Topic: Physical vs Digital my take 2 years later

I’ve bought all physical copies for my Switch, and my main reason was that I regretted buying digital on my PS3 because I couldn’t transfer/download them onto my PS4. As time has gone on, like many others here, I find swapping the cartridges really annoying for some reason.

Maybe it’s because with smartphones you’re used to just having all your apps there to press to open whenever you want, and the shift from physical media to that has made it more annoying to get up & swap cartridges on a portable system? I don’t remember finding it annoying to swap PS1/2 discs when I was younger. Maybe the fact the cartridges are so small adds to that.

However, I am currently thinking of selling all my physical copies to purchase the digital copies, but then I’m only thinking short term convenience over long term nostalgia, if I find the system in my attic one day etc. I also find it a hassle to try and sell them as well.

I don’t have an issue with digital goods. I purchase films and music from iTunes still, and I know that those files can be moved from one of my Apple devices to another future-released device with no issue (when they had DRM too - most iTunes Store content is DRM free now), and I can back them up myself as well as have them tied to my account.

If gaming was the same as iTunes, I would be all digital probably, but most systems aren’t backwards compatible & you can’t move the file to the next system. I still have my PS3 because some games on there I can’t do anything with except store them on that system (I don’t even play them, but I don’t like throwing stuff away). I know if I throw it away or whatever, but come back in 5 years or so to login to my account, those purchases will be gone. Also stopping me is the fact you can’t even get refunds on Nintendo Switch eShop, which is ridiculous haha.

But you also wouldn't have been able to play physical PS3 games on PS4, @Wallax1992 ....? At least most current-gen games should be immediately playable on the next consoles, though but that will apply to digital or physical, as well

@Wallax1992
Swapping cartridges or discs are fun activity for me.
Especially collecting small cartridges of NDS, 3DS, Switch games.
I never like the convenience of digital download.
I want the hard way to play. (physical media, swapping software)
Not by convenience as the easy way.

Oh of course, @BruceCM! I mentioned digital because I couldn’t transfer or download the PS1 classic crash team racing or one of the uncharted games I got. Come to think of it, I bet Nintendo alters the physical media for their next console too, or just do away with physical media altogether.

If we do eventually go all digital, our rights should be expanded. I wouldn’t be as bothered, as long as I get to keep them and store them myself.

Well, you wouldn't be able to play those physically on PS4, either, @Wallax1992 .... So, again, it wouldn't make any difference Assuming Nintendo sticks with carts, it's quite likely they can work on making the current size/shape ones a larger capacity & with faster read speeds, though
Generally, they make their handhelds able to play the previous one's games, so it's likely they'd do so again, if they do have to adjust the carts but they do have the big advantage of being able to play the games without installing, so I doubt they'd want to go back to discs

I know, @BruceCM! I was just saying what made me stick with physical, which was that experience. As well as the fact there’s more freedom, and you aren’t tied down with them.

Which do you prefer?

Well, on Switch, I do prefer physical more because it's played from the cart, @Wallax1992 .... Steam being my main platform, though, now, I have to have digital there Otherwise, it'd be primarily a matter of price, allowing for the potential to trade-in for games that are still worth that too

@SwitchForce COVID encouraged me to get Splatoon 2 digitally back in May, when there wasn’t curbside pickup here. After that, I got SMM2 digitally also in May. Now I kind of like digital more. I’m still divided.

(Sorry for the late reply, I don’t follow this thread.)

@BruceCM
Trade-ins can be insanely valuable sometimes. I traded in an extra copy of Mario Odyssey that Amazon sent me (shhhh don't tell them lol) and got 40 bucks for it! And that was probably a good 4-6 months after the game released.

The quarantine has really tested my dedication to physical, though. Honestly I'm kind of ready to throw in the towel and just go digital from this point out. I can't trade anything in, yea, but don't you get significantly more gold points for digital purchases? And the eShop is getting much better at discounting even some of the big AAA games from time to time.

I don't know. Still up in the air. I'm gonna preorder Origami King physical, so maybe I'll stick physical until Nintendo's next console.

Heh, Switch games do keep their value a lot better than XB1 or PS4 ones, @rallydefault .... RDR 2 is now usually £25, physical, for a brand new standard edition over here, for instance, which is oddly cheaper than buying it pre-owned but that means it's not worth as much for trade-in, either

@BruceCM
I have some PS4 games physical... Drake Collection, Order, FF X, etc. And I think all of them together will get me less than 10 bucks lol

For me part of the reason ( also the main reason ) I still prefer physical is that I refuse to pay full cost to the company.
Physical = box, box art, cart, their shipment to store, sales employee (transportation to store) ( I used to work in a music CD distribution long long time ago, those are cost the company have to deal with ) So we ( consumer sharing cost with company for the standard game of $60. Thou it don't really cost much for the company, still feel better that they have to pay some while charging high price due to fans supporting this. )

digital = they don't need to produce the product so less to no cost to them and we consumer paying full $60.

