For me to decide if im buying a game physically or digitally depends on three things -
1. Will the game have post launch content and expansions?
2. Has this content been revealed and announced before the base game gets released?
3. Based on the two above, it comes down to if I believe the expansions and post launch content will be worth buying and playing?
For example, I have bought the gold digital edition for Immortals Fenyx Rising and Assassin's Creed Valhalla because I knew that I would be into both games and would want to play the expansions. On the other side, I bought Watch Dogs Legion physically as the post launch content didn't interest me at all and the base game was better than Watch Dogs 2 but not better than the original for me so im happy that I passed on buying it digitally. I bought Spider Man: Miles Morales physically because there is no post launch expansions or content and just picked up Resident Evil VIII: Village yesterday from GameStop as I know what the DLC will be post launch and just like Resident Evil VII, I have zero interest in it.
So basically, it comes down to if im going to be playing the game over the long term as opposed to just playing through the game to completion and then trading it in. My next disc based purchase will be Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. Now, with a new character being introduced with Rivet, I can easily see there being post launch expansions for the game but Sony/Insomniac would have to reveal it before the base game gets released. If not and there is, oh well, it won't be bought or played. I make my decisions based on what I know at launch or pre-launch. Anything afterwards, it's already too late.
Thus far for the Xbox Series X/PlayStation 5 generation, my game purchases are as follows -
- Watch Dogs Legion (disc/base game completed and traded in)
- Assassin's Creed Valhalla (digital/gold edition)
- Immortals Fenyx Rising (digital/gold edition)
- Cyberpunk 2077 (digital/base game)
- Marvel's Spider Man: Miles Morales (PS5/disc/base game completed and traded in)
- Outriders (digital/base game)
- Resident Evil VIII: Village (disc/base game/currently playing/will trade in once completed)
- Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart (PS5/as of now, it's looking like a disc based purchase)
That's pretty much how I decide if im buying a game physically or digitally.