Physical vs Digital gaming?

[crantheman]

I was talking with a friend and he told me that he exclusively buys his games physically so that he completely owns them in the case it gets delisted from the online storefront or lost to time. My favorite Sonic game, Sonic Unleashed, has never gotten a re-release, so my only way of playing it is with my Xbox 360 disc.

While I love having a shelf full of games in my room and being able to play games that haven't been re-released in a long time (ex. the GameCube library), sometimes it gets too much, especially when I had to move to an apartment from my parents' house. Digital media (ex. Steam, GOG Galaxy) is really great in that aspect. I can have a huge library of games ready to play when I boot my desktop PC, or booting into a friend's PC so I can show him all of the cool games in my library, without the hassle of lugging around a giant library of discs and cartridges that would make my local public library jealous.

For me, I love buying physical games, but with the lack of room in my apartment to keep my growing collection I try to buy digital on Steam whenever possible. What about you guys? Do you prefer buying your games digitally or physically?

 

[KeplerElectronics]

I've moved entirely over to steam when possible (ie, not a Nintendo game). I know it's possible that steam has an issue at some point, but it feels better than locking all my games to a console that might not ever see updates or a way to move my library forward with me. Plus if I end up buying a steam deck eventually I can just take my games portably with me anyways and it's no big deal.

I also pick up pretty much every free game offered to me (through Epic giveaways and Twitch Prime gifts), so I have a bunch of duplicates between Prime gaming, GOG, and Epic (and Itch i guess). If one service were to go down I wouldn't be completely sunk.

I still buy some physical games, usually the new Nintendo game I want to play (once I'm not broke Brothership is getting purchased), and every once in a while a retro game. I like going to game stores with a hit list of games I'm looking for, and if they aren't CiB I won't even bother (mostly as a way to save money and make it harder for me to find the exact thing lmao). The high from finding a game you've been looking for for years is amazing. Right now my main whales are the 3DS Layton games and any games made by either Shin'en or Genki

 

[crantheman]

I still buy some physical games, usually the new Nintendo game I want to play

Same here! My Gaming go-to's have been Steam/GOG and Nintendo for about 5 years. I much prefer PC since I can play most Xbox games on there and PlayStation eventually releases their exclusives on Steam after about two years.

For Nintendo you have to either buy a Nintendo console to play their games or ... well you probably know the other option 👀

 

[Lesdeux]

Physical when it makes sense. I enjoy owning a copy of something and knowing it's mine by seeing it (I also collect vinyl soundtracks to games I love). However, I'm not about to rush out and buy a physical copy of something like Minecraft. I keep my physical collection small, usually reserved for my favorite games. There are benefits to digital, like not having to worry about if the discs/cartridges will work after so long. I plan on taking all my old, unreadable discs and making an art piece out of them though, starting with my PS2 copy of Godzilla Unleashed.

If digital copies ever get taken down, I'm not above emulating a game that has no reasonable access to playing.

 

[Term]

I generally prefer physical when possible, but the portability of the Deck and Switch have given me good reasons to choose digital from time to time

That said, honestly, I think physical games are gonna be out within a generation or two. I'm not sold on them as a method of preservation when we live in a world of patches, dlc and live services, and many games getting only limited copy physical releases defeats that purpose. Unfortunately I think we have to rely on fans to keep games alive

 

[crantheman]

That said, honestly, I think physical games are gonna be out within a generation or two. I'm not sold on them as a method of preservation when we live in a world of patches, dlc and live services, and many games getting only limited copy physical releases defeats that purpose

Nintendo and places like Limited Run seem to be the only companies that will continue to do physical releases (at least for the next 10 years). Sony and Microsoft will most likely make the next Xbox/PS6 fully digital.

 

[ball]

i have no space whatsoever for a game collection or even a console setup and i'm completely priced out of the physical retro game market. i mostly just try to avoid spending money on titles with DRM unless they contain a multiplayer mode i'm interested in

 

[crantheman]

i mostly just try to avoid spending money on titles with DRM unless they contain a multiplayer mode i'm interested in

Yea if I love a game I'd try to find it on GOG since they have DRM-proof games