Poll: The Tricky Issue of Retail Games as Download-Only Releases

I prefer physical and will import if need be to get my box. However I recognize with faster internet becoming more widespread and after years of being a PC gamer that disk games are dying. I'm not quite ready to put down the controller just because I don't own a copy of the software. Besides digital has the potential of keeping hard to find franchises in regular circulation.

Most physical-only sentiments I've seen amount to elitism. "I don't give in to the download trends, therefore I am BETTER than you sheeple" and all that. And not only has those attitudes made me better accept retail downloads, it has actively turned me away from buying physical.

You guys who think like that literally sound like those hipsters who insist on listening to vinyl records only just because they're not sold by "the man".

I don't mind it too much if it means certain franchises will get localized.

How about including options like "I'd download retail games only, but I don't think it's fair for everyone to have to do the same."

`The problem with digital games is they are more prone to corruption of data and they will need an even bigger space in the future. Remember when the games back then were not even 1 MB and today we got games that are between 15 to 30 GB in size.

Physical media elitist here. I'll always take the boxed version unless it's a download exclusive or a freebie.
The British comedian Bob Monkhouse said that every word of a book you read becomes a part of you. The same is true for games, I believe, and I keep almost everything I buy, displayed and immaculate.
I'm old school in the sense that I feel I can't justify paying full price for a download title because you don't get anything to show for it. It's the same with movies, books, music - the physical media on which your purchase is tied to costs next to nothing. But psychologically you've got something to make yours, to treasure and cherish. Nowadays we merely purchase a licence to play a game, read a book, should we choose to invest in a download.
My reliance of physical product is probably a bit neurotic and I can appreciate that for what it is. However I don't think physical boxed games will ever die - as long as there are people out there like me - and I know for a fact there are - people will still buy games at retail. Look at the resurgence of vinyl records. No one ever considered that in the dawn of the iTunes era, where music is always available at the press of a touch screen. Putting a record on a turn table is archaic, inconvenient in theory. It'll be the same with games.

I don't really mind, as long as they adjust their pricing, something that Nintendo isn't doing, but third parties are.

I firmly believe that a digital copy should be priced at whatever price Nintendo charges retailers for a physical copy. This way the publisher gets exactly the same amount of of profit from each copy of the game they sell. People say that Nintendo can't do this as they don't want to upset retailers, but if they really didn't want to upset retailers they wouldn't be selling digital games at all.

For new releases I always go physical because there's a huge price discrepancy, at least here in the UK. Games that launch for £50 on the eShop are easily available on day of release for £30 or even £25. Thankfully, when a game that is a 'full retail game' comes out on the eShop only, they don't charge the full price. Shin Megami Tensei IV was a regularly priced game in the US, but when it came to Europe as a download only, it was significantly cheaper than the £40 a regular 3DS costs. Dual Destinies, a regularly priced game in Japan, comes to the west as download only and again is significantly cheaper. This is third party publishers doing things the right way... but Nintendo look like they're just sticking to the regular price. There's no retailer to supposedly upset, so why?

Maybe it's not a problem in the US where publishers are allowed to artificially keep prices high, but over here in the UK very few people pay the RRP for a game.

I prefer physical. I tend to play games I've had for decades. What happens when the WiiU eShop is gone? There's no way to back up a WiiU AFAIK. Hard Drives do fail, and CD/DVD's tend to last longer.

Of course Sony has a good system with the Vita since they let you backup your vita to a computer, and restore from it selectively.

On 3DS, a portable system with cheap storage options, I have six retail downloads. On Wii U I have zero.

Fatal Frame would be a maybe with a physical release, but as it is, I doubt I'll be adding it to my collection.

That'd be the day I stop buying retail games. Pleny of old classic to buy I'd rather spent my money on than wasting it on games I'll never own.

My policy for 3ds games have been to buy Multiplayer games digitally and single player games physically. Most the time when you run into someone who wants to play a 3ds game you both need the game. I don't like carrying around a bunch of carts so anything I think I may play Multiplayer (Mario Kart, animal crossing, Pokémon, etc.) I buy digital. Single player games like Mario 3d Land, legend of Zelda and others I buy physical because once you're done with the game you most likely won't play it again.

I'll always prefer buying a physical copy over a download, but boycotting a download-only release sends the wrong message, I think; it makes it look like you don't want the game at all.

By all means, tell publishers that you want a physical copy, but don't completely shun it if it doesn't happen.

WiiU games I tend to buy physical mainly because of the lack of being able to sign in and download on multiple systems. Once Nintendo implements that I'd be more willing provided the space is available.

I do like the advantage of returning a game I don't like/get on with, it allows me to take risks; managed to snag a limited ed Project Zero and I know it'll keep value if I don't enjoy it. Kinda feel all digital will happen eventually, if not this next generation then the one after. However, there are many issues in pricing that will need to be sorted, I assume and hope an all digital will aim for cheaper prices with high attach rates... Dlc and micro transactions aren't disappearing but if people enter at say £20, they may be more willing to accept this. Of course, there are many many issues that will occur because of this though.

I do still prefer the option of physical copies of games, though I will occasionally go for downloads...
My 'net connection being awful doesn't help things, been getting into the habit of running SpeedTest every so often, and I usually get about 1Mbps at home. Sometimes up to 2, but never higher than that.
There has been a thing to try and bring super fast broadband to many more houses here recently, but we're a little bit outside the catchment area, so been unable to get it.
A digital-only future would be a bit sad, because of this.
Sure, we've got unlimited usage on it, and I can be quite patient waiting, but it still isn't an ideal situation quite yet. Luckily, it does still seem to be something that is being looked at, so hopefully sometime in the future?

Can't say if I'd outright drop some games/series, just because they were digital-only... Games with huge online components or only work online, sure, but availability-wise... Maybe not.

Physical copies please. I think we should always have a choice. Besides, download only would put some people out of business. I guess the benefit for Nintendo is that people won't be able to trade in digital copies, and Nintendo doesn't make any money from pre-owned games.

Honestly, I love the convenience of having digital games all on the system. I hated the idea at first until I bought a massive SD card for my New 3DS and ended up selling most of the physical ones I had in order to download them instead. But while I love this for portable gaming since it makes it more, well, portable, home consoles I'm not so sure about. At this point I pretty much have no choice to buy physical copies since the Wii U has next to nothing on the internal storage front. If it has a larger hard drive or would support normal SD cards and USB drives in a plug and play fashion, I wouldn't mind digitally downloading everything.

I'm kinda torn. As much as I love having the boxed retail games on the shelf, downloads are so much more convenient. I've stuck mostly with physical retail copies for all the big Nintendo 3DS and Wii U games, but I also download a lot of games, and have gone mostly digital on PS4 and Vita, especially since Sony's online sales are usually pretty good. I was hesitant at first with digital downloads, but PS+ got me over that.

@peach64 Exactly how I feel. Being a PC gamer, I've gotten used to downloading my games, rather than buying them physical. This generation, due to pretty good sales on PSN, i've went digital on a console for the first time. I'm now starting to buy digital games on my consoles now because they are cheaper than tracking down a physical copy, especially for rare games.

A few years ago, I would buy digital on PC, physical for everything else. As long as the sales are good, I will continue to buy digital games. I do believe in the choice however.

It does perplex me as to why Nintendo's own games are so expensive on the eShop. If they're not going to spend the money on shelf space and banners in stores, why keep the prices RRP? Court the retailers, or try your hardest selling your games on the eShop. Doing nothing isn't helping Nintendo at all.

@BrizzoUK
Great point. I would say that is the one major downfall to downloading games that I have had to learn the hard way. You can't sell or return them if you don't like them or get bored! If you could, I would do so for several ASAP (Fantasy Life, Smash Bros, and a few others I took a risk on).

What I want to know is where is Wild Gunman? Why did the US not get this VC release this week? Is it coming soon?

At present, I'd be mortified to see Nintendo go the download only route too often, because they do not remotely understand how download pricing should work. Whatever planet their RRPs are from should be used as target practice by Peter Cushing.

I was able to get Fire Emblem Awakening at midnight without having to leaving my house. I think download works for the most part.

I wouldn't be so hesitant to buy retail titles digitally on the Wii U if games weren't still tied to your console. It's like if steam games were tied to your pc. That and 32 gigabytes is barely anything, so if you plan on downloading a lot of retail games it's pretty much mandatory to have an external hard drive.

For me, games are as much about playing them as collecting and showing them on the shelf. I love gaming rooms with hundreds of games shown by guys on Youtube. You can't do that with downloaded games...

Big, expensive games = physical retail copy only. Any smaller games like Pushmo or NES Remix, is fine to have as a download title only. But $50 for a digital game? I will never pay that. If others want to, go ahead, but I'll save myself the money.

The download-only aspect is the reason I don't buy these "retail" games. If they had physical releases, I'd buy those. I not only like to play games, but I'm trying to get a complete collection. I'd rather save the money I'd otherwise spend and put them towards physical copies of other games.

I like the doors this opens for games that would have a hard time in a physical form, but for other titles that have no problem being available in plastic, it feels wrong.

