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[LavitzSlambert]

Physical media enjoyer here. Vinyl, 4K bluray, and game discs/carts. There are some advantages to digital, and I will pay small amounts for it, but physical is king.

 

[MidGenRefresh]

I prefer digital. But not the "I don't own anything PlayStation store digital". I like the "GOG you download the installer and own it forever digital".

I don't care about trash like cases, manuals, posters or other shit.

That said, I can appreciate a nice and tidy collection. And for the games I truly care about, I do own a physical copy. Think Fallout New Vegas, Prey, etc..

 

[Signalis]

I never moved away from physical media. I like to actually own things

 

[ValiantInstance]

I prefer digital, my house is filled with less junk now.

You'll own nothing and be happy.

 

[Paasei]

At least vinyl has been on a comeback growing larger and larger for a few years now. Seen cassettes making a return, too. Not sure how that is going.
Plenty of music stores where they have good selections on vinyl ranging many genre's.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

I have long given up taking any post on here serious that doesn't take into account all of these:

- question of ownership
- question of DRM and proprietary formats
- question of quality, compression and performance

It's fascinating how 95% of the users here are blind to at least one of those.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

I prefer digital, my house is filled with less junk now.

This. My parents have stack upon stacks of DVDs they watched once and that's it - wtf am I going to do with them when the die? It's thrash or sell for pennies. Incredible waste of money. I can MAYBE get if you curate an incredibly tight collection with the same release art, spines, etc., but 99% of people just buy tons of plastic shit.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

At least vinyl has been on a comeback growing larger and larger for a few years now. Seen cassettes making a return, too. Not sure how that is going.
Plenty of music stores where they have good selections on vinyl ranging many genre's.

That's because they figured out what a sweet mark ups they can get out of all the hippies.

I have long given up taking any post on here serious that doesn't take into account all of these:

- question of ownership
- question of DRM and proprietary formats
- question of quality, compression and performance

It's fascinating how 95% of the users here are blind to at least one of those.

Ownership for what purpose? How many movies have you watched more than once? It's hoarding, pure and simple. If it provides you with emotional benefits - ok, but at least be honest. On the subject of quality - 99% of people buying are going to be listening on their shit wireless setup, etc. Seen vinyl players with BT connection? Yeah, that exists.

 

[Londo]

Physical media forever.
That said, in the last year or so the Blu/4k discs market has expanded a lot, more and more boutique labels churn out many titles with lovely packaging and special features. This presses the big ones to keep up their game and better their discs too (except Disney, their physical media department is clearly run by blind monkeys).

If something similar would happen in the gamesphere how would you react?
Imagine if a game can be licensed to be sold by other companies, and they would be in charge to produce some bells and whistles to make you buy their editions , like documentaries, interviews, arts, sketches... would you be interested?

The main issue is that a lot of current developers likes too much to stir shit on social media, I don't know if they could be professional enough to gave an interview without championing their beliefs.

 

[Londo]

How many movies have you watched more than once

This is an interesting point.
I always collected movies, among other things, and I own thousands of DVDs (now stashed in the attic), because it was a true leap from what I was coming from, VHS and LD.
I jumped on the blu-ray bandwagon very late, and I'm lucky enough to have have distanced myself from the "collect for the sake of collecting" mindset.

Now I buy only the things I know I'll watch more than one time, like the movies and serials I'm most attached to. Currently my collection of blus is less than 150 titles and grows at a satsfying slow pace.
For all the rest I can download it, watch it and delete it.

 

[Phobos Base]

I have long given up taking any post on here serious that doesn't take into account all of these:

- question of ownership
- question of DRM and proprietary formats
- question of quality, compression and performance

It's fascinating how 95% of the users here are blind to at least one of those.

Also with films, the fact they can be altered or censored after release

 

[Fake]

Yes.

 

[Deerock71]

most of my videogame purchases are dictated by the availability of a cart

ill spend more for it... if it's a game i want bad enough, and i've had a few beers i might spend as much as $100

I've regretted quite a few drunk purchases over the years.

 

[V2Tommy]

Physical media is useless in the game patching age. You want to play the 1.0.0 version of a game in 25 years?

I sure don't.

 

[CentralScrutinizer]

Yeah digital is more convenient but it's not an asset. Physical games are good because when you're done with them their value can be liquidated and returned for partial payback.

