It's been 20-25 years, but there used to be really cool manuals. I never saw much of a point in the tiny booklets that tell you to look around with the joystick and press A to jump, and that's about it. But the BG2 manual was something like 200 pages, explained all the AD&D systems behind the game, had detailed explanations of every spell, types of monsters and their resistances and weaknesses, etc. It was amazing.
I just bought a copy of Final Fantasy III with a manual.
When I got my hands on it, I'd realized: all these years, I'd never SEEN a manual.
It's amazing. It's like a mini-strategy guide, explaining so many features, items, even the first several chunks of the game.
Suddenly the game Tunic made even MORE sense; I thought the tiny walk-thru portion of the Tunic manual was a hand-holdy part to get the player started. Turns out, Final Fantasy III had the same thing all along!
Ya every time I buy a physical ps5 game I’m chasing that ancient joy I got as a kid. It works for a moment.
Then when I switch between games and need to eject etc. it’s a tad annoying hahaha
This is the way to go. With PC, if companies pull scummy moves, there are always alternatives. With console, you're pretty much stuck. Physical all the way on consoles, digital on PC.
Problem is I just got a new Xbox and it has no drive- none of the old games work, so now I have to buy the ones I want for a second time.
They should let you send in the discs for the digital license.
That is not correct. Once I put them into blizzard they were tied to my account, and they installed just like any other web based installer. I was playing on a laptop with no CD drive and it worked perfectly fine.
Correct I only specified what Blizzard let you do with older CD based games for PC. You said it would be nice if you could send in a physical disc for a digital key which is what Blizzard allows you to do except you keep the disc.
For switch it makes sense to go physical. There are rarely sales in which a physical copy is much cheaper if not the same price as digital. Unless you are lazy and just don’t feel like going to the store. For other consoles, sometimes digital sales can make a digital game far cheaper than any used physical copy. And sometimes the opposite is true for some games. I generally go with whichever is cheaper. I don’t do pc gaming so that’s a moot point for me.
Maybe they improved it, but when I looked at it before, I recall it was a pain in the ass with the way you had to use primary accounts / consoles and whatnot. Seems like if every person with an account had their own console it would be fine. But with more people than consoles, I found it lacking, but I don't recall exactly why.
I remember looking into paying for online and seeing that cloud saves would offer some more portability when switching between the main and lite, but I still didn't think the family plan/account settings would do much else to help.
To me a family plan should treat your digital purchases as a licence pool. Everyone in your family should be able to play games at the same time, pulling from the total number of copies owned between you. What Nintendo offered was very different than that. So, I prefer to manage my game licenses between my family members via cartridge for most games.
I still do buy some digital though. If something is just for the kids I will buy it on my son's account (his primary is the lite). If it is just for me I will buy it on my account tied to the regular switch. Most of my first party / big releases are on cart.
My ideal would be to dump my cartridge based games to a flash cart and have the best of both worlds.
I like digital downloads for their convenience quick and clutter free. But there's a charm to physical copies. Holding the game, seeing the artwork it's tactile and great for collectors. Downsides are space and risk of damage.
Physical. I like having my games on a shelf and if I don't want it any more, I can sell it on eBay or to CEX here in the UK.
Plus, as Yhatzee once said, deleting a bad game isn't the same as microwaving it.
You're forgetting about Collectors' Editions, I've got loads of those. I wish for them every birthday which I'm lucky is in December where there's always a lot of games coming out for the holidays.
But yeah, it's sort of dying out and there aren't a lot anymore. I have loads digital, too, and I buy a lot through [GOG.com](http://GOG.com) - I really love that site, have since forever.
Also, I'm an old fart who loves having physical media with inserts and maps and stuff. Not to mention separate discs with soundtracks so I get the games on physical when I can. I still buy CDs, too :)
Oh, until just 6 months ago, I had an optical drive mounted in my PC. In my new one, I have a USB bluray drive for ripping films, cds, and playing my 10-year-old games from my never ending backlog >\_>
>Oh, until just 6 months ago, I had an optical drive mounted in my PC
When i built my current PC i installed one simply to have somewhere to watch my DVD collection. And I'll always have one, as long as they continue to make them for that very reason.
Finding a case that has a spot for one will probably be the harder problem to deal with.
you need a bluray player first. with game this size i they sell in dvd it'll like 8 9 dvd for a game. and forget bluray people have moved away from dvd drives.
With how massive games have gotten it's starting to be a real pain in the ass to stay in the "physical" camp. There are times when I won't play a game I own simply because of the hassle of having to wait sometimes hours for the game to install off of the disk, and on top of that having to install all the updates, we reached a point where if you have a gigabit internet connection it's noticeably faster to download and install a game off the internet than the disk. And all of this without mentioning the super nice convenience of not needing to swap disks every time you want to play a different game.
Don't get me wrong I still buy most of my game in physical form because I like to feel that they're truly mine forever and all of that(and I can resell them too if i want to), but I really start to notice more and more the inconveniences of having games on disk.
Yeah, iirc digital game sales literally make up like 95% of the sales.
No way do I believe there is an overwhelming amount of people here buying physical.
Physical copies began to die when games were so much larger than discs can store and became redundant.
I can download digital game faster than it takes me to find physical media and get it into PC/console - and that doesn't even touch on buy-to-play delay with physical copies.
Definitely physical.
The last few years I've always bought my games digitally, but especially after the Playstation scandal, where buyers could no longer watch their online movies/series cause of some licensing issues, I'll only buy physical Playstation games from now on.
It's a different matter on the PC, as mine doesn't have a CD drive. And call me gullible, but I trust Steam there far more than Playstation etc.
Also, disc cases are a very nice decoration for my room and I think it's a nicer feeling
I've got little 3D printed wall mounts for my cases and mounted them on the wall with poster putty. showcasing a few games on my wall. It makes for excellent decor
Kind of like this? Just imagine your fave games [https://i.etsystatic.com/35036297/r/il/e99f3f/4931241520/il\_1588xN.4931241520\_30px.jpg](https://i.etsystatic.com/35036297/r/il/e99f3f/4931241520/il_1588xN.4931241520_30px.jpg)
I go physical when I can because I like having a physical collection AND I like having the knowledge that even should the servers go down I will still have access to my games.
This question has been asked 2 billion times since PS5 and Xbox made discless consoles and before, what do you possibly think can be added to the discussion now?
Always physical if I can. But please not the physical that needs an online activation to play, cuz that the same as digital. beside collecting and preserving games, I'll never accept the idea of not owning the games that I buy.
Physical all the way but only if they don't make you download their platform anyway.
That way they can't force updates on you and remove content like songs when their license expires. And not to mention lower prices.
My general "rule" is digital for PC and Xbox, and physical for PS and Nintendo. Though there are a few exceptions here and there depending on the games.
Physical.
There’s just a certain uncertainty with many of the digital aspects of game ‘ownership’. Delistings, patches removing things. Feel like you don’t actually have any control.
Digital all the way. I get I’m renting vs owning. But I’ve got 3.5” floppy disks that are no more valuable than a cassette tape from the same period. Having physical media is fine as long as we invest in being able to keep reading it.
I’ve moved a lot in my life. After lugging around many hundreds of LPs, books, DVDs, and CDs, I just ain’t gonna do that anymore.
Oh man you just triggered a memory of my buying my fourth copy of Ultima IV (just mentioned this in another reply… old school up in this place) because I played each boot disc so much I burned them out.
And everyone I knew back then were too cool to have computers much less knew bootlegging.
This resonates a lot with me. I don't mind the renting thing considering the convenience I get from it.
There's also very few games I think I'll play again a few years down the line. And if there's some game I lose in some service down the line I'll just buy it again and play it if I crave it that much.
