Do you buy physical games?

None. I have even told my family that if they want to be nice, just buy me the gift card. I enjoy having all my games on my HDD. I find it more convenient to switch from one game to teh next without having to open one box and close another box. Juggling discs to go from game to game and movies to games is tedious I have better things to do.

"...I have no doubt that I would be bored senseless by swapping discs the same way I am bored when I brush my teeth and wipe my ass. Because the thing about storing, moving and extracting discs is from consoles...it’s not an adventure. There’s no way to do it so wrong I might die. It’s just [pointless] work."

I can appreciate that. But for me personally, I want to experience as many games as possible, on as many different platforms as possible.

I like to beat a game, then move onto the next one. I know some people like replaying games, but for me, I like playing a lot of different games.

I only buy games I'm pretty sure will be good nowadays, so I preorder on Amazon and get the 20% discount it's worked out very well. But if it's something like a fighting game that I jump in and out of in short bursts I'll download it.

Pc is digital only buys, and the rest I almost always buy physical. There are exceptions of course. I have occasionally bought digital on Ps4 and handhelds, but I still mostly buy discs/cartridges. In general though, I prefer to play on Pc, so I've saved a lot of space this way. Those physical buys mostly consist of exclusive titles. Examples being (Pokemon and Fire Emblem- 3ds, Persona 5 and Horizon - Ps4)

I always buy physical if its an option.

To each his own, but for me personally, I like to have a collection I can see. Every single time I've sold a stack of games, I've regretted it almost immediately and wanted it back. I'm also the kind of person who revisits games, sometimes years down the line.

OP: I lean towards buying physical for consoles and digital for PC. I stick with digital for PC mostly because it's so much cheaper most of the time and because once you've used the code in a physical copy of a PC game, you never take the disc out again. For console games, though, I just like having a collection I can see. I know, I know, it sounds petty and vain, and really the advantages of digital outweigh the advantages of physical, but that's what I like. I think it's also worth mentioning that physical copies have a feeling of permanence that digital doesn't. Is Sony going to allow me to download games to my PS4 20 years from now? I can still play every single one of the PS1 games that I still own, if I ever have kids I can show them those games. Will I be able to show them my PS4 games? I would love to! I could do that with physical console games. Maybe I wouldn't get the patches and some online-only games like Destiny wouldn't work, but I could play Uncharted 4 if I wanted to.

I just hope Steam never goes under, although that doesn't appear to be remotely possible anytime soon. Who knows what will happen when that company comes under different management, though - Gabe Newell won't stay there for eternity.

I do sometimes buy digital for console and physical for PC. I got Bloodborne digitally for PS4, for instance, but that's because the edition that included all DLC and the base game was $20 and, at the time, the physical copy of the same thing was double that.

EDIT: The exception to this is the Switch, on which I plan to stay digital-only because I don't want to carry around a bunch of carts. My DS/3DS collection has grown so large that my case can't hold them all and I don't want to be in that position again.

Except for modern PC (because Steam is just convenient and PC installations/future compatibility can be a nightmare), I do mostly buy physical.

My PC is still pretty rock solid after I built it maybe 5 years ago? So long ago I can't even remember. Has a 1080 in it now. Point is, even then, I still tend to gravitate towards console use minus a couple specific genres. It just feels simpler/less buggy etc. And with that being said.. I then tend to buy physical stuff for consoles.

I like to collect a bit. I like touching/smelling/reading the material etc. I like going for that library look and when I'm super bored, I like to sit back and stare at said library. Makes my brain turn and sometimes I decide to play something random. I can't really do this with digital stuff.

All digital on Steam and Nintendo Switch.

I did buy a ps3 copy of Persona 5 and wished I hadn't.

Not a lot anymore, but occasionally. The last one was Watch Dogs 2 this year, for pc. To my surprise it actually contained several dvds with like15gb of game data. kind of blew my mind. it was also cheaper than I've seen it on any download service or reputable key site.

