Physical vs Digital

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  • #190429
    Anonymous

      Ok, so im gettin a bit fed up about all these ‘game journo’ clowns aka ‘shills/advertisers’ talking about how great of a deal Digital consoles are. Gamepass is great blah blah blah… Do people actually agree with their garbage? It is a much better investment for the long run if you can buy a console that plays physical games!!  Always keep your options open! And physical consoles give tons more options than digital only!  For starters, if you ever wanted to sell/trade in your games in the future,  you can forget that if you buy digital. The option to buy 2nd hand games is completely gone if you buy digital only. If your internet ever goes down or you aren’t happy with your provider, guess what, you wont have anything to play. Gamepass isn’t ‘great’, its a game rental service you pay $180 a year for old/indie games and if you cant afford it one month you have f*ck all to play, the fact that EA signed up to it should be a red flag for everyone too.  Half of EA games should be free to play at this point anyway, they just want to get their games to more people to sell packs/microtransactions.  Are people really going to wait for 3rd party games like GTA or Red Dead etc to come to Gamepass 3 years after they launch and be taken off 3 months later? Of course they wont, and Xbox aren’t even releasing 1 AAA game a year that warrants the subscription. Similar with PS+ though, if you have games through that and you cant afford it one month they take all your games off you until you sign up again. People need to be made fully aware of the cons of everyone going full digital for the sake of saving $100. Its not a great deal to save $100 today if it takes you options away of saving 1000s tomorrow? Physical games in stores will nearly always reduce in price quicker and for more discount than the digital stores do…Sorry for going off there, just a bit wound up by what i see as garbage ‘reporting’ from ‘game journo’ outlets… What do you guys think? Pros and cons of Physical vs Digital?

      #190438

      With the exception of a PS3 copy of FF7 Ive never bought a digital game.

      The only reason I bought that was my PS1 went with the stepkids when I divorced their mother.

      #190445
      Anonymous

        Ive bought digital games in sales before. PS Store does come up with some good offers, but thats always years after the release. Tomb Raider for instance, i bought it on disc for ps3, then i bought the digital remastered version for ps4 during State of Play for about £6 in June. Same story for Kingdom Hearts 1.5/2.5, got them on ps3 disc and bought the remaster for buttons in June. I got God of War 3 remaster for free with ps+ the other month, i own the original for ps3. If my internet ever went down and i wanted to play them i’d just play the original on my ps3 using the disk. I bought tons of 2nd hand games on disc at the end of ps3 for buttons from stores that just wanted rid so they could have the floor space. All that as an option is gone if its an ‘all digital’ future. We are left at the mercy of whatever price they want to set on their digital stores. Yes they give some decent deals for digital now, after years of release. But whats stopping them never dropping the price once the customer doesn’t have a choice to buy physical? Wont happen this gen, maybe not next? But if the option is gone dont think they would be so kind… by all rights digital games should be cheaper anyway, or go on sale sooner. The companies get more profit and they dont have to pay to rent shop space/employees like the stores do.  But they are often still full price digitally when stores start reducing and making sales

        #190450
        Anonymous

          Look no further than Tlou2 for just one example. Giving it away on ebay. £40 in game stores. Still £55 in PS Store for digital.

          #190451

          I usually buy digital games but I wouldn’t have a non-disk console, however it shouldn’t be worth a whole $100 more just to have an optical drive in it IMO. An exception is when it’s a blockbuster title like GTAV or RDR2 then I prefer physical and most recently I bought the Japanese version of Judgment (Judge Eyes) because the studio that makes it pulled it off the digital store worldwide when it was discovered that one of the voice actors for the game had cocaine in his system. The game was both off the shelves in Japan (months before the international release) and off the Japanese PS Store until they recast the character. I didn’t want to wait for the international release and I also wanted to hear the original voice actor so I bought the physical copy from Japan. I’ve since lost that copy though which is a disadvantage of physical copies, but I’ll buy another someday if I can find the one that has the original VA.

          #190452

          Be it computer games, or movies, or music, 99% of the time I always get it in its PHYSICAL medium.

          You then OWN it.  Which you can, when you are done, trade it, sell it, give it away, etc.  You can’t do that with a digital.

          I have had too many computer crashes to trust just a DL version.

          And using where one has to be logged in to access the it… backouts (here or where the server is), maintenance upgrade shutdowns, temporary licenses you have to keep paying subscriptions, etc.

           

          #190456

          With the Playstation store you don’t lose your games because you can just log in to your PSN account and they’re there forever if they’re digital. Having said that I myself like physical for the sense of ownership but it’s not always the most convenient option since the physical copies can get lost or damaged but the good thing about physical is that should they get censored online you still have the uncensored version if you have a physical copy. I actually have about the same number of digital and physical games – in the hundreds with regards to both – but since at the moment I don’t have a console since I had to leave my PS4 Pro back in Canada when I was moving I’m waiting for the PS5 to come out and I’m gaming on my laptop in the meantime (and on my laptop it’s all digital through Steam).

          #190534

          They are there so long as the company is still around.

          If the company closes, the servers are gone, no saved digital game.

          If company is sold, there is no guarentee the back catalogue will be kept open.

          Forever is a marketing word.

           

          #190539

          The only digital thing I use is Steam.  I have always been a hard copy guy.  I just like having these things to display in my entertainment centers and just knowing I will always own these things for as long as I have them.  These digital copies and platforms feel like I am just “renting” these titles.  Sure I own them but lets say Steam decides to bend the knee at some point then they could legally take away all of my games because they don’t agree with something I said online.