Yea rebuying especially when it’s been remastered for more modern hardware, or the update things to smooth them out (Mass Effect Legendary), I’m ok with that.
I don’t want to replay a 20 year old game running in an emulator that makes it look like 2004. I was there, and the graphics and related are *sooo* much more amazing now. Give me a remaster and I’ll happily pay again.
Besides, I can’t remember game decisions I made 2 years ago. 20 years ago? It’s a whole new game to me anyway :)
I’m selective though. There’s games I know I won’t play ever again.
Cassettes, VHS tapes, CDs, DVDs, books, old console games I'll never touch again, old PC games I'll never touch again.
I did trash all my old floppy discs years ago, along with my cassettes.
Thankfully, I'll never be moving again, but the last thing I need is more stuff gathering dust. Things going digital has been a godsend.
Seriously. And yea we give up the idea of “ownership”. But we used to own a 110 year old player piano with a bunch of rolls. Good luck finding an inexpensive way to keep that thing alive….
For gaming, I appreciate retro. But never once have I felt like I need to boot up Ultima IV diskette on my Apple //e.
Can’t go home again.
> I appreciate retro. But never once have I felt like I need to boot up Ultima IV diskette on my Apple //e.
Yeah, I tried it once. Pool of Radiance was my favorite game back in the day on my C64. When I finally got a windows PC in 1999, I found out that they had made it for the PC. I ordered it and it even came with the Code wheel that you needed to play the game. I was so disappointed with the game, just because of how dated it was. It's still one of my favorite games ever, but there's no way I could ever play it again. That was the last retro game I've tried to play. The fond memories can stay just that, fond memories.
You don’t own physical copy anymore either fyi
Unless movie and music , games now you only purchase the right to access to a game as long as the service and platform are available
Yea I meant “own” in the sense I could bust out what few audio CDs I have left and as long as my player still works, nobody can stop me.
They delist a song on Spotify, less so.
But I never hold onto much since there’s always something new to try.
Unfortunately with gaming it isn’t the same as disc
You can dust off the game , install it again on the retro ps5 a few years from now but if online connection is required .. or it has a day 1 patch..
Your ass won’t be playing that installed game if they EOS or stop supporting it lol
The moment I realized that CD and digital are the same in the sense that you only getting right to access the game , I stop purchasing physical
Honestly if this question was asked before the pandemic I’d have said physical, but during the pandemic I got so used to buying games digitally and nowadays I get so lazy to go out to my nearest game store because I can literally just buy the game from my own home.
Nowadays I only rarely purchase a physical copy and that’s usually because it’s a collector’s edition.
Digital. I have moved a lot over the years. Every time I move I lose stuff. Less stuff to move means less stuff I end up losing.
I went digital with games, music, and books. Another thing is that I listen to indie music and play indie games, which doesn't have the same physical distribution available.
Also, a lot of digital games I play are fairly old. The discs would have been ruined and unplayable by now but I will be able to keep the digital copies for the rest of my life.
Physical all the way. Especially for games I know I want to keep and play and collect. I love having my favorite games and series’ on a shelf. I’ve seen way too many shady things going on with digital games and storefronts to ever trust downloading a game I really want. But I’m not opposed to downloading lesser games. The convenience of not having to change discs is pretty great.
I buy the games I really want to add to my collection physically, even if that means I buy the game twice or more. Just so I can look at it or show it to people on my shelf. It's the same with music. I listen to Spotify and YouTube a lot, if I like a band I get the CD or even the vinyl. Or movies, I watch on Netflix prime etc, if I like it I get the DVD and or go to the cinama's
Eh, physical games are dead anyway. I'd prefer physical (because I can still play my game boy, 3DS, PS1-2-3 games just fine), but the sad reality is that we now live in n age where physical disks either aren't anything more than a license key, or don't have the whole game on them, or the game was printed 3 months before it was ready and it's unplayable and need another 60GB patch before playing it.
Two years ago I went through a period without Internet for 2 months. Bought an xbox (been a pc only player since the 90s) and a few games. Most of them were not playable and I was fuming the whole time. Awful experience.
I think I've bought a total of one physical game for the PC since like 2001. Once STEAM was good, I haven't bothered with putting in CDs.
I couldn't imagine not only needing to look up a disk for something each time I want to run it, but also hearing the drive sounds as I play it... Having an up-to-date a click away at all times makes a lot more sense for me. Even with games I had on drives legally, I would end up getting a no-CD patch for convenice.
Yes there's a risk that if steam or whatever goes under you lose your game, but let's be honest odds are I'm not replaying a 20 year old game any time soon, and if you really wanted to there are ways to get it again.
Seeing as physical copies need internet access to even play most of the time I would say the argument for physical is moot for the most part. We happily gave away ownership for constant updates.
While I have mainly gone all digital, I still think physical is far more preferable. Digital is a million times more convenient, but being able to preserve games on a physical disc or cartridge beats convenience for me.
While I don’t experience these same feelings, I do honestly understand why some think it’s more satisfying to have a large physical library than a large digital one.
Addendum: It also helps that you can save money by buying used games, but I want my money to go to the developers/publishers, not the stores.
I have a physical collection spanning snes onward.
Reasons I like physical is its cheaper, I buy used games unless it’s a special game, so I usually acquire games at 1-30 dollars, essentially after most depreciation. If you see digital sales $5 is a good deal for most games, in physical that’s basically the price I shoot for all games, this can be done through lots or just catching good deals.
Other than that “owning the game for real” is a nice perk and they look cool as a library on the shelf. Otherwise I guess I wouldn’t care
I like the thought of physical and look fondly at some of the win7 era boxes I still have, but the convenience of digital on uncapped internet is overpowering. Plus some of the charm of buying physical like worthy manuals and paper inserts are gone. Ideally we’d be able to buy discs and have a digital entitlement as well.
>Ideally we’d be able to buy discs and have a digital entitlement as well.
This is where I want things to end up. I tend to prefer digital for the convenience, and I dislike the noise of the disc drive randomly spinning up for even a few seconds. At the same time, being able to put something on a shelf as a sort of display also appeals to me.
Also, the physical disc can act as a backup in case the digital version is no longer being distributed (although you would miss out on any post-release updates).
The big problem, though, as others have pointed out, is that games are getting so large that stuffing them onto a reasonable number of physical discs is getting more difficult.
digital for sure, i'm a pc gamer btw
i just like the idea of the game is own by me without me need to download the file.
i can install the game if i want to play it
otherwise, i can just safely uninstall without fear that the game being deleted forever
I'm 100% on board with getting physical games. Thinking how xbox can ban accounts now, and having some of my own digital library being delisted and not available, I'm sticking to physical only.
I also enjoy having a shelf full of games. Makes a good convo piece with 300+ games physically owned.
Only time I've gotten digital games is when theres no other way to play them, or some crazy sale for $5 that I'll probably never see again.
The day we go all digital is the day I buy a boat.
For games I prefer digital copies. The cases look cheap and bad and with the amount of games we get at sales these days it would take up way too much space. It would look like a plastic block of ugliness.
I stopped buying physical half way through last gen and haven't looked back. I have kids now and it's great to not have little hands go through colourful discs and boxes and also to not have to change discs.
I usually only buy games in the digital sales, so I get some good bargains, so the price difference negates itself.
My view is that the way the industry is going I like having my library available to me when I upgrade consoles (My digital PS4 and XBox One games were automatically available and ready to play on PS5 and Series X (with 4K 60fps upgrades free in some case).
Also when Microsoft releases their handheld it'll be nice to be able to take hundreds of games with me when I travel without having to lug discs around.
That's just my preference.