Two main reasons I still buy physical copies:

1. Can usually find them cheaper than digital

2. Have the option to sell/trade if I choose

I see your point about discs being little more than CD keys and that does bum me out. I wish there was an option to buy physical copies of games on some form of self-contained re-writable media that would take all the updates. I almost never pay extra for deluxe editions but would pay a little extra for that feature.

I was hardcore all about the physical copies for some time, but I caved two or three years ago and went entirely digital. I imagine if I still used a console I'd still buy physical copies, but Steam is just so bloody easy and convenient and humble bundles and sales keep me in more games than I'll ever manage to finish.

@matoya: Those are all mostly new games. $250 doesn't seem like a lot.

With physical I get 20% discount with bestbuy and I can sell the game back if I didn't like it. I sold back Neir automata for $25 after I completed all the main endings and thought the game was mediocre.

If a game is out in physical form I will almost always get it that way. As a collector of video games I still cling to physical media. I will still buy digital games when they put them on sale for cheap or for PC.

For console I buy some physical if its cheap enough. Usually beats the digital prices surprisingly. Been collecting for years so lots of physical copies since then. I do buy more digital these days though on the type of game I don't want to always see on my shelf but on occasion would want to play. For example Battlefield I'd buy digital. At some point less and less people play and that game just takes up space. So digital is fine. Games like Yakuza I like the physical of. Same with most DS and 3DS games. So its a mixed bag.

I've had to unlearn the lesson steam taught me. Up until I got my ps4 I had fully bought in too our all digital future. I then made the mistake of buying a couple of games digitally on my PS4, only to come to find they were on sale for half the price I payed on my PC (which couldn't run them, to be fair) or amazon.

Needless to say, I'm going to stop off at my local Gamestop (I never thought I'd set foot in there again!) and see what they want for a physical copy of Nier after the praise on the GB panel finally sold me on giving it a go. Just check the prices though. 60$ digital, or 35$ on amazon last I checked. That's...crazy.

I only own a single physical game from this entire generation, and it was a gift from a friend who bought a PS4 bundle for her sister but her sister didn't want Uncharted 4.

You'd be surprised how fast games go down in price. Also I kept Persona 5

Absolutely. I enjoy collecting games, if I'm buying near launch the physical version is often cheaper (UK)*, and for Vita releases it helps sidestep the fact that memory cards for the system are small and expensive. Example of the recent price difference: Yakuza Kiwami Steelbook on Amazon - £23, Yakuza Kiwami download on PSN - £30.

I've also got a fairly ridiculous amount of download games though, so it's not like I'm totally against them either.

* After launch it can go either way, depending on what download sales are running and to what retailers have dropped the price

He put £250, which is about $330. At a rough guesstimate, £250 sounds about right for used prices of those games (as he stated in another comment he kept P5). If anything, it's probably a little more than I would expect.

I will sometimes buy digital (technically, because of indie games and sales, I buy more games digital than physical) but for most bigger games I buy physical if I am getting it at launch. This allows me to quickly get rid of it and recoup SOME money if the game sucks, like with Agents of Mayhem. I got the game, hated it, turned it around for $45. I cannot do that with digital at all so physical is better.

Rarely if ever. I bought physical copies of The Last Guardian and Uncharted 4 when I picked up a PS4, those were the first physical copies I had bought it years.

And it's a total first-world problem, but getting up to change a game really sucks after years of not doing it. I tried to play Uncharted remotely but whoops! The disk wasn't inserted.

And the thought of having my home crammed full of DVD cases ... ugh.

Or worrying if the disk is still good.

Yeah, I can't really see many upsides to owning physical copies.

@soulcake said:

The PS4 is really bad when it comes to download speeds. An app running (like Netflix) slows downloads down by a factor of 5. Where a game running slows them down by a factor of up to 100. The "speed test" in the PS4 settings is not affected by this. This post goes into depth about it.

