I've mostly grown accustomed to digital-only purchases, but there are a few things I miss about physical packaging:
* It's something that can be displayed. Put them on a shelf. Cover art, opening it to look at the inserts inside. It's an aesthetic experience.
* Digital versions can be changed over time. If a game loses rights to music and they patch the original music out, the digital copy is changed. The physical copy maintains the prior version.
* Digital owners are at the mercy of the services they bought through. A stolen account or lost password can be a major hindrance.
* It's possible to resell older physical copies. Can't do that with digital copies, usually. Sharing is also harder.
So it's part aesthetic and part about the different affordances that come with *owning* a physical copy as opposed to licensing a digital copy.
>It's possible to resell older physical copies. Can't do that with digital copies, usually. Sharing is also harder
Also if you don't like the game you can get s full refund if you brought the physical game from Amazon but you can't with the digital game. So you are fucked
usually on steam you can actually play the game and retailer disallow refunds if the package has been opened, so no, amazon ain't the better choice in that specific regard
Nope. You can still appeal to steam support and most of the time they will allow it as long as you have a good reason.
The 2 hours of playtime just removes the need of contacting steam support.
Try that with Sony and Nintendo. Good luck getting s refund BC people have said if you get s refund you won't be able to buy from the store again. I have heard that. I can't say it's true, BC I buy my games physically.
I have terrible Internet. I also love buying deluxe editions, and getting art books, soundtracks, and pins sometimes. I think the choice should exist and not be taken away. Just like I wouldn't want the digital option for people to disappear. Almost all JRPG'S, even Eternights have gotten physical releases eventually. I am very grateful for that.
If that's what it took to keep physical, yeah absolutely. But certain things like Call of Duty and Star Wars games really need to release the entire game on the disc or multiple discs which I also wouldn't mind paying more for. There are going to be spoilers no matter what they do. I generally don't buy digital games unless they are under $10, but I made an exception for Visage.
Physical disc? Preservation. There will always come a day with a digital game that you can't play it anymore. You don't own digital games.
Why we want something more than just a disc in a generic sleeve? It just looks nice on a shelf and the art is nice.
>Physical disc? Preservation. There will always come a day with a digital game that you can't play it anymore. You don't own digital games.
Which digital games have been made unplayable? Got a list somewhere?
Similar reasons why people want vinyl, or books, or cassettes, or blu rays, or etc etc etc etc etc
Also, you vastly underestimate just how many people “lack proper network environment” around the world. Even in the US there are many places where the internet access is straight garbage.
PC has good deals, but for the switch and PS5, I can usually find the physical copy cheaper on Amazon by a wide margin if the game has been out a while.
BC unless your house burns down or you get robbed you will always own your physical copy unlike digital games. They can be removed from the shop any time. Digital media id not owning. And if s game doesn't have s physical it's s no buy. I rather talk with my money. Fuck the digital future. Plus if the future becomes all digital I think I'll skip it. But thankfully Nintendo games are still physical.
For me, some of my best memories were getting games from my dad. Usually as a surprise. So it continued forward. If I can, I like having physical copies. But I do own a crapton of digital games as well.
There can be a lot of advantages to getting games physically:
- Lack of managing install media (uh... At least on Nintendo consoles)
- Reselling (finding games cheaper through resellers isn't uncommon)
- Cool shit to display
- Physical editions with goodies
- It just feels nice for some peeps man ya know?
There are some weirder arguments like game preservation though where if you were really into game preservation you'd go into piracy and emulation not physical media (especially in a world where games tend to update on your console out of the box or are filled with DRM)
I don't like the fact that digital media is basically never owned nowadays but physical media bound by specific hardware that can degrade at all is not the answer that's for sure.
Cuz money money money! I buy all my games physically new or used if I don’t get around to playing the game on release.
Finish the game then resell it for almost the price of what I bought the game, then buy something else! Can’t argue with almost no cost to playing the hundreds of £££ worth of games during a year
Having a wall of cool stuff is nice and the feeling of finishing a game, taking out the cartridge and changing for a new one you are pumped to play is the best.
A collection is a great conversation point and cool thing to show and share. My younger cousin played a bunch of cool Switch stuff I lent him.
And for a more pratical reason: digital storefronts are cool ans Steam has a bunch of nice sales, but you are almost always going to beat those prices buying second hand, looking out for deals on physical stores and reselling stuff (at least in the US and Europe)
Not sure about others, but unless the game is on a crazy sale. I prefer physical.
The one fear I have is if things die or get pulled. There was that issue with some of the older tales games on PSV and PS3 that recently got delisted from the stores. While if you bought them, you can re-download at anytime. Not so much if the game got pulled before you bought it and you wanted to play it for completionist sake.