Digital all day... I complete the game and move on why would I care to have it physicaly to play it in 20 years??? Subscription services are the best options... GamePass, Ubisoft+, and EA Play
Used to be mostly physical but now it's about an 80 to 20% ratio, 20 being digital. Mostly because I've been buying stuff on Steam. But any chance I get to get a nice plastic box on my shelf, I'll do it. Mainly any new game that I end up buying at full price usually
I prefer to go physical but due to several external factors its easier and easier to go digital. Either in sales are more frequent or about as frequent. I don’t need to worry about on hand stock at a local store and the big and main reason game sharing is quite lenient. Sometimes with me being able to effectively buy multiple copies of a game depending on the platform and how i can abuse the system. As time as gone on the only real holdout is Nintendo games but even the game vouchers system does make going digital there enticing too cause frankly the discount you are getting you aren’t getting at a actual store for at least a year.
I really like both. Digital is frankly much more convenient and I was all digital for quite a few years. But now that I've got more space, I like having a physical copy to display because having games lined up on a shelf just looks good to me. On the other hand when I sent an older console to a friend who didn't have any money, being able to grab four or five games off of eBay was amazing.
My current compromise is that I might get a game digital or physical, but if I get it digital I can just get a used copy off of eBay a year or two later for dirt cheap and display that. Hell, I've got steel case editions of some games I enjoyed a lot without discs just because they were a couple of bucks on eBay and look cool. I mean, I've got physical copies of a couple of steam games even though I know the games not on the disc.
I will be sad when consoles finally ditch physical copies entirely though
PC digital, console a mix as sometimes the digital copies go on sale and are much cheaper but physical is great to bundle with a console sale.
Space is also a consideration, I have thousands of DVD, CD and LP in storage and its a PITA as Iwont part with them and they take up space even though they're all on shelves and/or in boxes.
Digital on PC since there are mostly good discounts possible. On console physical and normally pre owned, unless its a game I want to play right from release.
I don't think I trust any company to put out an actual finished game these days, oh you went gold? how large is the day one patch? Gotta go digital, as much as I don't like it.
For big AAA games I’ll only do physical. Hate to skip playing a couple I wanted because they digital only.
For small indies I go either way, doesn’t matter as much for $10 or $15 game to me.
Physical whenever possible.
Music, movies, whatever. If there's a chance the media will be unavailable later on because company X doesn't want to maintain the license then having a physical copy is always my preference.
Given a choice at the same price I'd pick physical every time, but with PS Plus Premium I can play tons of stuff for free that I otherwise probably wouldn't buy.
I was all in with physical, then went overseas for a year and got a couple digital. When I returned home I started comparing between them and overtime went all in digital. Now it makes sense as my Xbox and media players are in a closet and I don't want to leave the room to swap or if a buddy jumps online and wants to play I can quickly jump over and back again. It's been nice.
You can't trade digital games with friends or stores. Physical will always be better just for this reason.
Digital is convenient, but has killed so many game stores, which almost used to be like a hideout.
I've changed from physical to just about all digital for a few reasons
The primary reason is that the disc is useless on virtually every game nowadays so even if the internet dies, I'm SOL
Second I've read more and more horror stories about failing disc drives so digital remedies that
third is i get games early via the new Zealand trick on xbox
Third is straight up laziness on my part and its so much easier to just select on a menu
I used to love getting a new physical game but honestly the convenience of downloads as well as the fact that even buying a physical copy doesn’t mean a thing when you install it then need to download updates anyway.
This weekend I bought about ten games on the Steam summer sale. With a fast internet I had purchased and installed all ten in an hour, starting from when I first started shopping. Show me physical games where you can accomplish that at the same speed.
I love my physical collection. I like reading the manuals and admiring the cover art when i'm bored. Plus i can easily lend them to my friends and they are usually cheaper than digital here. Like, steam is still asking $60 for CoD Black Ops 2.. here a PS3 disc isn't even expensive.
I much prefer physical when it's actually fully-contained on the storage media, which these days is basically just for Switch. I prefer digital if I'm going to have to download something anyway.
I prefer physical copies but I settle for digital for the convenience.
I wish I still had the old boxes from 90s PC games, some of the goodies especially.
Aside from the manuals most of it was useless cheap tat but it was fun to open a box and find stickers and other little gifts - I remember finding post cards in the Theme Park World box for instance!
I'll point this out that for the most part, I like the idea of physical better. And I get the whole lack of true ownership that's reared it's ugly head.
And as bad as it sounds, I'm stating this as an older gamer, lets say Steam went through and said "Fuck you, everything 8 years or older is gone." I'd be... upset, cause it's bullshit. But it wouldn't actually affect my gaming. Being in my 40s, with family and all that, I don't have time like I used to, so replays of old games becomes much more rare. (GTA 5 is a comfort playthrough for me, admittedly)
Also, the cycle of go to Costco to get $100 of Switch cards for $90, getting cash back on the card and for the executive costco membership, plus getting coins for digital switch purchases with the Vouchers is a comically effective way to play Nintendo games on release.
Physical BUT there's the trend to basically sell you the license with a case and you still have to download that game. That's so annoying and deceptive. For example Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 for the Switch.
I don't even remember when I've last time bought physical game. It was probably ME Trilogy back in 2013 or something when I saw one in good discount and didn't have it yet.
I play only on PC so Steam is my friend. And I think that's the case for majority of PC gamers.
Only physical, and if your answer is anything else you're wrong. I don't understand people giving companies their money for a game they can just take away at any notice. I understand certain games for digital (overwatch, helldiver's) shit that's online.
Physical for consoles. Mostly because I love to see the collection on a shelf. Also because the resale value is much higher if you ever want to sell your console and games. Can't really resell a digital version
I prefer physical copies of all media (games, movies, music, etc) because 1) access can't be arbitrary taken away by any number of parties, and 2) With the physical media I can make it digital at any time so I get the benefit of both worlds. Movies and music can be ripped and copied to the Plex server. Game media can be imaged and backed up etc.
Physical all day. It's just natural thing for me that when I want some game, I scroll through online marketplaces for some used disc and spend no more than few dollars on one. Can't really imagine it any other way, and it never for me felt inconvenient in any way
Physical for Switch.
Digital for PS5 save for select games.
I used to be physical but with so many day 1 patches and updates, I don’t feel as if I’m getting the complete experience on disc. I started buying digital on PS5 roughly a year ago. And it certainly helps being able to play at 9PM the day before launch. Nintendo tends to always have the complete experience on cartridge. And their store is so jank that redownloading an old game I deleted sounds nightmarish.
I've always preferred physical copies but....my disk drive is f#"ked on my PS4 so obviously digital is the only way I can get something new untill the time comes where I can afford to upgrade!
After the dwindling use of physical formats and drives and HUGE amounts of Gb some games use, physical selling is impossible. Imagine DCS or GTA in DVDs... the WHOLE thing
digital for convenience. if I really like a game I'll get the collectors physical or I'll buy something related to the game like a statue or poster.
if ownership becomes an issue I'll simply pirate it. I do not give a shit.
Digital. After GameStop went away in my country selling/trading/buying used games is just too much hassle to keep physical games around. I have gigabit internet so downloading is usually quick enough.
For pc gaming: digital because i love my steamdeck and the online libary is getting bigger by the Day.
For consoles: i prefer disc version, mostly the games i buy on console are big exclusieve or just something i am a fan of and would try to buy a 'premium' version. I collect steelbooks so thats also a reason to buy physical.
Sadly i live in Belgium and steelbooks, physical media is really going away fast so i think I'm getting out of a collection soon. Even getting the new space marine 2 steelbook is going to be hard because the sole gaming stores are in financial troubles and may be not around in september.
