Digital Games vs Physical Games?

I'm curious to see how ozbargainers feel about digital games vs physical games?

On intuition, I'd guess that the value proposition, resale, lower prices, etc. would lead most ozbargainers to buy physical games, but there's so much push-back from strongly opinionated digital game buyers on the net that I thought it'd be interesting to get peoples opinions and put up a poll.

To get it out of the way, my own thoughts are pretty extreme. I think digital game sales are terrible for the end-user:

  • You have no rights of ownership,
  • You have no ability to sell/resale,
  • No trading,
  • No sharing with friends,
  • It eliminates the used game market,
  • You can't guarantee that a digital storefront will remain as long as you want to play the games (e.g. the DSi ware and Wii ware store closures stopping game downloads even if you've bought them).
  • and ultimately, digital games are, in my opinion, a modern form of renting/leasing.

The only argument I have ever heard for digital games is convenience, with people saying quite literally "I'm too lazy to change a disc" as their singular reason. Which has just boggled my mind for years?? I cannot imagine giving up so much of your rights and money/asset value because you're too lazy to swap a disc?

Once you buy a digital game, that money is gone forever, regardless of what you believe, you can't sell a digital game (legally). You can have a steam account with 1,000 games, but it's worth $0.00. Whereas if you had 1,000 physical playstation/nintendo/sega/xbox games, that's a few thousand dollars at least (if not tens of thousands or more).

I've also never really considered digital games to have any actual inherent value attached to them.
Perhaps it's come from growing up in the early days of the internet where piracy was common, but a digital game to me has a zero value in my mind. - What I mean by that is, basically, if I have a digital game in my library I don't care about it at all. I don't have any motivation to play it either. I have hundreds of digital games I've gotten from PS+ over the years, dozens of free steam games, and dozens of free mobile games, and I honestly don't think I've ever finished a single one - not because I don't like the games, but because they're valueless and meaningless being digital and not tangible in front of me. When I have a physical game on the shelf, seeing it sort of gives this extra motivation to get stuck into it and enjoy it. I've never had that feeling or response with a digital game before.

This all seems to be coming to a head with all the major players trying to launch their own digital storefronts (and streaming services - though that's another discussion). Sony want you locked into their digital store, microsoft want you locked into theirs, nintendo too, then on PC there's a whole bunch of digital storefronts trying to lock people into services. The only outlier is GOG.

I guess that's what it comes down to, these companies want to lock the consumer into their storefront and take back all the control and ownership rights.

We're basically reverting back to the arcade model - where the consumer owned nothing, and paid for the 'service' (50c a play).

That's why every game publisher wants to move to digital distribution, why big games have ongoing dlc and ongoing subscriptions, why microtransactions exist. It's all about taking away as much ownership from the consumer as possible and putting that power back into corporate hands.

On the other hand, with physical games: you've got a (near) permanent copy of the game that you 100% legally own. Just like you own your TV, or your car. You own your physical game. I can put my copy of Sonic 2 on Mega Drive and play it any time I want. I can hook up some third party devices and dump the ROM (legally), I can sell it 30 years later, do whatever I want with it. Or if I get luck and I bought something like Streets of Rage 3, I can make a fat profit.

Some of the negatives people talk about with physical are really just myths, common complaints seem to be disc rot (extremely rare in game discs especially PS2 onwards, blu-ray expected disc life is 100+ years as well, cartridges are basically permanent), losing/breaking your games (I mean sure it's possible, but… just be careful - though I will say a big thing a lot of people don't realise is that your games are generally insured by your home contents insurance policy so the fear of theft of a large collection doesn't really hold water), day 1 updates are another common complaint

"There's no point buying physical because games have mandatory day 1 updates"

This isn't actually true. Whilst I'll admit it's true for online multiplayer games, the vast, vast majority of singleplayer games run perfectly on version 1.0. I know quite a few Nintendo Switch games and PS4 games that are still running on their v1.0 and that will likely continue. The others are just minor fixes or QOL improvements. On the rare occasions where you get really good quality DLC or really good patches, you'll get a physical "GOTY edition" or "Complete Edition". This always happens with fighting games, or big singleplayer games.
So all in all I really don't see any reason against physical.

People buying switch games digitally is one of those that is especially curious to me. Physical games seem like a no-brainer to me for the Switch. The carts are small, they fit in all the carry cases that everyone has for their Switch, they don't install to the Switch internal storage or sd card, patches are rare for first party games and if they are present they are very small. The games load instantly off the cartridge too, so no waiting.
Yet people still buy digital Switch games. I just don't get it.

