Topic: And they say Digital is better...

@MsJubilee ah I suppose that explains why they keep bundling it with other things.

@Matt_Barber PC, XB1 and Series X|S are the only platforms that is currently true for. The first game didn't get the remaster treatment so would've been stuck on PS3/360 if not for the Xbox backwards compatibility program, meanwhile Syndicate is unplayable on PS5 due to bugs.

@NeonPizza No. Its people under 30 who want the digital products, the majority of older people (i think anyway as I'm 40 this year) don't like or trust digital only.
Especially Cloud games, that is just renting it, as a full price game, until the company cant be bothered to host it and then stealing your money.
When I buy something I like to be able to hold it in my hand, be it a cartridge, book or CD.
Physical is real, Digital is virtual.

@Bunkerneath This Gamer gets it!

@Bunkerneath I think it just comes down to personal preference rather than necessarily being an age thing.

I'm in my 40s and my Switch collection is probably 70-80% digital - It used to be that planned purchases were physical and digital stuff was mainly impulse purchases from sales etc, but now I buy whatever is cheapest at the time and will deliberately go physical occasionally if it's something I'm not sure I'll like so I have the option of selling on if it's not for me. To be honest, the convenience of an all-digital library does appeal to me personally - I doubt I'd have the space for it all if my entire collection was physical.

Of all the systems I have that have the option of digital purchases PS3 was probably 50:50 (although probably heading towards more physical as I do still buy the odd PS3 disc as they are usually pretty cheap now), 3DS is 60-70% digital, Xbox 100% digital (I have a Series S).

My son is about to turn 20 and he's the opposite - he's probably about 90% physical on both Switch and 3DS. That might be because when he was younger he'd mostly get games as Christmas or birthday gifts or didn't have his own bank card so couldn't buy online, but even now he's still mostly physical.

@dmcc0
Yeah I agree that its not necessarily an age thing. I'm in my 50s and i've pretty much been all digital since Steam came out in 2003 and then just followed that up with the consoles. I tend to get games more in sales now than when they first come out and there are so many digital sales all the time so I just find it very convenient. I've got about 300 digital games on my Switch on a 1Tb card and i wouldn't be able to have that collection if it was physical or even have some of those games

I'm almost 38 and still prefer physical release over then digital. And everytime I bought digital games even the cheapest, it will be quickly abandoned like I have never bought the games.
I will keep my mindset 100% physical or not playing at all.

@NeonPizza
Pretty much this.

I'm 32 years old, so a Gen Y Millennial, and I definitely appreciate plastic over digital. It's the same sentiment of "do you prefer digital eBooks or actual books?" Call it nostalgia, call it sentiment, but there's a pride in displaying all the games you've accumulated over your lifetime on shelves, cabinets, and tea tables. It's your entire gaming life displayed for the world to see.

Sure, you could kinda do that with digital games, but having someone check your Steam profile to see your library of games is definitely not the same feeling, especially when there's a lack of personality in terms of how you arrange the games and how you present the games (on your shelves and cabinets). There's a presentation factor to physical games, a showmanship that contains your personality in how you show the world these games.

Plus, special edition box sets. You could never get that on digital, period.

I also noticed something awfully hilarious earlier. Soul Hackers 2, the physical edition doesn't have any special features, but it does contain "premium character cards" you get to display, whereas for the digital premium version, there are all these so-called "bonuses" (aka gameplay features that make the game easier) that only come with the digital edition, so essentially, Atlus is using the digital format to squeeze more dollars out of the customers. And all you have to show for are a bunch of virtual items that you don't even get to hold in your hands or show off. If you're gonna tempt me to pay you $114 for a game, at least give me a shiny box set. Or at least a Mew shiny card. Remember those special edition Pokémon cards that only come with limited copies of Pokémon? Digital sure defeats that purpose when you could just download special Pokémon off of limited time gift events.