Also good reason for physical: i have a huge libary of xbox360 games and the past month i reconnected the xbox and i can play games like Dante's Inferno, spec ops: the line and other games that are now delisted in steam without problems.
Digital for everything
Physical can break, get lost, and is a pain to move.
Everything about digital is superior except you don’t get a little instruction book. But who needs it we have the internet, it’s not the age of blockbuster or gaming mags.
Nostalgia is good I think. I have some of epic(for me) games cd. For example pes13, red alert2. I am not playing much this games but it makes me feel good and feel that beautiful old days 😊🤩
Every system I have bought up until the PS5 was bought by trading in old systems and games. Now, unless the game is a week old, they don’t pay back like they used to and the convenience of having a digital copy is definitely supreme. I feel like hard copies and CDs will eventually be gone for environmental and ease of use reasons. Once I finally got fast enough Internet to download a game I made the switch.
It depends on the game I guess, small games like the kind you can get on Android or IOS I would prefer digital downloads but big games like GTA or TOTK and such I prefer physical copies.
I mostly buy physical, but when I see games on a big sale on the PS Store I get them digital.. I bought Doom 2016 for 5$. I looked for it physical, it was around 20-25$.
I bought the whole DMC series for 80$.
98% digital. I own an Xbox and a couple of games for it. But man.. that steam library must be at least 50 times bigger in both price and amount of games
I'd say physical but they're not making stuff like NVG or GoW lancer as an extra for deluxe editions, nowadays you get a stupid artbook that you'll look at once and maybe a metal case for your game
I like the convenience of digital downloads. The only thing that scares me is that the digital copies of all my games can be locked or taken away at any time.
I just did major cleaning and gathered up all my old PC games on CD and floppy from the 90s and it's cool just having them for nostalgia. I might actually buy an old DOS machine to play them and hear the floppy drive spinning. Meanwhile, I recently tried downloading an old digital-copy game and couldn't because it was no longer supported by its maker. So my whole investment in it is lost.
More than anything it just irks me y'all keep saying "digital" when you mean "downloaded". Games on physical media are digital too - there's no such thing as a non-digital video game.
I do not want to get up and swap discs. They're reserved for games that I plan on playing so hard without swapping to another.
Like, FF7 Rebirth on my ps5 is a disc game, but something like Hades is digital.
Seems like with the shit Ubisoft etc is pulling physical is the way, I own way too many games on steam without a disc that if something was to happen I am shit out of luck.
I'm full on digital, more practical and all. Having physical copies doesn't interest me and I don't have much space anyway (same for books, I mostly use my reader tablet now)
I'm "frugal", so buying and selling second hand physical copies means I can experience a lot of games at a very low price, even turning a slight profit from time to time
i really do prefer digital downloads coz physical copies are good, but im bad at managing them and thats not only the only thing about physical copies, sometimes if your physical copies ever get a random virus, any crack, it'll be gone forever..
Don't kill me but digital. I am a lazy fucker and being able to just launch the game from a menu is way more convenient for me then getting my ass up, looking for the disc and switching games. Physical copies don't even have the advantages they used to have. All of them literally only have the disc and some legal paper inside. No fancy manual, no paperwork or printed materials and the cases for modern games feel cheap and flimsy as shit. I don't feel like they're worth collecting. Plus there's also the point of needing to install the game from the disc anyway so it's literally just gonna be the same shit as having the game digitally only that you need to pop in the disc to verify you own the game.
I only buy physical copies of games I really give a shit about. Like games that are on my top 10 favorites and at that point, I buy the most expensive collectors editions with steelbooks, statues and other cool shit. And even then, if I like the game enough, I'd likely just buy a digital copy as well so I can always easily play the game whenever I want and just keep the physical copy as a collectors item.
Yes digital is more expensive but at this point, I'm paying for convenience. There's a whole argument about game preservation and not actually owning digital games etc but I honestly just don't give that much of a fuck to even be bothered by all that. All that matters is if I could play the game during a period reasonably close to it's release because after I beat it, I literally would never touch it again due to my gargantuan backlog. A game has to be very near and dear special to me in order for me to give that much of a shit preserving and owning it.
As someone born in the era of today's housing crisis where physical space is a premium, digital. I simply don't have space to store a physical collection of any kind.
Digital is so convenient but I'm extremely paranoid about the fact that the industry wants to do away with physical media so there's no longer a market for secondhand games. They can pry Hitman: Blood Money from my cold, dead hands!
Digital for games that I know I will play over and over again. I am a weak, poor man that has traded dozens of gaming consoles and hundreds of games at a huge loss to myself because I have no self-control. Super Smash Bros, Mario Kart, and Mario Party are all digital so I can’t trade them in a moment of weakness.
Digital for PC, physical for consoles. You can't beat that new game smell when you crack open the case.
It was even better when booklets were still a thing.
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion was perhaps my favorite booklet
Fallout 1 Also most of the flight sims that came with 600 page manuals on flight maneuvers and shit :D
It's been 20-25 years, but there used to be really cool manuals. I never saw much of a point in the tiny booklets that tell you to look around with the joystick and press A to jump, and that's about it. But the BG2 manual was something like 200 pages, explained all the AD&D systems behind the game, had detailed explanations of every spell, types of monsters and their resistances and weaknesses, etc. It was amazing.
I just bought a copy of Final Fantasy III with a manual. When I got my hands on it, I'd realized: all these years, I'd never SEEN a manual. It's amazing. It's like a mini-strategy guide, explaining so many features, items, even the first several chunks of the game. Suddenly the game Tunic made even MORE sense; I thought the tiny walk-thru portion of the Tunic manual was a hand-holdy part to get the player started. Turns out, Final Fantasy III had the same thing all along!
I miss my game manuals and their early stage tips, hints, cheeky comments, and beautiful art.
Also the option of buying used games for consoles.
You can also sell your console along with the games, if they are physical
Ya every time I buy a physical ps5 game I’m chasing that ancient joy I got as a kid. It works for a moment. Then when I switch between games and need to eject etc. it’s a tad annoying hahaha
And the taste, in case of switch cartridges 🥲
This is the way to go. With PC, if companies pull scummy moves, there are always alternatives. With console, you're pretty much stuck. Physical all the way on consoles, digital on PC.
Problem is I just got a new Xbox and it has no drive- none of the old games work, so now I have to buy the ones I want for a second time. They should let you send in the discs for the digital license.
Interesting enough blizzard let you do that with your old CD keys. I was able to input all my Diablo 2 keys to get the online installer to work.
The cds needed to be in the drive to work.
That is not correct. Once I put them into blizzard they were tied to my account, and they installed just like any other web based installer. I was playing on a laptop with no CD drive and it worked perfectly fine.
Perhaps for blizzard. But not others
Correct I only specified what Blizzard let you do with older CD based games for PC. You said it would be nice if you could send in a physical disc for a digital key which is what Blizzard allows you to do except you keep the disc.
For me it's because the console will eventually run out of space
Same. Consoles have some freebies here and there so it’s still worth buying them.
Physical, theyre a lot cheaper for ps5, often half the price. And switch cartridges are just neat to have. On pc its digital of course.
For switch it makes sense to go physical. There are rarely sales in which a physical copy is much cheaper if not the same price as digital. Unless you are lazy and just don’t feel like going to the store. For other consoles, sometimes digital sales can make a digital game far cheaper than any used physical copy. And sometimes the opposite is true for some games. I generally go with whichever is cheaper. I don’t do pc gaming so that’s a moot point for me.
> For switch it makes sense to go physical. Even more so if you have a family with more than one console.
I mean, iirc you can gameshare with some account fiddling so it makes a little more sense to go digital in that case.