….

Anyway, bottom line is I guess I just can't believe that so many people would give up their ownership rights and assets just because they're too lazy to take 3 steps and change a disc or a cartridge?

Guess we'll see how the poll goes…

Poll Options

  • 105
    I strongly prefer physical games (all or almost all games physical)
  • 53
    I prefer physical games but have bought digital games
  • 17
    I prefer digital games but have some physical games
  • 25
    I strongly prefer digital games (all or almost all games digital)
  • 12
    I game on PC so I don't have a choice

Comments

  • +5

    I strongly prefer physical games and always will. Even for PC games that register key in Steam, will buy the physical edition.

    I like having a collection even if they're useless but I can completely understand others that don't for various reasons (clutter, environmental, convenience, pre-loading etc).

    Why do we have to put each other down for different preferences?

    • +3

      There hasn't been a used PC game market for a long time in any case. It makes no difference from that point of view. I buy digital because it's more convenient, cheaper and has instant delivery.

  • +1

    I used to be all about the physical covers, but quick resume and gamepass change my outlook.

  • I likes sports

    • [they don't have a ton of text to read to get to the point]

  • +7

    I've bought digital when there's a bargain or where a physical option doesn't exist (ie. most indie games).
    But I prefer physical because simply, I like having my collection of games on a shelf.

    • My reason as well exactly. As a Nintendo fan I like to have a physical collection that I can play for years to come, long after the online services are shut down.

  • I worry if something goes wrong with your hard drive or machine you'll lose all these digital games you've paid for and downloaded, physical is much safer and lasts longer

    • +7

      I'm not discounting your anxiety, I'll just share that I don't know of any other cases, but every digital game I have is tied to an account not to any specific hardware.

      • After some number of years it isn't going to be on a server anymore for you to download.

        • +1

          That's unlikely though. Some may be delisted from a store, but if you bought the game it would still be available to download.

          • @MiscOzB: The DS shop and Wii shop beg to differ

            • @Quantumcat: Thankfully the consoles are becoming more legacy based Xbox will have almost every game ever made for it available to play.

    • +1

      Opposite for me, with steam/epic/etc I don't worry about losing CDs or breaking them or scratching them. Worst case I have a 60GB download waiting for me if the worst happens with a crash, especially with steam save game backups.

      • +1

        Yeah I don't get the concern. If your hard drive fries, download your stuff again. A dead disc is totally dead, there is no coming back. So the risk of a digital platform going offline permanently is weighed against the risk of damage or loss to the physical disc.

    • I have lost far more games through physical (damaged/aged/lost disks). So far I have never lost a digital game as they can't really be lost unless the service shuts down as they all tend to be tied to accounts not your machine.

      The only incident I ever had with Digital is early days of steam where I set games to be allowed to play offline as I was going on a holiday with no internet connection, only to find when I got there that a bug in Steam meant the offline setting did not work properly.

  • +3

    I haven't used an optical drive since 2009 (my last physical game was GTA4 on PC) and prefer to have all digital library

    • Same. My PC build from 13/14 doesn't have an optical drive. Never needed it

    • I had a couple of optical drives in my machine. I just rebuilt and bought a case with no space for them as haven't used them in the 6 years I had the last build, they were just carry over that I had owned for years.

      I only buy digital for PC, and mix it up depending on deals for Xbox. I tend to keep games until I ditch a console completely and the resale value is a waste of time. Think I got $52 last time for a large stack of games, not worth the trip to EB Games.

  • +6

    I agree with all your points (except maybe the last). However, I still buy digital and after a quick survey of my catalog, I can confirm that I have far more digitals than physical.

    Now, while I agree with almost all your points, I buy whatever is cheapest and I suppose in the case of my library, the digitals were the cheapest. I also don't view games as an investment that I can buy and then on sell later on. If I happen to be able to onsell a physical game later on, then that just a nice bonus for me. This is probably because I never buy them with that mindset. For me, which is probably in contrast with a lot of collectors, one HUGE pro for digital is the fact that I don't have to store the physicals someplace.

    I used to buy DVDs to watch, again NOT to collect, and it always irked me when I'd end up with so many stacks of DVD cases that I had to find a place to store. I cannot describe the relief that I have, NEVER having to deal with that again with the advent of digital. And streaming is even better! It doesn't even need HDD storage!