But I think my biggest problem with it all is the ownership of it all. Remember: Steam purchases and all digital games might as well be rental games. You are only paying for the digital access of the games, and should that digital service be discontinued for whatever corporate reason, your access is gone forever.

Furthermore, this also means that the corporations have control over refunds. Back in the day, if you're lucky enough to know any understanding GameStop owners, they would be willing to accept refunds even if the game isn't broken, even if your only reason is that "it's a terrible game" (Singapore, where I hail from, doesn't have such a generous policy, unfortunately). You can't do that with Steam games because guess what? You only have two hours to test out the games. Plus, if you happen to mass-purchase games during a sale and didn't have the time to play them all, you only have about two weeks or so before your refund privilege is voided. So yeah, not a lot of freedom here to decide which games you want to own for life.

Speaking of owning a game... you can't resell digital games unless you sell your Steam accounts (which is against Steam policies). Unlike digital games, physical games can be sold to your neighbors or local citizens for a cheaper price if you happen to discover that the game just isn't fun or if you need to make the extra cash. You can't even borrow friends your copy of the game like in the old days anymore, which is yet another reason why console games still reign supreme over PC games till this day, because you can still do that with console physical copies. I could literally ship my copy of New Horizons/SMT V on Switch right to your doorsteps from Singapore with no issue.

So do I have problems with digital games? Yeah, more than a few problems for sure. The 'convenience' isn't worth it sometimes. It also doesn't feel good when I pay over 100 bucks for a game (digital games love their DLCs), only to never really feel with my hands the expensive product I just paid for. I'm rehashing this point a little bit, but the idea of holding the game's box in your hands and seeing with your eyes what you paid 100 bucks for just feels more satisfying, especially if the box has beautiful, embedded artwork that adds to the craftsmanship. With digital games, it's literally a more virtual feeling. I don't know, maybe I'm not making sense, but the physical touch of something I paid so much money for just makes all the difference.

Digital certainly leads to fears of a dystopian future where there is no preservation, no ownership and companies can just at a whim take our stuff away from us. And in some ways it already sorta happens and people get away with it, whether it be Nintendo's refusal to make any game backwards compatible they think they can just rerelease at a full, modern, price (and they get away with it every time), or online servers being shut down with single player aspects intrinsically linked to the servers so they become inaccessible as well, or stuff like the Destiny 2 'content vaulting', but I dunno... the convenience of digital is hard to beat. Especially on PC.

Like if I can get a game like under a tenner, just a few months after release and within an hour it is playable, why would I ever want to go back to physical? Pay probably close to full price sometimes years after release except for the occasional sale, have to wait for that title to arrive, and then release the disc is basically just a DRM stick and will need to download the full game and all the patches still anyway.

Like I get the arguments about ownership and preservation, and they are for sure important. I also guess in some senses there is less "risk" involved as with physical you can always sell the title on or trade it in or whatever if you don't like it (although companies like Steam really combat that with a really excellent refund policy), but I dunno man, that digital convenience is a hell of a drug.

@Pizzamorg
I mean, I get it. I still buy digital from time to time in spite of what I said. Digital has its place. But it helps to be aware of the risks.

And when talking about convenience, I think it also helps seeing physical supporters' point of view when you think of what convenience means. Sure, I would just eat takeouts every now and then because it's convenient for me, but would I really want to have my girlfriend eating takeouts on a special occasion? I don't think so. The benefits of preservation in physical games isn't just about preserving a game for the long term. The bigger takeaway of such preservation is the pride factor, the sense of pride we gamers have in preserving a special game we cherish and love, even if it's inconvenient to spend three hours arranging my boxsets in just the right way so that it looks majestic. It's definitely inconvenient go through so much trouble for our sense of pride, but there's a reason we do it.

