Physical vs Digital media where do you stand?

For a long time i have been always pro Physical copies. I loved collecting my dvd's, bluray's and games until about a year ago. I realized how much little i actually used these games or movies after watching or playing them one or two times. Then they just sit around collecting dust and using space, some still in the original packaging and never opened since i just never had time. Now i just went full on digital i realized it's the future and i might as well just accept it i needed to draw the line some point. I was running out of space for my collections and it needed to stop. I already have a crap load from gaming consoles and i could not keep doing it with ever new generation. I know some people would say just sell them but i dont like doing that i felt love for every game or movie i just ended up keeping them all at least now when i keep them there not taking up half my space. Also i found i liked collecting more than watching or playing some stuff i would just never watch or finish.

Personally im happy now witha digital world using Netflix and buying maybe a couple of my favorites digitally.

I've always preferred physical copies, until I have to get up off the couch to change a disc lol.

I get whatever is cheaper for me because anything else is purely ideological.

Things I really care about or have a lot of interest in I buy physical. I like actually owning discs and like having them in my game library. If I am just buying a game because I need something to play and I am bored then I am going to go digital. PSN flash sales and Steam sales have caused me to download a lot of things that I probably wouldn't have bought otherwise.

Wow I haven't bought a physical game in years now that I think about it. I'm in college right now so I move in and out of dorms and apartments frequently, so the less stuff the better.

I buy plenty of digital with little complaint, but I love physical. I like a good solid collection, even if it can sometimes be a pain. It feels more like I actually "own" the media in question (yes, I'm technically just buying a license either way, but you know what I mean).

I particularly love that nobody buys DVDs anymore, so it's never been cheaper to build up my movie collection. I've gotten into the habit of tossing a couple of DVDs in whenever I order something from Amazon, they're so cheap. It's fantastic, and far less unwieldy than when VHS went through this. And CDs? Pshhh... fuggedaboudit. Remember "10 CDs for a penny"? Nowadays, that's overpriced.

Obviously games are less of a free-for-all, but I still prefer a disc any day. Especially as files continue getting bigger and bigger and data caps continue to creep towards new areas.

I buy digital for the most part and buy physical for games I love and for AAA junk that fun once and I now I"ll never play again so I can ebay it.

It really all boils down to "whatever's cheaper" and/or "whatever I feel like going for at the moment".

I do like owning copies of things but at the moment, I have a problem with space. I've got a job and money to buy things with, but I haven't moved out of my parent's house yet, so now I've got a shelf full of books and not enough places to fit my blu-rays and physical games, but my Steam collection ain't causing me any problems!

I have not yet found a satisfactory replacement for physical movies, though, so I'm going to be sticking with those. Ripping everything I own sounds like a time-consuming pain ending in either a bunch of files of subpar quality or several external HDD's full of movies that still don't look as good as their on-disc counterparts. Streaming is fine for when I just want to pick a movie off of Netflix but it's hardly ideal when the blu-ray still looks way, way better. And there's not really a Steam-like service for movies - you can buy stuff off of Amazon and stream it, but their player is total shit (you can't even change your own resolution) and it costs way too much.

Digital comes with its own set of problems, but most of those stem from bandwidth caps (which I don't have) and slow internet speeds (which I also don't have). I used to be against all-digital because downloading a game meant tying up everyone's internet for days or waiting a whole week or more for a game to finish downloading. Back then, I felt like those people clamoring for an all digital future just couldn't fathom that this was a problem for a whole lot of people, maybe even a majority of people (and I'm still pretty sure a lot of the sorts who want everything digital still think most of the world is ready for that). Currently, our internet is fast enough to accommodate my downloading habits without anyone else caring, so it's just not a factor for me.

There's also all the issues with DRM and rights and stuff - basically, you have a privilege granted by a corporation to play all of those Steam games and all of those Xbox One game and if, for whatever reason, someone decides that you shouldn't have that right, or that your copy of the game needs to be altered, then they're going to do that and you can't do anything about it except go into a legal gray area and mod Grand Theft Auto San Andreas to get the soundtrack back in there.

I wrote way, way more than I meant to, especially when I have a perfectly fine answer in my very first sentence.

