It seems like we're gradually shifting away from physical releases and going more for digital downloads. There are even examples of games which have physical releases having only part of the content, the rest of which must be downloaded. Do you think this is a good thing or a bad thing? Do you prefer physical or digital releases?

I'm really annoyed with how many games are being released only digitally. Digital games have no collectability, they cannot be resold and bought second hand and, when the service providing the downloads shuts down, those digital-only titles will be lost. I don't really believe you actually own anything unless you're holding it in your hands and digital- only releases aren't giving you what you really payed for. It's a money hole instead of an investment.

On the other hand, there are benefits to digital games, notably the fact that, if you're taking something somewhere, you don't have to lug around discs or chips which can be damaged or lost and there are also improved load times. It's just not an acceptable trade off for me.

many companies are making computers without disc drives, we really do not need them. If anything these AAA companies can make usb downloadable games but because these cost more unneeded money for them they did what any company who wants money, make games digital only.

so i blame the companies who are being lazy and buying more nintendo games because nintendo is on the right path.

I'm right with you for being annoyed about games being released digitally, but hey. today is the age of digital; that's how the devs/pubs make their money. Correct me if I'm wrong

I agree with all of your points on physical over digital. There are a few more points that I would argue for though:

1. Digital requires internet connection. In the ideal version of the digital age, everyone would have internet. This is far from an ideal world though, and many still do not, and not everyone that does have a connection has a good enough connection to download a full size AAA game. I for example, had to download a 17GB game a couple of years ago, and due to speeds and limits, it took me a year to finish. Now look at full size AAA games on console: 30-60GB. How on Earth can people like me swing a download that size?
Then to boot, I have games on my PS4 that I still haven't managed to finish downloading. I'm just thankful that, unlike my PS3, my PS4 and Vita both will use a slow connection to download, and allow me to pause the downloads.


2. Hard Drive space. People argue in favor of digital only, but they also want to complain about running out of hard drive space. How convenient then, that you can uninstall and reinstall most physical games in a matter of seconds. It makes memory management much easier.


3. Display. I'm a collector, so naturally I like to display my collection, and with digital that isn't possible. It may seem small, but this is a big deal to me.


4.... actually number 4 will be saved for my reply to tRIUNE.

Also with the current consoles, all games install fully, so load times are the same with digital and physical.


mastergame : Wait, does Nintendo not allow digital only games on their systems? I was under the impression that all game system manufacturers did. If you mean because they themselves don't release digital only, then again, I was under the assumption that no first party companies of game system manufacturers released digital only. I know PlayStation, and, to my knowledge, Nintendo don't. Not sure about MicroSoft though.



tRIUNE : You're wrong, man.
Actually no, not really. In fact this is another issue about digital for me: you can buy a copy of a physical game second hand for $20, then go online and see the digital version still selling for $60. Sometimes the new copies of physical games that have sat around for a few months will also drop to $40-$50 while digital sits stubbornly at $60. Finally, they sell digital for the exact same price as physical despite it being cheaper to produce. It's a rip off imo. But people are willing to pay any price, literal or figurative, for convenience, right?

Eirinn : All valid points that I managed to overlook. Nintendo does allow digital only games on their platforms. Many of which are indie games, which is understandable.

I guess i should clear that part up a little. I can't realistically expect indie developers to be able to throw money into physical releases, especially with something like cartridges or chips which I know were at one time and may still be more expensive than discs. So I'll grant a pass for them. Most of my frustration is with the really huge AAA games, as you've pointed out.

Eirinn :

Dude you just give me than idea, instead of buying expensive hardware to run games for pc. we should build a usb that runs the game for any pc. i need to do more research but many have theories of how it can be possible. the only problem is if big AAA companies even willing to spend money on this idea, sure you can maybe sell more with usb for low end users but they like to see how much it would cost them. they want profit for their business not everyone having fun.

p.s; yes nintendo offers digital download, i was talking about how nintendo never backed down on its physical games after years of other companies abending the idea.

mastergame : The only issues with selling games on USB sticks are that it might have some load time issues. Of course, I say that having only ever used USB 2.0 and having no experience with 3.0

The other issue is that there was something similar that was tried for music. There were albums released on SD cards but it never really caught on because digital is much more popular than physical for music. Then again, music doesn't take up near as much space as a videogame...

I will usually go with physical because I rarely have enough space to download everything plus I usually get collectors Edition stuff so getting the game is really only half of what I'm getting.

I got to go with Physical releases more than Digital releases, and I will explain on why I think that.

The reason why is that:
One, I much prefer to have physical copies because it gives that nostalgic feeling by owning a physical copy and you can show it physically, and I always like to show my games physically.
Two, is the storage, because a high performance game can suck up a whole lot of data on your console/handheld, although yes, the PS4 and Xbox One has a lot of storage space (like more than a Terabyte of storage, and an average game takes like 50-100 Gigabytes), but those games can add up quite a lot.
And Three, you can gather up all your games and console/handheld and trade them all in for another console that you want to play, and if you have digital, that won't happen, and you basically lose out money, that's what happened with me when I traded my Wii-U games and the Wii-U system for the Nintendo Switch.

Personally, I prefer physical games. 

Yes, they sometimes take up more space in your house or cabinet where you store your games, but it is always nice to have that physical copy of a game to bring to a friend's house if they don't have it. Also, it is really nice to be able to organize physical games on my shelf to display when other people come over. I just love showing off what games I have and love!

I think the same as rabbit.
Its nice to be able to take the game with you and I personally like being able to display it. (Also, tend to get the limited or special editions for the cool extras to also display.)

I feel like when a system approaches EOL, the companies tend to remove games from older systems.
With a physical copy, you can always play it whenever you want, regardless of an online store's status.

Sometimes i prefer digital and sometimes i prefer physical video game releases ,because you can get the idea of what the game looks like!

I actually like both. Obviously with console gaming I will go physical before I go digital. I don't mind games $20 to even $25 and lower being digital, but anything over that I want physical copies. Obviously with PC gaming it's pretty much all digital. Sure there are games at Wal-Mart, etc that you can buy, but how many people are actually buying those? I do miss the old days of big box PC games, etc. As for gaming going all digital? I don't see it happening, maybe 6 years from now, or longer, but ISP's need to get better, servers need to be bullet proof and so on. So have both, and make both sides happy. It's that simple.