Physical or Digital copies of games? - Which one you mostly prefer to buy for your consoles?

You sure make a lot of topics dude.

I'm almost 100% digital. The only time I get physical games is if someone buys them for me as a present. Digital games are just very convenient. Books, on the other hand, I buy paper-only because I like to display them.

If I want to play it on the Switch, I go physical. I'll go out of my way to not have to spend three/four hours downloading the game to the system, even as far as importing from Hong Kong/Singapore if the US release pulls the "nothing's on the cart, it's just a pass to download from the shop" crap. PS4, I'll get stuff during digital sales, but if it's a large game I might pick up a disc. Florida internet is bad even when it's good, so it's typically quicker for me to download off disc than a server.

I buy mostly digital.

I'll buy physical games to give as gifts.

I strongly prefer physical for modern consoles. Managing shelf space is more tolerable than managing hard drive space.

The only physical discs I had this generation were the copies of inFamous: Second Son and NBA 2K14 that came bundled with the PS4 on Amazon.

There’s just no beating getting a new game at 11PM on a Thursday, or four days earlier than it would be for physical, or not having to leave my house just for a game, or being able to just pull the game up on a menu rather than dig around for a disc.

For me, the PS5 Digital will be a no brainer and as sad as it is to say out loud the existence of it feels like validation in a sense. Cheaper, better form factor.

@facelessvixen: It ain't either or. At this point all games need to be installed to the drive so you still need to manage hard drive space. And even if you think that loading from the drive is faster than doing so over the net, they need extensive patching (as opposed to downloading the most recent version to start with) so I don't think that you actually net any time savings.

The advantages to physical are the ability to lend or resell and if you just like owning physical games. But the discs are more or less physical authentication keys at this point rather than actually holding the game.

I buy digital, but in games old enough to actually have the final product on the disc (give or take some optional patches) I greatly prefer physical.

@bigsocrates said:

As someone who buys 90% of their games on Steam...

...I can't say that I share those concerns.

Similar story for my Switch, 3DS, Vita and PS3.

@facelessvixen: That's fine and all but your statement still makes 0 sense, since you wouldn't be having issues around hard drive space if all those games were digital.

Also you are choosing to buy most of your games digitally anyway and presumably have to manage the hard drive space on your PC (unless you're running games off a platter hard drive for some reason, or you have an extremely expensive massive SSD or 2) so, again, you're not actually balancing hard drive management vs physical disc management.

Finally, if you installed all those games to a PS5 internal you'd be out of room.

The point is that whatever's driving your preference it's not actually shelf space management vs hard drive management.

@wollywoo: Weird how Xbox wanted to go digital a long time ago and people blew gaskets. Now Psplus etc. eased people in like dlc eased people into horse armor being ok in comparison to loot boxes and so on. I have a feeling we're all just manipulated and along for the ride. Always though no disc was inevitable thou. Kinda pointless besides wanting to play the game whenever, but these days with necessary updates, online modes, lack of others playing old games that aren't popular, your games have a shelf life of about one or half a year. Single-player games are another thing but I see that as another discussion since execs hates games they cant make infinite money potential after a sale so they will continue to push the agenda that no one wants them.

Since the death of the Wii E-shop, I've bought most of my console games physically unless the price difference is dramatic. I play a lot of old games, and even considering that some (but certainly not all) games require server connections and patches to work at all, I feel way better about my chances of being able to play a game 15+ years from now if I have it on disc. PC is a different story, since most PC games have no real physical release anymore I gravitate towards DRM free if possible.

Mostly buy the cheapest price at launch if it’s a new game as it seems that Amazon prices are lower than digital prices at release.

@bigsocrates: *actually looks at the PS4 install sizes*

...Okay, so you do have a point in regards to the PS4. Bad example on my part, and thanks to you and Sony for making me look like an idiot on an online message board. So, for the more recent PlayStations and Xboxes, sure. That's where you can say that my statements "make zero sense" as you've explained since install sizes seem either on par with or are larger than the data capacity of a Blu-ray disc.

But, I did mention other systems where my concerns for data management are applicable, so there's a wee bit more to the story.

The Switch, 3DS, Vita and the PS3 play their games form their respective physical media formats and additional drive space is only really needed for saves and DLC. Similar deal with the PS3, but that's where I became strained for space since the PSN versions of retail games took up relatively large chunks of the of the 160 GB I had at the time, so I didn't have much space left when also factoring in DLC, saves, Metal Gear Solid 4's 9GB install size, and backups of PSP and PS Vita saves and games.

That was a problem that I got myself into with the PS3 and the Vita, and that's what my preference for physical releases is based on; which is again, as you've explained, off the mark for some systems, but still a valid point for four out of the five systems I mentioned where the physical copy isn't just an authentication key, so it's looking more like 80% sense; more or less depending on how many hairs you want to split. And sure. I have at this point in my 30's solved my digital storage issues by buying and installing bigger hard drives, 128 GB SD cards, and biting the $100 bullet on a 64GB memory card for the Vita, I can't say that I had the expendable dollarydoos in my 20's. Also, as opposed to only looking at upcoming releases, I've been buying plenty of older games over the past few years; mainly PSP games that either don't have PSN counterparts, were delisted from PSN, or weren't intended to be sold outside of Japan, and I've also bought some PS2 games that weren't ported to PSN.