  • +2

    I got about 30 games into my collection for Xbox One then it started to become very challenging to get physical copies of the games I wanted, e.g. Dead Cells, Cuphead, Nier Automata.

    I have about 60 physical games for Xbox and PS4, plus another 50 or so digital. For PC I've only bought 1 physical copy in the past 7 or 8 years, everything else is via digital.

    I can understand OP's position, however as someone who swung from being quite anti-digital to pro-digital, there are a few counter-arguments:

    (1) Your collection is only worth the money you can actually get for it in a market. So you may theoretically have thousands of dollars worth of games, but you need to find buyers for those. Also to execute that kind of value, you need to be heavily into auctioning or selling via ebay or the like, including packaging and mailing out tonnes of games. Games worth far less on trade-in at places like EB Games.

    (2) Apart from aforementioned lack of physical release for some games, particularly indie games, certain digital games also go on heavy sale that their physical copy does not match. E.g. Ori Blind Forest I have a physical copy but it was something like $5 on digital for a while, a price I don't believe the disc ever dropped to.

    (3) I don't buy the argument that day-one updates are irrelevant and if I'm not mistaken some games require the update to run properly. Without the updates you are subject to whatever release bugs they found. Most folks save their data to the cloud, which you are going to assume is the same company/platform as that which supplies digital downloads.

    (4) Once you download a game to your machine, even though you might not physically own a copy, what's the difference between that and the disc? The game is installed to your machine for as long as you keep it there, without need for intervention.

    (5) I have young kids - they don't treat discs with adequate respect despite my attempt to train them. Scratches are common enough, fingerprints are constant and discs are difficult for little hands to handle.

    (6) Space - I originally loved the look of all those physical copy spines, but it started to bug me that there were many games I could only purchase digital, so my collection was incomplete. Then it got to 40-50 games and I started to struggle to find space for all the cases.

    (7) No sharing with friends - for consoles you can share your entire library with one other person, at a time, legally, by setting their machine as your primary, and vice versa.

    (8) With MS and Sony now introducing multiple save states on the new generation consoles, there's even more incentive to not want to be switching discs in and out if you are playing more than one game at once. The argument that "sticking discs into a machine is no big deal" is the same argument that getting up and changing TV channels should not be a big deal either, but everyone uses a remote control.

  • For me, upgrading to PS5 cost $0 because my PS4 console + a few limited editions netted me more money than I paid. And I still have 80% of PS4 games I can't be bothered selling. Also my PS2 collection is now worth a decent bundle simply because a few cult titles have become highly desirable. I'm not even going to start with PS Vita…..crazy prices.

    But don't fight it, just keep doing what you prefer irrespective of others opinion. To me physical games are too easy to be in winning position of both enjoying the hobby and having minimal financial impact so i'll stick with it.

  • +1

    Apologies I didn't read the whole essay, though I'm largely in your camp for a major part of it. I don't mind digital games for ones that are largely multiplayer, things like Titan Fall 2 or Call of Duty I prefer digital so I can play it anytime I feel without changing whatever single player disk I have in. Its also digital storefront based (basically if the storefront goes, its likely the whole server and main reason to play goes).

    No sharing with friends,

    Interestingly, this is the main reason I do buy digital games, a lot of consoles work now by having a primary console, and the rest are secondary (logged in). The primary console however allows all users logged in to play any games installed on it. This means my bro can play any game I buy on my ps4, onto his PS4 as I've made that the primary one, this has saved us quite a bit of money, especially as we buy games during sales. Which arguably are sometimes pretty great online (and other times absolute poop). The flip side of the coin though is that secondary consoles (mine) needs to do a internet check every day or so to ensure I still have the licence.

    Other then that price comes into it a lot, I will buy a digital game if its cheap, but I'd pay extra for a hard copy game largely for the reasons you have above. I also notice a larger library for Switch games, and store pricing to not be that amazing.

    The interesting question for me is the xbox game pass, this is a major disruption to the whole thought process as there seems to be some great games with low subscription cost, and technically you own them even less then you own digital games now. Yet I would still be tempted (similar to netflix).

  • -1

    TLDR please?

    • Basically the title, the rest is just me ranting.

  • I think the Idea of owning something is less about the physical idea with alot of ppl of today. Why carry that extra baggage everywhere with you. Sure you might miss out on the resale and to look at them on the shelf , but some would prefer the price adavantage of digital and convenience to a physical. It is more like you say you just pay for the use like the old games parlor.

