I like physical copies because I can lend them to my friends and my brother and vice versa. I also like a good looking game box on the shelf. That said, digital is very convenient and if the price and time is right, I will go for it - especially for handhelds and those games you are constantly playing in between others.
First world problems: I hate having to put Street Fighter V disc in and out everyday ...I should buy a digital version but there is this voice in my head telling me it will be free with plus sooner than we think.
@kyleforrester87 I've got way too much stuff. I used to love collecting. Games, movies, music. I've got rare EPs (I can't even listen to them because I don't own a CD player now), I've got Japanese imports of movies (I watch everything on Netflix and Amazon now), and I've got games by the hundred (most of them I can't play because my console isn't backwards compatible). Then I've got other rubbish. I've got a huge box full of Final Fantasy merch. I've got figures from VII, VIII, IX, and X. I've got tonnes of them. They're sat in a box. My girlfriend says I'm not allowed to put them up in the living room because it'll mess with the feng shui of the room. It's £100s of stuff.
If you asked me a couple of years ago I would of said disc. But with the external hdd now the only I drawback I see is I can't sell games I don't like in the future. And I've gotten pretty good at assessing if I'm going to like a game before I buy it....
On PS4? I'll go with whatever is cheaper. If both digital and physical are the same price, though, I'll go with physical every time. Not because I think I'm building a collection (because, let's be honest: all PS4 games are the digital version. Going physical only makes it where you have to stick a piece of plastic in your disc drive to run the game that is already on your hard drive), but because I can still trade in games and it's a lot quicker to re-download the data if I need to delete a game for space (rocking 500 GB this whole gen). Digital, on its own, has no benefits to me on a console.
On Wii U? Physical only, unless I can get a digital game for free. Aside from patches, all of the games still run off the disc, and 32 GB isn't much space to work with, anyway.
On portables? I used to go physical, and still will if I can get a good deal, but I want to go digital for my future purchases otherwise. Tons of benefits to going digital on a portable. Can't lose your games. You have your games with you everywhere. It's easier to take your collection with you. Etc. Vita is pretty much the perfect platform for digital gaming, and although I don't really trust digital purchases too much on my 3DS, the Switch has seemingly switched over to a full account system.
I still dig buying discs, but I understand the appeal of digital and having your whole collection at your fingertips. I don't mind buying digital only titles, but given the choice, I prefer disc.
I did buy both Wolfenstein games on digital because they were such a good deal a couple of months ago - however as a result, my Internet usage went over and there was a surcharge! So I guess there's that to consider as well.
@KratosMD Can't your friend contact Nintendo about that to get his games transferred to another system? I don't remember too well but my original Wii broke, but I managed to download all my games to a new system by contacting Nintendo about it.
I strongly prefer physical media, especially for home console systems. However, I do so mostly for collectors' reasons, as I have rarely if ever traded in my games. I just like the idea of having something tangible to add to my library, and it feels more like something of "mine" than digital games do.
However, I have no problems buying digital if it allows me to get a really good price or gain access to a hard-to-find game. I bought my PS4 late in the game, and soon afterward Sony had a big sale that enabled me to stock up on a lot of games I missed, such as The Last of Us Remastered. I felt uncomfortable that those were all digital purchases, but I did my research and found that, at least for Sony, buying digital games can be a long-term investment (as in the digital games you buy can often be played on other systems within its family in some way shape or form).
I started out planning on just going physical on PS4, but with the frequency and ease of digital sales and deals, I have found myself with a larger digital library. I still buy games I get day one physical though, due to Best Buy Gamer's Club Unlocked and Amazon Prime.
I still prefer the physical media only because I like to display them on a shelf. About once a year, I hook up the PS1 and play some of the old titles. I would like to think that I will do that with the PS4 in 20 years also.
@Motoxer1 I felt the same but then, with the amount of patches that are needed for each new game, putting a game in a PS4 in 20 years I wonder if they will be playable if those servers hosting the patches are no longer live?
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
@Rudy_Manchego At the moment you would still be able to play the game but in it's original state it shipped in. The Witcher 3 for instance horse riding would still be borked. Not sure how that would work with games that need an internet connection to work properly like The Division and Destiny. And who knows how it will all work in 20 years? PS1 games still work today as none of the consoles or games required an internet connection to function properly. That is my understanding of it anyway.
As for me, I used to buy mainly physical with only resorting to digital when a physical version was not available. And as money was tight I would either wait until a price drop or trade in a few games. That was last gen and the start of this gen. The last couple of years I've had more disposable income so have started to buy more digital titles but only in the sales. New releases I get from online retailers, older riskier games I'm unsure of I use my CEX credit which I keep topped up by trading in games I've finished with.
I'm probably OK if it all went digital but I think we are a few years (maybe even decades) away from that yet. What will happen before then I think is something like Games Pass/PS Now being more popular. CD's maybe still being sold but streaming services are way more popular.
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It depends on the price and on whether my brother or my friends are interested in playing the game as well, if they are I'll always buy it on disc so I can lend it to them. This is one of the advantages consoles have over PC, being able to lend or trade your games. It would be a shame if it disappeared, but I don't think that will happen where bigger titles are concerned, when it comes to Indie games it's a different story.
It's more convenient to have them stored digitally though, personally I store them on an external drive. My old disc collection took up so much space I ditched the plastic covers and only store the actual discs, in CD-wallets. This saves a huge amount of space.
@JohnnyShoulder Yeah I think so but some shipped games on disc are broken so if the update servers go, no chance of getting a non broken game unless it's like a GOTY edition. Games like Destiny will just be unusable.
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
Games like Destiny are useless without servers irrespective of them being digital or disc. I couldn't play need for speed 2015 because I had to update my ps4 software and then games software in order to play it even though it is on disc.
I like neat, alphabetised boxes on my shelves, so I'll go for a disc where I can, but I'm not averse to digital-only games or digital downloads, especially now that I've dipped my toe in the PS Plus free game waters. Also, if something's digital first and boxed later, and I've already gotten a digital copy, I'll usually give my wallet a day off.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
Physical big time. I don’t mind PS Plus or digital only games under $40 (I want physical for that much), but I won’t but a physical game digital otherwise. Nier could be $5 on digital, and I still wouldn’t get it digital because it’s physical too.
Also, convince is often stated for digital, but if you delete games off a hard drive they’ll go on much faster with a disc than downloaded them off the store again.
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Topic: Digital or Disc which side of the fence do you sit on?
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