So don't quote me on this but I think the games are tied to whatever device you download them on. However, they do have a transfer program if you want to migrate your games to a new device. I definitely prefer physical copies of games because I know I have them forever. That being said digital is so much more convenient and uses no plastic if your into that sort of thing.

For anything Nintendo I wouldn't even consider digital to be viable. The way they handle that stuff is not at all acceptable right now so I wouldn't even bother. Stick with the physical copies.

Physical first, if possible.

Physical if at all possible. If you lose your 3DS, everything stored on it goes with it.

I'm not 100% sure but AFAIK Nintendo is still garbage for transferring digital licenses between devices. Until they sort that out digital will never be viable on their platforms.

On consoles and on the PC I go digital all the way but Nintendo is an oddity and I stick with physical. I would love to go pure digital like I do with my Vita but I don't have faith in Nintendo to deal with software licenses properly.

My friend lost his 3DS on a plane and recently got a new one. He said the Nintendo customer support for transferring his downloaded games over to the new one was actually pretty painless and easy.

That said, I still prefer physical copies. I'm one of those guys that likes having them on my shelf haha. Plus I hate dealing with the nintendo e-shop, I find the playstation one is a lot more user friendly, and it accepts my paypal. I'm much more inclined to buy something digitally on my vita.

The 3DS and Wii U are the only consoles I still buy physical games for. Wii U because of storage and 3DS because of licensing stuff.

Physical is sweet since you can lend the games out to friends and having stuff is cool. Not to mention the price isn't different and if you live near enough to a store there's basically very little disadvantage other than not having every game available at all times.

The transferring from one system to another is painless in the case where you buy a new system / get a replacement. I've heard it's harder if your system gets stolen (but not sure if it's just a case of the people who had trouble are the only ones who'd bother to write posts about it). Judge for yourself whether you'd ever actually use this capability -- I've only ever used it when upgrading from 3DS to XL. Maybe there are folks out there with multiple devices at once...the way Nintendo does digital does not serve this case at all (maybe someday, now that they at least defined a "nintendo network id", but currently this is tied to a specific 3DS and a specific Wii U)

I did get a few digital games though, like Smash (since the capability to play it any time is pretty significant). Also some games are digital-only, like Phoenix Wright and Pushmo.

I try to stick with physical when possible. Sometimes if a I can't get a physical copy at or below MSRP, I'll check if there's a digital option.

I say Physical, but not for the reason most seem too.

Physical because you can get a massive amount of games for half or more off if you buy used. And thus, physical copies are where to be.

If your gonna buy something new though? If you never want to spend a dime on used products? Then yah, digital. Whatever.

Thus for older systems, physical cause of used games. The next hand-held though? ..assuming its not just fully digital which is a thing they might well do, your better off starting and staying digital. Again, assuming they don't pull a sony and make memory cards cost 100$ to fit more then like, 5 games on them.