    I recently moved my physical book reading partner to a Kindle. We have shelves of books. Now with the constant free books on Ozb, and the convenience of grabbing a book during the lockdown period, she is reading more than before. So digital is the way of the future. Also less landfill in the end.

    By the way I like physical copies, but see the advantages also in digital.

    • For console games (not including games on PS Plus/Game Pass which are just rented, not owned) - I prefer the price advantage of physical. Also sure, it may be convenient for some who switch games often, but I prefer to stick with one game at a time and finish it before moving to the next. Takes like 20 secs max to switch game discs anyway.

    • +1

      Kids are growing up with iPhones and apps. Owning a game on a disc must seem pretty weird to young kids who don't have a Wii or anything about. Even Switch cartridges must seem a bit mystical to kids.

  • +1

    I love physical games, because I like to collect too. I’m still finishing up collecting games for my PS4, and still collecting games for my PS3.

    I’ll only buy games digitally if there’s an awesome, unbeatable deal. I’ve done that for my switch a few times :P

    Even though i buy digital games rarely, I’ll still go back and pick up a physical copy for the collectors sake :)

    The only games I will ever buy digital are steam/pc games - used to buy physical back then, but obviously it’s cheaper and easier through steam

  • +1

    consoles - mostly physical, I might had purchased 2 or 3 digital games on PS3, none on PS4

    PC - don't really have a choice anymore unfortunately

    as far as price advantage of digital, at least for new releases, physical usually wins hands down iirc.

  • +1

    I usually only ever buy the games I know I'll want to keep, so I buy digital. Which means waiting for it to be on sale. A game would have to be something really special to get me to buy it day one at RRP. Gamepass kind of solves this problem for a lot of the games.

  • With digital games is BCdkey safe to buy Xbox games from? Any risk of account bans?

  • +2

    I shop wherever the bargains are

  • Steam does have family game sharing. Have not tried it personally but it isn't really true to blanket say you can't share digital games.

    In any case you can share you Steam account for example.

    • I've tried it, it's fairly good. You can't play any game in their library if they're currently playing. It's good for those who infrequently play games.

  • +1

    Physical games are heavily discounted sometimes only a few months after release date. More competition with suppliers - if a store has a promo on a game, Amazon is more than likely to match this price —- a useful thing for people that have Amazon Prime.

    I do not have any experience with buying digital copies so cannot make any comment on them. Are they frequently on special or discounted or does the rrp remain the same?

  • tangible ownership is an important value of yours, there is no right or wrong. Same can be said about music and video as well. I would have a physical copy if it has collectible value. Resale is less important to me, so I would rather go for the cheaper of the two at the time I want to buy and play. I don't miss the time when I wanted to play a PS game but it was not in stock around my local mall. Digital version doesnt have that limit.

  • Digital, with multiple xboxs i can buy one copy of a game and both me and my kid can play it at the same.

    There's also game streaming to a phone or tablet, possibly only works with digital.

    I've hundreds of hardcopies of games, dvds, music, they just get stored away in a box never to be seem again. Maybe they'd be worth something in 50 yrs, not worth the effort atm.

    I feel once a collection gets large enough to be annoying digital is a great option. My earliest games are from the original Nintendo.

  • Would get behind all digital but for me they’re often more expensive than physical. Convenience of not leaving the house ain’t bad though

    Makes no sense in my mind that digital is not cheaper

    Eventually it will all shift to digital but we won’t see prices come down

    • +2

      I get all my physical games delivered, so I don't have to leave the house either.

  • +1

    This is a pretty good documentary on the topic:

    https://www.gamestoredoc.com/

    Digital is where things are headed. My gripe is that game prices have not dropped even though the distribution costs are almost nil. I'd prefer pricing based on hours played and would be happy to pay $2 per hour. On the other hand, at least digital games do not take up space in the house.

  • Over the last twenty years or so everything has been moving to cloud based technology its the future of things it will eventually mean you wont be able to buy a physical copy of anything , it will be like Vhs tapes went to dvd to bluray to netflix ….. people take so many things for granted these days . We used to have to go to the movies to see a movie we liked or wait 6 months to a year to come to video , there was no binge watching at what time suited us …… we could only phone people on a landline you could only see a friends face by visiting them…..what i'm saying for better or worse this is what we asked for .
    So i still have a my diablo one and two disc's and a few other old games which have sat in a box for 30 years and yes i'm attached to them nostalgia wise all weekend diablo lans , the digital revolution changed all this we are spoiled for choice now with so much media to consume we just dont appreciate what we have now in comparison.