There is so many cons against digital games that I don't understand how can people prefer them

I never buy downloadable versions of retail games of I can help it. I like having a tangible, physical item in my hands.

One of the biggest cons IMO, is that you can't let a friend/sibling borrow a download. But there are so many more...

I literally just debated this topic to death, so I'm not sure I have the stamina to do it all over again, lol.

I always buy discs over downloads, but obviously NoA, whether it's right or not, is skeptical about Fatal Frame. If you really want the series to continue, please download it, regardless of your reasons. The stance of not buying it due to the censorship (of which I think is overblown from what it is) and no physical release will get lost in translation to NoA. They will not see it this way, and will only see that Fatal Frame just doesn't sell in the west.

@krakensoup I second that. If I'm giving up the physicality of a "retail" game it should be cheaper.

I have gone all digital this Generation on both my 3DS and Wii U. What p£sses me off is the 300 download limit

I honestly like both phisical and download retail titles. The main part I need is the software to play, once that is started up you barely remember if you clicked an icon or used a disc.
The only thing positive about phisical maybe is that, since I love my videogame hobby, I admit I feel happy in watching my collection on a shelf, but luckily there are a ton of phisical things one can buy related to games, like amiibo for make a simple example, so I don't really need the discs for reminding me of gaming when I'm not playing.

I'll cry if they're ever going to go digital only. I was already sad when they stopped making physical instruction manuals, but not getting physical retail games at all anymore... I'd probably only get my absolute favourite games if that were to happen, probably. I only own some retail games digitally because they were free offers, or the physical version wasn't announced yet. But whenever I get the option (on time), I'll always, ALWAYS opt for physical.

I actually want to physical own the games I pay for. Digital retail games are a no-go for me especially since Wii U games are tied to the console and not an account like how PSN works. Plus I have a download cap.

At least all of NoA's blunders has finally encouraged me to learn japanese and do a lot more importing. So even if NoA continues being a lost cause, I'll never worry about missing out on physical copies (well at least until japan stops loving physical copies) , ridiculously pointless censorship and mediocre localizations.

I'm not big on the download only for consoles. For the most part my digital library is Steam/GOG PC only. I usually only buy digital games when they go on sale and never at full price because there is absolutely no resell value.
The reason why I'm lenient towards Steam/GOG digital games and not Nintendo console digital games is because of how the account system works. Nintendo games are tied down to the hardware and if it dies and is no longer supported by Nintendo I'm out of luck. With Steam/GOG games I can build myself a new computer with off the shelf parts and transfer my library over. The only way you can transfer Nintendo games over to another system is if you have the original disc/cart.
I still have my Sega Genesis from when I was little and the carts to go with it. Longevity is something I think about. Digital software doesn't last forever because of the restrictive DRM and that is a big factor in determining if I spend money on it.

Disc cases are like album covers. Sometimes they're more entertaining than the games themselves. And there is something cool about being able to look at your game collection, like a movie collection.
That being said, the convenience of downloading games when you've got a small child around is priceless. Spent the extra cash on a good exterior drive for the U and SD card for the 3DS. I never worry about him getting into my collection and the chances of my wife and I leaving a disc laying around are minimal since I've been downloading nearly everything. Sure, some games might warrant a physical copy purchase (Like the Xenoblade X special edition). But for a guy who just wants to jump right into a game and not worry about where he might find it in a few days, or God forbid, it gets damaged or broken, downloading has been the way to go.

For me it depends on the type of game. For Mario Kart or Smash on 3DS, I prefer the digital copies so I can have them easily accessible everywhere. For consoles, I tend to buy the physical copies, unless there's a great deal for the digital ones.
I wouldn't mind switching entirely to digital if they implement a system of a digital library like Steam on PC, where your games aren't tied to a particular system.

@Marec409 I second the "depend on the type of game" thingy. I downloaded Animal Crossing New Leaf so my villagers won't leave if not visited on a basis.

Makes me wish Attack on Titan and Ace Attorney 5 were physical

Nintendo doesn't need to say much, I now know their plan from the beginning when trying to release Fatal Frame V here in NA. If the game doesn't sell well as a digital release, Nintendo will jump to conclusion that "okay like all FF games, the series for NA is done cuz they never sell for us" but if the game does sell successfully and as digital release, Nintendo will say "good from now on we could sell all our other games as digital release too, if this game does it, our other games will too." It's a lose-lose situation regarding those who just want this game and future FF games as physical copy. We either get it not as we want it or not get it at all.

Physical Games here and while I have dabbled in digital I will forever wholly remain physical for one simple reason. I will own it. The fact that you pay all that do to LEASE data it frankly is foolish at best and words I will leave unsaid at worst. Already people have been frustrated and burned buying digital when PSXBOX owners found that they spent thousands on unsupported games. And while you can say that the uproar got them the PSnetwork and emulation, the fact that they even attempted it once is more than enough evidence to see that it can and will happen again. It may not be as overt as this generation but by minute degrees. Take DLC, we pay now for things that were once free extras that developers added for fun and since we let it be a thing a thing it will forever remain unless something drastic happens.

I say this with the sincerest of kindness and honesty. Anyone who is all in on full digital is taking a big gamble and frankly fairly naive. I would encourage to look past the immediate gratification (i.e. convenience) and look at the long term, seriously look and even ask yourself "What is the worst case scenario in all digital and am I fine in risking it?" I have seen that people being people will tend to find the most profitable avenue for themselves, and since companies are run by people last I checked, there will come a time where they will seek profit in a manner may not be in the consumer's best interest as we have seen many times thus far.

I'll purchase a game digitally if I know for a fact I'm going to like it enough to never get rid of it, and get physically if applicable for other stuff. That way, if I don't like something, I can get rid of it and at least recuperate some of my losses. However, there have been times when I've downloaded stuff that was on sale for like 5 bucks.

I prefer the physical because they are almost always cheaper than the digital version and there is always the ability to sell on at a later date. Can't sell on anything digital and I think that makes the investment in gaming much less appealing. There are already enough efforts to squeeze out more money from consumers by including online passes, DLC, toys-to-life etc. I wouldn't try so many different games if I didn't have the option to get some of my money back if I find I've made a mistake. I will also play a game and then sell it if I think I won't want to replay it to fund purchase of another game. Sure, digital is better for profits, but it limits consumers.

On PC, I go for almost all download though and, again, that's due to price as many games on Steam can be purchased at very resonable rates - Lego Batman 3 for £3.69, for example, isn't taking a big risk. Nintendo is different. I only get Nintendo download versions (excepting Nindies) if there's no other choice. I'm also wary of Nintendo's account system being tied to consoles. There is no mechanism to get back any deleted account information and that's a really bad deal for consumers. Surely that would be easy to remedy. For Nindies, it makes sense and download is great. For more expensive AAA games, I prefer the option to have them as physical copies in my hand with tangible, transferable worth.

@invictus4000 Yeah it's the one thing really holding me back, I like having games digital now, I like the ease of access... However, it really would mean getting less games unless the prices drop. Also some games just don't lend to replaying (some 100+ hour RPGs etc), trading in I can usually get most of the money back (sometimes more if I find a good deal to begin with). Not great for publishers, but certainly takes away game options.

I am 100% digital on PC, about 50% on my 3DS and about 10% on WiiU.
And i would love to have all my 3DS games digital only.
So overall i would welcome an all digital future but i understand those that would like to keep physical copies.

Retail is better for selling, both in store and online, but I'm standing in front of the tiny Wii U sector in Target as I type this, and I'm not sure where the put it.

@Ryno Still 1 more Wii mini in the box, it's never going away. I'd price check it but it's locked up behind the glass, must be plenty of people trying to steal it.

Physical games will always exist, otherwise video-game focused stores would no longer exist. Project Zero/Fatal Frame hasn't been released for 10 years in the West, and because it's been so long, It's on a Nintendo console and it's on the Wii U (10 million total sales), it makes sense, for North America anyway, to make this 'download only'. Project Zero (as its known in Europe) has previously sold decently well, but again its been a long time since its been out. And because of the circumstances (10 years, only on Nintendo, only on Wii U) its physical release is limited to a special edition, which most Europeans would buy.

All this means is that more niche Japanese games might get a Western version, which can't be a bad thing. More Project Zero/FF, it's not a bad thing surely.

If a physical release isn't worth a publisher's money than a digital game isn't worth my money.

No physical = no sale

Depends on how I'm feeling the day I buy the game. Sometimes I'll go and get the retail version, and sometimes I'll get the downloadable version.

Doesn't really matter to me. But I favor retail games ever so slightly more.

I guess it really comes down to what I'm going to do with that game. If it's a niche game with little replay value (e.g story driven); that I'm unlikely to lend to a friend, that is an (offline) single player game (like a majority of games steam are), or isn't big enough to warrant a disc (an indie)- I get downloadable games. But games like MK8, Smash, Nintendoland, and even Mario, Bayonetta and Zelda need to be taken round a friend house to be played, lent to show how good they are, or brought out to be played on a backwards compatible system 5 years later for a trip down memory lane. Nintendo's games are about sharing with friends which is limiting when you buy them on the eshop.

I like digital better. I'll only buy physical with a limited edition like Xenoblade and yeah that Mario book with SMM.

