors editions often come with physical bonuses, things you can actually look at and admire. It doesn't hurt that I can take that same disc and play it wherever i wanted, like say my cousin that was unable to acquire reliable internet.(tru story)

I gotta admit, downloading game titles for months on end has done much to warm me to digital games. Before I had ps+, I never download much other than demos, but now... (heh heh) I think I might be addicted to seeing a massive jukbox list of games grow every 30 days.

Gateway MT6706 2008

[RosweeSon]

Physical all the way I'll never fully lose my collection even if it has taken a cull over the last week or 2 can't beat old consoles or old games or rare bits and bobs but then my Vita is now fully digital, it's rammed and I need to clear a few games to get a few more on my 32gb but it's all good metal gear 2/3 ain't going anywhere my PS3 is down to 3 discs mainly because my drive is going but yeah going digital on that also but do love my consoles and collectors editions and now Amiibo's... I need a new job haha.
Can't ignore some of the digital deals tho and even better entirely free games be it through EA the other day or nintendo with their promos and obviously ps+ sure you gotta pay but you had to pay for just playing online with microsoft for the last 10 years+ I did this myself but when I had the 3 Playstation consoles and they are giving 2 games on each it was a no Brainer, now just finding time to get through them all ;)

[Sokol]

It all depends for me personally. I love purchasing digital on the discount obviously. For example, currently, I picked up The Witcher 3 for the 50$ tax included on the PSN vs the 69$+tax = 78$... (Canada).
That's something I'm willing to pre order.

However, at the same time, I also see many other games at the full price 69.99$.. I don't understand for the love of me how they get away with those prices. There is no third party involved, no shelve space no transportation fee, pretty much no middle man as we have in retail..

Digital games for the new copy shouldn't exceed 40-50$. On the other hand I personally wait on a deal, be it psychical or digital copy. This days after I own the game for a month plus, its rare to get a decent trade in value. So I don't even bother with trading the games anymore.

[Father__Merrin]

Premium big budget game...

Digital: £39.99
Physical: £39.99

Digital you are able to keep a steam/origin list to look at & feel good about it, plus save space on your display shelfs. Only real tangible benifit is picking up cheap key bundles and sales.

Physical you are able to keep a traditional collection, and or trade in for newer titles as and when you wish.

I'd prefer physical on consoles and digital games on my PC

[1nsomniac]

Since when has digital ever been the same price as physical?

I've seen on several occasions lately where I could by the physical version of the game almost twice over for the price of a single digital copy!

[iistuii]

More like £59-99 digital £39-99 physical.

[MasterD919]

Physical...for multiple reasons:

a) resell them at your leisure
b) uninstall and re-install without a need to navigate through menus
c) create a game collection

The only downside to physical is that the discs can get damaged. However, so can a hard-drive, which houses the digital version of a game.

[1nsomniac]

Digital is a good idea in theory. The problem is that every single console & publisher has abused it on every single occasion.

We all know that there are no production costs in digital. We were even promised that by accepting digital, prices would lower because of this. It didn't, it did exactly the opposite & digital prices are in fact going up.

As soon as the agenda has been fully forced on us we will loose our choice ENTIRLY on how much we want to pay. The crazy thing is we will be paying a sky rocketing premium to only rent the game off servers rather than actually owning them.

It's mental that we've seen it happening for several years now & still some people are completely oblivious to it.

[s45gr32]

Digital distribution is getting better at least on PC he he he. Games are cheaper, just click on any game you want to play, the storage for games on PC is tiny. Steam and pretty soon its competition is going to release family share basically able to share games digitally which Sony has started with the PS4 called game share I believe. Steam offers the ability to trade games digitally. The one thing that's missing is the ability to return and get a refund for the games the gamer bought and didn't like or are a extremely broken game which Origin and only Origin offers at the moment. But Sony can bring a Netflix like service through PlayStation Plus. If PlayStation Plus ends up like Netflix then man oh man that would change gaming forever and bring the first rental digital gaming service.

[GokuSolosAll]

To fully embrace digital titles, 3 demands must be met:

1) More rights over our OWNERSHIP, instead of just a flimsy, revokable LICENSE; including a GUARANTEE of access forever.

2) SIGNIFICANT decrease in prices of ALL games to become standard.

3) Larger storage capacity. These pathetic 500 GBs and Nintendo's laughable, what, 8-32? No, a minimum TB on the lowest models.

If these are met, I'd dive into the digital age, apprehensively. I am a collector at heart, so I wouldn't ever prefer a pure digital experience, but I don't want to hold back the industry either. Perhaps they can create a limited "Collector's Edition" system and games for us remnants, at a higher price? I would be down; just make the products somehow special tomake the extra price of the Collector's Editions worth it.

[RiPPn]

Just look at all the deals on physical copies at retailers over the past couple weeks and then tell me how full price digital copies are better..

Until digital can match retail in pricing there is no contest.

[iistuii]

Agree. But to be honest with no case no booklet & no disk they should be a lot cheaper than a physical copy.

[BladerunnerZX]

I prefer Physical copies of games and movies.
Although I have downloaded a lot of digital games on my Playstation recently.
Games like Alien Isolation and Dead Space.

[GokuSolosAll]

To fully embrace digital titles, 3 demands must be met:

1) More rights over our OWNERSHIP, instead of just a flimsy, revokable LICENSE; including a GUARANTEE of access forever.

2) SIGNIFICANT decrease in prices of ALL games to become standard.

3) Larger storage capacity. These pathetic 500 GBs and Nintendo's laughable, what, 8-32? No, a minimum TB on the lowest models.

If these are met, I'd dive into the digital age, apprehensively. I am a collector at heart, so I wouldn't ever prefer a pure digital experience, but I don't want to hold back the industry either. Perhaps they can create a limited "Collector's Edition" system and games for us remnants, at a higher price? I would be down; just make the products somehow special to make the extra price of the Collector's Editions worth it.

[Gore-Content]

Whatever suits your convenient I guess. I like physical copies, because I can see my gaming collection grows on the shelves over time.

[MasterCornholio]

I choose physical. Because I hate waiting a ton of time to do a load a game plus most of the time physical copies are cheaper.

[reaper602]

I will always go physical unless I'm forced to buy digital