Do you buy digital or physical games?

Do you buy digital or physical games? Or both?

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    190
kyliethicc

kyliethicc

Member
So in Sony's financials they show that over the last 2 years, 66% of games sold on PS4 and PS5 are digital.

Obviously we know PC is primarily digital. Nintendo Switch tends to sell more physical. Every platform is a bit different.

So what ratio are you? And on what platforms?
 
Been buying a bit more digital…. But is like 90 physical 20 digital ….

It's still a long way until I reach more than of purchase for digital….
 
I would never buy a digital game for a console. No one seems to have figured out how backwards compatibility truly works. At least with physical you can resell it later if you want.
 
On console, buy and sell physical most of the time. Only buy digital if it is a really great deal.

On PC, don't have a choice.
 
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I started going heavy on digital a few years ago. Despite the drawbacks I've been vocal about in the past, I've embraced it entirely. Physical copies aren't what they use to be, gone are the days of manuals and other detailed packaged content which used to add value.
 
Digital practically 100%. Own 2 physical Switch games, Mario 3D All Stars because it was a 'limited' run and MH Rise because it was £30 on release day.

I just think it's sexy to have all of my games 'inside' the console with none of the clutter/mess of having 100s of game cases on a shelf.

Also the convenience of switching games.
 
With the exception of switch where I tend to buy mostly physical, I've moved fully digital. There just is very little reason I feel to go physical for my playstation and Xbox collections. I don't have the space and I prefer the convenience of digital over physical (even when prices can be higher for digital). And also especially since with the exception of say limited run games, 99.9% of the games on the disk are incomplete and need major patches now to play properly. Because of this I see no point in buying disks that only purpose now is for drm checks it feels. Sure I know the "but I want to "own" my game, but considering you have to download so much of the games now anyway, I don't really feel owning the disks give me full ownership of the game anymore. I have a feeling if the worst case scenario happens and people lose access to their digital games due to a company going out of business, many people talking about how great physical is will find themselves with incomplete games in the end so it's a bad scenario for everyone. So yeah, I'm happy to have made the switch and wish I had done it sooner.
 
I only buy digital a few retro/indie games on steam with poor or no console alternatives. I also buy digital the occasional online heavy game that can't function properly off-line or unpatched.

Otherwise, I go full physical and mostly on consoles.
 
I used to be physical only, but that changed a few years ago. Now I'm fully digital only.
 
Games I purchase are 100% physical. I like the ability to trade in games because there are many I won't ever play again.
I also have Game Pass which satisfies many other gaming needs and is obviously digital, but not owned.
 
The only physical games that I still buy are used PS3 games. Mostly because they're not available through PS Store but the fact that they're dirt cheap is an added bonus.
 
digital nowadays becos of financial problem during C19 but will buy physical for Legend of Zelda related if $ and stock allows
 
Depends on the console!

On switch it's almost 100% physical, only smaller Indy without physical option I bought digital.

Series S is digital, which I'm fine with, Microsoft do keep their servers up forever. But I know these games are gonna be unrecoverable one day.

PS5, mostly physical. I only bought 2 physical game and have 3 digital because they were cheaper that way and actually Nioh 2 would not have been available the way I would have liked to physically. I wouldn't buy the complete edition , I don't need the first game and already had the season pass.

All my older console game collection is mostly physical. Having discs and cartridges is much more enjoyable and fun to dig in.
 
PC= 100% Digital
Console= 100% Physical

The above is the cheaper options for each.

Console digital is a complete rip off, i really dont understand why some people are happy to pay more for digital over physical

PC digital is so much cheaper when you look in the right places such as CDKeys
 
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On PlayStation/Nintendo it's about 80% physical and 20% digital.

On Xbox I only play on GamePass, so 0% of either since I don't purchase anything (or 100% digital depending on how you wanna interpret it).
 
I buy physical copies that don't have the games on them but serve as the key that graciously allows me to download the game. Best of both worlds! /s

Seriously, mostly digital.
 