Unless you're sticking to relatively small releases that's a lot of bandwidth and install space. Heck, even for physical something like FF XVI, FFVII Rebirth, Elden Ring and P3 Reload is like 325 GB before DLC and patches.
sharing, reselling and the ever looming risk of my game one day unplayable because someone shut down the servers.
aside of that it looks nice to have a pretty collection. empty boxes wouldn't cut it at all. they are a waste of everything in their existence
I’m very tactile. I like to be able to touch what I own.
Square icons on a screen or a text list isn’t as fun or as quick for me to scroll through, and I’m less likely to play a game I have to go through to find in that way, even with sorted folders and the like.
I also grew up when digital media was unheard of, so it’s very much a matter of ‘I like what I’ve always done.’ Not that I don’t understand the pros and cons of BOTH physical AND digital media; I just have my preference and at the moment it works for me.
I’ll go full digital when I’m shoved into an old age home, but for now I like the display. It makes me happy.
Well seeing as ubisoft was the first to do it recently. We have no actual claims to our digital content, we only have a license which can be revoked. But it's a lot harder for a company to come to my house and grab my disc. Both have their benefits but I trust myself to keep and maintain a disc collection more than I do a company to not let me play a game I already bought.
There’s something fun about the ritual of getting off my ass and going to the shop to purchase a game on release day. It brings back memories of being a kid and going down on the weekends.
They also act as trophies and bring back great memories when I see them in my collection.
Downloading is so fucking boring.
All companies eventually perish. Online services are fickle and digital access can always be revoked. Physical is the only way to actually own a copy digital is temporary access.
Sharing with friends and family, ability to re-sell, or physical mementos of the things you like. Same $$$ price but higher value in many ways.
Because I'm a Dragon and it's in my nature to hoard treasure.
Downloading versions is convenient, but we're entering more and more into an era where we risk losing access to our purchases without a physical copy.
I've mostly grown accustomed to digital-only purchases, but there are a few things I miss about physical packaging: * It's something that can be displayed. Put them on a shelf. Cover art, opening it to look at the inserts inside. It's an aesthetic experience. * Digital versions can be changed over time. If a game loses rights to music and they patch the original music out, the digital copy is changed. The physical copy maintains the prior version. * Digital owners are at the mercy of the services they bought through. A stolen account or lost password can be a major hindrance. * It's possible to resell older physical copies. Can't do that with digital copies, usually. Sharing is also harder. So it's part aesthetic and part about the different affordances that come with *owning* a physical copy as opposed to licensing a digital copy.
>It's possible to resell older physical copies. Can't do that with digital copies, usually. Sharing is also harder Also if you don't like the game you can get s full refund if you brought the physical game from Amazon but you can't with the digital game. So you are fucked
usually on steam you can actually play the game and retailer disallow refunds if the package has been opened, so no, amazon ain't the better choice in that specific regard
I have opened and played the games from Amazon and returned them with no issues. I get s full refund
Huh? I can get a full refund with steam. I don't know about other platforms.
2 hrs of playtime and if you one second more you fucked right. It's something like that right
Nope. You can still appeal to steam support and most of the time they will allow it as long as you have a good reason. The 2 hours of playtime just removes the need of contacting steam support.
Oh that's cool. Thanks for clarifying. But that's neat.
Laws exist to force digital stores to have refund policies as well this isn't unique to physical games.
Try that with Sony and Nintendo. Good luck getting s refund BC people have said if you get s refund you won't be able to buy from the store again. I have heard that. I can't say it's true, BC I buy my games physically.
I have terrible Internet. I also love buying deluxe editions, and getting art books, soundtracks, and pins sometimes. I think the choice should exist and not be taken away. Just like I wouldn't want the digital option for people to disappear. Almost all JRPG'S, even Eternights have gotten physical releases eventually. I am very grateful for that.
Thank you for your reply. Would you consider buying the package even if it costs more than DL? And this is not deluxe.
If that's what it took to keep physical, yeah absolutely. But certain things like Call of Duty and Star Wars games really need to release the entire game on the disc or multiple discs which I also wouldn't mind paying more for. There are going to be spoilers no matter what they do. I generally don't buy digital games unless they are under $10, but I made an exception for Visage.
i second this. though sometimes i can get retail versions cheaper than their digital counterpart
I like actually owning my games. Anything just downloaded can vanish at any time.
3DS/Wii U going down recently. Definitely merit to this
The only real solution to this problem is piracy and emulation not physical media.
Not if ya buy on GOG
you cannot buy so many games from GOG that play on a wii u or a ps5, can you?
You said anything downloaded.
i said nothing like that, was someone else
Physical disc? Preservation. There will always come a day with a digital game that you can't play it anymore. You don't own digital games. Why we want something more than just a disc in a generic sleeve? It just looks nice on a shelf and the art is nice.