I am not a collector BUT I do view physical games as an asset I can leverage in the future. For Switch 2, I sold off 40 Switch 1 third party games I either would never play again or got for free on Epic Game Store after the fact and it paid for my entire Switch 2 day one haul.

 

[gerth666]

This is music to my ears this.
I love collecting physical games, and movies on blu ray and uhd blu ray. It's a major part of the hobby for me.

Completely anecdotal but I'm starting to see quite a few people in the movie section of hmv when I go shopping there.
I think people are starting to realise that subscribing to the streaming services is quite expensive

 

[OLED_Gamer]

PC- digital. Steam is very consumer friendly so I'm comfortable with that.

Console- mainly physical.

I will say that, given how our rich overlords are trying to take away more and more ways to own things, I have been purchasing more physical on my PS5 Pro lately instead of digital on PC.

And save me the "license" speak- I can't sell a digital license, but I sure can sell my physical disk. And buy used disks. Etc.

 

[HerjansEagleFeeder]

Ownership for what purpose? How many movies have you watched more than once? It's hoarding, pure and simple. If it provides you with emotional benefits - ok, but at least be honest.

Are you suggesting there aren't any people out there who regard films as potentially works of art, rewatch them and don't treat them as disposable consumer products?

 

[AnotherMillo]

Hearing the disc spin, opening the box, flipping through the artbook before playing… it's part of the launch experience. And from these posts, lots of folks still appreciate that, even if digital is more convenient.

 

[Lumpyoatmeal]

Just bookmarking this to collect my receipts when the remaining of you come running back to physical media.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

I think it's great to see physical media making a comeback, and I think the continued success of vinyl against all odds has been encouraging. I still buy all my movies on blu-ray or 4k blu ray. For music, I'm pretty much all digital and buy FLACs or DSD from qobuz, because you're getting the best of both worlds in terms of quality and convenience. But I like that CDs are seemingly having a resurgence of sorts. I've really gotten into buying more books lately, and getting fancy editions of stuff from Folio Society, Broken Binding, Dragonsteel, etc.

For games… I still just don't think it makes sense in the same way since unlike those other media, games aren't really a fixed thing anymore - I can buy a game on disc, but it'll be missing a lot of updates and dlc… sure you have Limited Run and the like doing "complete" releases where they can, but it's not a consistent thing where I can reliably just go buy a physical game and get all of the content. Which sucks. I really wished Nintendo would treat Switch 2 carts better and make them rewritable so you could update them with patches and dlc, but of course they chose the shittiest option possible. So until something big changes, I'm basically digital only almost all modern stuff. GOG is basically the ideal solution moving forward, at least for PC stuff that actually gets released on there.

 

[ThroatPie]

I buy physical for all ps5 games. I do digital for switch/switch 2. I have tons of imports for famicom-ps4 era. Still have CD's and buy them. I do miss my 2000 Expedition with the six CD changer. It was a game changer for using CDs back in the day.

 

[sliiiiiiick]

Hearing the disc spin, opening the box, flipping through the artbook before playing… it's part of the launch experience. And from these posts, lots of folks still appreciate that, even if digital is more convenient.

The lack of physical experiences are what actually pushed me away from physical to digital when I first got my PS4. First, there was no manual. Huge bummer. Just a flimsy piece of paper with legal mumbo jumbo.

Then I inserted the disc. Loved a good disc startup ever since my first PS1. Wait, what's this? Installing? From a disc? What the fuck did I just buy? A digital game that I needed the physical disc inserted to be allowed to play? Nah, this ain't it. And now games are even worse with gigantic required patches. I guess I'm just old school, I miss popping a disc or cart in the system and pressing start.

I don't know what physical experience you're talking about, but that died decades ago

 

[Bark]

At least vinyl has been on a comeback growing larger and larger for a few years now. Seen cassettes making a return, too. Not sure how that is going.
Plenty of music stores where they have good selections on vinyl ranging many genre's.

Tapes are really niche. All i have found is the Guardians of the galaxy soundtracks and Sabrina Carpenter as new. but CDs are still going. Got GNX last year.

 

[mitch1971]

Books. Real, hold in your hand, books. If you are kindle freak, we have nothing to say to each other.