[POLL] Do you prefer physical games or digital games?

[PrincessLillie]

I've heard people say that "people are slowly phasing out physical games in favor of digital-only games", but I personally think that Digital-only is shit. While it is a major convenience, if you lose or break your device or your data becomes corrupted and you don't have a backup, you're fucked. I'd rather bring my cartridges with me than risk losing my many hours of gameplay in Pokemon like I did when my SD Card died a while back.

 

[Depravo]

if you lose or break your device or your data becomes corrupted

Then after replacing or repairing your device you re-download the games along with the cloud saves?

 

[FAST6191]

As I can't easily resell, trade, give or otherwise dispose of games (or as the case may be never do that but have games from others doing that) that are sold as downloadable/"digital" then I am an analogue guy.
Come the day I can easily resell, trade, lend, give or otherwise dispose of games like I can my DVDs then I will switch over. There is no technical limitation which prevents this from happening -- it is all lawyers all the way down. The worst I think I saw was Valve used to have a thing on its FAQ or something about how your friends would not want a battered and used copy of your game on their service... said service being entirely digital.

I do have a few downloaded titles but other than those that are DRM free or so weakly DRMed it does not matter then I consider them long term rentals and treat them accordingly.

"and don't have a backup"
Traditionally one loses the right to complain if you are rolling like that.
Equally having carts with you does not prevent you from losing stuff when your bag gets stolen or house gets burned down.

 

[Ryccardo]

Whenever possible (you know what this means), buy physical at usually excellent prices, then install to the console so I don't have to get up to swap cards/discs

Though on 3DS most of my games were bought on the eShop, there's a certain cool factor to being able to play {cool new release} on launch hour, and also in not having to drive to a store (in my city that's invariably game$top with their questionable business practices)

Never had a problem with Nintendo's "account" system, and yes I did email them for a manual license transfer once - everything went fine; have also taken advantage of the "free replacement insurance for some unclear number of years" of digital software a decent number of times, although the only true long term solution is """backups""" - which I took a bet they would eventually be possible!

 

[PrincessLillie]

Then after replacing or repairing your device you re-download the games along with the cloud saves?

What if the platform you're playing on doesn't support cloud saves? (I'm looking at you, Nintendo Switch.)

 

[deinonychus71]

What if the platform you're playing on doesn't support cloud saves? (I'm looking at you, Nintendo Switch.)

Cloud saves aren't on the cart on Nintendo Switch afaik.


And by that time, it'll be well hacked, you'll have your backups made by yourself.

Voting digital as well. Much more convenient.

 

[Taleweaver]

I think a lot has to do with how the digital games work.

Nintendo is notoriously bad on this behalf: everything you buy on the eshop is (apparently still) tied to the device rather than an account. So yeah...in that case, breaking your device loses your library. However, steam, google store, gog, uplay, origin and a shitload of other services tie your purchases to your account. I've probably installed my steam account on about a dozen pc's/partitions now, and my entire library still works flawless. And unfortunately, I wish I could say the same about some of my early game CD's*.

In any case: assuming it's not some half-assed online system, I go with digital games all the way. Heck...it's been years since I bought a physical game, now I think of it (bayonetta 2...and that just might have been the single physical game I got that year).




*mind you: I ALWAYS keep my games in their proper shelves. I've had friends who just had disks "hanging around" on the desk where they rolled their cigarettes

 

[Deleted User]

where's the "whatever's cheaper" option?

 

[Ryccardo]

Nintendo is notoriously bad on this behalf: everything you buy on the eshop is (apparently still) tied to the device rather than an account. So yeah...in that case, breaking your device loses your library

Not really, you can always contact them for a manual license transfer... while it may be slower than going on PSN/iTunes, remotely deactivating ALL consoles on that account with no other choice (which you can only do a couple times a year) and logging in from the new one - it still works fine and it's "inherently" hack proof compared to 11-year-old-me-and-friend asking random people for PS3 account passwords in exchange for Modern Warfare 2 prestige levels ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

 

[FAST6191]

where's the "whatever's cheaper" option?

Does that include the option to buy something new at retail, trade it in a few days later (because as a modern game you know it is only going to take 15 hours at most, or a decent Friday afternoon-night + saturday morning) for fairly high price and maybe buy it back in 5 years when you see it going for pocket change?

 

[Deleted User]

Does that include the option to buy something new at retail, trade it in a few days later (because as a modern game you know it is only going to take 15 hours at most, or a decent Friday afternoon-night + saturday morning) for fairly high price and maybe buy it back in 5 years when you see it going for pocket change?

what. i'm only talking about whatever's cheaper at the time of purchase, for example, $80 on steam/psn/whatever, or $30 at retail or something

 

[FAST6191]

what. i'm only talking about whatever's cheaper at the time of purchase, for example, $80 on steam/psn/whatever, or $30 at retail or something

I know. I was just suggesting a popular thing people do where your example would have been overly simplistic.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

These days I prefer digital games over physical for a few reasons. Easier to manage, I can own a ton without sacrificing shelf space, I can use them across multiple devices without losing saves (for the most part), they'll never break/I'll never lose them until the company goes bankrupt (AKA years and years away, which by then I probably won't care).

The only physical games I buy these days are collectors editions for games I love that I'll mostly just display, like the Souls games and such. If I happen to see a physical game I want that's cheaper than a digital title, I might pick it up, but so far that's happened a whole 2 times the past few years, so my physical collection of games from the past couple generations is quite small.

 

[Deleted User]

I do personally see digital games eventually surmounting physical releases as the primary method of distribution, due mostly to its sheer convenience (for both the developers and end players). Your backup point is practically moot, given the prevalence of cloud storage that most gaming services provide these days and more a cause of Nintendo not "getting with the times", so to speak.

That being said, as a retro gaming enthusiast, I will always find something endearing about taking a disc or piece of plastic and stuffing it into a game console. It's immensely more satisfying than selecting a game from a menu, as irrational as that sounds. You also have ways of displaying your physical releases (something that I'm sure, with time, digital releases can catch up to, but haven't, as of yet).

While I do use digital downloads for services like Steam (it's hard not to when they're practically giving away games for free), I just find something irrationally satisfying about physical releases, especially considering the fact that you have to get out and buy them, making them an excuse to go outside once and a while.

 

[GeorgeKuwanay]

I prefer the physical games but the only downside that I can see are most likely the updates and the different release editions that the published release. Digital games right now also tend to get cheaper with sales like from steam, gog or other online publisher and also physical games takes space on where you can put them in your house.

 

[AdenTheThird]

Physical. Only on 3ds do I prefer digital only because I have FreeShop (:
I think digital copies are just a tactic to get more sales.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

I picked both. On consoles I prefer physical, on PC I prefer digital.
Once digital purchases on consoles become as good as Steam and storage isn't a problem that opinion may change.

 

[FAST6191]

Once digital purchases on consoles become as good as Steam and storage isn't a problem that opinion may change.

Until Steam readily allow me to resell my games I am not prepared to call it good.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Until Steam readily allow me to resell my games I am not prepared to call it good.

EU court ruled a while back that services like Steam are required to allow reselling games but I've yet to see anything come out of that.

 

[FAST6191]

I saw the case, and I think there is something. I doubt it would fit under anybody's definition of "readily" though.