I very much dislike download only retail games. But everyone does it. Fatal Frame on Wii U, Ultra Street Fighter 4 and Devil May Cry 4 on PS4. Even Life Is Strange should have been retail.

I certainly don't like it but first and foremost I'm a gamer, and if digital is where the games are at, then I will buy digitally.

@BaffleBlend
I think you're way off the mark. Idk, maybe not. My view is that I hate retail downloads, but elitism has nothing to do with it. Frankly I don't care what other people do. My only concern is ME getting my physical retail games. What you do is none of my concern, nor do I want it to be.

I very much prefer physical copies because I do not trust companies to be fair in an all digital environment. It also helps to be able to sell back a less-than-satisfactory game.

Nintendo Life should do more polls!

Going digital gives players the advantage of having all their games INSIDE the console, which means they don't have to juggle CD cases, cartridges and whatnot. The only problem with digital games is on Nintendo consoles, as games are tied to the console instead of the account. I'll be blunt - Nintendo needs to, simply put, grow a pair about this, and outgrow their borderline cartoonish desire for control. Downloadable retail games being tied to the console is just stupid, and has been made anachronistic ever since the PlayStation Store allowed users to download any owned game up to five devices. It's only a matter of good faith, and that has hardly killed anyone so far in the digital era of gaming.

Love digital and I'm known to double dip when there is a discount on the digital game that I have on disc. It so easy to start up the Wii u and just select any game I want to play. No searching for the right disc. Instant bliss.

With the truly unique games I do get the urge to get a boxed limited copy. Project Zero and Xenoblade Chronicles are ordered. If I ever get my hands on a Bayonetta collectors edition I will buy it. Also ordered Rodea the Skysoldier to get the Wii game. I do feel this signals the end of an era. We are shifting to digital ownership. The NX will bring it even closer

@ottospooky Maybe, some day in the future, people with immaculate and exotic beards will wander down to their local Game Store and ask to get the latest Mario game on vinyl.

But seriously, I'm with you on pretty much every word. If I buy something I value, I like it to actually be... well, a THING. I'm happy for 'eggy games' (i.e. ones you 'dip into') such as Pullblox and Boxboy to solely exist as icons on my 3DS, but for more full-scale, standalone titles, I like them to have a more solid existence.

Just as I don't like to think of my favourite book as a PDF, I like to think of my favourite games as something I physically own.

Physical copies can also keep things separate, which is also of some weird importance to me. It'll be interesting to see how, or if, my opinions change as technology develops.

The ONLY "full" game I've bought digitally on WiiU is Splatoon, because it is inherently digital and because the file size wasn't crazy.

I play old games. I do not county on all the current WiiU digital-retail games still being available digitally in 20 years. And 20 years isn't that crazy long ago for games these days. Furthurmore, Nintendo was insane only giving the WiiU 32 GB of space (not counting a somewhat large fraction used by the OS) and thinking retail downloads would go over well.

Fatal Frame, based on filesize, and to a lesser extent perceived limited replay value, was a terrible choice to make digital-only.

My main concern is preservation. Nintendo already had a downloads only platform - Satellaview, anyone? Now conservationists are trying to find Satellaview carts with old downloaded games still on them. I pretty much 100% download on the PC but I try to stick with DRM free/3rd party service free (GoG) because I am fairly confident that I can create a VM that I can reinstall the binaries onto. But the Nintendo platform(s) is such a walled garden. No installers, no virtualised environment. If you want to play the original games on the original hardware, and keep buying games after the platform is no longer supported...look it's just gotta be physical releases.

Continue to ignore the real problem with Fatal Frame 5, Thomas Whitehead. By all means.

There's an option for the first question left. "ALL of my retail games of the current gen are downloads".

All of my retail 3DS and Wii U games are downloads. I don't own any physical game (cartridge nor disk). I had only Nintendo Land but I lost it.

I'd love to keep buying physical but I don't have room anymore with games going back to atari systems.

Besides 11 retail games all my other Wii U retail is DL. I had to upgrade my HD on my PS3 because of going digital and the absurd install size of even disc games. I am hoping there is going to be a good price on a 1TB PS4 on Black Friday. Well the crappy Canadian equivalent.

I only have two download games for my Wii U: Wii Fit U (Got the promo version, linked a Wii Fit Meter to it to unlock the full version) and Wii Party U (a free download after buying Mario Kart 8)

Aside from those exceptions, physical games are the choice for me. If I can't get a game as a physical copy, I'll get it digitally but I tend not to value them or treasure them as highly. The day when games stop getting physical retail releases is the day I stop and just focus on my back catalogue.

@JaxonH Isn't Life is Strange 5 parts spread out over 9 months? Probably not the best example for a little game to go the retail route. Though now that's it's out I could see a retail collection. I'm all about the retail, unless it's under $20, then download is ok.

@BaffleBlend So you've been 'actively turned away' from doing something based on the actions and attitudes of a group of people you have a distaste for...

And the reason you have a distaste for these people is because they actively turn away from doing something, purely because of their distaste for the actions and attitudes another group of people...

Isn't that...? I mean... Can't you...?

...No?

Said it before and I'll say it again. I've been happily living all-digital on PC/Steam for 7 or 8 years now and would never go back. If Wii U was like Steam, there'd be no debate. But it isn't and I can totally understand why people still prefer retail.

@BaffleBlend There might be some people like that, but I can assure you that a lot of physical game fans have other reasons. I personally understand the convenience of digital games, but I don't feel like I actually own the game unless I hold it in my hand. It feels more rewarding to be able to hold the game and see it in a physical form, at least for me. Not everyone's like that, and I absolutely understand that. I just have my own personal preference regarding how I buy my games, and digital-only retail titles get really frustrating, especially since I don't tend to spend much money on better storage devices for my systems.

Anyway, to answer the question, I only get digital games when they're either free or significantly cheaper (I got Mario Kart 7, Game and Wario, and Pikmin 3 through Club Nintendo, while I also decided to go and pick up Fire Emblem Awakening during the E3 eShop sale. Those are the only Nintendo retail games I own digitally). I prefer physical for the reasons I stated above, so these types of games that are only released digitally tend to bother me quite a bit. I'd rather be able to download a smaller demo for Fatal Frame, and then buy a physical release if I enjoy the demo.

A digital only future would be good IF all the games bought carry to multiple devices and are future proof meaning all new consoles can play games purchased from previous generations, and you don't have to be connected to the Internet to access the games.
It would be nice to access a complete Nintendo library from all generations for generations to come.

@AlexSora89 You're right on that. They could make it easier.

However, the games are already linked to the account. Just that they want to obssesively control everything, as you stated.

My 3DS XL had an accidente. And it ended like trash. All my retail download games were there. I called Nintendo and they kindly transfered my account to a new 3DS XL I got after the accident. They just asked for the serial numbers of both consoles, and voilà, I was able to download all of my games again in my new console.

There's already enough technical stuff for making the NNID the center of everything, but they still haven't decided to ley people do it by themselves.

I dont mind buying digital but prefer physical if I have the option. The only way there'll be an all-digital future is if all retail outlets suddenly show massive drops in sales. Physical has a sales presence that a download card will never achieve.

Steam/GoG are amazingly good for PC and even then there are plenty of physical PC releases.

Having lived through pretty much every generation of home hardware, I still find that physical media has lots of value. All it takes is a company decision on old retail downloads or a hardware change to lose a digital copy forever, whereas physical media can be archived and used with the right emulator (like DOSBox) or through reproduction consoles (like the Retron-5).

On the other hand, if it is the only way for international companies to import media to other countries (like CAPCOM has been doing with Phoenix Wright), then I would be in full support of digital retail media — but really, only for this reason. If a company can do a physical release, it should.

@JamesCoote
Steam is a tough example for consoles to follow - the sheer mass of games, the (regular and expected) massive discounts, the ability to transfer to and play on many devices, not being tied to any specific hardware... Although I strongly dislike going digital only with Steam it makes at least some sense.

But on Nintendo consoles you don't get any of the perks listed above, and you pay more for the privilege of not actually owning the game. That's a hard pill for me to swallow.

I'm surprised to see how pro-physical the poll results are at the time I write this. Given the steady push in that direction, I had assumed more people were on the "rah rah - downloads only" side of things.

I prefer download games these days, though I can't purchase many on the 3DS because they're not sharable between family members. I made that mistake with Bravely Default and now my daughter wants to play it. Do I cough up another £30 for a game I already own but am not playing right know? I think not...

I wish Nintendo would introduce some kind of family account that allowed games to be deleted from one 3DS so they can be used on another linked to the account.

@rjejr

Ya it was released episodically, but that goes to my point. They're taking retail games and splitting them up into "episodes" and selling piecemeal digitally.

Life Is Strange will see a retail release, mark my words. And that's what should have released to begin with. Just develop it all and then release.

With that said I still love it and bought every episode. Like I said I hate digital, but I love playing good games even more so I do what I must.

The fact that I own Shovel Knight, but have pre-ordered both the disc and amiibo probably answers the question succinctly.

I prefer physical. It's one thing to download an interesting, cheap little indie on Steam once in a while, but I like to own my games, specifically right in my hands. The day gaming goes all digital, is the day I stop buying.

