Buying a game is easy and it's getting easier - but the age old question remains - digital or physical?

When it comes to purchasing a game, given the choice, should you opt to buy a physical copy of a game or purchase it digitally for an instant download? What are the pros and cons of each? Does it make a difference?

While digital games are no doubt the more convenient option, that "purchase" comes with an enormous amount of fragility attached to it. What if the publisher revokes the game from the storefront? What if the game is has DRM that can affect performance? Is the purchase even a true purchase or is it a lease of a service? Let's not forget that all too often we're seeing games removed from digital store fronts due to licensing arrangements. We've even seen games being changed at a moments notice with soundtracks being edited, or replaced entirely, as rights expire. And what of service games - they can be shutdown remotely if the game underperforms rendering the game unplayable.

Then you have physical media. While unlike days past, even physical media can carry some questions when its merits. Day one patches that prevent you from playing the game without updating the title; disc-based consoles cost more; mandatory internet connections or account registration can be a thing; and what of the environmental impact? And let's not forget that inevitable disc rot!

Publishers are even thinking up ways to make physical ownership less attractive - you only need to look at the plans by Microsoft during the initial Xbox One reveal where physical disks, once used on a console were then digitally tied to that system and unable to be traded or resold without going through hoops and paying a premium to do so.

At the end of the day - does it even matter? Should video game ownership and preservation be a concern for the average player or should the purchase be seen as the equivalent of a theme park ticket - a temporary thrill with no regard for the future?

And what of piracy? Is there a merit and legitimacy to breaking DRM and illegally copying games when it comes to video game preservation?

Let us know your thoughts below.

 

[UnderJinx]

Physical copies for sure. Although i pirate a lot, and have done for many years
i still have at least 200 games on my shelf, and sold probably 200 or more games some years ago

 

[tbgtbg]

If I'm paying for it, physical all the way.

Downloads are only for playing for free.

 

[krakenx]

Digital games should cost at least 20% less than physical. Not only are there no shipping, packing, material, or mastering costs, but you wave all resell rights by buying digital.

 

[Jayro]

I wish I could find an unused steam key for Blur, but apparently Activision won't pull their heads out of their asses. So piracy is the only way I can play it on PC. I'd LOVE to own a legit copy.

 

[godreborn]

Digital games should cost at least 20% less than physical. Not only are there no shipping, packing, material, or mastering costs, but you wave all resell rights by buying digital.

doesn't steam allow this? I know someone does, just wish it would come to consoles, especially with them pushing everything to digital or streaming these days.

 

[TraderPatTX]

I definitely buy physical over digital. If there is a game that is sold only digitally, I will see if Limited Run Games or Play-Asia has physical copies. Then I will make digital backups for future play on emulators.

 

[duwen]

Physical whenever possible but I do buy digitally when a title I want doesn't receive a physical release or when the digital version is available significantly cheaper.

A handful of the publishers like Strictly Limited and (to a lesser degree these days) Limited Run put the full game on the disk removing the need to download updates ...but for the most part, buying physically you're primarily just buying access to the license to download an incomplete game and will need to download all the patches upon install.

 

[doha057]

Both has their own pros and cons. Right now I actually prefer digital because I am too lazy to get up and change disk on my PS4. On my 3ds, digital all the way, life of a pirate both are secured in different way, physical is actually less secured these days because in most cases you will need software patches, updates or DLCs. Physical copy can get damaged, lost, stolen, digital will be there as long as it is there. But at the end of the day, its those folks who are working so hard to preserve games and assets at the end of the day, they give me hope.

 

[AlexMCS]

Digital all the way. Games are data, the media is just that, a media.
Digital games are "physical" in the HDD anyway.
I don't want any more clutter in my house.

If I were to be a complete non-pirate, I'd probably go full physical as well.
But since I am a pirate, I don't care if the company eventually kills the digital game, my pirated copy will always work.

 

[TomSwitch]

View attachment 331232​

Buying a game is easy and it's getting easier - but the age old question remains - digital or physical?

When it comes to purchasing a game, given the choice, should you opt to buy a physical copy of a game or purchase it digitally for an instant download? What are the pros and cons of each? Does it make a difference?

While digital games are no doubt the more convenient option, that "purchase" comes with an enormous amount of fragility attached to it. What if the publisher revokes the game from the storefront? What if the game is has DRM that can affect performance? Is the purchase even a true purchase or is it a lease of a service? Let's not forget that all too often we're seeing games removed from digital store fronts due to licensing arrangements. We've even seen games being changed at a moments notice with soundtracks being edited, or replaced entirely, as rights expire. And what of service games - they can be shutdown remotely if the game underperforms rendering the game unplayable.

Then you have physical media. While unlike days past, even physical media can carry some questions when its merits. Day one patches that prevent you from playing the game without updating the title; disc-based consoles cost more; mandatory internet connections or account registration can be a thing; and what of the environmental impact? And let's not forget that inevitable disc rot!

Publishers are even thinking up ways to make physical ownership less attractive - you only need to look at the plans by Microsoft during the initial Xbox One reveal where physical disks, once used on a console were then digitally tied to that system and unable to be traded or resold without going through hoops and paying a premium to do so.

At the end of the day - does it even matter? Should video game ownership and preservation be a concern for the average player or should the purchase be seen as the equivalent of a theme park ticket - a temporary thrill with no regard for the future?

