VGCollect Forum
General and Gaming => General => Topic started by: lucaspalm on March 31, 2026, 05:06:57 am
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Hi everyone,
I’ve been wondering lately if people still prefer physical copies over digital games.
Personally, I like collecting physical games, but digital is just more convenient sometimes.
Do you still buy discs/cartridges or mostly go digital now?
Curious to hear what everyone prefers and why.
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Absolutely. If given the option, I'll opt towards the physical edition. The only time this doesn't apply is when you're buying a physical game but the actual game data isn't on the disc or cart. This hits hardest in the newest Nintendo gen with Switch 2 having game key carts instead of game carts on quite a few of their titles.
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I'll always support physical, but I'm also a PC gamer and PC has been digital only for many years now, so I do both. I reserve physical to consoles these days, which I have a PS5 and I still have my Switch games even though I don't have a Switch at the moment.
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Physical or bust.
if buying ain't owning sailing the seven seas ain't stealing
(https://media2.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExdTJsenltemtmcHNvZDV2cmJwY2hjYW9jbWdjMWFnb2o0anZkMXZtdCZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/g4dlzht0NwlbO/giphy.gif)
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I'll always support physical, but I'm also a PC gamer and PC has been digital only for many years now, so I do both. I reserve physical to consoles these days, which I have a PS5 and I still have my Switch games even though I don't have a Switch at the moment.
Same here. Physical for anything console related (unless the price is too good to pass up), but I also love my Steam Deck, and there's no actual option there.
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I will always go with physical. I don't consider digital games a form of ownership regardless of whether they were purchased or downloaded illegally.
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physical - no question about that preference 8) and ideally original hardware to play it on.
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I have been mostly physical for the longest time but do tend to buy a digital copy every now and then if either the game is awesome or on sale at a good enough price for me. I used to get a lot of games on Steam but slowed it down to sales with a few full price buys here and there.
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Physical-no question! I have been around since the Atari 2600 days and I started collecting the games and systems that were my favorites up to the Dreamcast, PS2, and Xbox. When I was an avid gamer, we actually OWNED the stuff we bought! I've noticed that the video game industry and much of the other markets have been slowly turning from an ownership model to a subscription model. While digital, online and emulation have made games convenient, that have also controlled the games to the point that you no longer own what you buy. You buy a game, you may have to buy additional content to play it or make progress in the game. Customization, colors, items may cost you more. Upgrading to newer consoles may mean re-buying your game(s) again. No instruction manuals come with them, you have to go online if the manuals are available. You might have to download the game, constantly perform updates to correct bugs and fixes, possibly enable newer capabilities. The game you bought, kept updated, and played religiously, may eventually end up on a server that the company will shut it down. If you bought an Atari 2600 and a game for it in 1977, it's very possible- you can still play it in 2026!! Plus it had a manual, sometimes in color! You may need to clean the cartridge contacts with alcohol and a q-tip, but you could still play it! It was Yours!
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Going to add a prediction for the future of gaming.
With prices skyrocketing out of the grasp of the general population, I don't see any company making a return on what they put in after this generation. That leads me to two possible outcomes.
1. The industry crashes and crashes hard. With all the layoffs that have occurred over the last couple years, it's possible we're already in the midst of it, but somehow it was slow rolled.
2. With next hardware already well into developement and planned releases impending, I expect the next gen will be the last for physical hardware. As an example, if PS6 launches at $1000 as many are speculating (obviously we won't know till it happens), then expect a massive drop off in userbase. This will force Sony to take the Microsoft approach and switch to a more SaaS ideal, where Playstation will be streamed like Netflix. Playstation Plus will become Playstation, replacing hardware entirely as the masses wouldn't be able to afford hardware from here on.
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physical since its already getting too digital for my taste at this point I am out. I buy the last few switch games I wnat (without big patches) and after that my gaming days are done at elats modern gaming
they can stick their digital future where the sun doesnt shiny I am not gonna pay for games that I dont own and can get taken away at any moment.
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I just bought Black Ops 7 new for $5. Physical is pretty cool!
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Picked up a copy of Assassin's Creed Mirage for PS5.
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Whenever it is reasonable, absolutely.
It's reasonable if:
- It does not require online activation
- It is not locked to an online account/DRM system
- It can be installed and played offline
If these don't apply, then the game is not a physical release. Once you activated it, it's just an empty box with maybe a manual.
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Oh absolutely, I don't consider digital games tangible products and I don't seek them over physical ever. I am not saying I don't buy them because the convenience certainly gets me from time to time. And some deals are just simply worth it as a rental. Like 5 dollars for borderlands 3 or something. 5 dollars can't get me a bag of chicken nuggets. So it doest bother me. So I do it out of laziness or cheapness. But it is definitely like comparing an nft to a rembrandt. A one night stand to a good healthy marraige. I love the feeling of holding a piece of art. Although the qjality of the case and what is included has become laughably bad over the years. It's still a piece of tech that will most likely outlive the system that plays it.
