Physical disc VS digital download (consoles)

[PriestTroit]

Which do you prefer for video games?

I like the physical discs better because I can buy them used for discounted prices and loan/give/trade them to my friends at work. Also, I just like having them displayed along with my books and other things.

[StarDangerous]

Depends on living space, in consoles if you can make or buy a shelf to store the game then physical copy. Me I'm more a digital download person, I want to just carry less and have a selection of games to my convenience without the worries that a physical copy brings. With mobile consoles like 3ds/switch preferably digital copy.

[PriestTroit]

Couldn't you just store the game cases in a simple box in the closet or something? When I was a kid I literally just dumped all my games into a plastic bucket.They still work to this day lol.

I can understand the concern about portability, but if we're talking consoles I don't think it's all that much of an extra burden to pack along a couple game cases in your bag considering how much more the console itself weighs. I used to lug an Xbox, controllers, LAN cables and even a TV (the big ol ones) sometimes to a friends house when I spent the night there so we could have epic Halo sessions.

[Imnotanybody]

Digital, will never break, last longer. And steam allows me to get discounts and move them computer to computer.

[aileron]

Original poster was talking about consoles, not PC, it's in the title. Although I'd be interested in a similar thread for PCs.

[Odyssey]

I see. So when Steam stops releasing clients for your recent PC then what will still playing? You will play nothing at all (cause without the client you dont have the necesarry license to use the game. And yes, indeed you could use some games without having the cleint installed. Which is as legal as downloading from any other "sources"). And BTW Steam doesnt sell anything. They just let you pay for a subscription. So you dont own anything and they could cancel the subscription without any reason at any moment in time. And they doing that a few thousand times a month. So what will last longer? The game you paid for and which you own. Or a pointless subscription which will fail for sure. The only question is when.

[isturbo1984]

My best answer I can give is, well, I would prefer digital if the damn prices matched those of physical. Tell me again why a physical version of a game sells for the same price new? And why are "sales" for digital games so far behind physical media at times??

[PriestTroit]

I think digital "sales" are always lagging behind physical because of competition and the nature of retail itself. Firstly, if we're talking consoles, your only options for purchasing digital games are through the PSN or Xbox stores, which means they don't really have anyone else to worry about and are slower to adjust prices downwards because of it. For example, you still have to pay full price for ancient DLC because the only way you can get them is through those online stores. Physical copies can be bought from pretty much anywhere electronics are sold and even the secondary market. A prime example is the Game of the Year Edition for video games that come with all the DLC.... Look at Skyrim. On the PSN store it normally sells for 40 bucks (though it's own Xmas sale atm, but that doesn't count lol), but Target sells it brand-spanking new for 20 dollars. You can even get it for $15 through e-bay used.

Secondly, retailers measure sales by square feet. Because every thing on display takes up valuable space, if that game in the counter isn't selling it's preventing the sale of another game that could be in its place instead. That means they have to reduce the price to cycle their inventory, whereas digital stores don't have this problem at all.

Least that's how I see it

[CatHaRtIcSeraph]

While I fully appreciate the convenience of a digital library, a good game holds as much reverence to me as a good book. To appreciate the experience and not display it proudly is a hair below disrespecting the medium, personally. Now I've stopped moving around for work and settled on and in my hometown, I can finally stock a proper bookshelf. Filling it up now brings the problem of figuring out which games compliment the books. Something like one's Zelda collection and the currently in transit Hyrule Historia are easy pairs. Others are odd, like trying to find a good fit for James Joyce, John Bogle, and RDR 1&2.