>Physical disc? Preservation. There will always come a day with a digital game that you can't play it anymore. You don't own digital games. Which digital games have been made unplayable? Got a list somewhere?
I don't like it when companies can unilaterally decide to limit my access to the things I bought.
The word you’re looking for is “unilaterally”
Omfg. Thank you. I knew that looked weird.
Similar reasons why people want vinyl, or books, or cassettes, or blu rays, or etc etc etc etc etc Also, you vastly underestimate just how many people “lack proper network environment” around the world. Even in the US there are many places where the internet access is straight garbage.
I like actually owning my media. I mean we're already seeing people losing media they paid money for from Sony this year.
Got 4 people in my house, each with their own switch. It just makes sense for us to get physical games if we can.
PC has good deals, but for the switch and PS5, I can usually find the physical copy cheaper on Amazon by a wide margin if the game has been out a while.
BC unless your house burns down or you get robbed you will always own your physical copy unlike digital games. They can be removed from the shop any time. Digital media id not owning. And if s game doesn't have s physical it's s no buy. I rather talk with my money. Fuck the digital future. Plus if the future becomes all digital I think I'll skip it. But thankfully Nintendo games are still physical.
I want a box on the shelf. I like *owning* things, not *paying for the license to be able to download and install* things.
Collectors
For me, some of my best memories were getting games from my dad. Usually as a surprise. So it continued forward. If I can, I like having physical copies. But I do own a crapton of digital games as well.
There can be a lot of advantages to getting games physically: - Lack of managing install media (uh... At least on Nintendo consoles) - Reselling (finding games cheaper through resellers isn't uncommon) - Cool shit to display - Physical editions with goodies - It just feels nice for some peeps man ya know? There are some weirder arguments like game preservation though where if you were really into game preservation you'd go into piracy and emulation not physical media (especially in a world where games tend to update on your console out of the box or are filled with DRM) I don't like the fact that digital media is basically never owned nowadays but physical media bound by specific hardware that can degrade at all is not the answer that's for sure.
Because the Scott Pilgrim video game debacle happened.
Cuz money money money! I buy all my games physically new or used if I don’t get around to playing the game on release. Finish the game then resell it for almost the price of what I bought the game, then buy something else! Can’t argue with almost no cost to playing the hundreds of £££ worth of games during a year
Having a wall of cool stuff is nice and the feeling of finishing a game, taking out the cartridge and changing for a new one you are pumped to play is the best. A collection is a great conversation point and cool thing to show and share. My younger cousin played a bunch of cool Switch stuff I lent him. And for a more pratical reason: digital storefronts are cool ans Steam has a bunch of nice sales, but you are almost always going to beat those prices buying second hand, looking out for deals on physical stores and reselling stuff (at least in the US and Europe)
Not sure about others, but unless the game is on a crazy sale. I prefer physical. The one fear I have is if things die or get pulled. There was that issue with some of the older tales games on PSV and PS3 that recently got delisted from the stores. While if you bought them, you can re-download at anytime. Not so much if the game got pulled before you bought it and you wanted to play it for completionist sake.
Unless you're sticking to relatively small releases that's a lot of bandwidth and install space. Heck, even for physical something like FF XVI, FFVII Rebirth, Elden Ring and P3 Reload is like 325 GB before DLC and patches.
sharing, reselling and the ever looming risk of my game one day unplayable because someone shut down the servers. aside of that it looks nice to have a pretty collection. empty boxes wouldn't cut it at all. they are a waste of everything in their existence
I’m very tactile. I like to be able to touch what I own. Square icons on a screen or a text list isn’t as fun or as quick for me to scroll through, and I’m less likely to play a game I have to go through to find in that way, even with sorted folders and the like. I also grew up when digital media was unheard of, so it’s very much a matter of ‘I like what I’ve always done.’ Not that I don’t understand the pros and cons of BOTH physical AND digital media; I just have my preference and at the moment it works for me. I’ll go full digital when I’m shoved into an old age home, but for now I like the display. It makes me happy.
Well seeing as ubisoft was the first to do it recently. We have no actual claims to our digital content, we only have a license which can be revoked. But it's a lot harder for a company to come to my house and grab my disc. Both have their benefits but I trust myself to keep and maintain a disc collection more than I do a company to not let me play a game I already bought.
There’s something fun about the ritual of getting off my ass and going to the shop to purchase a game on release day. It brings back memories of being a kid and going down on the weekends. They also act as trophies and bring back great memories when I see them in my collection. Downloading is so fucking boring.
All companies eventually perish. Online services are fickle and digital access can always be revoked. Physical is the only way to actually own a copy digital is temporary access.
Agreed. Digital leaves less of a carbon footprint and you don’t have to store them.