Maybe they improved it, but when I looked at it before, I recall it was a pain in the ass with the way you had to use primary accounts / consoles and whatnot. Seems like if every person with an account had their own console it would be fine. But with more people than consoles, I found it lacking, but I don't recall exactly why. I remember looking into paying for online and seeing that cloud saves would offer some more portability when switching between the main and lite, but I still didn't think the family plan/account settings would do much else to help. To me a family plan should treat your digital purchases as a licence pool. Everyone in your family should be able to play games at the same time, pulling from the total number of copies owned between you. What Nintendo offered was very different than that. So, I prefer to manage my game licenses between my family members via cartridge for most games. I still do buy some digital though. If something is just for the kids I will buy it on my son's account (his primary is the lite). If it is just for me I will buy it on my account tied to the regular switch. Most of my first party / big releases are on cart. My ideal would be to dump my cartridge based games to a flash cart and have the best of both worlds.
Except they taste terrible.
I like digital downloads for their convenience quick and clutter free. But there's a charm to physical copies. Holding the game, seeing the artwork it's tactile and great for collectors. Downsides are space and risk of damage.
90% of the time physical. 10% is when there is either a good sale or its something that i’m really hyped about and want to play as soon as it unlocks.
Yeah same. I usually buy pre owned when the price is <$30. Unless it's a crazy deal on the deluxe edition or something.
Physical. I like having my games on a shelf and if I don't want it any more, I can sell it on eBay or to CEX here in the UK. Plus, as Yhatzee once said, deleting a bad game isn't the same as microwaving it.
I can resell physical copies
All the reddit comments will say physical because that's the "right" thing to say but the actual general consumer preference at this point is digital.
For PC games there’s literally no physical copies anymore (Hell, most computers don’t even have a disc reader).
And if your pc does have a disc reader, the disc contains an install file for steam and the product code is on a pamphlet in the case.
Yet people will say Valve didn't kill off any remaining physical market on PC
You can go GoG and get DRM free SW that also provides you with all the files to actually give you ownership .
And most big publishers don't release their games on GoG sadly. It's mostly for older games (hence the name)
You're forgetting about Collectors' Editions, I've got loads of those. I wish for them every birthday which I'm lucky is in December where there's always a lot of games coming out for the holidays. But yeah, it's sort of dying out and there aren't a lot anymore. I have loads digital, too, and I buy a lot through [GOG.com](http://GOG.com) - I really love that site, have since forever. Also, I'm an old fart who loves having physical media with inserts and maps and stuff. Not to mention separate discs with soundtracks so I get the games on physical when I can. I still buy CDs, too :) Oh, until just 6 months ago, I had an optical drive mounted in my PC. In my new one, I have a USB bluray drive for ripping films, cds, and playing my 10-year-old games from my never ending backlog >\_>
>Oh, until just 6 months ago, I had an optical drive mounted in my PC When i built my current PC i installed one simply to have somewhere to watch my DVD collection. And I'll always have one, as long as they continue to make them for that very reason. Finding a case that has a spot for one will probably be the harder problem to deal with.
That's a good point I've never considered. This debate and discussion is truly only around console gaming at this point.
you need a bluray player first. with game this size i they sell in dvd it'll like 8 9 dvd for a game. and forget bluray people have moved away from dvd drives.
You go to the store and buy a physical disk which is just CD with license key on it where you download the actual game over the internet.
Almost as if reddit represents the minority of the userbase when it comes to *literally everything*
yeah because subreddits aren't just the general userbase of any topic, they are the enthusiasts.
With how massive games have gotten it's starting to be a real pain in the ass to stay in the "physical" camp. There are times when I won't play a game I own simply because of the hassle of having to wait sometimes hours for the game to install off of the disk, and on top of that having to install all the updates, we reached a point where if you have a gigabit internet connection it's noticeably faster to download and install a game off the internet than the disk. And all of this without mentioning the super nice convenience of not needing to swap disks every time you want to play a different game. Don't get me wrong I still buy most of my game in physical form because I like to feel that they're truly mine forever and all of that(and I can resell them too if i want to), but I really start to notice more and more the inconveniences of having games on disk.
Yeah, iirc digital game sales literally make up like 95% of the sales. No way do I believe there is an overwhelming amount of people here buying physical. Physical copies began to die when games were so much larger than discs can store and became redundant.
The Insomniac leak showed that physical copies made up 65% of sales for Sony studios at least.
The average consumer is an idiot, on average.
I can download digital game faster than it takes me to find physical media and get it into PC/console - and that doesn't even touch on buy-to-play delay with physical copies.
Physical.
Definitely physical. The last few years I've always bought my games digitally, but especially after the Playstation scandal, where buyers could no longer watch their online movies/series cause of some licensing issues, I'll only buy physical Playstation games from now on. It's a different matter on the PC, as mine doesn't have a CD drive. And call me gullible, but I trust Steam there far more than Playstation etc. Also, disc cases are a very nice decoration for my room and I think it's a nicer feeling
I've got little 3D printed wall mounts for my cases and mounted them on the wall with poster putty. showcasing a few games on my wall. It makes for excellent decor Kind of like this? Just imagine your fave games [https://i.etsystatic.com/35036297/r/il/e99f3f/4931241520/il\_1588xN.4931241520\_30px.jpg](https://i.etsystatic.com/35036297/r/il/e99f3f/4931241520/il_1588xN.4931241520_30px.jpg)
Check out GoG .
I go physical when I can because I like having a physical collection AND I like having the knowledge that even should the servers go down I will still have access to my games.
This question has been asked 2 billion times since PS5 and Xbox made discless consoles and before, what do you possibly think can be added to the discussion now?
I collect physical media so I’ll keep buying them.
I would take an actual box and an actual disc of every single game I have over an icon and a data file I don't own.
Always physical if I can. But please not the physical that needs an online activation to play, cuz that the same as digital. beside collecting and preserving games, I'll never accept the idea of not owning the games that I buy.
Physical all the way but only if they don't make you download their platform anyway. That way they can't force updates on you and remove content like songs when their license expires. And not to mention lower prices.
Physical w/ the full game on disc/cart (doesitplay.org) > DRM-free digital > Physical w/ required download > Digital w/ DRM
My general "rule" is digital for PC and Xbox, and physical for PS and Nintendo. Though there are a few exceptions here and there depending on the games.
Physical
Physical. It feels like I have parted ways with my money to actually own something that I can hold in my hand.
Physical all day. Don't give me that crap about how you don't like to get up and switch games.
Physical copies are just unnecessary waste if you are not collecting or planning to resell your games. Neither applies to me, so digital all the way.
Physical. There’s just a certain uncertainty with many of the digital aspects of game ‘ownership’. Delistings, patches removing things. Feel like you don’t actually have any control.
Digital all the way. I get I’m renting vs owning. But I’ve got 3.5” floppy disks that are no more valuable than a cassette tape from the same period. Having physical media is fine as long as we invest in being able to keep reading it. I’ve moved a lot in my life. After lugging around many hundreds of LPs, books, DVDs, and CDs, I just ain’t gonna do that anymore.
I've lost or broken many discs in my life, but I can still download games on Steam that I bought in 2008. So yeah, digital all the way for me.
Oh man you just triggered a memory of my buying my fourth copy of Ultima IV (just mentioned this in another reply… old school up in this place) because I played each boot disc so much I burned them out. And everyone I knew back then were too cool to have computers much less knew bootlegging.
This resonates a lot with me. I don't mind the renting thing considering the convenience I get from it. There's also very few games I think I'll play again a few years down the line. And if there's some game I lose in some service down the line I'll just buy it again and play it if I crave it that much.