If it's a choice between a download title or no game at all for niche series like this, I'll take the download. I don't think anyone who calls themselves a fan could say anything else. I hope Nintendo uses this method to lower the costs of giving us some of their more niche franchises again.

That being said if there is a physical copy I'll generally take that because, as my Amiibo collection shows, I'm a fan of 'stuff'. The download retail games I do have are as a result of free promotions and really good sales.

@ejamer The big one for me is the account system. I actually genuinely thought people were joking when I first got my Wii U only to be told that purchases and accounts were locked to that physical box. Steam, I've been through at least 3 PC's now, and whilst disks get lost or scratched, I've still got my whole games library with me at all times. I recently bought Homeworld on Steam for this very reason (a game I already own on disk...somewhere...).

What bothers me is the fact that one day you won't be able to re-download your games when the servers for that console are no longer available. In the case of the Wii and Wii U your purchases are tied to that hardware. If your hardware fails you are dependent on Nintendo providing you working hardware. With a physical release, whether cartridge or disc, you can play that game in 10, 20, or 50 years from now on ANY working Wii or Wii U console, albeit without patches. The other problem I have is that physical disc games are $59.99 typically and have been for some time. Part of this cost is the production and distribution costs involved in getting the games on store shelves and then in our homes. With digital purchases they are the same cost but again they are tied to hardware with Nintendo. I understand that game production in many cases has increased in cost over the years and developers have been bound to deliver at the same price. But with a digital download that lack of a physical distribution (box art, disc, manual) triggers the need for a discount in my mind.

To me the best digital distribution service currently is Steam and I would love to see Nintendo and others, if they adopt digital only in the coming consoles, use some of it's benefits. Namely games can and do go on sale, it would be nice to see first party digital games go on sale for the NX as low as $30. Demo periods for popular games, being able to download and play a cup in Mario Kart NX for a weekend. Betas for new games, this can be good and bad. It would be nice to try out early builds of Smash or Metroid to stress test features, but I don't like how many devs release buggy games and simply patch them day one and then for months afterward. Nintendo titles typically are very well tested upon release and free of bugs and issues found in games on competing hardware.

I would support Nintendo going all digital on future hardware such as the NX, but I still have my concerns. Much like how they have handled DLC up to this point. Sometimes they get it right (Mario Kart 8) and sometimes they get it wrong (Smash Bros costumes). I would like to see them get it right.

For me part of the fun (aside from playing/replaying games) is collecting the games, displaying the boxes, popping in the disk/cartridge and in the old days reading the manual and enjoying the art. I love reading the manuals and have been very sad about the fact that the days of physical manuals are dead and gone.

None of these options quite represented my standpoint on this issue.

I'm anti-DRM, since it's a slippery slope made to be anti-consumer by default. I actually have downloaded more games than bought physically this gen, but most of those are older games from previous generations. Almost all of the games I've bought digitally are from GOG.com, I have over 100 titles on there. By contrast, I have little more than 10 titles on Steam, and less than 10 titles from the eShop.

I almost always only buy digital if it is a DRM free copy; meaning I can copy and back it up as many times as I want, to use on whatever system I want, have no requirement for logging in to a service, doesn't require me to download any proprietary updates, doesn't spy on me, is not tied to a physical product, and doesn't ever expire. In other words, I almost exclusively buy digital titles on GOG. Other than that, I buy physical.

There are many technological, societal, and infrastructural reasons why going digital only would be an extremely bad idea at this point in time. Maybe in another 30-50 years, humanity will have reached the point where we will not need any physical copies of media again, but we are most certainly not ready for that now. Perhaps the next generation of people will be more comfortable with the concept of efficiently enabling and empowering areas of weakness in our power grids, or even do away with them for gridless systems. Until then, we need to keep physical copies at the ready.

Not with Nintendo.
Not with Nintendo.

Not with Nintendo.
Not with Nintendo.

I always go physical if affordable and available. If it's a digital only full price retail game I always wait for a sale. I will never spend more than $20 on a digital game. I want the stuff to keep in my room.

Physical media all the way. Not only can I have it in my hands, data transfer, borrowing, and memory problems hardly apply compared to download only.

I don't mind downloading if it's the only option and I have enough memory, but I prefer physical copies of games so I can bring them to a friend's house and then I don't have to worry about trying to get it back if I have to replace the console.

@TruenoGT What you said

I like physical. I guess I just like looking at a shelf filled with colorful boxes and thinking to myself, "what should I play today?"

I would buy this for sure if it were on disc but I'm much less interested without the physical media. I could download it just to try but at 15 GB I'd have to clean out just about my entire Wii U to play it. This is the wrong game to start the whole online-only thing with.

I go what ever is the cheaper but ssd or sd card like technology is better with digital due to it most stable. Also I like a idea or recycled carts where it uses installs and empty them and take them back to the store for recycling or a way to get the game downloaded at the store with a vending machine and you can take it home.

@BinaryFragger
Oh me too! Got burned with Minecraft Vita. Ughh.

Not only that, but Lara Croft Temple of Osiris on PS4. Sold as physical, get nothing but a case with a download code.

It's like a scam.

There's also people with slow, limited, or no internet you have to consider.

i try to go download fatal frame 5 and it said it requires over 9964mb and i was like wtf really i thought it didnt require that much to download and looks like i have to go buy myself a 2 tb hardrive from amazon

I don't see why everyone is so hung up on "owning" things. If you pay $12 to go see a movie in the theater, you're paying for the 2-hour experience. If you pay $50 or $60 for even just 10 hours of gameplay experience, the expense ratio is the exact same. Of course, most Nintendo games are going to net you many more than 10 hours, and the value proposition is even higher than going to the movies because you will own access to your game for at least the generation if not longer (i.e. since you can download it you may be able to play it for as long as you have a functioning console).

I'll always get physical over digital if the choice is there. I'd rather own the game, own the box artwork, and never worry about losing the "digital rights" to the game. I'll especially prefer physical as long as Nintendo has its horrible download policies in which you have to do system transfers instead of just logging into a new console and redownloading your stuff at your choosing. If you lose or have your system stolen, you have to call Nintendo and beg them to move your ID and downloaded games to your new system, and that takes anywhere from a couple days to a week. Ridiculous in this day and age.

I'll never support download-only retail releases. Or the whole download rage in general.
Neither am I willing to possibly dish out hundreds of bucks for bigger hard drives due to the increasing filesize (and data sloppiness) of games, nor will I ever bring myself to trust a system that never truly hands you the game, but only allows you to play it until further notice. Not when control over accessing the game is very much in the hands of the distributer.
Call me paranoid, but I already see a future coming where payments, subscriptions, or other fees for games you've already purchased will become a thing. And I will not contribute towars accepting that.

In the case of this latest Fatal Frame/Project Zero, people outside of Japan should just be glad that they are getting the game at all, in ANY fashion. If this was still the Wii days, then an import would never happen. The series is the nichest of niche. Captain Falcon of F-Zero thinks Fatal Frame is unheard of. Starfie thinks its niche. Chibi Robo thinks it doesn't sell at all.

I definitely prefer to get a physical copy if at all possible. I enjoy the box covers they put together and at least used to enjoy the physical manuals that came with them. Unfortunately that is extremely rare these days, but even then I would like to get the box. I also prefer having the physical media available for easy portig over to a different system if necessary. If my Wii U croaks and I need to purchase a new one I won't have to wait for things to download and don't have to worry about digital space management. Much easier for me to just shift things around on my shelves.

@JaxonH I would think the reason for episodic would be to use the money from earlier episodes to fund development of later episodes, at least that what makes sense to me, so if they waited for retail of the complete game the company could go under. We've seen a couple of Kickstart games go away b/c they ran out of money. Or ran off with the money, I don't follow the stories that closely.

I wonder if we'll see a lot more episodic once games go all digital? There's really no incentive to complete a game if you can start collecting income right away by putting it out piece by piece. DLC already has us heading in that direction, doesn't it? Season pass makes every game episodic, difference is we have to pay $60 up front plus the season pass. At least Slaton has kept it at $60.

I keep hearing how digital is taking over faster and faster. Year over year it's growing by 120% but when they actually say how much it is, it's lower than 10% total. Physical is here to stay for a very long time. Walk into a BestBuy and the media section is still the biggest section they have. I do see a future with a different type of storage tho. But I'm also OK with buying a game case with a download code 😃

@Kaze_Memaryu Pretty soon we'll have to buy a Personal Gaming License (PGL) from each company, Sony, MS, and Nintendo for $1,000 just to be able to buy their future consoles, and if we don't play on that console for a year they come and take it back.

edit - I hate when I forget the link.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_seat_license

My issue with digital download titles is the price they charge is usually too high (the saving of not making a physical game doesn't come back to the consumer most of the time and consoles are slow to put digital items on sale, compared to PC). Also, with licensing issues, if you delete a game from your hard drive because you need to the space, expecting to be able to redownload it later, that is not always the case. Most of all, since there is no way to sell a digital game I purchase, the resale value for it is essentially zero. Therefore, for those reasons, I prefer physical. The only exception is if a game is so good, I know I will never sell it. Otherwise, I only buy retail games when they have a significant sales price.

