Topic: Digital or Disc which side of the fence do you sit on?

@Tasuki My thoughts haven't really changed from what I said months ago, it would take a huge drop in digital prices to entice me to switch to digital on consoles. If anything I've moved the other way, as I have a monolithic backlog of games and a general dislike of day one patches, I have no trouble these days in waiting for a complete GotY physical release that works out the box and contains a load of extra content for a fraction of the cost with the added bonus that when it joins my retro collection I know it will still work.

@KratosMD The main reason that 'Digital' costs more is lack of retailer competition. When you buy Digital, you only have the option to buy from PS Store (or Xbox Marketplace) and the games are always sold at RRP. That price is NO different from the RRP of the physical versions BUT the retailers face stiff competition with each other as well as the online market place. They know that if they 'try' to sell at RRP, the customer will just go to another store, supermarket or even online to buy so they reduce the cost down to the 'lowest' margin of profitability. Instead of risking not selling ANY because next door has the same item for less, they would rather sell more at minimum profit.

Sony's PS Store has NO competition and so can charge what it wants and until they allow other retailers to offer digital games to give competition, then we are stuck with paying the RRP for all Digital content - inc DLC. How Sony can charge the money for 'mobile' games or 4yr+ ports of budget PC games they do, I will never know - let alone the price of 'some' Indies and AAA games but generally its purely down to the lack of competition and they know you either pay the price or go without where digital only content is concerned.

Physical copies are NOT sold at RRP but if retailers were to sell at RRP, we would be paying the same as Digital buyers. This is 'evident' when you look at special editions which usually list the RRP of these. When retailers get exclusivity on certain editions, they are often not that 'discounted' by comparison because of the lack of competition from other retailers. Its the same as Hardware sales. Sony (for example) release a RRP for their consoles yet if you shop around, you can often find these cheaper because of 'retailer' competition. For digital prices to drop and be 'competitive', Sony would have to open up the store to other retailers to sell games - not that they ever will of course - at least I don't think so.

@KratosMD Most GotY versions don't hold their resale price as they rarely have ALL the content on disc. The additional content is often Digital only and requires a 'code' (supplied in the box) to download. As a result, the resale value is often the same (or less) than the standard version (unless there is some guarantee all the content is still available/codes unused). Even Destiny: The Taken King (and I assume the Rise of Iron - I just bought the expansion digitally) only come with Destiny in the box and the rest (Dark Below, House of Wolves, Taken King etc) is supplied via 'digital' codes.

@renankj @Tasuki Apart from business reasons, I think there's a fairly good chance that the PS5 will be backwards compatible. I don't see them switching to another architecture anytime soon. x86 is here to stay for a while.

@KratosMD wouldn't a simple way to fix that be to not release a physical version at all though?

@KratosMD Even in the future, going all digital is suicide for a company. Brick-and-mortar retailers are still important, especially for the general gaming public. Going digital means less awareness of the products and the games with a physical versions in physical stores will have an advantage over the games that don't have that. I think that reason alone means we'll be seeing physical games for longer than most people think. Maybe not in disc format, cards are more likely, but I doubt they're going to disappear in 10 or even 20 years.

What distorts it all is that a lot of releases are digital only now and this includes some of the best games for all playstation systems. For VR, almost all releases are digital. So, even if you prefer physical, you have to go digital. I think that we will start to see only major mainstream releases going physical (even more than now) and anything risky or niche going digital only. Basically, if it wouldn't sell on a shelf in Tesco, it will go digital. At least that is my opinion.

I like digital and have bought lots but only if I had no choice or on sale. Physical is handy and I do like having discs on the shelf.

@Rudy_Manchego "If it wouldn't sell on a shelf on Tesco".

So if its not FIFA, CoD or Battlefield?

In response to the thread topic though: cartridges. A little more expensive, with no installs (So the difference between disc and digital these days is cost/longevity) and the potential for faster read times, and as the medium gets cheaper, the storage space will increase for bigger games.

No, I'm not saying this because of Switch. They went with that due to form factor. I'm saying this because solid state or flash media walk all over HDDs and especially discs in terms of what people are looking for these days, namely read times.

Discs are, sadly, becoming obsolete as a medium. Music CDs are pretty much deceased for streaming. DVDs too. But the industry cant go digital only as that has its own huge problems - example: PS4 only just getting external HDD support, since many consumers wont want to change internals, games vanishing, account hacks, very poor refund policies, and so on so forth.

Digital media needs a physical alternative to supplement it, and I believe carts are it. Discs are offering very few benefits over digital these days due to installs, but digital only cant sustain itself with its issues.