Other reason would be down the line I might still be able to play the game ( I can still play all my old ds game that is the plus ), if they decided to take the game off the shelves ( hope they are not ***** and do the "you need latest update in order to play" crap)
And and last reason.... Collection.

Yeah, even big releases from only this year aren't generally worth much to trade-in already, @rallydefault .... Whereas Breath of the Wild is still usually the same price it was when it came out, brand-new (been on sale a couple of times for a whole 20% off, mind you) & pre-owned is a few quid less! But you could still get about half it's cost for trade-in

Which brings up a question I asked earlier: how many releases have there been for the Switch that haven't needed an update of some kind. whether it's a patch or a free update that adds significant new content? I'm guessing the list is very small.

The primary reason digital costs the same as retail is because retailers would riot if Nintendo undercut them on the eshop. Charging less might also run Nintendo into legal problems, at least in the US, because it could be considered using a monopoly position to gain an unfair advantage over the competition.

@BruceCM
I have such a huge Switch physical collection that I could probably trade it in to buy a PS5 and have plenty left over for a few games and a controller lol

But the whole point in doing physical, for me, is to always have it. 10 years from now my daughter can pick up those games and play them. (Probably will still be able to do that with digital, but let's pretend the internet gets eaten by a shark or something.)

I made a mistake when I was a kid/teenager of trading in all my old Nintendo stuff. My SNES, N64, all of those games...traded. I got a good chunk of money for it all, but I would give anything to have it all back, truth be told.

@Mountain_Man It's not really under cut the retail, they pay less than 1/2 the retail price to the company. And the selling price ( on retail ) is set by the company not the retailer. See the price difference between some game (indies ) vs mainstream Nintendo games ( or bigger brand like Marvelous Inc ).
Them giving 10 -15% off difference for digital will not cost a riot, I would think.

When the Switch first came out, I thought it would be a great time to start collecting. So I mainly bought physical copies of games, and I did amass a lot, I also had a load of amiibos, posters, limited edition copies, trinkets etc. 2 years later, I am digital only. I realised recently that collecting physical games was just me overcompensating for my miserable marriage and it was my way of thinking it was making me happy.
Now I'm single, I can't be bothered with finding physical space, changing the cart over and now my Switch doesn't even leave the dock. I've got myself a bigger memory card and just filling it up. I have sold most of my collection and just repurchased the games I loved the most digitally. And now I just pick and choose whatever game I want, when I want, where I want cringe. I actually take more pride of my digital collection now than I ever did with my physical collection and I play and enjoy games more. I didn't even unwrap most of my physicals, so half my games didn't even get played. Also the sales in the eshop are usually always great with the exception of most 1st party games and I've picked up some cracking offers lately.

PS. I LOVE SINGLE LIFE HIGHLY RECOMMEND

After 5 years of buying and downloading games for Wii (which was neat, because physical games were physical only, and downloadable games were download only with a couple exceptions) and another 5 years of going digital only on Wii U I came to the realisation that physical is the best option whenever possible. I'm actually a bit disappointed to have downloaded Thimbleweed Park and Undertale for Switch when later, or in a different region, a physical version was available.

So after 10 years of downloading Nintendo games, I'm back to physical whenever possible. With the shutdown of the Wii Shop Channel, and with downloading retail games on Wii U, I found It's just a gigantic waste of money to go digital only. I even bought a retail copy of Xenoblade Chronicles X (Limited Edition) for Wii U in January, because having a masterpiece like this only as a download that eventually just evaporates felt wrong.

I guess physical is the best backup plan as I don't want to backup all my catalog regularly to a new SD Card (Wii) or external harddrive (Wii U) every 5-10 years. I want my games to be independent of a PC or laptop, and I don't like the work involved to manage all the coded file names, especially with 200+ downloads on every console. I also wanna be the owner of art that I value highly, because there's no safer place than being in my possession.

So because of my laziness in managing a thousand codenamed files, and my 10 year experience that downloads feel hollow and can turn into smoke in an instant, physical is the only option for me.

An additional thing I've noticed, and tell me if anyone else has or hasn't, but it seemsike battery life is significantly better when running digital games vs cartridge or SD