@ericthecheese I get your point. However, I called Nintendo, and was able to sign in with my NNID in my new 3DS (the old one broke apart) just one hour later (or even less). Maybe I was just lucky.

I understand it would be better to have it as easy as Sony's account system, or Google Play's, but their customer service is not THAT bad right now.

@rjejr That would be more comparable to purchasing Playstation Plus subscription. Excepting you cannot put your name on a game so you download it first, having it locked for other users until your download is done.

About that Personal seat license you linked.

Right now, I'm buying most of my games as physical retail, only because I'm getting the 20% off through Best Buy's GCU.
If that runs out, then I'll go back to download-only, since the convenience of download is really awesome.
I just wish that downloading games was cheaper than buying the physical game. Since it's much more convenient to have the game as download.

People will always struggle to download big files via the internet, because games are getting bigger in size every year (at least AAA titles). That's why there will always be a physical data carrier for games. It would be stupid to exclude target audience because of their internet speed.

Not all people are living in a city with google fiber. I live at the country-side and only have 44Mbit/s download speed, which takes multiple hours to download games. Also Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo would need to upgrade their servers extremely.

Nintendo earns more money by making a cheaper, download-only game.

With my gaming habit and cramped living conditions, digital game have become a lot more convenient for me. It's a lot easier for me to have a bunch of games on a 32gb sd card or a 2TB external hard drive then it is to have in a small room, especially if I plan to continue this hobby.

The only exception to this is if there is a Collector's/Limited Edition of a game and it's close to or is the same price as the digital version then I go physical.
My most recent example being Hatsune Miku Project Mirai Deluxe. Both cost $39.99 but the physical version comes with 38 AR Cards and a Wallet Chain. If they did like Super Mario Maker with the free Idea Book by mail that will be a different story, but since that wasn't a option, Physical.

@OddworldCrash So you download at around 5.5 Megabyte per second? That's what 44Mbit/s could handle.

I'm impressed. My best connection is 5Mbit/s, which let me download at around 0.62 Megabyte per second. I just downloaded Fatal Frame (around 6.5 GB I think) and it lasted around 3 and a half hours. So yours should download it in a matter of minutes (less than half hour).

Still, I'm a download only user and I'm happy with that download speed.

I understand what you say with higher sizes for PS4 and XBox games, around 40-50 GB. My connection would download a 36 GB game after 18 hours, more or less. Thankfully I don't have neither of those consoles. And, anyway, when Nintendo games get that bigger size, maybe I'll get myself a 10Mbit/s speed montly plan.

I'm not happy when games I want are sold at a retail price but are digital only (Ace Attorney series) but I fell in love with the series and in the end it's worth it. On the rare occasion I do buy digital retail games, it's because I managed to catch them on a fantastic sale ($15 or lower). I settled for an entire digital library with PC because I had no choice. I like my consoles/handhelds to be physical retail. If the NX is digital-only, I will be VERY pissed but I love me some Nintendo games, and I'm sure they will drag me kicking and screaming to NX ownership.

I have opted for digital copies of many games this generation so far, but the key factor in that decision was that it was always my choice. I get that companies have to make decisions based on making money, and the decision by Nintendo of America to make Fatal Frame 5 digital only was probably done to save costs, hoping that it would outweigh the number of people who end up not buying it at all because of the digital distribution.

However, keeping your fanbase happy is also a good way to make money, and I'd argue a digital only distribution of Fatal Frame 5 is anti consumer. I can easily see this coming back to bite NoA in the butt. They've already gotten a lot of flack for it.

Digital sucks, I just can't connect with a digital game, I don't know why. Give me physical copies or I'll have a new hobby

I'm ok with all games being downloadable on a console, but for a handheld... no way. I'm someone who shares handheld games with a family member, and, while this is no problem with a cartridge, it's impossible to do with a download. Thus I'd have to spend double the money for the same game so two people can play. That's just a waste of money when you can just buy one cartridge and share it with others.

I would still get physical games even if the retail download games was half the price unless it was a download only game or very hard too find game then would have too download.

I definitely think download is the way to go, but I wish Nintendo would make some changes to make us feel better about our download purchases. Like allowing us to easily transfer our account, and purchases, to a new console any time we want. Cloud backups for save games would be real awesome as well.

It'd be kinda nice if the cost of games came down a little in exchange for having no physical product to manufacture and ship though.

@Olmectron I think you were pretty lucky. My transfer took two days, and one of my friend's took five days. Although they could have whittled the time down as well.

Nintendo has great customer service. But in this case, the fact that we have to call and even have to ask and wait is the problem. Hopefully, that will be remedied with the NX somehow.

I dont see Digital Only happening very soon if at all. Most Video Game sales - shopping is done around Christmas. Moms and Dads arent gonna go into a store and buy their kid a "card" for an online retail game when they can buy them an actual physical copy of the game. It just makes sense for everybody same for casual crowds and buyers they arent gonna totally understand download only when they can just go into the store and grab a regular game.

If the next Nintendo system is download-only, at least give us a decent amount of disk space to work with.

I like to have physical copies. I only buy retail games digitally if they are on sale (or free, in the case of the Club Nintendo games for coins early this year). If retail games were only digital for full price, I would buy even fewer games than I do now...But I would still cave and pay a full $60 for the likes of Zelda or Kid Icarus.

If they do go all-digital, games had better become cheaper...

I don't really know what to think about digital retail games.

wow...this seems to be the hot topic for the day huh?

i prefer physical release i value my games and digital i feel i can lose anytime anything happens to my system. or maybe im just old school...but if there's no choice then i will go digital but not on Day 1

I'm gamer and not collector (anymore) so i'd like to have all my games digital so i could have more space in my small apartment.

I still check local stores for cheap physical games and it's always fun to see what kind of games people have in their shelves when i visit them.

I've never bought a downloaded retail game. I will always stick with physical copies. Like looking at all the boxes on your shelf, it's so satisfying.

I sit on a rather narrow fence about physical vs download. For example, nearly every single PC game I own I bought digital, and have had zero issue with them. However, when it comes to dedicated home consoles or even handhelds, I have the fear of servers locking away my purchases in the future so I prefer going physical, just to indicate that I own the game and intend to play it 25 years later.

I guess it's because I don't see services such as the Steam marketplace going anywhere anytime soon, having access to that library through an infinite number of new PC's, but when I envision a world where a system like N64 or GameCube had a downloadable library, your only bet would be a pre-loaded system as any server that may have housed those purchases had been shut down long ago, and electronic storage is not infallible, as my stack of dead HDD drives has demonstrated to me over the years.

If something is bound to last me the life of the console (eg: Mario Kart, Smash Bros, etc), yes I'll go digital. If not, physical (selling after done with it), and if physical isn't available I'll pass.

If I'm getting a game digitally it needs to be at a lower price point or I won't bother, why should I have to pay for storage media, wait for the download, have no way of trading or selling it and pay full retail price? It just doesn't make sense unless you don't have any other option.

@MarinoKadame: it is actually the other way around. While the downloading is ongoing, the system checks for corruption and redownloads the parts that are corrupted. If a disc has been scratched or damaged, you have to fix a new disc yourself.

"Modest" storage capacity?

I believe the word you were seeking was "paltry;" perhaps, even "miserly."

Digital only is a yawn. Something about holding the box is much nicer, although we're on a boarderline here. Most game boxes come empty now!! So you get the box and the disk, but there's nothing else to it and it's nearly just as good as digital. Storage and internet capabilities are all that holds us onto physical boxes pretty much at this point.

I'm fine with download games for handheld console, but home console, the download size will be too big for me to handle, not just speed, but also data cap (the download cost could be as high or half the game price, if say it's a >20GB download). Fortunately, I'm handheld gamer only for now and many of my games are digital and most game were < 1GB, while some got into 2-3GB territory, but that's mostly fine for me. That said, for large games, I prefer physical version unless it's digital only or have an irresistible discount (I got RE:Revelation in digital because of discount). For the future, games will be bigger, but connection cost will likely go down too, so my stance won't change.

Not afraid of digital downloads (have nearly 200 games on Steam, 100+ retail games and 30+ digital games on 3DS) but I'm still miffed that this is getting this sort of release while trash like Devils Third is getting a physical one. Plus I feel I shouldn't have to spend for extra hardware to play more games on my Wii U because Nintendo went cheap with storage. Sure, I have a very good 64g gaming USB that works just fine and will not corrupt but that's besides the point. I'm a huge Fatal Frame fan too, got each original release on the Playstation as they came out.

Imma play the waiting game, sometimes these get retail editions later on or I'll get it at half off. Whichever comes first.

If Nintendo didn't have the stupid region locking I would have splurged on the EU $100 edition.

Ah well, this will go down as yet another extremely stupid NoA decision to add to the ever growing list over the past 5 years.

Physical copies is the only thing that's worth the money. They can be re-sold and you actually own the particular item for a lifetime. That's not the case with digital copies and the pricing is braindead. There's no reason at all to charge the same price for a digital download that you do not own, but only buy "access to".