So with all that said, it isn't all about what's current or what "holds up in [current year goes here]", or just being nostalgic for physical releases after switching to PC for that matter. There are still functional merits to physical depending on the systems and people we're talking about.

Anyway, I originally just wanted to post my quick opinion and keep it moving. I ain't exactly a people person, so this is more than I bargained for.

Physical, mostly for the standard 'you can revoke a license from me, but I have something to play even if I have to put my console in offline mode' reason, but also physical archiving which is necessary alongside digital, both compliment each other in a massively important way. Art preservation for video games also means emulation is always improving thanks to the communities putting a lot of effort in and it makes losing games due to hardware/software/act of god reasons (fires, floods etc) less awful.

Also, if I don't like a game I can give it to someone else, or sell it if it ends up being worth a few dollars. Space is a problem of course (owning physical games from pre-Atari 2600 days to now), but even apartments in Australia are much larger than you'll find in most other countries so it's fine. That and I only "collect" games and consoles I enjoy and can/will/often play.

Digital is great of course, and some games in recent times make a physical copy almost entirely pointless (Tetris 99, Overwatch), but if a physical copy exists at a reasonable price that is always preferable. No disrespect to any teams/devs/artists only releasing digitally either, getting physical releases out to the public is a pain, especially if you"re not established.

I went with the all digital consoles this gen, aside from the Switch, I guess. I was moving that way last gen anyway, and the cheaper price tags on the consoles pushed me over the line. Also, if I buy anymore physical games, I'd probably need a 3rd shelf, and I don't have room for a 3rd shelf.

Haven't messed with discs since the twilight of the 360/PS3 gen

I’ve collected (hoarded) gaming stuff for years. I finally got tired of owning all the stuff I wasn’t using. Digital gaming for me going forward. Game Pass is my jam.

I always tend to buy physical, just due to uncertainty of digital storefronts/licenses and I also just like to have a library of cases to look at.

@facelessvixen: The reason that I focused on PS4/5 rather than the other systems is that you said "hard drive space" and 3DS/Switch/whatever don't have hard drives. PS3 actually has some the same issues as PS4/PS5 except arguably worse because the PS3 patching process is horrible, because many games require installations. Not all do, though, and often the installation is not the whole game, so in that case it

I'm not trying to start hostilities and I'm sorry if my tone came off as hostile. Yes, it makes a lot of sense for systems that can run games directly off the media.

The reason I reacted like I did is that I think that a lot of people haven't processed how modern game consoles that install games to the hard drive actually work and what it means for digital vs physical. There are reasons to still buy physical games but outside the Switch for modern consoles it's more about aesthetics and the ability to sell/trade/give them away than anything like data management.

Me too, I love collecting physical copies of games for consoles in general.

Ever since a terrible experience in early 2017 at a Gamestop, I have sworn off physical games. I actually got rid of most of my physical games to make room for books on my bookshelves and it was liberating. Also bought the PS5 digital edition, along with the storage expansion for Xbox Series X. And a 4TB secondary SATA SSD for my PC, so I am set, at least until PS5 allows 3rd party m.2 SSDs.

Only physical game I own at this point is Ring Fit.

Physical for consoles, the games are usually cheaper and I enjoy the process of opening the box and then displaying it on a shelf. For PC I go all digital. I have been thinking about adding a new large hard drive to my PC so that I can download all my steam games.

And they all seem mysteriously... market-research-y.

I was 100% physical, until 1) best buy stopped doing their gamers club 20% off promos and 2) I was "forced" into getting a digital ps5. I say forced, but just because it's what I could grab and in my mind I wasn't too worried about it.

Luckily I got some big ps4 games digitally: Tony Hawk, Tsushima, ff7r. But there's a few games that got upgrades that I can't play without buying again.

Luckily God of War is available through the ps plus collection and Horizon is free next month(idk if this got an upgrade though).

I'm still on the fence about going digital only, but between discounts being basically moot for buying physical and knowing(well, I ASSUME things will be back compat from now on) I can download the games on a new system I've been digital so far.

I prefer to have digital copies for their convenience but have recently found myself buying quite a few physical games if I can find them for cheap.

Discs are a hassle though, especially for multiplayer games I want to play more often. I have physical copies of Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on the Xbox and switching between the two during a weekend is a little annoying. It's funny because this was such a normal thing a decade ago, but I guess having large libraries of digital games has made me more lazy.

I like to buy physical then beat them as soon as I can so I can sell them on for 75% of the cost and buy new games

Digital only. I don't wanna get off the couch to change games. I don't care if I don't have them saved on a disc if they disappear from being downloadable again. I just don't. If the game was that good I would've played it or not bought the damn thing.

@el_blarfo:

And they all start with "Hello" <break>

Honestly, I buy wherever it's cheaper at the point of sale. The older I get, the less I trade in but it is nice to have that escape road of "Well, this game isn't doing it for me. Let's get it out of my life." In short, the wallet decides.

Physical, always.