Topic: Physical vs Digital my take 2 years later

Physical forever for me. I have a huge Switch physical collection and only buy digital if no physical version is available. I'm an avid game collector though and have thousands of games in my collection so it only makes sense. I don't knock people for buying digital-only. For example, the majority of my PC collection is digital because of Steam. Thanks to Limited Run games and sites like it physical Switch games can stay alive and collect value.

Definitely physical for the most part, for as long as it's possible. I'm not entirely against digital, and I have plenty of digital games both on Switch and on my Xbox One, but whenever possible or available, I'll get the physical version. NOTHING beats the ownership, control and durability that you'll only ever have with physical media.
I want to be able to still play my games for decades to come, much like I can do with any of my retro and pre-online consoles. Just stick in a disc or a cartridge and off we go! No DRM, no dead servers, no hassle with games not being available for download anymore, etc. etc...

Sure, convenience is nice, and I also won't refuse a good game that is only available in digital form, such as some of the great indie offerings that I've played over the years, but convenience is only one single bonus, whereas with physical, you'll have plenty more benefits, so that beats digital every time, in every way imaginable.

I think that most digital only players only look at that convenience, or go by the wrongful assumption that you surely must be a "collector" if you only want physical games, which is definitely not the case, because taking myself as an example, I'm definitely no collector, I just like to own my games and have control over when and how long I wish to play them. The fact that digital only gamers either overlook, ignore or simply wave away all the benefits (as well as their rights) of physical media is both strange and sad to me, because as the population of gamers that has a disconnect with physical media grows, we physical gamers will slowly lose that which is so precious to us, and that is mostly because of the short term "I want it now" thinking of digital only gamers...

@rallydefault You can definitely remove that "unlikely" bit from your anti-digital statement.
It's all but guaranteed that digital only games will be gone in the end, if we're talking long term conservation. No company on this Earth is going to support any kind of game forever. You may be able to still (re-)download some of them over time, and the period during which that is possible, varies per platform, but in general, all three digital store fronts have already removed hundreds upon hundreds of games over the years.

And don't get me started on the games that contain or require a considerable online component. Servers for those games will at most be supported for around 10 years, and maybe, juuuust maybe for a bit longer through custom servers by some private party.

If we're talking about Nintendo only, then I'm pretty sure that Wii U games support is already dropping down to zero, and some of the older Switch games will be sure to follow, in the years to come, depending on what Nintendo is going to do hardware-wise. Will they make a Switch 2, or are they once again going to surprise us with something completely different? Which, in their case, is definitely not unthinkable, as they do have a knack and/or tendency for doing just that.

I buy physical games because I can’t afford digital games. I do buy indies and smaller games digital.
I buy most Nintendo games day 1 and share my games with family and close friends.
Just looking at last gen and my Wii u games which I have around 80 physical games or the 3ds. If those games were digital. Then the games would be stuck on that system or the games on the 3ds wouldn’t allow my kids playing there own 3ds’s. I would need to buy several copies of the same games as you can’t share digital games on the 3ds

My take on it, I like both to be honest. Digital has that convenience factor. A couple of years back on Mario day, I couldn't go to the store to buy a new Mario game as I was snowed in. Because of digital, I was able to buy and download Super Mario 3D World to my Wii U, all without leaving home.

I also won't say no if a game is digital only. There's a lot of smaller development studios that simply cannot afford to sell their games physically. If these studios make a game that interests me, I'd still would like to play them.

I still love physical games, for those games I want the most, I'll most likely will buy them physically. Good example, I love the Sonic series, so I rather get those games physically if possible. Plus, I like the trip to the store, I could go for one game, and end up walking out with another game, or an accessory for my game system.

The big downside to me is the whole removal of games from sale. There were times I wanted to buy a game, but waited on it so long, I could not buy it at all anymore. Also, with the way the Wii Shop Channel shut down, if I didn't download a game or back it up to an SD card via Wii Menu, I could lose my game forever. Not to mention if I had to get a replacement system, that game is tied to that Wii it downloaded to.

Being a PC gamer, most games are digital, so I'm use to digital games. At least on PC, DRM-free games do exist, to me, it's the closest to physical digital will ever get. My games on GOG, I bought them, have them backed up, and can install and play them without internet. I feel bad consoles don't get DRM-free games, I also understand why it's like that obviously.

To keep it short, I prefer physical, but won't say no to digital if a game interests me enough.

I am almost exclusive physical collector BUT there are certain things that I own digital.

1. The Mini consoles are digital for me since I add games to them.
2. On PC I am digital exclusively. There is no other way like back in the days.
3. On some consoles like the PS3 I have digital ps2 games.
4. On PSP I have digital games because the UMDs are so noisy and slow ... it is frustrating!

And on my other consoles I am 99% physical.