I'm not afraid of downloading retail games - I have several and close to 200 on Steam of course - but I prefer physical copies. I just think they will last longer. Digital only lasts as long as the servers are up.

Of course now that I am a (seasonal) employee of GameStop I suppose I have to support company policy all the way as trade ins are so much of their business model and they need physical copies to do that. Yeah. The looming digital future means I have no job security but since I am also a writer I am only doing this until I get a bit more of a steady income with that anyway.

Don't mind downloads for smaller games, say, under 5gb. Problem with downloads is, eventually, they can be removed from eshop/ps store and if u dont store them on console hard drive indefinitely ... You've lost em... Forever! High price to pay for something that isn't actually yours n that u can't resell! Not to mention the fact that games on PSStore tend to be £10-£15 more expensive to download for some baffling reason!

I download some games on PS4 and 3DS as I have enough memory. As for Wii U, I refuse to buy external storage for a console that only offered 32GB of memory. Pathetic by Nintendo and it means that I have been very low on storage for months and now I can't download any large games.

Anything which is download only I miss out on.

I like to hold a game, im a graphic designer and box art is as important to me personally as the game itself, its a part of the whole experience. Digital games are not for me, there is nothing but a vapour in space to show for it.

all download, all the way for me. The only disc based games I have are the ones that didn't show up in the eshop for some reason (black ops back in the day). So I got three discs or something from the year 2012. The rest? Digital only.

And I intend to never look back and keep it that way.

I don't mind downloading the Eshop only Indie titles. The day it goes all Retail games are digital which I think NX will do. I have bought my last system which will probably be the 3DS. Unless these retail downloads get a major price drop which they should have already recieved. I really think next gen is going to be really touchy with pricing.

really a shame, i would really like to play this game. but with the eshop games, updates, and save files that i already have on my deluxe wii U, i can't even download the free-to-play copy of this game, let alone the full version. i am not going to buy an external drive just to download games and i would always rather have a physical copy. unfortunately you apparently cannot even use flash media for game storage either, which puts the easy option totally out. i have no intent to buy any other retail-priced games, so whats the point of an additional hard drive for one game? a hard drive that you supposedly cannot also use for data storage via your pc. such a shame.
also i really don't want to pay 50 bucks for a download, sorry but full game or no, thats ridiculous.
and it would take forever given my very slow internet connection. its all downside in the huge-file-size download-only arena.
now if the wii U actually had a reasonable sized hard drive, it might be a different story.

There are pros and cons to physical Vs. digital. Personally I'm physical, always have, always will be; I find there's more pros with physical. It's a personal choice, but there are some gamers out there who are highly vocal on which is better as fact. These people really tick me off.

One thing that I don't think has been mentioned is what happens with an older generation console that is digital only? If, for example the Gamecube was digital only, would we still be able to download games for it now or would it's own eShop be switched off like older on-line MP games? If it stayed on indefinitely then that would be great and would stop high value sales for rare games, EG - FE: Path of Radiance, but if they were switched off then older consoles would be utterly redundant and useless, plus the retro scene would suddenly stop growing beyond 2016ish.

Food for thought.

I tend to not buy anything digital except VC's and some indies because

• I can't sell digital copies
• I cant buy secondhand digital copies
• I can't show people cases when choosing a game to play
• I Need to add stuff to my wiiU in order to make it work
• Digital isn't faster/safer to use at all (or at least not notable to me)
• Cant buy when not online/I prefer wandering around in a gameshop before buying.

And last but definitly not least,

• Digital games are, for reason's completely beyond me, MORE expensive than physical copies, even though you factually get less! god knows why, but it is)

I don't see any advantages to buying digital whatsoever except for VC's.

There´s currently a bit more flexibility in having physical copies of games, but I only notice it on the 3DS where we have two in the family in addition to a DS. Some releases are physical by nature, like Disney Infinity but having to listento disc-noise while playing is not that great ... an option to install would have been great.

For the most part games are consumable entertainment, like movies and music.

The only retail software games I own is through a free game promotion or when the game has had a huge reduction in price

I prefer physical since I find the boxes and manuals and cartridges to be interesting. Plus I can do what I want with a physical game such as resell it. Also, here in the UK physical games are usually cheaper than digital. I'll occasionally buy digitally if it's going cheap, or for convenience on games I play often for short periods of time like Animal Crossing.

If a retail game is only available digitally, that won't stop me from buying it if I really want it. However, I'd much prefer the option to have a physical version. I'm less likely to buy on impulse with a digital version though.

I will always choose physical over digital — with CD/cartridge I own the game and I can decide when and how I want to play it. With digital I just rent the game, which sucks.

@bloodycelt
This is my main issue also. I love the digital nature of Steam because I have the assurance of being able to re-download if the hardware fails. But Nintendo have such a controlling attitude to user data that I feel anxious going digital on Wii U. It's a pity because I'm actually fine with a non-physical future.

I presume they want Fatal Frame to remain 'niche' because at high prices and limited physical copies it ain't gonna sell much. I'll play the demo to see what it's like but there's no way I'll be paying anything more than £20 for it.

This is one area where Nintendo really does suck. High eshop prices with no option for a refund if you don't like the game. If you buy physical, you are fairly safe in the knowledge that if you don't like the game you can sell it on straight away and can recoup 75-100% of what you paid for it (as I did with Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush recently). Nintendo offers nothing publicly to compete with that anywhere close.

This is one of Nintendo's biggest problems regarding 3rd party games. Very few people are going to buy a digital 3rd party game from Nintendo because the prices are generally so high and can be bought on Steam/Origin/Uplay/PSN for a fraction of the price (and refunds are often available).

Although I would like the convenience of digital games, realistically I'm never going to pay more than £20 for them (and it has to be a nailed-on classic a la MK8 for that to be considered). The only current exception to that is Art Academy Atelier - I know I want it but can't decide whether to buy physical or digital. It's suited to having digitally, but then it's tied to the eshop availability.

I can't answer the last question, because I feel it's lacking some context. I would support games being download only (it seems absurd in this day and age to have so much unnecessary plastic when we have the means to do things digitally), but at the same time, digital pricing has been pretty appalling across the board. There'd still need to be some sort of competition to drive down prices — perhaps game retailers still having download cards available to sell at non-fixed prices. If that were the case, then I'd be all for it.

I don't like the idea of digital download only at all. I prefer to own all of my games on physical media for a number of reasons. It has nothing do with elitism. For me its more about being enthusiastic about all aspects of video game culture. Things like console design, cartridge shape, controller design, box art, instruction manuals and all physical aspects of gaming are things a lot of gamers love because its just a part of the culture.

Having moved to China where the regional version of the 3DS is quite limited in terms of software, having an NOA 3DS with available downloads has been the only way I could get these games. Importing would tack on an extra $100 per game, so I'm all for digital download options. That said, I like physical copies for my older systems. Ilooking to replace a Genesis to play my older games. Although I've never had a Nintendo console die (though I have had a new SNES I had to return due to a hardware failure - no color output, oddly. The manager was nice enough to award me a brand new N64 as a replacement, since they were out of SNES units....kept me a Nintendo fan for life), I couldn't keep my games if my 3DS died, I don't think. And the 3DS seems a lot more complicated (read: susceptible to eventual hardware failure) than the older systems.

Having moved to China where the regional version of the 3DS is quite limited in terms of software, having an NOA 3DS with available downloads has been the only way I could get these games. Importing would tack on an extra $100 per game, so I'm all for digital download options. That said, I like physical copies for my older systems. Ilooking to replace a Genesis to play my older games. Although I've never had a Nintendo console die (though I have had a new SNES I had to return due to a hardware failure - no color output, oddly. The manager was nice enough to award me a brand new N64 as a replacement, since they were out of SNES units....kept me a Nintendo fan for life), I couldn't keep my games if my 3DS died, I don't think. And the 3DS seems a lot more complicated (read: susceptible to eventual hardware failure) than the older systems.

@Sabrewing Buying it anyway sends the exact opposite message. No business would reverse a decision if it was bringing the money in.

As I've seen with the PS4, is that if the system does not connect to the internet, you can't play your downloads. With the PS3, you can and you can with the Wii U. However, with the amount of space each game takes up, you'd be buying hard drive after hard drive to try and keep up with a good library of games, and who knows if the game would even be worth the price?? If you bought it, you have it and are stuck with it...you can delete it and cry over how much money you just wasted.

I like buying retail...even music. There's something about having the disc with the cover art to show in a growing library, and that's the way I'll always be. There's been downloads that I wish would come out on disc format, as I thought they would be good system sellers, but they don't.

If nintendo's next console is just download only, it will be a console I will never buy and never get into...same would go if Sony does this...isn't this why the Sony PSP Go didn't move well????

If it is a game that is difficult or simply unavailable to get at retail then I have no problem purchasing some games digitally though Nintendo really needs to start being more aggressive with price drops since there is no reason why digital games should be full price even years after release. Start having sales like Sony and Microsoft and I can guarantee I will be buying alot more of my games on the E-Shop, it just isn't financially wise to do so right now.

I hate idea of download titles only!