Haven't bought a physical game since like 2012 and haven't look back. Started cause my PS3's disc drive broke and have continued with my PS4 and Vita. Only physical game I have for PS4 is Battlefield 4 and that was a gift. I don't hold any fondness for the collection aspect. While I do have some fears about what things will be like 10 years from now and the PS4 is no longer support and what will happen to the licenses I have for all my games, I also figure by that point most of those games I won't care about.

I'll buy both it really comes down to price and whether or not I think I'll want a physical copy after I've played the game - hell I'll buy both if its cheap enough. I'm all physical on Nintendo titles and platforms though at least for the time being.

Games: whatever's cheaper, which in my experience in the UK almost always means physical, even on release day.

Music: again, whatever's cheaper. Often that means CDs from Amazon with AutoRip that never come out of their cellophane wrapper.

Films: almost always physical. Streaming just isn't high enough quality - with the broadband I have available streaming can't even compete with DVD quality, and is miles away from blu-ray. I've only got one digital film and that was just to use up Amazon credit. I do have Amazon Instant and Netflix, but only to supplement my disc collection, not to replace it.

When it comes to consoles if the digital is less expensive I'll get that but I prefer physical discs when possible.

When it comes to PC gaming, or basically Steam, I'm all for the digital mostly because the prices are great and the download speeds are amazing. If PSN was on the same level as Steam in terms of pricing and speeds then I'd probably abandon physical copies completely.

I prefer physical just because I like collecting shit. I'll buy digital every now and then, but that's pretty much only in cases where the physical version is releasing on a later day (e.g. the Mega Man collection) or I need the game the fucking second it launches (e.g. Halo 5).

If it weren't for my similar lack of space for a physical games collection at home and the relatively cheap nature of Steam, GOG, Humble Bundle and Origin On The House sales/promotions, I'd likely have stuck with the same 50 or so games on consoles I've had since 2008ish.

I'm more or less forced these days to go digital with a lack of game stores close by, so that has a major impact on my purchasing habits, but I'm definitely not in the camp who's advocating for the death of physical media given that physical games from even 10 years ago are already easier to go back and play right off the bat than many more modern games.

Which is easier, plugging in a cartridge/inserting a disc or praying that a server network is still online, then ascertaining whether or not the network is where you bought the game, then authenticating it, then downloading it, then patching it, installing DLCs and microtransaction content, on a hard drive/SSD which can fail? Though I was not a huge fan of P.T., it no longer exists, and playing GTA V, MGS V and a whole lot of other games is already shaping up to be problematic come 2020 or thereabouts.

Whatever costs less. Which would be physical for consoles and digital for PC.

Whatever is cheapest.

If they're both the same price, I'll get the physical copy so I don't have to download so much.

I'm in the process of getting rid of all my physical discs. Did you know a copy of Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance goes for around $100?

I haven't purchased anything physical this generation. I just don't want the clutter anymore, and I can afford to pay digital prices right now with the aid of my Playstation credit card. I have whole shelves dedicated to video games I don't play, and I can't wait to get rid of that excess furniture.

digital. you have to install games anyway and you save money on tax that way. plus I hate swapping discs.

if a game goes for 10 or 20 at a best buy sale I might buy it thogh.

I'm on the side of "whatever is cheapest" which is for the most part digital where I live, and with a few games I'm on the side of "I need it as soon as possible" which also happens to be digitally.

i'm a bit of an odd duck- i'm 100% physical for music, 100% digital for everything else.

i don't have a good reason, but for me albums really need to be tangible to mean anything. not so much with movies and games (for me) though, and i'm not sure why...

I like having the option of digital media, but at the same time I enjoy owning physical stuff. Plus if it is a game or book that I've completed and have no interest in keeping I can re-sell it online and get a small rebate of sorts.

I don't have a lot of variables to worry about. (I buy physical games from Amazon and I have Prime. I don't have a bandwidth cap and I have good download speeds. If I want to get a highly anticipated game, I more or less can buy it new)

To me some of the physical/download decisions are based around planning. Like pre-ordering a physical copy of MGSV, because of course I'm going to play that; or downloading Until Dawn, because I randomly changed my mind and wanted to play the game that evening, as opposed to waiting a month like I originally planned.