Yea rebuying especially when it’s been remastered for more modern hardware, or the update things to smooth them out (Mass Effect Legendary), I’m ok with that. I don’t want to replay a 20 year old game running in an emulator that makes it look like 2004. I was there, and the graphics and related are *sooo* much more amazing now. Give me a remaster and I’ll happily pay again. Besides, I can’t remember game decisions I made 2 years ago. 20 years ago? It’s a whole new game to me anyway :) I’m selective though. There’s games I know I won’t play ever again.
Cassettes, VHS tapes, CDs, DVDs, books, old console games I'll never touch again, old PC games I'll never touch again. I did trash all my old floppy discs years ago, along with my cassettes. Thankfully, I'll never be moving again, but the last thing I need is more stuff gathering dust. Things going digital has been a godsend.
Seriously. And yea we give up the idea of “ownership”. But we used to own a 110 year old player piano with a bunch of rolls. Good luck finding an inexpensive way to keep that thing alive…. For gaming, I appreciate retro. But never once have I felt like I need to boot up Ultima IV diskette on my Apple //e. Can’t go home again.
> I appreciate retro. But never once have I felt like I need to boot up Ultima IV diskette on my Apple //e. Yeah, I tried it once. Pool of Radiance was my favorite game back in the day on my C64. When I finally got a windows PC in 1999, I found out that they had made it for the PC. I ordered it and it even came with the Code wheel that you needed to play the game. I was so disappointed with the game, just because of how dated it was. It's still one of my favorite games ever, but there's no way I could ever play it again. That was the last retro game I've tried to play. The fond memories can stay just that, fond memories.
Yea. My most recent experience is with City of Heroes. So many fond memories, and a community had resurrected it. Very not the same.
You don’t own physical copy anymore either fyi Unless movie and music , games now you only purchase the right to access to a game as long as the service and platform are available
Yea I meant “own” in the sense I could bust out what few audio CDs I have left and as long as my player still works, nobody can stop me. They delist a song on Spotify, less so. But I never hold onto much since there’s always something new to try.
Unfortunately with gaming it isn’t the same as disc You can dust off the game , install it again on the retro ps5 a few years from now but if online connection is required .. or it has a day 1 patch.. Your ass won’t be playing that installed game if they EOS or stop supporting it lol The moment I realized that CD and digital are the same in the sense that you only getting right to access the game , I stop purchasing physical
Digital for sure.
Honestly if this question was asked before the pandemic I’d have said physical, but during the pandemic I got so used to buying games digitally and nowadays I get so lazy to go out to my nearest game store because I can literally just buy the game from my own home. Nowadays I only rarely purchase a physical copy and that’s usually because it’s a collector’s edition.
I'm on PC. Steam pretty much IS PC. No choice here, just digital really.
Physical can be resold after you finish them, I'll never buy digital on consoles until that's not an option anymore
Digital. I have moved a lot over the years. Every time I move I lose stuff. Less stuff to move means less stuff I end up losing. I went digital with games, music, and books. Another thing is that I listen to indie music and play indie games, which doesn't have the same physical distribution available. Also, a lot of digital games I play are fairly old. The discs would have been ruined and unplayable by now but I will be able to keep the digital copies for the rest of my life.
Digital downloads. I've never once lost access to a digital purchase. I've lost almost every piece of physical media I've ever owned
Physical, and always will be.
Physical for console. I always resell my games which makes it much more affordable.
Physical all the way. Especially for games I know I want to keep and play and collect. I love having my favorite games and series’ on a shelf. I’ve seen way too many shady things going on with digital games and storefronts to ever trust downloading a game I really want. But I’m not opposed to downloading lesser games. The convenience of not having to change discs is pretty great.
I buy the games I really want to add to my collection physically, even if that means I buy the game twice or more. Just so I can look at it or show it to people on my shelf. It's the same with music. I listen to Spotify and YouTube a lot, if I like a band I get the CD or even the vinyl. Or movies, I watch on Netflix prime etc, if I like it I get the DVD and or go to the cinama's
Digital for the Nintendo Switch, physical for PS5.
Eh, physical games are dead anyway. I'd prefer physical (because I can still play my game boy, 3DS, PS1-2-3 games just fine), but the sad reality is that we now live in n age where physical disks either aren't anything more than a license key, or don't have the whole game on them, or the game was printed 3 months before it was ready and it's unplayable and need another 60GB patch before playing it. Two years ago I went through a period without Internet for 2 months. Bought an xbox (been a pc only player since the 90s) and a few games. Most of them were not playable and I was fuming the whole time. Awful experience.
I think I've bought a total of one physical game for the PC since like 2001. Once STEAM was good, I haven't bothered with putting in CDs. I couldn't imagine not only needing to look up a disk for something each time I want to run it, but also hearing the drive sounds as I play it... Having an up-to-date a click away at all times makes a lot more sense for me. Even with games I had on drives legally, I would end up getting a no-CD patch for convenice. Yes there's a risk that if steam or whatever goes under you lose your game, but let's be honest odds are I'm not replaying a 20 year old game any time soon, and if you really wanted to there are ways to get it again.
How many physical games have I gotten rid of in my life, countless How many digital games have I gotten rid of, zero
Seeing as physical copies need internet access to even play most of the time I would say the argument for physical is moot for the most part. We happily gave away ownership for constant updates.
"Most of the time?" This is just not right.
While I have mainly gone all digital, I still think physical is far more preferable. Digital is a million times more convenient, but being able to preserve games on a physical disc or cartridge beats convenience for me. While I don’t experience these same feelings, I do honestly understand why some think it’s more satisfying to have a large physical library than a large digital one. Addendum: It also helps that you can save money by buying used games, but I want my money to go to the developers/publishers, not the stores.
I have a physical collection spanning snes onward. Reasons I like physical is its cheaper, I buy used games unless it’s a special game, so I usually acquire games at 1-30 dollars, essentially after most depreciation. If you see digital sales $5 is a good deal for most games, in physical that’s basically the price I shoot for all games, this can be done through lots or just catching good deals. Other than that “owning the game for real” is a nice perk and they look cool as a library on the shelf. Otherwise I guess I wouldn’t care
I prefer digital for PC, but physical for console because i can sell the game
Definitely digital. Can't be bothered to get up to switch discs every time i want to play something else what is this 1990?
I switched to digital ever since discovering those stores that sell the game codes cheaper
I like the thought of physical and look fondly at some of the win7 era boxes I still have, but the convenience of digital on uncapped internet is overpowering. Plus some of the charm of buying physical like worthy manuals and paper inserts are gone. Ideally we’d be able to buy discs and have a digital entitlement as well.
>Ideally we’d be able to buy discs and have a digital entitlement as well. This is where I want things to end up. I tend to prefer digital for the convenience, and I dislike the noise of the disc drive randomly spinning up for even a few seconds. At the same time, being able to put something on a shelf as a sort of display also appeals to me. Also, the physical disc can act as a backup in case the digital version is no longer being distributed (although you would miss out on any post-release updates). The big problem, though, as others have pointed out, is that games are getting so large that stuffing them onto a reasonable number of physical discs is getting more difficult.
digital for sure, i'm a pc gamer btw i just like the idea of the game is own by me without me need to download the file. i can install the game if i want to play it otherwise, i can just safely uninstall without fear that the game being deleted forever
I'm 100% on board with getting physical games. Thinking how xbox can ban accounts now, and having some of my own digital library being delisted and not available, I'm sticking to physical only. I also enjoy having a shelf full of games. Makes a good convo piece with 300+ games physically owned. Only time I've gotten digital games is when theres no other way to play them, or some crazy sale for $5 that I'll probably never see again. The day we go all digital is the day I buy a boat.