@BLP_Software Ha ha - of course not, you are missing all Lego and Assasin's Creed games from your list. But seriously, though, I do think if it is not a known IP or a major publisher is doing mainstream advertising, then they will go digital.

@Rudy_Manchego Oh known IP indies certainly can go physical, depending on the platform holders support for that.

The other problem for smaller devs is being swallowed over. I swear if Steam Direct does go for anything more than a $1000 fee for each game an indie wants to put up and leave them to do everything else, then indies will drop Steam hard, because you can get dev kits for less than that, and a certain platform holder has free submission for indies on their platform.

@Rudy_Manchego The issue is production, shipping and storage. Although I have no numbers to prove this, but I'm certain that a game will sell better when it's available physically as well, simply because not everyone keeps track of the digital releases, and anyone can buy a physical game in a store. In a way, if you want to increase your sales as a publisher or developer, make sure the game is available in brick-and-mortar stores. The issue is that manufacturing the discs, shipping and storage aren't free. So if you know beforehand that your game won't sell millions, then it may be beneficial to keep it as a digital-only game. Your overall revenue will be lower, but your profits may be higher since you're not wasting your resources on production, shipping and storage.

So I was browsing NL, happy as can be, then I saw an article I wish I didn't see:
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2017/02/retro_this_is_why_we...

Like we need anymore proof physical sucks, right?

Ladies and gents, please take care of and cherish your games.

Why do people keep saying this when it's not true? It was last gen but not now.

@DerMeister I bought my first CD Player and a couple of CD's back in the late 80's (nearly 30 years ago) and built up a collection of well over 1000 now. I still have the first CD's I bought with that CD player and they are still 'perfect' - not a scratch or any sign of 'Disc Rot'. I have DVD's older than the N64 that are still 'perfect' in condition too. Blurays came out after the N64 but all games, movies etc I have bought after that are still in 'as new' condition too.

Considering that some of these are nearly 30years old and showing no signs of deterioration, I really don't believe 'disk rot' is any more a risk than something happening to the cartridge that causes that to stop working.

Because it's a half truth which physical media fanboys use in physical vs digital debate to look and sound smart.

@BAMozzy I hope it isn't a big issue, and what you said is reassuring, but it seems like there's an equal number of people saying it's a huge issue whenever there's a statement like yours.

Ever since I wrecked a game in childhood stupidity, I've always taken good care of my games. I hold them by the edges with my fingertips, I always keep them in their boxes, and currently they're in boxes under my bed because I don't have a shelf. I think I'm doing something right, but admittedly that article made me paranoid about it.

@DerMeister It's an issue, and it's been a well known issue for a long time. The problem is that optical media hasn't been around long enough to determine the exact gravity of the situation. For example, some of the first pressed CDs are still functional today. We know that the lifespan of optical media differs between the types (CD-ROM, CD-R and CD-RW), the manufacturing quality, maintance, and the storage conditions for example. Although I have no proof of this, I believe that the latter is one of the biggest culprits, mainly because it's the most difficult to avoid, especially if you live in humid or sub-tropical areas.

Your cartridges will probably outlive your optical media, but if you take care of them, even optical media will last a good while. Still, it's a problem nonetheless.

@DerMeister After writing that, I checked the first CD's I bought and they are still perfect. These were released in 1987 and 1988 so at least 29yrs old and still in perfect condition. Its too early to consider my oldest disc games by comparison and my oldest DVD's are only 20ish yrs old but still look perfect - no sign of deterioration. A lot of my collection is older than a lot of people here - probably in better condition too LOL!

I do keep mine in their boxes and never touch the playing surface either - so that maybe a reason mine are still pristine. I thing it will be harder to find working consoles to play the games on rather than the discs giving up. Certainly last better than tapes and records. Some cartridges don't always work properly after a period of time...

I have over 4,000 CDs, 1,000 DVDs, and 1,000 video games. I used to be a collector. I loved it. Now I've come to embrace the more minimal approach of having no physical media and just watching movies and listening to music via streaming, and playing my games (mostly) digitally. I can't wait for it to take over.

@johncalmc Screw that! I've got a fair amount of boxed games/DVDs that I'll be lugging round my entire life. Every time I move house I just think "what the hell are you doing with this crap?" Can't imagine having to deal with that many and don't blame you for embracing digital. I only really care about perhaps 5% of my overall collection (PS1 FF games, MGS1 etc.) and I do wish I'd held on to a few more games that I traded in during my youth.