  • +2

    Much prefer physical over digital. I've had bad experiences with digital purchases - DSi and Wii Shop closures, as well as having an Xbox 360 account banned (that shouldn't have been) and having all the digital games/DLC purchased from that account revoked.

    Digital is great… until you no longer have access to it. These companies don't care about the consumer, they just want your money and won't care when you lose the content that you paid for and will fully expect you to buy it again on thier "next platform".

    Unfortunately I've purchased a few digital games this console generation however they have all been indie games that either don't have a physical version available or the physical copy is too expensive due to limited manufacturing businesses like Limited Run etc.

    When consoles eventually remove disc drives and force consumers into thier digital ecosystems I will be fully switching over to PC gaming - I trust Steam/GOG more than I do Microsoft, Sony, or Nintendo.

  • +1

    Strategy number one is crushing the second hand games market.
    In a generation or two you won't be able to buy physical games.
    Every twitch streamer everywhere is going to be telling you how great digital is.
    The market is worth billions.

  • I went almost this entire generation without buying many physical games (and have about 400 digitally - although many of those were freebies).

    I ended up with about 5 PS4 games and 3 Xbox games on disc. I should have gotten a discless PS5, but struggling to ween myself off the opportunity cost of not having a drive and a cheap game appearing.

  • It's hilarious watching influencers sing the gospel of digital media….you get your games for free!!!
    It was like when MKBHD was shocked the majority of people have their phone in cases…yea dude, we can't afford a new phone every week!

    Digital games are still too expensive compared to their physical counterpart. When this changes, I may change.

    Even if physical games become more expensive, at least I have the option to sell it.

    • MKBHD has forgotten what it's like to be a regular pleb.

  • +1

    Purely on financials alone, wont go digital. If you’re forced to only buy from Playstation store, you might pay 99 to 119 for a new release, which would be maybe 70 from amazon for a disc, which you can resell a few weeks later for 40-50. Last few PS games have cost me 20 to play, using this method, so i dont see why i would want to pay $80 more each time with digital only.

    • Ahh, that's probably why we're different… I think my most expensive digital purchase is $27. I only purchase things when they're heavily heavily discounted. That's probably also why I don't care much for resale value.

      • Fair enough. But I do like playing AAA games on release, rather than waiting years for them to be $27. I only lose about $20 buying at launch, then reselling. Won't ever buy a digital only console if there's a disc option available

  • Long time ago I used to prefer physical, now I honestly hate physical, it is just something else to store and unnecessarily take up space. I never resold a single game I owned physically and a few years ago I actually threw the last of my physical purchases in the bin. will never buy a physical game again, it simply makes no sense for me.

  • +2

    I think the environmental benefits alone are enough to prefer digital.

    Digital copies also remove risk of losing or damaging discs, and no storage required!

  • Downloading a 50gb digital edition of a game is no fun, even on NBN.

    • takes all of 10 mins for me on NBN. I can imagine for others not on gigabit it would be more painful, but even so it is usually just a once off. regardless most physical games now the first thing they require is for you to download the latest version so you don't even escape that with physical.

  • Already too much plastic garbage in the world. We should be glad most media is going digital.

  • I'm in two minds.

    I like my Steam account, with its regular sales, the ability to share with family.

    The downside with steam, if I didn't like a game, I can't resell it on to some other nupty who can hate it as much as I did.

    Playstation and WII, I do prefer the physical copies. When you're sick of it, go and sell it.

    Been playing the Switch with the wife lately. Mostly those fake-exercise games. We'll play 2 or 3 games. When the switch is in its caddy (at least where we have it), I gotta say, it's a bit of a pain in the rear to switch the games over. Maybe it's my clumsy, big hands. I'm considering selling the physical games and picking up digital copies. So if it's something I'd play often and switch, I think I'd prefer digital copies.

    I also used to prefer physical books. Now days, it's all ebooks. You can carry your entire library on a tablet…. not to mention also play my games and stream on it ;)

    With digital goods, the prices should be going down.

  • +1

    Physical.

    Digital if they are only available on that format or a disc version of the game is dirt cheap.

  • Whichever has the cheaper price I suppose. I once purchased a $14 game in digital format where the physical's price is $25.

  • +1

    I'll preface by saying I'm xbox-only and generally play a campaign with very little multi-player, but physical wins out for me purely because of cheaper sales compared to digital.

