Is it finally time to let go of physical games?

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Yep.

I stopped buying physical games for the PS long ago and my Xbox is my Gamepass machine. PC has been digital only for years and I recently sold my Switch and all physical games. I won't be going back to Nintendo either with their game prices.

Going digital has a lot of benefits for me. As well as saving space, it's also beneficial for the environment. Less plastic production is always a win.

Looks like more people are switching to digital now as well. Digital sales are increasing over physical every year. Nintendo are certainly doing their part as well to push people to digital buy charging more for physical copies. Hopefully more publishers will do this. It doesn't make sense for the physical and digital game to cost the same.
 
No why would anyone advocate for less options. Plus why the hell would anyone need a console if everything is digital then a pc is the onl logical choice ... Physical games are the onl remaining advantage consoles have besides convenience getting games to run compared to a pc.
 
Speaking of videogames, moved on many years ago. I still have dozens if not hundreds of games stashed in boxes and will finally pull my shit together and give them away or, who knows, maybe sell it for peanuts.

I have thousands and thousands of films on all kinds of formats and I love my collection to death but recently I started having doubts if maybe, just maybe I should have used all that money on other things (except for favorite films and rare, limited editions that I will cherish until my last dying breath).
 
ShadyAcshuns said:
Compared to the past? It's awful. Why can't I pre-order Switch 2 and Switch games on Amazon any more? Why is the game selection at Wal Mart so paltry these days? When a new Japanese game comes out on Switch or PS5, why can't I find it at my local brick and mortar stores? All I see when I shop there is Madden, Fortnite and Assassin's Creed type games. All that's left to local people who physically shop is Gamestop. What happens when they all dry up? How come a lot of physical games this gen haven't dropped below $40 or $50, including non-Nintendo games?

There's a trend here, and we are just barely holding on to the edge before our fingers give out and we fall off.
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Brick and mortar stores definitely have declined from there peak sadly and they don't stock alot of stuff tbh. Best buy near me recently had like 0 physical games besides older ones which is weird because they stock those games online and have them all on sale if you buy online. But you can buy a tonnnnnnnnnn of physical games online still at the stores i listed in my previous post and i buy most of mine from Walmart and Amazon because the deals are great and i've never had any problems with shipping 'plus they ship fast'. I'm a physical gaming guy till i'm dead and physical gaming will always be the superior way to buy a game in my book.
 
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Cyberpunkd said:
What happens when a company turns off download servers 10 years from now?

Then again it's an industry that absolutely hates game preservation…
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What happens when your discs rot and they're out of print? What happens if you drop them, scratch them, they get stolen, boiled, smashed, or put into a stew?

If we're playing whataboutism, it can go either way.

Nothing is truly forever. You don't "own" anything except the shirt on your back. Your house? Your car? You stop paying the insurance, registration, taxes, etc, and they get taken away.

Rather than fear that the sky is going to fall one day, we should learn to enjoy things that we have while we have them, whether they be digital or physical.
 
The day will come when something you love is turned off by someone who doesn't care about your interests.

Then you will realise the value of ownership. But it will be too late.
 
I let go of physical games about 8-9 years ago. Only physical I buy anymore is collectors editions and even then a lot of the time the games included are digital keys.
 
Till consoles give me options for the following;

  1. Reselling digital games, they don't because they know it'll be a race to the bottomi in terms of users pricing games as low as possible. Imagine someone rage selling a brand new title they don't like for 15 dollars a few hours or days after release.
  2. Ways to backup my games in the future. On PC we have drm free titles, cracks and backup drives. On consoles you have to cope unless the console itself is hacked wide open which hasn't happened since the PS3 and 3DS
  3. More then one key market, Sony used to be more open to this but they locked it down halfway through the PS4 gen and even moreso after they raised PSN+ prices.
 
Gexxy1 said:
Don't know what you're smoking about "pennies." They're worth a lot more than that.
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Depends on the context. As a collector, are these key card cartridges going to hold much value in the next decade? Unlike retro games, these things that require a download will be useless as a resale for potential buyers.

If you're talking about value as in buying them, playing them, then reselling them to Gamestop, it's a total waste of money. Might as well just rent them through GF or a digital sub at that point.
 
for those of you concerned about the money part and physical you can sell back games or find them in the bargain bin, why not just wait for digital sales? And for more savings find a friend or fam member and do home sharing cutting all costs in half? Online subs are shared too, so you even cut your annual online fee in half too splitting all costs with them.
 