In terms of the digital/physical arguments, I generally like having discs. I have bought games or movies that I have never watched, but I have that problem with digital games on Steam (Poor purchase decisions are not platform/format agnostic). Most of my collection of physical media gathers dust, but I can fit just about everything in plastic containers and store them in closets and a storage area in my garage. It takes up room, but it doesn't take up that much space. From a game preservation perspective, I'm generally not too worried about it. Life finds a way, and all that. And hypothetically, let's say at some point Until Dawn gets pulled from PSN. Realistically I'm only going to play that game a handful of times, and that game has been preserved through YouTube and sites like Giant Bomb. So let's say it is pulled from the PSN in 2025, would I really care at that point? Philosophically, I would say yes. Practically, I would probably say not really.

Pretty much directly on the fence. I don't swing hard either way, but--I guess--I prefer digital these days? It's pretty much whichever is more convenient or cheaper. I came across a physical copy of Witcher 3 being sold for $40 back in June (it was a great price then), so I grabbed that. But most games I buy at launch, I buy digitally.

Also, games are pretty much the only medium that I buy digitally. I have Spotify for streaming music, otherwise I buy physical albums. I have Netflix/HBO Go/Hulu for streaming tv and movies, otherwise I buy Blu Rays. I don't even own any sort of tablet or ereader, so it's either the library or bookstore for my books.

Like you, my position has reversed over time. I prefer the convenience of digital, and I even threw out all my game cases because I was tired of how much space they were taking up.

The biggest problem with digital, however, is the pricing. With overhead coming from bandwidth and not stocking costs, the prices tend to remain high over long periods. Sony and Microsoft do their best to follow Steam's example with constant sales, but its still a long way from ideal.

It was not just convenience for me it was more so how little i used these things. I realized i might watch/play them once then they sit there forever. Well that's not true for every game or movie i do have a few favorites that are old games, tv shows and movies. That i did watch and play even after but for 95% of my collection i never played or touched again and it just collected dust. I feel Physical is alot more of just collecting and the feeling than actually using what you buy... thats why i switched to digital i can use Netflix which has almost all tv shows i want and i dont notice a huge difference vs bluray.

I have no problem buying digital games but if its a retail release I normally choose physical. I'm not lazy enough to fall into the camp of "I don't want to get up to change a disc" and I also don't forget that no matter what when its digital you don't own what you've bought...you've merely licensed it. They can't pull my physical disc off my shelf and make it unplayable. I can, however, reset my system to factory settings and play a single player game with no issues.

I was very much a physical media person until very recently. I've not bought an eighth generation console and instead beefed up my PC and just started playing all my games there. With PC hardware being more standardized than ever, consoles now having shit problems like long installations and patches and PC hardware being almost the same price as the new consoles for similar or even better performance, I can't see any reason to buy a console anymore. And, back to the point, with the huge amount of cheap storage available for PC, space is never a concern, so bring on the downloads. To hell with boxes of shit. I suspect the huge stack of PS3 games on my desk will be the last of the physical games I buy. Now if I could just find the time to finish them.

I'm a PC guy so all digital apparently.

I much prefer physical copies of games. On PC there's really no option for me to get most of the games I want in a physical format so I usually go for digital there but with consoles I go for physical copy every time. So much so that I recently imported the Asia version of DMC4:SE because it came in a box.

There's the fear for me that I don't actually "own" my games when I buy them digital. What is going to happen if one of these big digital systems shut down? Will I be able to legally somehow make a copy of all my steam games? Also like, what is going to happen with my DLC when/if PSN or XBL shut down. At least with having my disks I know I'll always have the base game until the disk degrades to a point to where I can't play it anymore in like 80 years.

All of my music is digital, I have started buying movies through Amazon Instant Video and all of my games would be digital if pricing wasn't so bad in the UK. I buy digital games whenever the price matches or the difference is nominal.

I understand why people prefer physical goods but I find it annoying. I live in a one bedroom flat and I'm running out of shelf space for blurays and games.

It depends but for the most part...
If it's one of my favorite IPs on Xbox and I know I'll be keeping it for a long time or have no intention of trading it in I'll go digital.
But if it's one of my favorite IPs on PC I like to buy physical to have the case since after one use of the disk it's pretty much digital anyway.
Especially since trading in PC games is a possibility of the past long forgotten.

All digital on my XONE, physical for movies and music.

