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Topic: Digital vs physical

Posts 1 to 20 of 140

RunGMhx

I recently pre-ordered 5 upcoming switch games (Metroid, Smash, Yoshi and both Pokemon) for 50$ CAD each at Walmart instead of their regular price of 80$ CAD. But the things is I would rather have them digital as it's more convenient to me (not having to carry them all the time, no chance a breaking them and no need to switch every cartridge). But the thing is I find that digital games are often more expensive (as they rarely are in sale or at least good sale) which is stupid as they are clearly less expensive to market especially considering that the switch cartridge is more expensive than CD.

What about you, do you prefer digital or physical and why? I mind find some unsuspected advantage at having them physical. At the moment beside the fact that I save the cost of two full price game by buying 5 physical games.

Also I remember reading somewhere that every cartridge has a special signature on switch and that they could use it do deactivate one in case of piracy, could it mean they could also use it to allow you to convert physical to digital? Because the switch is just much more portable with digital games.

RunGMhx

Anti-Matter

@RunGMhx
I always buy the games in Physical because :
1. You OWN the games officially.
2. You can keep it for very long time.
3. Complete games library.
4. You can sell the games if you bored.

I DEFY all the convenience.
I would rather keep busy by changing the cart / disc to play rather than touch an Apps icon.

Anti-Matter

Eel

I personally find it bothersome to have to switch cartridges, so I don't really play all my physical games very much. Unfortunately, digital games are usually more expensive.

Edited on by Eel

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RunGMhx

Yosheel wrote:

I personally find it bothersome to have to switch cartridges, so I don't really play all my physical games very much. Unfortunately, digital games are usually more expensive.

Same here, i seems to keep the game inserted in the switch for a long time and play my digital, in between but I find that when I take out that cartridge I’m really not as likely to come back unlike digitales which I constantly get back too...

RunGMhx

RunGMhx

@Anti-Matter

The owning part is more of a grey area to me... I often hear that if the eshop were to close I would lose my game, but given all the DLC and updates to game nowadays, with the cartridge you have a game but likely not complete and likely not in the state that I remember... plus those games that have mandatory download well you technically have nothing....

RunGMhx

SViper

I like Digital copies, because with Physical games even small accident or such as you just lose the game forever, but I admit cartridges are not easy to broke it. But I admit Nintendo had some bad case where we lost Digital games, because they no more support consoles for atleast decade, so they closed eShop for it. But they probably now learned they lesson now, so.

Edited on by SViper

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Magician

RunGMhx wrote:

What about you, do you prefer digital or physical and why?

I appreciate both equally. I've enjoyed this hobby of ours for over thirty-five years. My desire to collect video games hasn't been piqued since the Neo Geo. I suppose it's the cartridge format? I can't be sure. All I know is that disc-based systems have never appealed to me from a collecting standpoint. Optical drives eventually wear down, game discs can be scratched, etc. So for disc-based systems, I prefer digital.

So for Nintendo to have a console-quality cartridge system in the Switch, my desire to build a physical collection for this console is through the roof. And as an aside, I have a feeling that the Switch (along with PS5 and Xbox Scarlett) will be the last platform that will offer physical games. The industry is headed towards an all-digital future. And I'd like to have the last system I collect games for...be a memorable one.

Edited on by Magician

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Kinoen

For Nintendo consoles, its always physical for me. Other consoles have you download the entire game on the hard-drive, so its basically pointless buying physical. Nintendo don't do that, so you save SO much space with physical copies, which I love.
You can also trade or sell the physical copy, which after some time passes, might end up as a collectable and be worth a lot.

Kinoen

CdrJameson

I tend to overcomplicate things so I have a system.

I bought a 128GB SD card in a sale so I have plenty of storage. Having said that, if a game is over 5GB I try to buy the physical cartridge. If I can get the physical version cheaper then I get the physical version (and vice versa which is why I have digital versions of Skyrim and Splatoon 2).

As it happens games that I'm likely to dip in and out of, i.e. Stardew Valley, tend to be smaller and so I have them downloaded. I play handheld a lot but usually at home. If I do take my Switch with me when I'm away then I'll have one cartridge in the Switch and I have enough smaller games that I won't get bored.

CdrJameson

Octane

@Kinoen You don't have to download the games on PS4 and Xbox, you install them. Big difference. One requires an internet connection, the other one doesn't.

Octane

HobbitGamer

I mix it up. If it's a game with a retail version, I typically go physical unless I want it available any time. The exception is certainly going to be Smash, because I'm sure it will be huge in digital. Sometimes the non-Nintendo retail titles I'll get digital because they occasionally go on sale.

#MudStrongs

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Ryu_Niiyama

Now that I have a shiny new 400GB card in my switch I have a feeling I will be getting a lot more digital games. I think for anything here on out that is a port/double dip im just going to get digital. As I just want it for the portability aspect.

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ValhallaOutcast

I am all digital now, I don’t like shelves full of plastics cases and especially with the switch being portable you can carry 100s of digital games with you , have fun doing that with 100s of carts

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FaeKnight

Wouldn't Nintendo's anti-piracy measure mean that buying used games would get you labeled as a pirate?

FaeKnight

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Kaile

FaeKnight wrote:

Wouldn't Nintendo's anti-piracy measure mean that buying used games would get you labeled as a pirate?

I think they would only ban the game if many people were found to be playing on the “same cartridge”. Being a second/third owner should not be too suspicious.

Kaile

FaeKnight

Would hope not, but Nintendo does have a history of somewhat draconian measures. And both Microsoft and Sony have been toying with the idea of eliminating the used game market. Sure it caused a huge backlash on Microsoft, but then both companies quietly implemented systems that encourage people to buy digital instead of physical copies of games.

Edited on by FaeKnight

FaeKnight

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SwitchForce

Biggest downside to Digital>>Storage MicroSD until it comes in 2tb then we can rehase this debate. But am the mind of Anti-Matter and ReaderRagfish. Sure pushing it in and out becomes a chore but then again if your on the move lots then Digital would make sense but if you plan to sell the game Digital isn't the way to go. It comes down to until MicroSD at 2tb is inexpensive Digital will be limited to storage space and that will take a toll.

SwitchForce

Kinoen

@Octane
Both take up the same space on your hard-drive though, does it not? So it's the same outside of one needing internet to download and the other not.

Kinoen

FaeKnight

Kinoen wrote:

@Octane
Both take up the same space on your hard-drive though, does it not? So it's the same outside of one needing internet to download and the other not.

Yes and no. WIth an XB1 or PS4 you have to fully install the game from disk, so it takes the same space on the hard drive if it's a physical or digital copy. The only difference is if you need the disk inserted to play or not.

With Nintendo's systems on the other hand (and a PS Vita as well) a physical copy of the game means the only thing that needs to be saved to the hard drive is saved game data and any DLC/patches. This saves a lot of space, although it raises the issues of physical storage space and having to change the cartridge to switch games.

I generally prefer physical media, but I'm running out of room to store games, movies, and the like. 8 effective game systems PS2 also plays PS1 games), blu-ray disks, and dvd take up a lot of space after a while. As such, digital appeals to me. And for the XB1 I gave up buying physical games after 2 or 3 when I realized they were taking up the exact same space on the drive. Thus removing a major reason to get a physical copy.

Most of my switch games are digital, but I plan to get more physical copies as well.

FaeKnight

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Kinoen

@FaeKnight
Aye, but the one dude was saying how installing and downloading was the major difference between digital and discs.

Kinoen

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