I think in terms of patches though, physical games have their most glaring flaws. But at the same time, I think it's a blessing in disguise. Game developers prior to the age of digital games were forced to release games in their full package. No Day-1 patch, no unethical withholding of game content (cough*Destiny*cough) for a late DLC release, just everything you pay for. Does that mean games come with a lot more bugs than the digital age? Maybe, but I'd be more willing to accept that because it means that the devs have tried their best to release the game as completed as possible (as opposed to digital games, where devs have the privilege to release portions of a single game). I respect that work ethic, something that's lost in our digital age.

I mean I can only speak for myself, but if a game is special enough to me, I will go out of my way to collect other physical aspects linked to that title. Whether it be special editions, or officially licenced merch or whatever it turns out to be.

To me, there is value in products like that, that aren't present just in the base existence of a physical product. Especially now where you often don't get like special art, or instruction manuals or anything, it is basically a plastic wallet with a disc in it. At best just a plastic case and a disc you toss aside and never think about again or at worse an extra inconvenience as you have to keep swapping the discs or carts or whatever each time you want to play a title, rather than being able to access everything instantly in one place.

NeonPizza just too cool to be old style gamer.
Digital only things is not cool.

Yeah, that's unfortunately the consequence of making physical products unvaluable in the digital age. Developers no longer have any reason to create special art because no one's buying physical anymore.

I'm 38, and when it comes to games I go with the cheaper option. Whether its digital or physical. Shredder's revenge, I grabbed physical, cause I had a $10 giftcard, which brings it in line with digital. I grabbed a digital copy of ac: unity for $1.50, because a physical copy was a lot more.

And, with more recent examples, physical just isnt what it used to be. Gone are the days of poppin in a game, with zero internet connection, and playing. Most, if not all, require a day-one patch, and eventual patches down the line.

But in the end, it's to each, their own.

I'm old-fashioned and physical will stay my preferred format for the foreseeable future. Digital is convenient and often cheaper, but you pay for it in other ways - in the Switch's case, at least, digital is a limited, non-transferable license that could end sooner than you want, you can't lend it to family/friends, you can't resell it, and you don't have anything fun and tangible to display at home.

Physical has its compromises, too, but gives me the most control and value for my money. If my daughter wants to play Katamari Damashii to play on her Switch, she can borrow my cartridge. And just for example, the physical copy of Celeste I purchased for $35 or $40 probably sells for double or triple that now.

I think even if the big 3 were to go total Netflix and offer their entire game catalogs to subscribers, there would still be a subset of people (myself included) who would seek to own our favorite games on physical media.

For me, digital is temporary and tenuous, but physical (while certainly not permanent) is more persistent, concrete, and worry-free.

You've identified the core issue here, as far as I'm concerned - choice. I welcome a marketplace that features flourishing digital and physical options. Those advocating for "the all-digital future" (as if that is somehow an inevitability, when it plainly isn't) are seeking to take away our choices, and that is what turns my fur a deep red. ... Which is bad.

Please permit me to add a small note about Slay the Spire (which I obtained digitally):
Teksetter, you are my sister in gaming, and yours is a trusted opinion, so... I hold you blameless in this matter. I think that it is only just that I blame Kate for introducing me to that title. Like the Watcher, I find myself holding a Wrath card when one of Calm might be better for my immediate health. Oh, yes, it's addictive, and the gameplay (with all its filthy choices) runs fluent and swift. That's precisely the snare, of course. I strongly suspect our staff writer is deriving considerable secret amusement from those Backlog Club articles...

Probably my strongest argument for physical games. Saw this posted by someone on the 3DS subreddit:

Apparently, they're collecting all the "regional exclusive" 3DS games. That probably means that they're collecting 3DS games that are released differently in different countries or something.

Hokey **** @Maxenmus! I hope to one day have a collection that big!

@Maxenmus Awesome collection!

I have to take a photo of my collection soon as well! It is not that big but I love each and every game I have!

@Link-Hero To be honest, I let my small collection of games eats up dust. lol Not that there's there's much dust though, probably because it's a smaller collection neatly tucked away within the shelf (rather than exposed in a more open area where dusts would collect).