Music - Mostly digital. Spotify and Amazon MP3 store, sometimes iTunes. I'll pick up the occasional CD if I can't find what I'm looking for digitally (and legally), but that's pretty rare. Plus a few game soundtracks, bundled with collectors editions. Music was the earliest and easiest move from physical to digital, and I'm fine with it. I'm not ready for 100% streaming all the time (data caps, man), so I hope MP3 sales stick around for a while yet. Hardware: I still get a lot of use out of my iPod Touch, using my Android phone mostly for streaming. PC for both listening to and managing music library, ripping CDs.

Books - Similar to music, this is a pretty easy switch, and I'm trying to keep most of my book purchases digital these days. Books especially take a lot of space, and aren't as easily stored as blu-rays/games. I do still buy a hardcover or paperback now and then. Hardware: iPad. Digital purchases split between iBooks store and Kindle store. Have been considering a Kindle Paperwhite, so trying to favor Kindle store, since books can be read on both Kindle and iOS.

Movies/TV - I still prefer physical media, blu-rays when I can get it, but I am streaming a fair amount (Amazon Instant, HBO Now, Crunchyroll, once in a while Hulu). The reason I prefer physical media is because my internet sucks. Not fast enough to stream HD. It's like just barely enough to stream at all. But I still get to watch Game of Thrones and True Detective, still get to take advantage of "free" shows on Amazon Prime. I do have a lot of blu-rays, and storage is a pain, but being able to just put the disc in and watch, no buffering, no switching between bitrates/resolutions, is great. Hardware: I have a Panasonic blu-ray player that's been great for compatibility. For streaming: mostly PC and Fire TV Stick, occasionally iPad.

Games - As I mentioned for Movies/TV, my internet sucks. So I prefer physical media for big games. Downloading TERA (~50GB) was an ordeal. Downloading something like Sims 4 or Civilization V (<10GB) isn't so bad (it's slow, yes, but I can manage), and there are plenty of great games that are just a few GB, so that's great. But for your big AAA games, I'm going to get the disc every time. And I know that still won't always save me from large downloads, as there will inevitably be updates, but it certainly helps. Sometimes I'll buy a game on Steam or PSN instead of disc, despite its download size, if it's a huge sale, but ask me how many of them I've actually downloaded. Not many. If I had 50Gb+ internet, I probably wouldn't mind buying most of my games digitally, except that XBL/PSN are still not as price competitive, when you're looking at buying a game that's not brand new. Sure, there are sales and publisher price drops, but a lot of times, Amazon's going to have the disc cheaper than XBL/PSN has the digital copy. Hardware: PC, consoles, a bit on portables. Mobile (Android/iOS) aren't really part of this discussion, as there's no physical option.

My internet is slow and my bandwidth cap is low, so I like physical for those reasons, but it really depends on the size of whatever it is. Indie games are hardly ever on disc and if they are it usually doesn't matter because they aren't that big. But something like say Battlefront will take up half of my monthly bandwidth, 50% of my cap for one game is way to extreme for me so disc it is.
Plus you can trade or re-sell discs, you are kind of buggered in that regard with digital.

But as many have said, cheaper is nice and digital goods have a way of just being cheaper (thanks Steam sales!)
So I actually probably do have more digital games then physical, but I prefer the ease of physical.

Digital. I only go for physical if it's on sale/cheaper.

I like discs because I can fill my bookshelf with games to mask the fact I have no books.

However, I have a huge SD card for my n3DS which carries my entire digital library. So I guess I'm bidigital.

I prefer physical video games. The primary arguments I've heard in favor of digital are that it saves space, and that its easier to download than it is to go buy it. For me neither of those really apply, my hard drive space is scarcer than my shelf space, and I can drive to Best Buy, buy the game, and drive back in the time it takes to download bigger games. Then once I have the physical disc I have the option to loan or sell it. I also rent and borrow a lot of games, which I can only do because of physical versions. I don't see any advantage to digital stuff, and I see lots of disadvantages, for my personal situation anyways. I just hope we continue to have the option to choose.

As far as other types of media go, if I really want to see a new movie, I try and catch it in theaters. If I miss it in theaters, I usually pirate it with the intention of watching it and it sits on my hard drive until I run out of space and purge my movie folder. Music is all digital. Books are all digital as well, but I buy the physical copy once I've read it.