          I remember WoTc doing this with Jeremy from The Quartering and Unsleeved Media with his digital Magic Cards.

          So I happen to fully agree with you about these fucking jorno clowns who are just puppets for who ever is paying them to talk.  Hands up their asses anymore like puppets on a stage.

          I don’t like the idea if a company that served me my digital copies goes under, what then?  I lose all the games I paid for.  Demand hard copies of anything and everything you own if you want to keep what you paid for.

          This whole digital ownership is a bunch of horse pucky IMO.   While still on one hand playing into it because I had no other option of getting these PC titles in hard copy form.

          #190541

          Really hard to find any more shops that sell computer games anymore.  Walmart and Target have some but the selection leaves something to be desired.

          Why couldn’t Steam open up a Physical Medium department and offer shipping if they don’t want to put out the cash for physical buildings?

          #190551
          LordLeonan
          Premium

            I always buy physical whenever possible.

            This whole push towards digital is (IMHO) mainly an attempt to kill the used games market, which publishers have been trying to do for years.

            I really hope that never happens because, if a publisher that’s on my “Scumbag publishers who’s games I’ll never buy again” list releases a game that I want to play, I’ll buy a used copy so that they don’t get any of my money.

            #190679

            Yap. And I’m almost sure that these new consoles are going to be the last ones with disc drive. The next ones (around 2026?) will be only digital. It is what it is.

            When we tell our grand-kids that “I used to buy 2nd hand games or I used to borrow games from my classmates”, They’ll laugh and say “wtf you talking about lmao take your goddamn pills old man”

            :’)

            #190699
            Anonymous

              Alright guys, credit where credit is due, and apologies too… Ryan stated on today’s IGN Next Gen Console Watch that ‘he is buying digital, he has moved towards digital for a while now, but there are some trade offs. Not being able to take advantage of stores sales for instance’.

              So at least they (IGN) have mentioned it, maybe they have spoken about it in the past before but ive missed it? But gaming is my favourite hobby and i watch a lot of youtube/read a lot of articles regarding gaming. If ive never really noticed it before i can basically guarantee that your ‘average Joe’ doesn’t know the ‘trade offs’

              I know employees at IGN have a job to do, and everyone needs to put bread on the table. Ive watched them for years and most seem like genuinely decent people. They always try to stay positive about things they talk about if they can but they do criticise sometimes. You know what they say, dont bite the hand that feeds you, im sure many of us have bit our tongue at some point during work and ‘do as you’re told’,  lord knows i have (but ive also told people to shove their job where the sun dont shine). They are just in the public eye everyday and that cant be easy with how their profession is now, always online with millions of people watching daily and (live) commenting

              I try stay positive about gaming too, try not to get involved in console wars etc but i do have a bit of banter now and then, some might even call what i say as toxic. But thats not my intent. When criticising, usually its constructive criticism bc i want thing to improve, be better value and try help people with what i think is advice etc. Its easy for me to sit here and criticise/complain about this or that because im not going to lose any work or income from it

              If i know one of my family members or friends is thinking about getting their kids a console but they are unsure and a bit strapped for cash. Id advise them to miss launch day save up for an extra 6 months to invest in getting a console that plays physical games.

              Also, when i say ‘garbage reporting’ from ‘games journos’ i dont specifically mean IGN. I can imagine a lot of people instantly think of them bc they are the biggest. I just mean in general,  websites that talk about gaming, newspapers that review games, some youtubers, anybody who sells advertising space, people/companies who gain access by not criticising… i just would of liked them to really dive in to the pros and cons of physical vs digital, which i haven’t seen tbh

              Keep up the awesome work Geeks + Gamers, keep fighting the good fight ✌❤

               

              #190775

              I do both digital and physical. The only time I’ll buy a digital version of a game(usually), is if I already have it physical. Games won’t last forever, especially physical games that aren’t in production anymore. I use Steam and GOG mostly on PC, so I’ll buy digital on those platforms. Though if I can get a game physical, I’ll do it. Physical games will rot eventually, while a digital game’s license will eventually expire. Once a games license expires, you can no longer buy it. And in some cases, you may never be able to redownload it. Thankfully, I’ve been able to redownload digital games that I owned that were removed from stores, like Scott Pilgrim Vs the World when it was gone from the PSN store. You could still redownload if you owned it. Who knows though if Sony will continue to do that in the long-run.

              My main source of games is my physical collection. If I can buy a game and hold it in my hands, that’s primarily how I’ll buy it. I love video game history, so I’d like to preserve it if I can. This is why I support GOG. While they are digital games, you get all the files with your purchase, and there’s no DRM. I’ve bought countless Windows 98 era games on there, put them on a flash drive, and actually run them on a real Windows 98 machine. It’s pretty awesome what GOG is doing and I salute them.

              If you’re going to buy a digital game, make sure you’ll be able to back it up.

              #190979
              Anonymous

                Watched a couple more IGN shows yesterday where the panel have mentioned some benefits to getting physical over digital since preorders went up, which i appreciate. (These shows went up after i made this thread btw, which i might not of started if i’d seen them talk about it prior to preorders going live, idk?). Better late than never and glad they have talked about it though. Probably still 90%> who are yet to preorder and hopefully people can get these points across to their families and friends who are planning on buying one for their kids or something

              Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 21 total)
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