I've been considering jumping into the digital age and purchasing my games via digital download as a first preference. Is anyone else moving in this direction? My only concern is that my games are tied to my account and if I lose my external hard drive or if it dies or goes bad or something, I may lose hundreds of dollars in games. But, the same is true if someone steals your disks.

Any thoughts here?

Hell no, as long as retail downloads cost more than the boxed version I'll go for the boxed version, personally would prefer to download it but it just doesn't make sense price wise at least in the UK.

Yeah I have been going the download route just to take advantage of the discount thingumajig and the only physical disc games I bought so far are ZombiU, Assassins Creed and BLOPS2. It doesn't matter if the HDD dies because you can just buy another one and download your games again... If the system dies then ya gotta send it off to Nintendo for repair

Yes. I don't have the space for boxes and such in my home, now that boxes are pointless.

I've considered getting some retail games digitally, but I haven't done so yet (at least not on Wii U, I did download NSMB2 on 3DS). I personally prefer having something that I can physically hold in my hands, especially when they cost just as much as retail, but I would like to try it just once.

Yes, I've purchased every game digitally on Wii U (barring the Nintendo Land pack in) as I hate storing boxes, changing discs, and carrying a select few to friends houses. Plus the discount promotion thing makes games cheaper.

I have a Basic Wii U so no.

Not on home consoles. On the 3DS I somewhat do it though.

I buy games that I really want to have with me at all times on the eShop. I will, for example, buy Pokemon on the eShop, cause that's a game I always want to have near. But in general, I prefer solid copies. I want to have the ability to let my friends test the games and to trade them in if I ever get bored of them.

Just buy a HDD. Problem solved.

I picked up Scribblenauts and NSMBU on the eShop and it's likely I'll pick up any other game that I want Day 1 off the shop (i.e., the eShop price will be the same as a retail boxed copy at the time) but I won't be purchasing ALL my games digitally

probably for my Wii U when I get it I will.....my 3DS though only the games that I'm going to keep with me forever. Like the Pokemon series, Art Academy and Mario Kart 7.

I agree with this completely. I haven't bought any retail games digitally yet, but Black Ops 2 wasn't for available for digital and that's the only retail game I have besides Nintendo Land, which I really wish would've came pre-installed on the Wii U instead of as a disc. I plan on getting NSMBU as a digital download.

im fully 50/50 on downloads i do like the e shop and virtual console its cool to have retro games saved to the system for convenience but when it come to retail the collector in me really likes having the cases shelved up. Another point being the price of retail games to download is ridiculous. assassins creed III is on offer in my local game shop for £30 at the moment new. To download the same title from the e-shop would cost me £54.99. I see no logic in this...

strangely enough im only doing that for my vita... not 3ds, or wii u, or ps3.. of course i pick the one with the most expensive memory cards... and i do want animal crossing new leaf digitally so i can play it everywhere. but i would never buy all digital games for a console.

never. when retail games cost less than the digital download of the game .. whats the point ? i mean batman arkham city is £49.99 on the e-shop and £18-25 in retail ? count me out it should be the other way around !

Depends. A lot of the times it cost more to download the game than to buy a physical copy, at least on consoles anyway.

No, I like my physical copies and will always buy physical.

Um, I actually sell games I don't want. Even if the digital is slightly cheaper, I still spend less on the Physical after I sell it. :3

Physical games. If I lose, say, and SD card, external hard drive, etc... hundreds lost. Plus, I like the boxes and stuff, as I'm a little bit of a collector. I'll buy physical as long as it's available physically.

I will almost always buy physical whenever possible. I just bought my first retail download actually, BIT.TRIP SAGA because it was on sale.

100 percent digital, and loving it.