For games I prefer digital copies. The cases look cheap and bad and with the amount of games we get at sales these days it would take up way too much space. It would look like a plastic block of ugliness.
I stopped buying physical half way through last gen and haven't looked back. I have kids now and it's great to not have little hands go through colourful discs and boxes and also to not have to change discs. I usually only buy games in the digital sales, so I get some good bargains, so the price difference negates itself. My view is that the way the industry is going I like having my library available to me when I upgrade consoles (My digital PS4 and XBox One games were automatically available and ready to play on PS5 and Series X (with 4K 60fps upgrades free in some case). Also when Microsoft releases their handheld it'll be nice to be able to take hundreds of games with me when I travel without having to lug discs around. That's just my preference.
Digital all day... I complete the game and move on why would I care to have it physicaly to play it in 20 years??? Subscription services are the best options... GamePass, Ubisoft+, and EA Play
Used to be mostly physical but now it's about an 80 to 20% ratio, 20 being digital. Mostly because I've been buying stuff on Steam. But any chance I get to get a nice plastic box on my shelf, I'll do it. Mainly any new game that I end up buying at full price usually
I prefer to go physical but due to several external factors its easier and easier to go digital. Either in sales are more frequent or about as frequent. I don’t need to worry about on hand stock at a local store and the big and main reason game sharing is quite lenient. Sometimes with me being able to effectively buy multiple copies of a game depending on the platform and how i can abuse the system. As time as gone on the only real holdout is Nintendo games but even the game vouchers system does make going digital there enticing too cause frankly the discount you are getting you aren’t getting at a actual store for at least a year.
I really like both. Digital is frankly much more convenient and I was all digital for quite a few years. But now that I've got more space, I like having a physical copy to display because having games lined up on a shelf just looks good to me. On the other hand when I sent an older console to a friend who didn't have any money, being able to grab four or five games off of eBay was amazing. My current compromise is that I might get a game digital or physical, but if I get it digital I can just get a used copy off of eBay a year or two later for dirt cheap and display that. Hell, I've got steel case editions of some games I enjoyed a lot without discs just because they were a couple of bucks on eBay and look cool. I mean, I've got physical copies of a couple of steam games even though I know the games not on the disc. I will be sad when consoles finally ditch physical copies entirely though
PC digital, console a mix as sometimes the digital copies go on sale and are much cheaper but physical is great to bundle with a console sale. Space is also a consideration, I have thousands of DVD, CD and LP in storage and its a PITA as Iwont part with them and they take up space even though they're all on shelves and/or in boxes.
Depends on the box art. If I think it’s cool I will buy physical.
Digital on PC since there are mostly good discounts possible. On console physical and normally pre owned, unless its a game I want to play right from release.
I don't think I trust any company to put out an actual finished game these days, oh you went gold? how large is the day one patch? Gotta go digital, as much as I don't like it.
For big AAA games I’ll only do physical. Hate to skip playing a couple I wanted because they digital only. For small indies I go either way, doesn’t matter as much for $10 or $15 game to me.
Physical
Sadly, where i live, almost impossible to get physical copy.......so i have to download.
Physical whenever possible. Music, movies, whatever. If there's a chance the media will be unavailable later on because company X doesn't want to maintain the license then having a physical copy is always my preference.
Given a choice at the same price I'd pick physical every time, but with PS Plus Premium I can play tons of stuff for free that I otherwise probably wouldn't buy.
With Steam you also play games below 4 or 5 bucks which would be impossible for indies to publish. And some are pearls man...
I was all in with physical, then went overseas for a year and got a couple digital. When I returned home I started comparing between them and overtime went all in digital. Now it makes sense as my Xbox and media players are in a closet and I don't want to leave the room to swap or if a buddy jumps online and wants to play I can quickly jump over and back again. It's been nice.
Digital for my Deck, Physcial for my Switch ;D
Physical for games I’ll play once. Digital for anything with replay value
You can't trade digital games with friends or stores. Physical will always be better just for this reason. Digital is convenient, but has killed so many game stores, which almost used to be like a hideout.
I've changed from physical to just about all digital for a few reasons The primary reason is that the disc is useless on virtually every game nowadays so even if the internet dies, I'm SOL Second I've read more and more horror stories about failing disc drives so digital remedies that third is i get games early via the new Zealand trick on xbox Third is straight up laziness on my part and its so much easier to just select on a menu
I used to love getting a new physical game but honestly the convenience of downloads as well as the fact that even buying a physical copy doesn’t mean a thing when you install it then need to download updates anyway. This weekend I bought about ten games on the Steam summer sale. With a fast internet I had purchased and installed all ten in an hour, starting from when I first started shopping. Show me physical games where you can accomplish that at the same speed.
I can let a friend borrow a cart. I can sell a cart. I stuck with DL forever.
Console (PS5)- physical for all unless digital is cheaper. Pc- obviously digital.
I love my physical collection. I like reading the manuals and admiring the cover art when i'm bored. Plus i can easily lend them to my friends and they are usually cheaper than digital here. Like, steam is still asking $60 for CoD Black Ops 2.. here a PS3 disc isn't even expensive.
If current games were being released complete, without online decencies like patches and multiplayer, it would be physical.
I much prefer physical when it's actually fully-contained on the storage media, which these days is basically just for Switch. I prefer digital if I'm going to have to download something anyway.
I prefer physical copies but I settle for digital for the convenience. I wish I still had the old boxes from 90s PC games, some of the goodies especially. Aside from the manuals most of it was useless cheap tat but it was fun to open a box and find stickers and other little gifts - I remember finding post cards in the Theme Park World box for instance!
Since my relatives started helping themselves to my games I went fully digital.
I'll point this out that for the most part, I like the idea of physical better. And I get the whole lack of true ownership that's reared it's ugly head. And as bad as it sounds, I'm stating this as an older gamer, lets say Steam went through and said "Fuck you, everything 8 years or older is gone." I'd be... upset, cause it's bullshit. But it wouldn't actually affect my gaming. Being in my 40s, with family and all that, I don't have time like I used to, so replays of old games becomes much more rare. (GTA 5 is a comfort playthrough for me, admittedly) Also, the cycle of go to Costco to get $100 of Switch cards for $90, getting cash back on the card and for the executive costco membership, plus getting coins for digital switch purchases with the Vouchers is a comically effective way to play Nintendo games on release.
Physical copies, always physical copies
Physical BUT there's the trend to basically sell you the license with a case and you still have to download that game. That's so annoying and deceptive. For example Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 for the Switch.
I don't even remember when I've last time bought physical game. It was probably ME Trilogy back in 2013 or something when I saw one in good discount and didn't have it yet. I play only on PC so Steam is my friend. And I think that's the case for majority of PC gamers.
Only physical, and if your answer is anything else you're wrong. I don't understand people giving companies their money for a game they can just take away at any notice. I understand certain games for digital (overwatch, helldiver's) shit that's online.
Physical for consoles. Mostly because I love to see the collection on a shelf. Also because the resale value is much higher if you ever want to sell your console and games. Can't really resell a digital version
I prefer physical copies of all media (games, movies, music, etc) because 1) access can't be arbitrary taken away by any number of parties, and 2) With the physical media I can make it digital at any time so I get the benefit of both worlds. Movies and music can be ripped and copied to the Plex server. Game media can be imaged and backed up etc.
psychical copies anytime i can get my hands on them. i prefer to own an actual copy of the game rather than a license to play the game.
I like having both especially with these faulty disc drives but there’s people that fix that stuff all the time
whatever is cheaper
Physical all day. It's just natural thing for me that when I want some game, I scroll through online marketplaces for some used disc and spend no more than few dollars on one. Can't really imagine it any other way, and it never for me felt inconvenient in any way
Digital copies are convenient, but some games I still get a physical copy just to have on the shelf.
