Do you still prefer physical games or digital?

[wartoy]

Physical games are a must for me 99.8 percent off the time.

[2ko]

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.

[ssj4yamgeta]

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.

[mrkonasoni]

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.

[telekill]

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.

[sworddude]

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.

[telekill]

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.

[sly345]

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)

[wolff242]

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.

[bunnybear]

Physical or bust

This

[nikosite]

I have to be frank, I never thought this would be such a big deal until I had a thought that I might could lose my Steam account, although that's very unlikely but still.
Then, I realized I could simply just create Google Drive links for the games and from there I'll be able to not only download them anytime I'd like but let others have fun.
But, I might could also lose my Google account, and then... well, I could lose everything and I'll be left devastated.
While digital media is the most practical, physical media is about the long-term reliance, aside the ownership, obviously.

I support both physical and digital media because they suit me either way, as long as we all do not support greedy companies like Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, we're fine.

NIKOSITE

[sworddude]

If we are talking about the pros of digital.

early acces.

I'm not a person that needs to discuss with folks about gameplay and have it a day orso before release so that factor of digital being beneficial not for me but hey if you are that kinda guy, solid reason cause hypetrain goes down fast gotto be there at release or preferably even earlier.

convenience not having to swap games and not having to either go to a store or buy it on sites like amazon

Kinda lazy but I mean if it's worth it to some more power to you, lazy options exist for both but you gotto walk to your mailbox for physical I guess

Physical discs breaking down but digital is more reliable

I mean consoles will break down sooner than discs plus digital being rentals anyway so probably ending far sooner than you playing a game disc till it's unusable. plus I've seen examples of account bans (for no good reason site errors) in which people lose their entire library which they paid a small fortune for with customer service giving them the finger or refunding them a fraction of what it costed said user. doesn't seem that safe to me.

speaking of stuff being stuck digital, updates that censor the game, we've had examples like skullgirls getting content removed or altered in which it's worse. something that people spend good money on years ago suddenly being altered when you boot the game up and you now having a product you didn't ask for. with physical you could just play an older update. that is a massive con how your content can be neutered years down the line.

The pro's of digital are not that amazing, give me ownership, something nice on the shelf and resale value if I want to get rid of it. and that it's often still cheaper than digital is a massive bonus that shouldn't even exist. I personally don't see the appeal of digital when you are paying more for it with such small pros. aside from early acces it basicly boils down to folks being lazy.

I have to be frank, I never thought this would be such a big deal until I had a thought that I might could lose my Steam account, although that's very unlikely but still.
Then, I realized I could simply just create Google Drive links for the games and from there I'll be able to not only download them anytime I'd like but let others have fun.

is that even legal? might get taken down so not sustainable unless private on your own pc