Perhaps this website is a very tilted place to ask this considering it's made of mostly physical game collectors lol. But I also echo everyone here. Team physical! :)
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Physical games are a must for me 99.8 percent off the time.
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I'm probably in the minority in that I actually prefer digital. It's just easier to manage imo, and on the more modern systems you kind of need a network connection to download all the patches, texture packs and sometimes the game itself even if you have a physical copy.
Now physical for me is reserved for my favorite games on the system I want to own. They serve as kind of decoration I guess, cause honestly I would prefer to own them digitally. I want people to look at my physical collection and be able to tell exactly what games I love. So my collection is more a reflection of my taste in games than a reflection of the games I've played. I own a flashcart for most of my older systems (or I've hacked them to play downloaded games, like my PSP and 3DS) so I can just download games to try before I buy them.
I wasn't always digital over physical though. Back when I was a maximalist collector (just trying to get the biggest collection I could) I was physical over digital 100%. To the point I kind of missed a lot of great digital games cause I didn't want to spend my money on digital games when I could be spending it on games for my collection.
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Definitely physical. If a digital game isn't a rom or DRM-free GOG version that I can make infinite backup copies of, I don't even consider it part of my collection.
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Physical, but at some point I have to decided between commodity or find where to put another little box, honestly I ran off of space so I mostly just buy physical the games I genuinely want or when they are cheap and I am feeling like making space in my room.
Digital for all their consequences is pretty practical and I assume more people at some point prefer that over collecting, at the end I guess is a bit of both for me and once again, a lot of people.
That being said, Nintendo published games are always exclusively physical for me because they barely go in discount in the eShop and if I gonna pay 70$ for a game (50$-60$ now apparently) might as well buy it physical.
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Seems Sony has implemented a rule on new digital purchases...oddly...the very rule that Microsoft implemented causing so much backlash that propelled the PS4's sales. That new rule is that once every 30 days, your Playstation must connect to PSN to verify your keycodes, or your digital games will brick. My understanding is previously purchased digital games will remain unaffected.
So, this means the end of me buying any digital only games.
Congrats on adding yet another reason to not buy a PS6, Sony.
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Seems Sony has implemented a rule on new digital purchases...oddly...the very rule that Microsoft implemented causing so much backlash that propelled the PS4's sales. That new rule is that once every 30 days, your Playstation must connect to PSN to verify your keycodes, or your digital games will brick. My understanding is previously purchased digital games will remain unaffected.
So, this means the end of me buying any digital only games.
Congrats on adding yet another reason to not buy a PS6, Sony.
what if you connect in say 80 days since you haven't touched the game in a while I'd assume it's still playable than since it's probably gotto connect to the internet per 30 days to keep the code active. but there is no time limit in which when you do so if you play it much later on.
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Seems Sony has implemented a rule on new digital purchases...oddly...the very rule that Microsoft implemented causing so much backlash that propelled the PS4's sales. That new rule is that once every 30 days, your Playstation must connect to PSN to verify your keycodes, or your digital games will brick. My understanding is previously purchased digital games will remain unaffected.
So, this means the end of me buying any digital only games.
Congrats on adding yet another reason to not buy a PS6, Sony.
what if you connect in say 80 days since you haven't touched the game in a while I'd assume it's still playable than since it's probably gotto connect to the internet per 30 days to keep the code active. but there is no time limit in which when you do so if you play it much later on.
You have to think long term. Let's say you pull your digital PS5 out of storage in 10 years. For whatever reason the nic card in it is toast but you still have your favorite single player games installed. You won't be able to play them.
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I still use DVD/BD/4KBD/CD/R2R and yes also Cartridges
I do use emulators, i use steam but i do prefer physical media, i do prefer real manuals and i like boxes. I do like holding something in my hands.
I recently got into comic books (batman, superman, that stuff, never was into it as a kid for some reason, took me a long time to really get a taste for it i guess) and i could've gotten everything on kindle for a fraction of what i paid, but when i hold that fucking 3 kilogram monstrosity that is "Batman Adventures Omnibus" in my arms like it's a baby, yeah, i know why i prefer that medium. Also nobody can alter it or kill it (like Amazon did with 1984 on kindle, Ubisoft did with The Crew or music services only having remixes or remasters on service instead of the original music or Rockstar did with the current versions of the old GTA games)
With movies the advantage is even bigger since the bitrate on most streaming sites is disgusting and not any better than high quality DVD (Amazon Prime has movies with 2 Gigabytes, 1080 and everytime the pictures goes black you can count the pixels like it's a Atari 2600 game)
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Physical all the way. I have no shortage of digital, but I don't track any of that stuff here because I don't consider them truly a part of my collection. I still prefer CD's and DVD's/Blu Rays all day every day.
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Physical or bust
This