I really want fatal frame but am not gonna support or download the one on eshop! Want it as physical copy

Honestly, I like having physical copies, but I'd be perfectly Ok with a download only future. The problem is Nintendo just has a TERRIBLE digital infrastructure. The fact that games are tied to the hardware and not the system is RIDICULOUS (especially since the PS3 and 360 had account based systems and those were back in 2006-07). Also, Nintendo has awful pricing for digital games—just way too expensive. Having played on all platforms (PC, Sony's consoles, Microsoft consoles), if any of those three went download only, I wouldn't mind (in fact, disks are dying out on PC anyways), but Nintendo is in no position to move to retail downloads.

I actually prefer digital. However, the Wii U is not designed for it.

I think it's complete crap. I only download retail games digitally if they're free (Games with Gold/PS+) or if it's the only option (Fatal Frame).

I have plenty of indi and vc games downloaded but I like all my retail to go on a shelf with the rest of my games collection.

I own around 25 Wii U and 20 3DS games, here are the only retail I got digitally and why:

• Majora´s mask 3DS: It came with the New 3DS Majora´s mask edition
• Wonderfull 101 for Wii U - I got it free with a promotion after registering Mario Kart 8
• Super Mario 3D Land for 3DS: Got it free with a promotion

I got the retail Majora´s Mask 3DS Special edition on the self with the rest of my Zelda Collection and I´ll probably end up getting the other 2 games physically also.

Personal example: i did not buy Shin Megami Tensei IV and Dual Destinies, regardless of the many promotions. I want physical copies of "big games". Still, i have Shovel Knight and some otehrs indies, + all Sega Classics. But i am very happy about the coming physocal version fo SK. That reminds me also of this f... region lock policy. I have a PS Vita also. I buy retail copies of several games which are released in NA as cartridge but only as downladables in EU.

Forgot to say my thoughts went even more on the hard side following the recent scandal for games on iOS removed from the "games you bought" list after they were removed from the app store, which means that after some time, you completely lose a game. It does not happen when you have the cartridge.

@Tate24

"I really want fatal frame but am not gonna support or download the one on eshop! Want it as physical copy."

If you and enough others react this way, then you all have collectively sent this series to it's western grave. We will not get another chance if it sells poorly. The reason for NoA's treatment of Fatal Frame, regardless of if it's right or wrong, is because they don't believe it will sell; it's not so much the overblown theory that they're trying to shove eshop only games down our throats. Their free-to-play model is proof that they have zero faith this game will sell.

The next time Fatal Frame skips the west, I do not want to see you comment on how it isn't fair. You really think that not buying the game because we don't have a physical version will send that direct "message" to Nintendo? It won't, I assure you. NoA will only see this as, "Well Fatal Frame just doesn't sell in the west."

If you buy it, in your opinion, you are sending a "message" that it is ok to do digital only releases; however the other side is far more damaging; not buying it, still won't solve the issues you care about, and we'll lose Fatal Frame in the process. I guarantee that the reason you won't buy it will get lost in translation at the NoA headquarters.

Is it a double edged sword? It is. I always buy physical if I can, but my stance for this instance is more about saving Fatal Frame than anything else.

Let's be frank, it is not a matter of if we are going to be dealing with all digital game but a matter of when. I think had Microsoft not completely bungled their announcement for the Xbox One at least one console this generation would have been. It is a simple matter of economics that will not be resisted.

I have mixed feelings on all digital. I purchased a lot of games on the Wii when it first released and eventually sold that console. When I returned to Nintendo I was quite upset to find those purchases were vapor with no way to recover them, the same with my Games for Windows digital purchases. At the same time, I have a Steam account and Xbox account with roughly 200 games between them purchased entirely digitally and have not had any issues accessing them.

With the Wii U, I have found myself going digital more often than not. Only about half of my games are physical, and that percentage is decreasing. Having a small child that can take discs out of the console and destroy them is a motivating factor, but so is the ease of not having to juggle discs nor having a stack of cases lying around cluttering up stuff.

Those that advocate argues about always having the game will always have access to it, but willfully ignore the fact of bit rot of physical media or the fact that consoles eventually break. I have CDs and DVDs that no longer function because the media degraded, and consoles like the Dreamcast were poorly designed and eventually fail (with no replacement parts). They also tend to ignore that with rare exceptions most gamers never look back, and when they do it is only for a handful of cherished games.

I went download only this generation as with two kids I don't have the space now for boxes. I do worry about them in the future though (if can't redownload, if can't transfer to next console etc)

Most of my downloaded retail games are for PS3, which I usually get during Flash Sales. All of my retail Wii U games are physical, though that might have changed if Nintendo shipped its console with a larger hard drive or if they had more eShop sales on its first party games.

I can understand the idea of doing retail games as download-only releases due to the lower overhead costs and the ease of advertising niche games to fans who might actually want it (Ace Attorney, anyone?).

@ottospooky Agree with you whole heartedly. Own over 300 physical games and going and am a huge fan of limited and collectors editions. I prefer my games for display and the fact that I may want to play them when companies shut down. If Sony were to shut down today, a whole lot of people would be mad when they learn that if anything happens to the games on their HDD, they are gone for good, and all the games they didn't have room to download are gone for good as well.

It also makes me feel good to go to a game store and see a copy of a game I own going for $100+.

I will never back retail priced downloads. Don't believe in them and they it is fleecing customers to charge almost full price after the game maker saves half the premium price or more not having to deal with middle men.

I only buy digital on the Wii U wehn it's a game I'll play in spurts like Smash or Splatoon. I tend to keep one physical disc in my system until I finish it and then move on. Splatoon and Smash seem to never really end and I sometimes only want to play for 15 minutes or so. Digital is perfect for this scenario.

I don't buy digital-only releases except if they go for 50% off while comparing to Retail Price. For example, I bought digital MH4 for $20 and Street Fighter IV for $7 when they were discounted, but I'd never pay $40 for them in digital media EVER.

There is no logic in asking the same price for a digital game. They don't have manufacturing costs (cartridge, cover, box), transporting costs and profits for the store. And collectors will still buy physical, people who don't have credit cards, parents with younger kids who keep deleting their games, people who want SAFETY in their purchases, because at any time, Nintendo may pull off the title in digital form from e-shop, close down online services when the system is defunct or give you trouble to recover your games and purchases if your system breaks or is stolen. Digital isn't a safe way right now to justify asking the same price.

I downloaded Fatal Frame last night and it took 2 hours. Granted, it's a large download but no one can convince me that digital is better than retail. I could have literally put on my running shoes and ran to the video game store, bought the game, and then ran back home with time left over to still complete the first two levels. FACT!!!

But this game is download only so there is no retail version....but still, everything I just said is true. And with there being no discount for downloading digitally, I have no clue what the advantage is.

I can't even buy the game yet. The game is so huge that there's not enough room on the Wii U. I had to buy a flash drive just to get space to buy the dang game (it comes in tomorrow). That's annoying, to be honest. Digital games are just too big for this to be a good alternative.

@BinaryFragger That is an oversimplification. Any business worth their salt will look at all possible factors affecting sales, not just blindly assume that if a product doesn't sell it wasn't of interest to the target market.

Give the customers what they want. Microsoft learnt this when they tried it on with the Xbox One; Nintendo should make sure they're applying this too.

Was kind of surprised at the anti-download sentiment in the poll. I'm somewhere in the middle, but trending toward downloads, especially for a portable console. Discs get damaged, lost, and have to be switched in and out when switching between games. And, I hate going to stores for new games and hoping that copies are available. I'll still do it sometimes, but out of mild convenience, I prefer downloads these days.

Also, storage is cheap these days. I have a 250 gig hard drive from an old laptop that I just put in a slick shell that serves as my Wii U external. Cost me like $5 and works like a charm.

@Darknyht I've never personally come across a retail CD or DVD that has degraded, and never known anyone else to report it until you, now, if you are indeed referring to retail discs. Home-burnt discs are different.

@earthboundlink Physical copies are inherently more valuable because they have resale potential. Until Nintendo reduces its digital pricing to reflect the lack of resale potential I will never see a £30-40 purchase as attractive and my participation in the market will decline significantly if physical is removed as an option.

@gcunit That's a legitimate perspective. I never resell my games, so it doesn't affect me. I see mild convenience in the downloads, and I don't mind paying full price for them. I think everyone should be entitled to whatever suits them best, but I'm pretty much all in for anything that leaves me with fewer things hanging around my house.

The size of the games is my issue. Plus I like the game cases

@gcunit http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3940669.stm is just one article talking about the issue, but the fact is that you are talking about two pieces of plastic with a piece reflective aluminum between them. Scratches being the most common source of disc "rot", but there is also corrosion caused by the elements like heat and cold. There were thousands of CDs that went bad due to a manufacturer mistake that caused "bronzing" in the UK. Likewise, manufacturing issues can allow air to get into the disc and cause oxidation, and extreme heat and cold and do the same to it.

Personally, my oldest CDs have started to have this issue, mostly with Books on CD where they were in a storage unit or spent months in the hot or cold car. I have also experienced this with DVDs I have purchased second hand that most likely spent time in a warehouse with poor weather control. My dad lost disk boxes full of C-64 games that just demagnetized with time, and you can find examples all over of cartridges that suffer bit rot and the glitches it introduces. Physical media, like all physical things, decay.

