Topic: Buying a Download vs Buying a Cartrige

I am having a hard time understanding why anyone would buy a download at the same price as a cartridge from the store so I'm asking people who have done both the Pros and Cons of each?

Buying Download

• Don't have to leave your house
• Get the title at midnight
• Harder to lose than a cartridge
• Convenient not carrying around games / always ready on the home screen
• Don't have to share it when that annoying friend asks

Buying Actual Game

• Own something you can re-sell or trade later
• Can lend it to a friend
• May find it cheaper / on sale
• Don't have to wait for long download
• Don't need a huge SD card

You can sell a cartridge after you're done with the game, and its more fun having a cartridge. But with download, you never lose it unless you lose your handheld.

EDIT: Congrats for joining!

thanks for the warm welcome - great feedback.
i will just keep a list of good reasons for each in the OP

For me, it's convenient. I get pretty lazy to swap out my game cartridges/discs, so for games like Animal Crossing, Monster Hunter, and Wii Fit U, which I play a bit of daily, I prefer to have them downloaded on my 3DS/Wii U. If I didn't, I would never return back to them because I want to play other games. Also, carrying around less game cartridges is nice, but since I love to collect the cases and game cartridges, I will go for physical whenever I can, but there are exceptions like I stated above or I'll sometimes even double dip...

I guess people could also sell their used games, so that's definitely a pro for having a physical copy of the game. I like to collect them so I never sell any of my games though... unless I really hated it, which at that point I would probably just give away. Haha.

Bravely Default will be my first download purchase that comes out in a few hours for USA region. I will probably also have to buy the actual game cartridge too since I have 2 kids that are both avid gamers and will have to share a cartridge.

For me I download ALL my 3ds games.
The games I buy are games I intensely research and make sure I want, so I never want to sell them.
I don't really share my games so I don't worry bout that.
I get a lot of games when they launch, so at that time they're about the same price.
I can download at midnight, which is better than driving to the game store in the morning.
Yeah, I had to get a big SD card which cost me about $20.

But for some I guess Physical copies would be better, but for me, I like my Digital games.

and i almost hate to admit it but i am very old (38 years old) and very new (owned a 3ds xl for only 3 weeks).

the only reason i bought a 3ds xl was to street pass my 2 children and play things they like (maybe even pokemon eventually - i actually loved playing through the bravely default demo and excited to start the full version)

good feedback - and it is getting easier to do with forums like this one and downloadable demos.

yeah, I hated how I used to just buy a game if it looked cool, just to find out it was lousy. But now with reviews, forums, ect, I can get a good idea if I'll like the game or not.

I have been preferring digital because the clutter of plastic boxes and manuals really annoys me lately.

I have a similar problem, where I do want to have my games on my shelf, but I also like the idea of just having everything digitally because it's just really cool to have 5 or even 10 games on one SD card. If digital games were discounted, I would be motivated to start getting everything digitally, but right now I just do both and regret it sometimes. For example, I wish I had gotten most of my 3DS games digitally, but I also wish I hadn't gotten Wind Waker HD digitally.

Maybe they should make it look prettier. I love how GoodOldGames does it on their website, for example, because they give you a virtual shelf where you can see your whole game collection. On the 3DS, you never know what games you actually own until you go into the Downloads section of the E-Shop app, and then you can scroll through the list and notice "Oh wow, I have that game that I never finished".

If there is a cart version of it, I buy it every time. I know it's easier to go digital-only for managing street pass stuff in your games, and on-the-go, but still. I prefer physical. That way I can pop it out and my wife can play it in her 3DS or my son in his. I'll always be a physical gamer, but I love digital-only titles very much.

depends where you live, sometimes digital is cheaper, especiallly here in Australia changing your region and buying from other eshops (if you have not been tricked by NIntendo into country locking yourself) can save you a LOT of money..... other than that Nintendo is not very good with incentives to go digital their lack of account system makes digital undesirable..... on other platforms digital is normally better because of cheaper and you don't lose the game if something happens to your system

Digital.

That way, I don't have a physical reminder of how much money I've spent

I then turn on my game system of choice, and browse the games I have there.........MY LEG!!!!!!!!!

hey another download vs. retail thread ! okay this seems to be more structured so i'll give it a shot.

i only get my games on cartridges. i always have to resell games and systems if i want something new so financially i dont really have a choice. i would love to have animal crossing as a download, but i wasnt sure if i would play the game long enough to justify the purchase. i sold the DS and Wii AC game after several weeks/months. New Leaf however will not be given away any time soon.

some games are way better as a download version. like AC or mario kart.
btw are there any differences in loading times? are cartridges faster than sd-card?

if the prices for downloads wouldnt be so high i would like to try a download someday.
also i would love to see nintendo making it possible to download a game for free after you purchased the retail version. they could do something like "send the game to us and we will give you a download code then". maybe for a few extra €. i would definetly do that for mario kart and animal crossing!

3DS is always Digital for new games, for a portable gaming console the less I have to carry the better so this point weighs a lot heavier then others.

This might be less of an issue if I was a Women and carried a Purse around(or just carry a purse but I dont see that happening) , but I only have pockets on me which greatly limits what I carry with me.

"Don't have to wait for long download", You may not but you also now have to physically pick it up or pay shipping.

@6ch6ris6 No difference in Speed

just to add some pros and cons
digital:

• if the 3DS is lost you most probably can't recover your games
• if the SD card breaks(and you have a backup) all you need is to copy the data to other SD card
• there are more exclusively digital games than exclusively physical retail ones
• good really cheap games
• never gets sold out
• it's on Eshop only no other shops with different available titles(meaning you don't have to search in more than one place)

retail:

• if the card breaks the game is gone and you'll have to buy a new one to start the game all over
• if you lose your 3DS and the game wasn't on it you don't lose the game and the save data
• the box(might be either a pro or con depending on the player's point of view, for me it's pro)
• it's yours if your NNID or(inclusive or) 3DS data is gone the game stays with you
• there's a chance of being really hard to find

well I had others but those are really specific situations so they don't count

I don't see the point in going digital instead of cartridge on the crummy old poop 3DS...

Discs these days are showing signs of not being able to cope with the massive amounts of data they need to push to get smooth framerates, fast load times, less pop in and reduced glitchy/crashing... That's why I prefer to go DIGITAL 4 LYFE BABY! in this new gen console age

While I know your always the preacher of always digital, considering the 3DS does not use discs and what are essentially glorified SD cards there is no performance loss or wear and tear issues.

In fact the SD is more likely to run into issues due to all the reading and writing of multiple games rather then just one. Of course we will have 4DS' by then.