Stupid way of thinking.
let go of last remnants of ownership?

EVEN IF DISC/CART ONLY CONTAINST A "KEY":
-You still own the disc, can sell it
-Way cheaper price than PSN. Retailers big and small have deals. I just bought rise of ronin for 40$ while it's 90$ on psn... yes... it's 90$ on psn.
-You can play offline after 1 time installing/updating. You got the files, disc/cart is the authorization.
-NOT TIED to any account. No restrictions. Not worried about someone taking your account away.

And if the game 1.0 IS ON disc:
-You get to enjoy version 1.0 if you want or patch and play offline.
-In case of apocalypse, if psn stops existing and you had your game patched? both this and key only discs work the same since you already have the files. but if not, this allows you to play 1.0 at least.

So no. You gotta be a fucking dumbass to reject physical because it's not on the disc/cart. You still get to enjoy all your freedoms and cheap prices and offline playing(after initial setup).
 
ShadyAcshuns said:
I've been a collector of physical games for generations, amassing hundreds of them. Always appreciating the feeling of ownership and having that tangible presence of seeing my physical games on the shelves. I loved reading those manuals while sift through prints that usually included hints and colorful displays of the controls.

Sadly, those days are gone forever and we will not be getting them back. The once-convenient features of having physical media are diminishing faster than the blink of an eye. With Nintendo allowing owners to share digital games now, all we have left now over digital is reselling of physical copies. Physical advocates used to champion the fact that those without internet had a way to get games, but now virtually everybody can download games online, and even out in the wild we can use our smartphones to tether with wifi networks to authenticate digital gaming. Physical proponents also used to point to physical games getting massive sales, but that rarely is the case these days, especially with fewer places to actually buy physical games.

With key card cartridges, Blu ray games that require large downloads, what are we doing by holding on to the past when those conveniences have been kicked to the curb? So I ask my fellow physical gamers notes ai: is it time to move on, or is there still hope for clutching that plastic copy firmly in our hands until death do us part?
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I haven't seen a new physical game for pc in years and I've noticed that disk drives are more or less gone as well. Bought myself an used Xbox series S in hope that I could play some old og Xbox games (yes, I was in for a surprise). The only option you have with an series s is game pass or buying online. Easy and cheap, but there's just something about having an physical copy that can't compare to having it digital. I have plans to upgrade to series x, but I haven't seen any physical games for series x either. This made me start to wonder where the future of games are heading. PlayStation has started selling games with download codes and without disks, Xbox has only their most expensive console with a disk drive and Nintendo Switch games are cheaper online. Is it just an coincidence or are consoles heading in the same direction as pc?
 
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rofif said:
Stupid way of thinking.
let go of last remnants of ownership?

EVEN IF DISC/CART ONLY CONTAINST A "KEY":
-You still own the disc, can sell it
-Way cheaper price than PSN. Retailers big and small have deals. I just bought rise of ronin for 40$ while it's 90$ on psn... yes... it's 90$ on psn.
-You can play offline after 1 time installing/updating. You got the files, disc/cart is the authorization.
-NOT TIED to any account. No restrictions. Not worried about someone taking your account away.

And if the game 1.0 IS ON disc:
-You get to enjoy version 1.0 if you want or patch and play offline.
-In case of apocalypse, if psn stops existing and you had your game patched? both this and key only discs work the same since you already have the files. but if not, this allows you to play 1.0 at least.

So no. You gotta be a fucking dumbass to reject physical because it's not on the disc/cart. You still get to enjoy all your freedoms and cheap prices and offline playing(after initial setup).
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How are you going to sell those key cards/Blu rays that require a large downloads if we're talking years down the road, when they close down the servers? You'll just be selling/buying a plastic disc/cartridge that won't function.
 
I have more digital games that I 'leased' 15-20 years ago than I have physical games that I 'owned' 15-20 years ago.

Hard to get rid of the digital stuff.

I bought a couple of episodes of a few tv shows on iTunes and still have them 10-15 years later. I wish I could give them away for free. This leasing stuff sucks. lol.
 
ShadyAcshuns said:
How are you going to sell those key cards/Blu rays that require a large downloads if we're talking years down the road, when they close down the servers? You'll just be selling/buying a plastic disc/cartridge that won't function.
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we are saying about selling now and buying now cheaper and playing offline after installing.
Besides. those servers will never shut down. never in a million years
 
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dorkimoe said:
As opposed to spending 70 and hating it and not being able to return it because it's digital and you can't flip it?
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Wait for a sale. Plus there's always the issue that GS might not give you $50 for your used game. Instead of giving your money away to GS, why not rent them from GF?
 