So now if I want fast PS4 downloads, I just start the download and reset the system to ensure nothing else is running.

@sammo21 said:

Well, if you bought it on Steam you could get a full refund.

@mikewhy: This is assuming I game on PC and also assuming I would buy a game like that on PC. This also assumes I only played for <2 hours as I think playing over 2 hours negates your chance at getting a refund? Also, if we're talking PC then physical isn't even an option so I feel you're slightly trolling with that response :| Even when there are physical copies of PC games these days they frequently are still making you download the game with a serial key.

Also, the PS4 isn't super terrible at "download speedS". What the PS4 is terrible at is fetching data. If you run through a proxy your "download speeds" on the PS4 are significantly higher, if your internet isn't crap.

As often as I can I buy physical, unless it is an impulse late on a Friday when I am drunk. get money back for selling them, or I can always let a friend borrow it if they want to try

Nope, last one was Battlefield 3. That game installed some files from the disc and proceeded to download most of the game anyway. The only disadvantage is the slightly more annoying process of circumventing the occasional German censored version. Fuck all censors. And their families.

I went into this gen wanting to only get the games I cared about on disc but then JoJo Eyes of Heaven was digital only so I said fuck it and went all digital after that.

I only buy digital when there is a MASSIVE sale. Otherwise it's 100% physical. Cheaper and I can sell them if it's not something I may one day replay. Why WOULDN'T I buy physical I ask you?

Kinda not really anymore. It's much rarer. I haven't purchased a physical PC game in years and years, but even my consoles are turning more digital. I only own two physical Ps4 games. The most physical games I've bought in the past couple of years are actually for 3DS because it's more convenient.

I like having physical things. I like having a shelf of stuff I can look at and feel good about. That's really all there is to it.

You didn't specify PS4, and had what seemed like a blanket statement with "I cannot do that with digital at all so physical is better", I was just trying to clear that up.

In a family with kids, digital is nice because everyone is playing something else and swapping discs is a hassle (+ risk of kids not being careful with them and scratching them). Also, I moved from Europe to South America a few years ago. So I cannot play most of the physical games I own because they're in a storage unit on the other side of the world :)

Still, I do worry about the future where eventually these services will get shutdown and I won't be able to redownload some of the games I might want to play again.

Also, I'm still mostly physical for stuff on Nintendo platforms because their online stuff is terrible (we have three 3DS'es, and had one of them break recently... I couldn't just continue playing on one of the other ones). I assume that's better on Switch?

Between PSN speeds, a middling internet speed in general, and a collector's mentality, I still buy physical about half the time. Sure, you still have to do a bunch of downloading anyways, but less so.

PC, all digital, for obvious reasons. (barring my love of old-school big box PC games, which I'll happily pay a premium to own and display)

I go mostly physical. I'm an old man that plays/played a lot of JRPGs. My brain will always be stuck in "This is a niche game with limited copies that will be hard to find in three months" mode like it was back in the day before everything was available digitally.

Physical copies are really the only ways I can play games my internet doesn't allow me to download large games and even downloading a patch takes days for me to download. Because of that I actually use it as an excuse to buy collectors editions for funnsies.

I'd say that 10% of my current generation console and handheld library is purely digital while those numbers are reversed on the PC. The reason for this primarily is price. Digital releases for PC are cheaper than their boxed counterparts (those that can still be found) while, for the most part, physical console games go on sale sooner or are priced down faster than digital. Additionally, pre-order discounts are available through certain retailers which do not exist on console storefronts. Right now it just makes more fiscal sense to continue buying physical copies for consoles and handhelds. Having said that most of my games are on the PC where worthwhile games are always on sale somewhere. I don't know why, but there doesn't seem to be much competition among digital console game providers with the exception of resellers; a potentially risky trade.

Since I sold off my PS4 and moved back to PC I've been completely digital.

Miss the ability to cash the games back in to help offset the cost of a new game though.

