Poll Physical Vs Digital for gaming

[tomswift2002]

So with the recent releases of the PS5 and Xbox Series consoles and both having digital only versions that remove the disc drive entirely, I’m curious do people prefer the digital only or do they want the physical option as well. I know that a lot has been mentioned as how, from the factory, the hard drives on both are not large when compared to some games out there, like “Call of Duty” that may start off at 35-50GB, but with updates that could quickly spin up to 250GB+ (the PS5 has like only 600GB free when it ships in either edition). Even the Nintendo Switch didn’t have a large onboard drive (32GB) so you need to use SD cards to house a lot of digital only stuff.

And I realize a lot of independent games are digital only.

So what do you prefer, physical or digital?

Personally, I prefer physical since when the games is on the card/disc, I don’t have to worry about having enough memory to store that data. And even for those games where they sell the case with only a download code—-it’s nice because sometimes I’ve gotten those games on sale, whereas through the online store they are full price.

 

[BillJ]

Both. I own both types. No issue going either way, especially considering that most games are one and done affairs.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I still prefer physical when given a choice for almost everything. Just because a physical copy is permanent, and my access to digital versions is reliant on the company continuing to offer them to download them. They could take them down, censor them, give the rights to some other country, and there's nothing I can do about it.

 

[SPCTRE]

it's not an either/or situation

on consoles, for games that I play regularly over long stretches of time, I prefer the convenience of digital, but that's not a dogma

on PC, well, physical purchases still do exist there (even in retail in this country, which would be unthinkable in the US), but in my use case they matter less and less

 

[Random_Spock]

Physical to help save space. I generally only get digital games when there's a really good sale or if the game isn't available in a physical version.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I prefer the physical. At least, with the physical, you have part of the data on the disc, which saves time when it comes to installing. With a download, you have to download everything. And with games only getting bigger, but storage space staying pretty much the same as it was last gen with consoles, I'm honestly surprised how popular digital releases are on consoles.

 

[tomswift2002]

With Digital as well, the other issue how good people’s internet packages are. I have an unlimited package so it doesn’t matter how much I download, but there are people who only have a limited package where they might have a limit of 500 GB a month or whatever and games with 250GB to download would use half their monthly download limit, so I think some people might go physical for that. Plus some people living in the country, the might only have dial-up or a slow connection speed, so that would be another reason for physical.

 

[Random_Spock]

With Digital as well, the other issue how good people’s internet packages are. I have an unlimited package so it doesn’t matter how much I download, but there are people who only have a limited package where they might have a limit of 500 GB a month or whatever and games with 250GB to download would use half their monthly download limit, so I think some people might go physical for that. Plus some people living in the country, the might only have dial-up or a slow connection speed, so that would be another reason for physical.

Exactly. My old limit with AT&T was 250gb a month. Made sure to not go over it. Now on a unlimited package, but I never forgot just how restrictive ISPs can be bandwidth wise.

 

[Jax]

PC - Digital

Console - I generally prefer Physical but annual games like FIFA I'm moving to digital for the next generation.

 

[BillJ]

One thing holding me back is price. I bought Madden NFL 21 yesterday off of Amazon for $34.99. The download price? $53.99.

 

[Alexander Corrino]

Physical. It takes my PS4 ages to download patches/updates, I don't even want to think about how long it would take to download an entire game like Red Dead Redemption II or something. Besides, I like having my games on a neat shelf. It just adds to the experience for me.

 

[John Clark]

Pc and I typically prefer physical. For more modern games, it's a shame blu-ray doesn't seem to have taken off to sell PC games on (at least for the larger ones).

That said, most of my more recent purchases have been entirely digital

 

[Rincewiend]

Pc and I typically prefer physical. For more modern games, it's a shame blu-ray doesn't seem to have taken off to sell PC games on (at least for the larger ones).

That said, most of my more recent purchases have been entirely digital

Yeah, i saw that physical edition for the new Microsoft Flight Simulator on DVDs, oof...

Physical. It takes my PS4 ages to download patches/updates, I don't even want to think about how long it would take to download an entire game like Red Dead Redemption II or something. Besides, I like having my games on a neat shelf. It just adds to the experience for me.

I put the PS4 in standby mode if it has to download something big, for some reason it is faster...

 

[Alexander Corrino]

I put the PS4 in standby mode if it has to download something big, for some reason it is faster...

Oooh, thanks for the tip - I'll give this a try next time Red Dead or GTA get another DLC!

 

[John Clark]

Yeah, i saw that physical edition for the new Microsoft Flight Simulator on DVDs, oof...
.

Just looked - ten dvd's?

I thought some of the games I played back in the 90/early 00s were bad enough at the time with six cd's, but that seemed to be mostly for the FMV sequences.

 

[BillJ]

On my Xbox One S, it is actually slower to install from disc than it is to download a game. Currently installing Madden from a disc and it is brutally slow.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Physical. It takes my PS4 ages to download patches/updates, I don't even want to think about how long it would take to download an entire game like Red Dead Redemption II or something.

Exactly. It doesn't feel like Digital has much convenience to offset the disadvantages, at least in my eyes. I don't mind it on my PC, but on consoles it just seems like there's a long of way to go. I had a friend who bought RDR2 digitally, and I think it took him 2 days to install it? On PS4, when you install digitally, it has two steps. When it says ready to use, it only means it has enough for you to start playing in a limited manner. Some games limit you to how much you can do at that stage, like only being able to play part of the intro level in Rise of the Tomb Raider for instance, before it tells you you have to wait for it to finish downloading. The second step is when it finally says it's installed. On disc, a game might have you copying contents of the disk, but that's still much faster than downloading, IMHO. I had a 500GB PS3. That's more or less the same amount of storage space you have on PS4, and now this new gen. Games have only gotten bigger since then too.

I put the PS4 in standby mode if it has to download something big, for some reason it is faster...

Maybe it differs based on how large a game is, but I haven't really experienced this via downloading games that I've gotten via PS+. If anything, it feels like it takes longer because it will eventually shut off. Is there no way to have it only shut off when it's done?

 

[tomswift2002]

Another reason I like physical is that sometimes games are only available for a limited time like the recently released Super Mario 3D All-Stars. Or with older games there are some games that are simply tied up in legal limbo, like Goldeneye 64 where it’s never going to get a digital release, but even now I can go back on the original hardware (whether it’s the same machine or a different one) 20+ years later and replay the game, whereas digital copies are locked to one console or X number of transfers. But in 20 years I’ll still be able to play 3D All Stars on any Switch or next Gen Nintendo console (if they include backwards compatibility) just like I can play GE64 on any N64 console now. I’ll also be able to buy used physical copies in 20 years, whereas digital—what’s used in digital?

 

[Haggis and tatties]

I have been completly digital for years now on the PC, and on the xbox gamepass is now making that all digital too.

 

[Kamen Rider Blade]

I prefer Physical, I like it when Video Game as a medium will outlive me and can be passed down to the next generation.

I prefer not letting the corporate overlords dictate what I can do with a digital account.