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physical, if possible. I know I'm a dying breed, but I like to actually own a physical thing. I want to be able to run the game without any internet access whatsoever. I know that many (all?) games nowadays rely on day one patches to actually make them playable, but nonetheless, I want a disc. I also want to be able to resell my games. So I can at least recoup some of my losses, if the game I bought sucks.

I fully expect next gen consoles to be discless though. I wonder if microsoft and/or sony will provide a way to turn your disc-bought games to digital ones. My guess is that they will just sell a overpriced disc add-on to read you physical games.
 
In a perfect world, I would buy every game on a disc or cardridge. Unfortunately, many indies are not offered as a physical version, so about 90% physical and 10% digital.
 
100% digital and I will continue to do so. I want to own the games that I buy so I can sell them, lend them to a friend or whatever I want to do with them.
 
Playstation, almost all digital, can't say 100% because of my son _ he doesn't care if it's physical or digital, so if he sees a good deal in a store makes me buy it.

The only game that would still make me buy physical would be a Killzone proper reboot in Helghan as it should be, or kz2 remake _ boxed special edition of course.
 
ANIMAL1975 said:
Playstation, almost all digital, can't say 100% because of my son _ he doesn't care if it's physical or digital, so if he sees a good deal in a store makes me buy it.

The only game that would still make me buy physical would be a Killzone proper reboot in Helghan as it should be, or kz2 remake _ boxed special edition of course.
Click to expand...
What about a limited edition Knack 2 steelbook?
 
Have not bought a physical game for three years now. Would not even consider it at this point.
 
Kimahri said:
Do you feel the same way about movies and music?
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It depends. Music I love, I buy on vinyl. I don't buy movies ever, so no. Music is another type of experience, that most of the time is meant to be streamed. Out walking, when strength training and so on or just being in the background. Music I wanna own, I buy on vinyl like I said.
 
Since covid hit I tend to buy digital unless it's a specific collectors edition I want.

Especially with the tail end of last gen and this generation where you have to install games anyway to have them function first, the whole point of a disk for me is I can just put in the cart and play the game. Unsurprisingly I tend to find myself buying more physical switch for this reason, since that's how the console works, no preinstall required.
 
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I sold all my physical games years ago, I think the 3ds was the last console I bought anything physical on.

Digital is clean, no ugly ass game boxes anywhere, you can hide the ugly game consoles away in the entertainment center and just enjoy any game when you feel like with a touch of a button.

if WW3 comes and all game servers are destroyed/inaccessible, than I have bigger problems than worrying about how to play a stupid video game.
 
All digital. I love scrolling through my game collection using GOG Galaxy. The last physical copy I bought was GTA V for PC when it first game out.
 
kyliethicc said:
What about a limited edition Knack 2 steelbook?
Click to expand...
What about a PlayStation All Stars Knack vs Rico limited edition
War Win GIF
 
100% Digital for Games.

100% Physical for Movies and Music

It took me far too long to realize how useless physical game disks are. They no longer come with booklets, they rarely have the full game on them, most games have an online component, the game cannot play directly from disk because of the read speed, and a digital and physical game are identical in code.

Also, once I got a taste of how convenient switching games is digitally, having to go pull a case off the shelf and switch disks seemed so unnecessarily tedious.

This is contrast to my 4K movies and CD music which are far higher quality in their physical formats.
 
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digital. physical is pointless and a waste of space and materials.

really hope next gen consoles finally ditch it. sony and ms should just rip the bandaid off and force people to go digitally.
 
PS5: 90% physical. 10% digital.
Xbox: 100% digital.
Switch: Retail games 99% physical, but also buy many small indies digital.

billyxci said:
digital. physical is pointless and a waste of space and materials.

really hope next gen consoles finally ditch it. sony and ms should just rip the bandaid off and force people to go digitally.
Click to expand...
I'll probably skip PS if they do that. They have shit sales now digitally.
 
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I never sell games or consoles and I am not taking them with me when I expire so I don't see a need to buy physical. Digital is just so convenient.
 
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On PS3, I have quite a few physical games and the rest were digital.

On PS4, almost 90% games were Digital, Vita was exclusively digital and modded hehe.

I have the PS5 Digital Edition now, planning to build a PC or buying a Steam Deck (someday).
 
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