I've always gone with whatever is cheaper, pretty much. I'm not some kind of weirdo ideologue about this that treats it like some sort of lifestyle or political choice and sticks hard with one way or the other - if I can save twenty bucks two-daying a game to my PO Box from Amazon as opposed to getting it at Gamestop, or downloading it that second from typically-overpriced digital stores, then I'm going that way. If a game is suddenly discounted 80% over what it costs at a store down the street and I've been looking to get it, then fuck yeah I'm downloading it.

My preference tends to be physical when all else is equal, though, since the idea of the "convenience" of being too lazy to change a disc or not "taking space" in a shelf on the wall (the horror) doesn't trump, you know, saving money at the time of purchase and the added consumer flexbility of being able to sell it later should I choose. I've just always felt like saving $$$ is way more than saving literally a few seconds of time (which isn't always saving time considering download speeds vary) or a few feet of floor space.

I can understand going purely digital on handhelds, though, since swapping carts is never not annoying on a bus or something. The ability to immediately swap back and forth when you're restricted by your setting is way more convincing of a "convenience" pitch when you're sitting in your living room, but I so rarely play handhelds.

Mostly physical for console and digital on PC. Personally, I like the collectable nature of the physical copy or in certain cases the ability to sell the game back to places like Gamestop when the mood suits me.

I buy them if it doesn't seem that big a deal to play it on a pc. Then sell it back after im done, i'm not one for keeping physical cases around, and making money back on a game i wont play a second time works for me. Best of both worlds.

When I initially got my Xbox One I was physical. Now I'm 100% digital. Its just more convenient. Hell, come to think of it, I can't think of the last time I bought a digital game...

If I can get the physical version I will, much prefer to own an actual thing than a license to download a digital product. It's nice to have them on a bookshelf, I like the collection aspect of it.

No, because I only play on PC, and the deals on digital games are too good.

I expect I'll own a console again in the future. I bought Ico off PSN. I'm never buying anything on Sony's terrible network again. Both my accounts were stolen while I was away. Discs only.

I got the shelf space and Amazon Prime had that deal where you get a discount on new games so why wouldn't I get the physical copy? I have nothing against digital copies but I'll get whatever option is cheaper.

I've primarily bought digital copies for the last 3-4 years, but I certainly buy physical copies whenever it's cheaper or more convenient, which still happens frequently. I've bought entire collector's edition boxes for less than the deepest Steam/PSN/origin sale discounts have been. Like the Bioshock 2 collector's edition with the vinyl soundtrack and stuff for $7, when it's still sold for $20 on Steam (and the deepest discount on record was $4, two years ago).

The Amazon Prime 20% discount on new games is physical only. The Best Buy Gamers Club 20% discount is on physical only. When games go on sale for 40% off a couple months after release these days it's often for physical only. Like many gamers I'm working with a budget, but I want to play every single well-reviewed game that comes out this year. I'm always looking for sales and when it comes to consoles, the physical versions are cheaper 9 times out of 10. I'm pretty sure I've save 100-150 dollars because of buying physical versions of games this year alone.

My PC library is of course 100% digital. Do physical versions of PC games still exist? I'm sure they do, but I have no idea why beyond collector's editions.

On Nintendo hardware 90% physical, Digital is mostly too inconvenient there and more expensive.

On PC 99% digital and I prefer it that way. Having several hundred games installed at once is a luxury I really like.

largely though I'm driven by price, if Physical existed in decent quantities and was cheaper on PC that way, I'd buy physical.

I only get all digital on pc and Xbox. On switch I'm 50/50 but most of my PS4 games are physical because PSN is garbage and it takes forever to download anything

It really comes down to price for me. I'm gonna buy physical if it's cheaper, and with best buy gamer's club thing, it is on day one. Downloading and re-downloading games is hard on the bandwidth too, so a slightly smaller patch is better than nothing. Also my game set up is in my room. My tv is 3 feet away from my bed, changing discs ain't no thang.