@zolroyce I'm in the same boat. My internet is slow enough that if a game is new I will opt for the disc copy and hope that it lets me bypass a long download time.

Fallout 4 is going to be 30gb and that would take me forever to download so I'm going disc for it. Did the same for MGSV and Skyrim and Dark Souls II.

If it's a game I don't mind waiting for then I will pick it up in a Steam sale and just have it download in the background as and when I can.

Game-wise I've gone all digitial, except for with the Nintendo 3DS. Didn't have faith in Nintendo implementing a competent online service back then. I'm still skeptical with my Wii U but I only have a handful of games for that system anyways.

Music-wise I've been completely digital for over a decade. Mostly subscription based services. I don't even have a disc drive installed on my computer.

For movies/videos it depends. If it's just something I want to watch then I'll usually just get it digitally. If it's something I really want as a collector's item then I'll get the physical copy. Especially for things which have special features such as commentary that I want to go through (ex my collection of Simpsons seasons 1-12).

I totally understand arguments for digital, but I still prefer to have physical copies for everything except PC games. There's still something about having the physical copy that tickles my fancy. I've even been buying a bunch of older games and consoles to play recently too. Yes, I could just use emulators, which I do anyway from time to time, but I prefer to have the original games and hardware.

I would do all digital if PSN/Xbox download speeds were anywhere near as good as steam. It takes upwards of 8 hours to download big games on those systems for me. GameStop is across the street, so I can walk there, buy a game, be home playing it before a download will have gotten to 10%. On PC (where I do most of my gaming anway), 20-30 minute download times for 20 gig games is a lot more tolerable.

Also, I'm going to be that guy who mentions that purely physical games don't exist anymore. Unless, are there people here who just don't install patches? :-)

I feel like threads like these pop up every month. Even I may have created one of them in the past.

I'm very pro-digital, as long as the price isn't exorbitant compared to a physical version. I bought a physical copy of MGS V, because it was 10 euros cheaper than a digital copy and I kinda wanted to go to a midnight launch for the first time in years. Also if it's a single-player game which I'm likely to not re-play in a long time I'm okay with having a physical copy.

The main reason why I lean towards digital purchases is the pure convenience of it all. Right now I've got over a terabyte of games on my Xbox One and tens of games on the PS4 as well. With multiplayer games especially it's fantastic to be able to launch something, Titanfall for example, in a literal second. Overall I find myself going back to "old" games this gen more than with previous consoles because of this ease-of-access. Digital copies also provide a better experience if I want to start playing something at launch. When the clock hits midnight I know I'll be able to launch my game straight away, without having to first wait in line somewhere, get back home, install the disc and download all the patches.

I get that digital copies are not convenient for people with bad internet, but I feel like with huge pre-launch patches we're all going to have to face this digital future very soon. And I'm glad of it.

I buy both physical and digital triple-A releases, leaning more towards physical right now. The deciding factor for me is the price, with Bestbuy's Gamer Club Unlocked taking 20% off new releases and a fair amount of them giving you a $10 cert for pre-ordering, it is a hard offer to pass up. If the price was the same I would almost exclusively go digital, for right now though I only buy big long games that I will play for awhile or come back to later, (Bloodborne, Halo:MCC, Witcher 3, MSGV, Fallout 4).

Team Jacob.

Physical unless I absolutely need to play or watch it and it's only on digital. My only gripe with physical copies are trying to avoid steelbook editions while still getting things like art-books and soundtracks. Digital does save a lot of space but I've been a dvd collector since 1999 and the last time I counted had over 2000 dvd's, I've had friends say it's insane but I love being able to look at the box art especially if it's horror. The same thing with games I love being able to look at the box and flip through a game manual whenever they are actually included. If you take something recent like The Witcher 3 it came with a very cool map that you just couldn't enjoy if it was digital. My music is mostly digital and iTunes is just easier, the rest of it I get as free promo's through work. Then there is price, I can walk around the corner to a game store and pick up a game for 60ish Euro or log into the PSN and pay 70 Euro's. If anything digital should be cheaper than physical, no box/etc.

Physical for me, though I do own some digital games. Can't see myself ever buying a digital version of a film/tv show but I do use sites like Netflix & only get my favourites on DVD

As a primarily console player who tends to pick up games a while after release physical is usually much cheaper for me, plus I really like having the actual discs/boxes for some reason.