Fortunately, that will become easier as you grow your collection ^.^

[SnarkyJay]

I am a big proponent of physical media. As a game collector, if digital games existed in the NES through PS2 era, I would have a much smaller collection than I do now. I love being able to go online, or into a retro game shop and pick up a game from decades ago. With this being said, when it comes to certain portable systems (like my Switch), the majority of my collection is digital. I like being able to just take the Switch and a pair of headphones, and know I can game anywhere. I do believe that physical media is on the way out though. Heck, some game companies don't even put the full game on the disc. You pop that sucker in and you have a 40 gig download to complete before the game will even launch. I also like physical media because I can pick up preowned games for a fraction of the cost of a digital download. For example, I recently bought a Wii U. I was able to amass a decent collection of physical games for not much money, even though those games on the eShop are still full price.

[Kind Of Saltye]

I started gaming with Crash Bandicoot when I was about 9 years old. For the next 12 years I was only buying physical copies. For me, I prefer physical, because it feels good to actually hold the game, and put it into the console. Having physical games (for me, at least) helps with sticking with one game for a while, and almost deters me from constantly jumping back and fourth between games every week. It was only recently (October actually) that I've begun to download games. I built a PC and got steam, and I'm having one hell of a time sticking to one game and finishing it. Ill be playing dying light for 30 mins, go outside and have a cigarette, or feed my cat, sit back down and... open up rainbow six. I know that if I had to physically take each game out and put another in, I don't think I'd have this problem.

Another benefit to having physical copies of games is once you have a big collection, you can kind of show them off to guests or visitors, or a YouTube audience. I know how impressed I was when I would go over to a friends house, and see an entire wall dedicated to movies. And I know I would have squealed like a little schoolgirl if I saw a wall dedicated to hundreds of games. I guess at the end of the day, it's all personal preference. For me, I enjoy the aesthetic of a collection, plus the benefit of not jumping between 6 different games in one day.

[PriestTroit]

That's a good point. If you have the disc in the console already, the game is right there waiting for you to hit start. If it's digital you've got more choices to distract you.

[Murray]

When it comes to consoles, definitely disc. The harddrive space is finite and it takes enough space to just install and keep the games patched.

[Yoshi]

The "(consoles)" part is the key for me. Because consoles have generations and have a very spotty record with backward compatibility, I still prefer physical for new games. I'd rather have the ability to sell off a game than to have indefinite access to it, since it requires having a growing number of consoles connected to actually play everything.

Where this changes a bit is vintage games. If I want to buy a 16-bit game today, I greatly prefer digital, because the developer rightly still gets a piece of my purchase. I want nothing to do with lining the pockets of some flipper on ebay. I really enjoyed the Wii Virtual Console for this purpose, though now it's running into the problem mentioned above. Many of the Wii digital purchases didn't transfer to Wii U, and none of them transfer to Switch. Hopefully some day all vintage third-party games will be available on PC and available indefinitely. I'm not delusional enough to think the first and second-party Nintendo and Sony ones will be though.

[Dub-Z]

Disc is still great for ownership and installs, but there's a strong pull of convenience with digital that I sometimes succumb to.

We pretty much all know the pros and cons of everything in the chain, but I'll always like and hope for some physical media options.

[Astraea]

I prefer discs until every publishing platform goes GOG style and allows torrenting as long as you bought the game. Because we wouldn't want our purchased digital games suddenly not be available for download if the platform decides so.

[Ivlr.Club]

Disc.

I hate games that have to be connected to internet to play even single player.

[Matias]

Disc is great as an idea since not everyone has good enough internet to download full games but developers don't seem to care about that when they hit you with that massive day one patch anyways.
Now every AAA game is being rushed and are completely broken at launch so what purpose does the disc have if you have to download 50gb patch before the game is even playable.
Ofcourse there is lots of especially smaller releases that are actually complete at launch so i would get those kinds of games as physical releases. That is my preferred option but reality is that more and more games are being released broken and the disc serving barely anything more than a proof of purchase .

[Captain Stardust]

I like the convenience of just buying games online, you dont need to get up and change the disc, you dont need to go to a store everytime you want a new game and digital games are often cheaper in my area.

[Spect3r]

Always physical.
I still buy CD's for the same reason.