    I'm happy to wait 3-4 months and get the physical copy for a 20+% discount. If I wait for longer, the discount might be 50-80% off. I have Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and do check the discounts for various games during their regular sales but it's rare that the discount is as much as the physical copies get (e.g. an RRP $90 game might be discounted to $60 on digital but I can pick up the physical copy from eBay or EB for $40). The free monthly games with Game Pass I'm fine staying with digital since $0 is best of all :)

    I know that I can set a friend or family members Xbox as "home" and share games that way as other posters have mentioned. I think that is better than nothing but its a bit of a furphy since you are now limited to sharing with ONLY single person only and you can't scale it with a larger group of friends. Imagine the possibility of something like a 10- or 20-person group plan (ala MSOffice/Spotify/Netflix) and everyone in the group can share the games!

    Would I prefer digital over physical if there was a better way to share or trade digital? Yes, but I don't see the TOS for digital ever becoming more consumer-friendly in that regard.

  • I prefer physical games. Just that being a PC gamer don't really have a choice but to buy digital if I want to play that game. Considering how big games and updates are. Most PC games are digital these days anyway.

  • With physical disc especially PS4, how long the discs last before discoloured, mouldy etc?

    • With physical disc especially PS4, how long the discs last before discoloured, mouldy etc?

      Kept in their case, with normal storage conditions (i.e. not wet, not extreme high temp, etc.) blu-rays estimated life is greater than 100 years.

      Blu-rays are insanely tougher and more durable than original CDs or old CDRs.

      • Apology for a basic question, PS4 disc games are blu ray disc?

        • +1

          PS3 are blu-ray, PS4 are blu-ray, and PS5 are ultra-blu-ray

  • I have many digital Switch games for a few reasons.

    Sometimes I just want to play something right now instead of waiting for it to arrive in the mail or tracking it down in the store.

    Many games are digital only or demand a huge premium for the physical copy due to limited production runs

    Digital is usually cheaper because of the ridiculous amount of sales or other bonuses on online platforms.

    If I know I'll only play the game once, I don't mind buying digitally.

    That being said I have switched to keeping it physical for my switch, particularly if I'm trying a new game for the first time. If I don't like it I'll just take it back to the store.

    That being said, if an official N64 digital console was released by Nintendo, I'd seriously consider selling all my physical stuff. Those cartridges are bulky as hell and are always prone to rust.

    • Those cartridges are bulky as hell and are always prone to rust.

      Where on earth are you storing them that they're rusting? Outside on a beach?

  • I prefer physical because I don't want the PS store to become a monopoly. If or when that happens, I imagine game prices will become curiously stable and close to rrp most of the time.

    Having said that, I do like the convenience of digital games and quick resume. Given games are installed nowadays anyway, I wish there was a way you could play an installed game from disc without the disc having to be in the drive for a set amount of time (48, 72 hours….7 days or more?) I can see how this could potentially be abused but I'm sure there's a way.

  • Digital.

    1. Don't have to drive anywhere to purchase or have to wait for a delivery
    2. Don't have to story discs/cases anywhere
    3. No risk of damaging as it's digital

    Physical probably is cheaper but digital have some pretty good sales. If you plan on buying 10+ PS5 games a year, go physical as you'll save money in the long run. But for someone like me who buys maybe 3 titles per year, digital is 100% the way to go.

  • I much prefer physical games over digital, but not so much for the financial reasons. Of course, you can sell physical games once you have had enough with them but I really just like to see my game collection on a shelf as opposed to a digital library. Unfortunately, digital games are often so cheap on the ps store (mainly the indie games and older titles that I enjoy) that it isn't even worth trying to find a physical copy and reselling it because the difference will be greater than the ps store price.

    I disagree that steam accounts with 1000s of games are worth $0.00; people have sold their accounts in the past even though it's against the terms of service. Physical media will always trump a license to download a game, in my view.

  • Years ago I would have insisted on physical discs. But honestly - the games I still have on disc haven't been replayed in decades. For all I know those discs are probably now rotten. This is PC I'm talking about here, I don't do consoles.

    I moved onto digital reluctantly and by necessity. But when we're talking digital, I try wherever possible to buy from GOG or get titles from EGS which don't have client dependability. Then I archive the installers/installations appropriately.

    You CAN have a collection which is digital, but is remains in your possession without concern for one day losing access. You just have to go to a little more effort to get there.

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