@gcunit Yes, I've seen it on reddit. As long as the game are played by different account. So a secondary account on a switch which would be designed to be the primary switch by the game owner and on a non-primary switch where the game owner could play it would work. The pause thing is regarding using the same account to play on both console.

See reddit source : https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/9h7nrd/how_g... edit 5 and 6.

@Anti-Matter Sorry, but my games are not for sale. I may have one or two duplicates that I may get round to selling one day, in which case I'll try to drop you a line, but generally I buy games to keep. Thanks for the interest though 😊

My take is if it comes Physical, I will buy it for sd storage reason and re-sale value and can be given away. eShop you own and can do nothing other the keep for self. Also NIN eShop can pull a eShop for whatever reason or the Publisher pulls it then your stuck high and dry. Physical costs more but then your paying for the packaging and game and saving on microSD space and eShop takes microSD space either for the game and updates/DLC. In case of Physical you only download updates and DLC to microSD and the more games you get you can see where that goes in term of Long Term Storage microSD space. That's my take why Physical whenever they have it will surpass eShop for price and value.

This wasn't true in the early PC gaming days up til late 90's. Streaming isn't owning the game you only Paid to play the game but you have no real ownership of the game itself and you need internet to play streaming nowdays. That to me stop me from PC gaming. I still have NWN PC game and Witcher this was my last Physical game for PC and since then have stopped supporting Steam games.

@SwitchForce I know that, I was thinking of current PC games at the moment when I was typing that. Some physical PC games do exist, but it's mostly Call of Duty, Overwatch, and a few others. I still have older boxed copies of PC games from when I started PC gaming.

If you like ownership, check out GOG. When I speak DRM-free games, they're digital games you buy and own. Once downloaded, you can backup the game, install it without an internet connection or activation, and the game will always work. I feel bad consoles don't have DRM-free options like this.

@Sunsy As with me a past PC Gamer I wanted the Physical box and cd/dvd/bd install media. I dislike GOG/Steam buy download when I can install without needing a Online registration to start playing. This is how they lost a past PC gamer like me and I am not alone in this. People and Gamers will pay for Physical copies including PC games but they are only making a quick buck then providing Gamers real gaming experiences. I don't want Steam/GOG online activation/registration to play for something I own and purchased. This is why I no longer get any Steam/GOG games-if they can't see past this then it's their lose and Switch win. Since the Switch software Developers whom make Physical will get my money investments. Also the small portable nature of the Switch/Lite helps sell it more. They have eShop but even those are for some coming to Realize that making Physical will improve sales on both fronts not just force eShop sales.

Only have a small number of physical switch games but planning on going all digital for the most part. Been all digital on ps4 for years, I don't think my Pro has ever even had I disc in it lol.

Whichever is cheaper and 90% of the time it’s always the physical copies that are cheaper.

Physical is cheaper, saves on internal storage space, and I have to fill my shelves with something.

I always prefer physical. I may be inclined to double-dip on a digital version PC via GOG or if it's extremely cheap.

In the absence of physical PC games, GOG is the next best thing. At least I can burn my bulky games to Blu-rays if the industry isn't going to bloody do it.

@Octane not necessarily true always. Countless times I've bought a digital game for far cheaper than it would've been physical. At launch undoubtedly, but in time digital can end up cheaper if one is patient. And at least for the other 2 consoles buying physical has the same storage impact as digital, switch is obviously different in that area though.

@redd214 I buy most games at launch. Digital price is €70 (€69.99) for most big games over here, and physical prices usually range from €50 to €60 (60 is standard, but most stores sell them for less than that), depending on when you pre-order.

@redd214 I suppose it's fair to say that both get cheaper in time, and of course, there's used games. Good luck finding those in digital form. And in the case of the Switch specifically, there's cartridges which are basically all but indestructible, unless you REALLY abuse them, so getting these used is practically the same as getting them new.

@ThanosReXXX Not so sure, my smash cartridge has a little platic pin (covering the metal part) that went sideways making the game unreadable, eventually I've been able to put it straight again and got the game to work. That all happened carefully taking the game of a plastic case for multiple games (got rid of the case after that).

All in all it made me realize that the medium was not as safe/robust as it may seem... I take great care of my things and I'm usually the type of guy where the game go in the console goes in and out of the console once... In the case of smash it might have been a 4-5 times in and out...

@ThanosReXXX The durability of the switch carts is unquestionable but that wasnt my point. Its of course a game by game thing but even when accounting for used games digital at times is cheaper. Bought Wargroove for $10 a couple weeks ago on the eshop, cheapest used copy I could find was $20. I recall buying Darksiders 1/2 for only 6 bucks total and wouldve cost 7 times that to get them on disc. Obviously just a couple examples but like I said, if one is patient physical is cheaper isnt always the case.