And what of piracy? Is there a merit and legitimacy to breaking DRM and illegally copying games when it comes to video game preservation?

Let us know your thoughts below.

It's nice to have something to hold in your hands, kind of sucks when they are collecting dust and even worst when you wonder how can there be so few you can see and you have a feeling the bulk of it were in a cold dark place not getting any love and can't provide any joy.

 

[pedro702]

Digital all the way. More convenient, less noise, less plastic.

Post automatically merged: Oct 11, 2022

I mean, when the servers go down, bunch of games won't be playable either way. Physical games require huge updates to be playable.

this is just not true 99% of all physical games that arent a code in a box or that have a warning on the box stating download required are all beatable from disc/cartridge. you coukld get a game slight buggier but they are beatable without servers.

People now have this mindset becuase they dont get patches they cant finish the games... this is not true at all. unless the game has a gamebreaking bug you can finish on version 1.0.0 in nearly every single game console.

 

[Taleweaver]

Jeez... The nineties called: they want their opinion on optical media back. I bet all you "if it doesn't come with an easoly destroyed disc then I'm not interested" have no issue getting 80% reduction steam games or 100% reduction epic ones.

"but you don't own your games" is such a bullshit argument. Get games on gog or itch.io and there's none of that if you're concerned. Heck... You can easily make as many legit backups without all sorts of hoops to go through. Had that changed in the last five years on media?

Meanwhile, i don't get the op. What do you mean, downloads are more volatile? All I to believe that when a crappy company shuts down their services, all you happy disc collectors can just play it without issue? Guess again... Those discs contain the same data that can be downloaded and copied all over the place. The difference isn't in the medium but in companies adding a death clock on their software.

But meanwhile, all sorts of media is prone to bit rot. Presuming they don't float out refuse to run without a 15 gigabyte download (oh, you really thought you were physical only, eh? Guess again)...but i digress: what I'm saying is that your physical media might fail after some time. Yes, even in normal case and decent handling. So you better have an actual backup on you.

And guess who has the upper hand in that ball park?

 

[lucasdaolio]

Physical for fear of store shutdown or HD size storage;
Digital for being practical and for people who don't have a whole room to store their library

 

[Latiodile]

So preorder when the window is open. They keep it open for an entire month, AND email you when there's "Last Chance" warnings. So that really falls on you, not them.

preordering games? lmao that's an entirely different topic to touch on another time

also when you onlu get paid like $600/month and these overpriced preorder windows are like 3 days long in the middle of the month, "just preorder in the window m8" isn't that easy

 

[donaldgx]

Physical copy any time. Back in the n64 days , I only got to own 3 cartridges. Got to play and fully beat tens of games by temp trading with friends.

 

[Jayro]

preordering games? lmao that's an entirely different topic to touch on another time

also when you onlu get paid like $600/month and these overpriced preorder windows are like 3 days long in the middle of the month, "just preorder in the window m8" isn't that easy

Again, the window isn't 3 days, it's usually a whole month. There's many ways to make extra money monthly to buy a game. (Doordash, Instacart, donate plasma, OnlyFans, Uber, Uber Eats, day labor, prostitution, etc etc...) And it's a game that's already been out for months or years that eventually get physical copies made, so it's not like you're blindly preordering a game upon release. You'll either know it's good or dogshit by the time they have them to order.

 

[NeoGranzon]

Being elderly,i prefer optical support at least if you have problems you won't lose Giga of games compared to digital versions.

 

[orangy57]

physical for consoles but only if the game is actually on the disc/cart. No point in needing to insert an extra disk just to play a game that needs a constant internet connection and a 60 gigabyte download. For PC, digital all the way. If the service providing the games goes offline forever i can always just pirate them and have the thing that I paid for

 

[DarkCoffe64]

If this were like 20 years ago, I would've totally said physical is the way to go, you get the entire game on your disc and all that.
Nowadays? Physical is basically... meaningless, for the most part. You get maybe a quarter of a game in the actual disc, everything else you have to download through the internet, updates, DLC, whatever. So, when eventually the the service dies or the game is removed from online shops or what, what do you have left? An unplayable game, that's what.
Plus there's also the fact that eventually whatever disk or cartridges you have will end up not working anymore due to things breaking down, unfortunately.
Digital is no much better either, as you need whatever space it takes to store the game on your console, or an external hard drive if you got the option, and as basically optimization or compression is a thing of the past, you gonna need a crapton of space with most games being some heavyweights. And again, the whole "service dying/game removed from the store" thing still applies.

The really best way to keep your games around? Digital. In a pirated form, and all over the internet.
Don't gotta worry about losing the game as it will be everywhere, nor to miss parts of the game or the updates or what.
All you'll gonna need is either a modded console, which could be problematic to get, or more easily, an emulator on your shiny new PC or what. For those games that now are currently impossible to emulate, eventually one day they will, it's just a matter of time.
This be the way I think about it, mh.

 

[AshleyCummings]

Well my experience with this changed with Switch modded, I now prefer digital.
When buying from the shop your gettting more gold coins wich transfer to extra cash for the next game a 60$ game nets u 300 gold coins aka 3$ to use next time.

its easier to move digital game & update / dlc to emunand if your using one Vs Hard copy which needs the y button (I think it was) to be pressed just to find the update stuff

cart is a pain to swap in & out & as someone who noms fingers & nails not pleasant when that cart stuff gets on the finger