ShadyAcshuns said:
Wait for a sale. Plus there's always the issue that GS might not give you $50 for your used game. Instead of giving your money away to GS, why not rent them from GF?
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why wait for sale when I can get rise of ronin new, sealed for 40$ right now with free delivery to post box.
While at the same time it's 90$ on psn and it might take months before another sale.
makes no sense
 
ShadyAcshuns said:
Depends on the context. As a collector, are these key card cartridges going to hold much value in the next decade? Unlike retro games, these things that require a download will be useless as a resale for potential buyers.
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Yes. Collector's value.

There are many valuable items that can be sold despite not functioning anymore.

If you're talking about value as in buying them, playing them, then reselling them to Gamestop, it's a total waste of money. Might as well just rent them through GF or a digital sub at that point.
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You do this with every game you will ever buy.

You will play it once. Or twice. Or thrice. Or maybe even 100 times. But eventually, you won't be playing it anymore. It has no value after that. Sell it. Or give it away.

Also you are still badly underestimating how valuable some of these physical games are.
 
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ShadyAcshuns said:
Depends on the context. As a collector, are these key card cartridges going to hold much value in the next decade? Unlike retro games, these things that require a download will be useless as a resale for potential buyers.
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I don't think games on key cards will be collector's items. For one, as a rule of thumb, they are going to be the domain of the mediocre game or crappy port.
 
rofif said:
why wait for sale when I can get rise of ronin new, sealed for 40$ right now with free delivery to post box.
While at the same time it's 90$ on psn and it might take months before another sale.
makes no sense
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Well the decision is not in your hands, and benefits Sony greatly to take them away. Since Sony no longer has viable competition, what's to stop them? Digital is like 90% of the console market now anyway. Killing used game market and cutting off retailers leaves all the revenue to them, and only pisses 10% of their customers who will soon have nowhere else to go.
 
BossLackey said:
I'm moving on for the most part. I'll get physical games here and there where it's convenient/cheap/novel, but not outside of that.

We've been moving this direction for a very long time and for me personally, I've hit my point of no return. This isn't the future any more. It's the present and it's here whether we like it or not.

Anyone clinging to physical moving forward, I wish you luck, but I have better things to do with my time than hunt for plastic.
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💯 %. Couldn't have said it better myself.
 
BennyBlanco said:
Well the decision is not in your hands, and benefits Sony greatly to take them away. Since Sony no longer has viable competition, what's to stop them? Digital is like 90% of the console market now anyway. Killing used game market and cutting off retailers leaves all the revenue to them, and only pisses 10% of their customers who will soon have nowhere else to go.
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true and sad
 
Gexxy1 said:
Also you are still badly underestimating how valuable some of these physical games are.
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Bruh, I have a mint condition DK64 Jungle Green/Banana cartridge bundle, and many other things similar to it. I just don't know if these new physical games will be worth anything in the future. Maybe they will, who knows?
 
I guess it's fine if physical goes away. I buy a digital game here or there if it's a buck or whatever, but never a AAA game. The hobby has been leaving me behind for many years, and that just seems to be the final step.


It was fun while it lasted; I hope it all goes well for you younger gamers.
 
rofif said:
why wait for sale when I can get rise of ronin new, sealed for 40$ right now with free delivery to post box.
While at the same time it's 90$ on psn and it might take months before another sale.
makes no sense
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I was speaking to someone who buys the game at $70, plays it, then sells it to GS for "$50" but that's just a best case scenario. That makes no sense.
 
dorkimoe said:
I do :(. Easier to justify a $70 game when I can sell it for 50 when I'm done
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and you pay less to beging with.
Physical releases are always at least 10$ cheaper than psn here on release if not more.
like I said above, rise of ronin is 90$ on psn. I just got a new disc last week for 40....
 
As far as I can tell every console that had digital game downloads as a feature(7th gen onward) still lets you redownload purchased games.
 
GoldenEye98 said:
As far as I can tell every console that had digital game downloads as a feature(7th gen onward) still lets you redownload purchased games.
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What I'm still not sure about is ownership of the key card download. I guess if it's not code in the box, it won't expire like they do. Wouldn't it be terrible if they linked the download to the original owner? Even so, eventually those servers will stop functioning at some point.
 
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