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Topic: Digital vs. physical games advice

Posts 1 to 7 of 7

maths

Ok, I am almost out of space on my Wii U hard drive. I am currently ALL digital when it comes to games. I figured when this happened, I would go buy a hard drive and continue the digital trend. However, I am starting to rethink things. There are a lot of games I'm interested in this year (Splatoon, Star Fox U, Zelda U, Mario Maker, Wolly World, Xenoblade X, Mario Party, and various indie games). Some of these could end up being my very favorite games on the platform (which tempts me to have a physical copy on the shelf). Should I:

a) save my last 4-5 GB of hard drive space for eshop only titles and buy a physical copy of everything else
b) buy a cheap hard drive and add to my ever growing collection of electronics under the T.V and continue digital only
c) buy a large flash drive (32 or 64 GB) and use that as my external hard drive as a more minimalist approach (is this even possible?)

Side note: I am not concerned about reselling games, nor is money an obstacle (though not buying a hard drive would save me something). Every game I buy, I will keep forever.

Edited on by maths

maths

Nintendo Network ID: neap24

CaviarMeths

If you really want to go digital on Wii U, the external hard drive is a must. 32GB just won't cut it, unless you want to be always deleting and re-downloading your games as you play them. Xenoblade alone has been confirmed to be pushing the disc to the limit, so expect a download size nearly 25GB.

Pick up a cheap hard drive. 500GB should be plenty to last you the entire generation, even if you plan on buying a lot of games. I would not recommend a flash drive due to them having a shorter lifespan. They can't handle as many rewrites as a HDD can.

If you do get the drive though, be aware that a portable drive without its own power source will not work. The Wii U does not pump enough power through the USB slot to power it. You will need to either buy a drive with its own AC power source, buy a y-cable to split it into 2 Wii U slots, or buy a powered USB hub.

I'm 100% digital with my Wii U and I like it. It's very convenient.

Edited on by CaviarMeths

So Anakin kneels before Monster Mash and pledges his loyalty to the graveyard smash.

sr388survivor

It's really personal preference. I would say the main benefit to getting games at retail are if you want to display them as a collection and that you can usually find better prices for retail games. Otherwise digital is great and you can find a 1 or 2 TB hard drive for a pretty decent price.

Nintendo doesn't recommend using a flash drive as they have a limited number of rewrites.

sr388survivor

GrailUK

Ok, I have been plucking the courage to ask this question for ages. So be gentle internet!

Is there any benefit to having digital copies? Is it naïve to think the loading times would be faster because of no disc access? If so then I'm totally sold tbh.

I never drive faster than I can see. Besides, it's all in the reflexes.

Switch FC: SW-0287-5760-4611

ultraraichu

Personally I'll go with choice B, buying a hard-drive. Getting a flash drive will lend to more problems down the road and since you mention that you keep your games forever, it is likely that you replay all your favorites so playing and switching from one game to another on the menu would be more convenient then switching discs.

I got a 2TB hard drive and even with all the retail games I have on it, I haven't even reach the 30% mark (last I check). So something like a 500 GB would be nice like CaviarMeths said but you can find a good 1TB for less than $60 if you know where to shop, kind of like what Skjia said with the decent price.
Plus with all the games you're interested in, your physical living space could get a bit crowd.

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