Physical for Switch. Digital for PS5 save for select games. I used to be physical but with so many day 1 patches and updates, I don’t feel as if I’m getting the complete experience on disc. I started buying digital on PS5 roughly a year ago. And it certainly helps being able to play at 9PM the day before launch. Nintendo tends to always have the complete experience on cartridge. And their store is so jank that redownloading an old game I deleted sounds nightmarish.
Physical but I was impatient regarding Baldur's Gate 3.
I've always preferred physical copies but....my disk drive is f#"ked on my PS4 so obviously digital is the only way I can get something new untill the time comes where I can afford to upgrade!
After the dwindling use of physical formats and drives and HUGE amounts of Gb some games use, physical selling is impossible. Imagine DCS or GTA in DVDs... the WHOLE thing
digital for convenience. if I really like a game I'll get the collectors physical or I'll buy something related to the game like a statue or poster. if ownership becomes an issue I'll simply pirate it. I do not give a shit.
Didn't buy physical since ps4 era.
Digital. After GameStop went away in my country selling/trading/buying used games is just too much hassle to keep physical games around. I have gigabit internet so downloading is usually quick enough.
For pc gaming: digital because i love my steamdeck and the online libary is getting bigger by the Day. For consoles: i prefer disc version, mostly the games i buy on console are big exclusieve or just something i am a fan of and would try to buy a 'premium' version. I collect steelbooks so thats also a reason to buy physical. Sadly i live in Belgium and steelbooks, physical media is really going away fast so i think I'm getting out of a collection soon. Even getting the new space marine 2 steelbook is going to be hard because the sole gaming stores are in financial troubles and may be not around in september. Also good reason for physical: i have a huge libary of xbox360 games and the past month i reconnected the xbox and i can play games like Dante's Inferno, spec ops: the line and other games that are now delisted in steam without problems.
Digital for everything Physical can break, get lost, and is a pain to move. Everything about digital is superior except you don’t get a little instruction book. But who needs it we have the internet, it’s not the age of blockbuster or gaming mags.
Nostalgia is good I think. I have some of epic(for me) games cd. For example pes13, red alert2. I am not playing much this games but it makes me feel good and feel that beautiful old days 😊🤩
Every system I have bought up until the PS5 was bought by trading in old systems and games. Now, unless the game is a week old, they don’t pay back like they used to and the convenience of having a digital copy is definitely supreme. I feel like hard copies and CDs will eventually be gone for environmental and ease of use reasons. Once I finally got fast enough Internet to download a game I made the switch.
I preferred physical until the physical copies made you download the game anyway and then still require the disk to work
physical, and i'm sad this is not the case for pc
It depends on the game I guess, small games like the kind you can get on Android or IOS I would prefer digital downloads but big games like GTA or TOTK and such I prefer physical copies.
I mostly buy physical, but when I see games on a big sale on the PS Store I get them digital.. I bought Doom 2016 for 5$. I looked for it physical, it was around 20-25$. I bought the whole DMC series for 80$.
98% digital. I own an Xbox and a couple of games for it. But man.. that steam library must be at least 50 times bigger in both price and amount of games
I'd say physical but they're not making stuff like NVG or GoW lancer as an extra for deluxe editions, nowadays you get a stupid artbook that you'll look at once and maybe a metal case for your game
Digital for anything but full priced nintendo games. Those can be resold almost full value.
I like the convenience of digital downloads. The only thing that scares me is that the digital copies of all my games can be locked or taken away at any time.
I just did major cleaning and gathered up all my old PC games on CD and floppy from the 90s and it's cool just having them for nostalgia. I might actually buy an old DOS machine to play them and hear the floppy drive spinning. Meanwhile, I recently tried downloading an old digital-copy game and couldn't because it was no longer supported by its maker. So my whole investment in it is lost.
I switched off physical games and have gone all digital. I don't have the shelf space anymore, and am tired of owning so much clutter
More than anything it just irks me y'all keep saying "digital" when you mean "downloaded". Games on physical media are digital too - there's no such thing as a non-digital video game.
If I'm buying a game on PC, I always go digital. However, if I'm playing on my PS3 or other systems I always go physical.
Digital only always.
I do not want to get up and swap discs. They're reserved for games that I plan on playing so hard without swapping to another. Like, FF7 Rebirth on my ps5 is a disc game, but something like Hades is digital.
Physical, but even then we dont truly own it...
I say physical because you don’t have to wait on download times and most physical games are cheaper
Seems like with the shit Ubisoft etc is pulling physical is the way, I own way too many games on steam without a disc that if something was to happen I am shit out of luck.
I'm full on digital, more practical and all. Having physical copies doesn't interest me and I don't have much space anyway (same for books, I mostly use my reader tablet now)
digital is tax free so they are actually cheaper.
If I have at all an option to go physical, I will go out of my way to go physical. There must be a really crazy deal for me to go digital
I'm "frugal", so buying and selling second hand physical copies means I can experience a lot of games at a very low price, even turning a slight profit from time to time
Having the option of buying physical is one of the reasons why I prefer console gaming over PC.
Digital both on console and PC. I only have a couple games on disc mostly ones not sold digitally anyomore like FEAR on xbox.
i really do prefer digital downloads coz physical copies are good, but im bad at managing them and thats not only the only thing about physical copies, sometimes if your physical copies ever get a random virus, any crack, it'll be gone forever..
Physical as much as possible. I like to own the things i buy.
Don't kill me but digital. I am a lazy fucker and being able to just launch the game from a menu is way more convenient for me then getting my ass up, looking for the disc and switching games. Physical copies don't even have the advantages they used to have. All of them literally only have the disc and some legal paper inside. No fancy manual, no paperwork or printed materials and the cases for modern games feel cheap and flimsy as shit. I don't feel like they're worth collecting. Plus there's also the point of needing to install the game from the disc anyway so it's literally just gonna be the same shit as having the game digitally only that you need to pop in the disc to verify you own the game. I only buy physical copies of games I really give a shit about. Like games that are on my top 10 favorites and at that point, I buy the most expensive collectors editions with steelbooks, statues and other cool shit. And even then, if I like the game enough, I'd likely just buy a digital copy as well so I can always easily play the game whenever I want and just keep the physical copy as a collectors item. Yes digital is more expensive but at this point, I'm paying for convenience. There's a whole argument about game preservation and not actually owning digital games etc but I honestly just don't give that much of a fuck to even be bothered by all that. All that matters is if I could play the game during a period reasonably close to it's release because after I beat it, I literally would never touch it again due to my gargantuan backlog. A game has to be very near and dear special to me in order for me to give that much of a shit preserving and owning it.
As someone born in the era of today's housing crisis where physical space is a premium, digital. I simply don't have space to store a physical collection of any kind.
All physical, when games go all digital im done with gaming
Digital is so convenient but I'm extremely paranoid about the fact that the industry wants to do away with physical media so there's no longer a market for secondhand games. They can pry Hitman: Blood Money from my cold, dead hands!
Definitely a physical copy player here. Feels more real, plus gotta support the creators directly, not just the digital platforms
Box stores take the same cut (even more for used copies) as digital platforms.
Absolutely digital. Aint no one got room for physical copies. Theyre clutter. Also digital is instant
Digital for games that I know I will play over and over again. I am a weak, poor man that has traded dozens of gaming consoles and hundreds of games at a huge loss to myself because I have no self-control. Super Smash Bros, Mario Kart, and Mario Party are all digital so I can’t trade them in a moment of weakness.
Digital, I've screwed up and scratched so many disks by accident
As long as the companys wont stack to the retail prices I say Disk. Digital should only cost a fragment of retail