@earthboundlink Just to give you a perspective on why I personally, prefer physical copies... I've never lost or damaged a physical disc or cartridge. I take very good care of my stuff and there's no reason that any disc or cartridge can't last a lifetime if you take care of it. Hard drives fail, way quicker than any cartridge or disc. Switching discs/carts in and out to play different games might seem like a pain but to me the bigger pain is having to go through my files and delete some games and wait for a new one to download. I'm probably in the minority but my internet is very slow to download games, it could take a few hours, if not a day or two, to download a full retail game. It would be WAY quicker for me to run to the store and buy it. Plus I enjoy going out. I hate shopping online, though I do it out of convenience sometimes, but I actually enjoy going to a store and browsing and picking up my game there. I don't mind it in the least. Not to mention if I'm out, like at work and on lunch or between jobs, I have my 3DS with me often...but if a new game came out that day I can't just download it with no wi-fi or 3G available. I'd have to wait to get home to play it. But I can spend 15 min to run to the store and pick it up and play it right then and there. One more thing I prefer about physical media is the fact that in 10 or 20 years from now I know I will be able to play the games I own because I have them. When you buy a digital game now, how do you know you can play them in 10 or 20 years? Will the games still be available for download? Will you have to rebuy them? If people don't care about owning the physical media and sees games as clutter, and also if they don't care about playing games for many years down the line, then that's fine, they see games as a disposable hobby. But when I get a new game, and I play it, I don't plan on getting rid of it after I'm done. I want to play it for many years to come.

But this is just me. Not saying you or anyone else who prefers digital games are wrong. I just thought I'd elaborate my mentality on why I prefer physical media. I believe that both forms of media can co-exist. But I know gaming is headed towards a digital-only future.

I continue to believe the NX will be download only, but keep hoping this will not be the case.

I like the tangible, and I like the physical retail experience. I was gutted when music CDs shed their cardboard packaging. Gaming wise, I miss boxes and instructional booklets. Less art, less information. And if you ever lost music on an iPod, you have a definite sense that downloads less permanent that a good old cart or well-cared for CD. So yeah, not a digital download fan, but am pretty sure it's gaming's future.

@bluedogrulez Totally agree. I'd be more surprised if NX did have physical media actually. I'm 90% sure it will be digital only. I too miss the instruction books and boxes. It was fun to read through the manual before playing a new game I just got. But we can thank the younger generations for being too lazy to go to the store or read instruction books or too irresponsible to keep their discs in nice shape. That and companies' need for maximize their profits aka greed.

The problem is the price. It's very convenient to buy digital copies for a handheld, but Nintendo keeps the price very high even for old games. It took four years for Star Fox 64 3D, a remake of a N64 game, to get discounted, while you could find physical copies for €10.

Nintendo must bring better deals to the eShop, as both Sony and Microsoft do, support multi-buy (not being more expensive) and also link purchases to an user account, then I'll have no objections to digital downloads. Another problem regarding the Wii U would be its ridiculous memory. So yep, Nintendo must enter the 21st century now...

Physical ftw,
1) I can get better deals with physical copies.
2) I can sell them to get another game
3) i like to see my hard copies, like a gaming trophee, it's in the middle of my room.
4) prices are way to high for downloaded games, the costs are a lot lower, its a bit greedy to ask 50+ euro's for digital data. -40% off would be fair.

@rjejr Oh my god, stop scaring me! sweats uncontrollably

Streaming is a 100% no no. Digital retail only? I've been that way for the last 6 years. My ps3, 3ds, wii u and ps4 are 100% digital download only.
It's just better in every way.

@Therad I got a game corrupted on the PSTV digitally, I could play it fine but some part were corrupted and just gave a black screen, I ended up needing to redownload the whole game and losing my save file because of that. ( Sony only let you keep your save file if you pay PS+, you can't backup on PC since it register the whole game )

I also got the same corruption with Bravely Default at least 3 times, the problem being the auto-save feature.

@Kaze_Memaryu Sorry, I thought that was an obvious joke on my part. Well unless you were joking then the jokes on me, i think. Anyway, I'll stick a jk on the end of my future joke posts just to make sure.

Just want to add my 2 cents: I used to strictly prefer physical copies, but since getting a cheap external hard drive for my Wii U, I much prefer downloading. It's just less of a hassle if I feel like playing a game for a few minutes, I don't have to switch out the game disc, and I feel pretty secure that those digital purchases will remain active for the indefinite future, and probably transfer over to the next console in some way, as they did with Wii to Wii U upgrade purchase for reduced price. The only major argument I could see against downloading games is the somewhat limited built in memory on the Wii U. But you still have to download a few huge games before you run out of space completely.

@MarinoKadame Then you did it wrong. It's easy as pie to back up save files on Vita memory cards. I do it all the time switching between my Vita and PSTV.

It's a digital future. Think of the way our phones dont install physical media / music / movies ect. Besides dropping the optical drive will free up a lot of cost and size. I'm all digital in. Enjoy having all my games on the screen. no need to change our discs

@3DSWiiUFanatic I agree. No ones complaining about no physical media for their iOS games. Or iTunes downloads. I'm having fun organizing all my games on the home screen knowing I'll never have to look around for a disc again

I avoid downloading on Nintendo platforms unless it's either the only option or I've gotten it at a serious discount. The lack of adequate storage or a real account system make it a definite no. I wanted to try fatal frame but there wasn't enough room on my WiiU. I'm not curious enough to buy another external hdd.

WARNING: HUGE wall of text ahead. Continue at your own peril. I'm not responsible for any possible brain damage or your head hurting resulting from me having made you think twice about this whole digital-only stuff being such a great thing...
(needless to say I voted with the majority, being all but completely against these blasphemous, anti-gamer practices)

Wow, I've sure seen a lot of total BS... ehm, sorry: non-reasons to prefer digital over physical. Most of these download-only fans seem to have no clue whatsoever what they are actually saying yes to and they will definitely get a huge door slammed REALLY hard in their face once the provider/company decides to pull the plug on the service that is tied to the games they've downloaded, turning your console into a museum piece with a hard drive filled with next to no playable titles stored on it. VERY short-sighted, to put it mildly.

For the true gamer/collector, this move to change gaming into yet another completely disposable medium, will be the death of their hobby and even to the more casual gamer it should be very troubling (and it absolutely stupefies me that it doesn't) that millions of people are so completely willing to relinquish their hard earned money in exchange for hardly any rights in terms of ownership or possibility of reselling/exchanging older games to name but a few. Rules concerning usage of these games can be changed at the publisher's whim, thereby completely ignoring the user that bought them.

There is no (or at the very least less) personal connection with a download; I've noticed it myself with another medium, Bitcoins. Although it is not quite the same, bear with me and you will understand what I'm trying to say. I once had to handle thousands of bitcoins and I gained profit from it too, but it was just numbers on a screen and to me it didn't feel like real money, mainly because it wasn't tangible, so transferring thousands of Bitcoins to several different accounts didn't feel like handling a lot of money, it was just numbers in a computer, and not the same as counting dollar bills/banknotes, which also gives that "wow, that is a lot of money" sensation, when you see the stacks of bills grow while you're counting them.

In the early days, games were complete and although some of them obviously also had glitches or errors, they weren't game breaking for the most part. All these day one patches, online game verifications/DRM solutions are a true detriment to the enjoyment to be had from what should be a worry free hobby.

If you are that true gamer/collector (and to be clear for those that wonder, I don't mean to say a gamer OR a collector, but a gamer that is ALSO a collector) then you WILL want that box, that nicely painted disc or labeled cartridge and the occasional limited edition, with all the nice and interesting extras that come with it.

I buy a few every now and then, the last ones being two Wii games: the Skyward Sword package with the golden Wiimote+ and the Zelda concert CD, and the Xenoblade Chronicles package with the red Classic Controller Pro and on PC and on the Xbox 360 I have some nice Steel cases. Buying a box with just a limited edition controller and some scratch card with a download code for a game is just miles away from anywhere near being in the same league, if at ALL...

When I look at the many things mentioned in the 200+ comments before me about physical media, then I see a lot of things that can be remedied by the person in possession of these games, discs degrading may become an issue, depending on the quality, but also depending on the user taking care of his or her games. The same goes for scratches or other damage to discs: I still use my old consoles on a reasonably regular basis, and all my cartridges still work on my N64, and my discs all work on my GameCube and on my Dreamcast.

I take real good care of both the discs and the consoles, which means cleaning both the discs and the consoles themselves every now and then, and when you don't want to use them for a longer period of time, you store both in a cool and dark place. And I do mean cool, not freezing...

I also still own a number of Amiga computers (A500, A500+, A1200 and CD32) and these too are still in mint condition and perfect working order, and the same goes for the 3,5" disks that go into them and the CD's, most of which are now well over 20 years old.

Got kids? No problem either: store your game boxes on a higher shelf or behind a locked door, and certainly don't leave any disc in a drive for your kid to put his greasy little hands on. Any form of care, whether it is for your game collection or for anything else that is part of your hobby (like fishing, driving cars or shooting) takes effort, and the result of that effort is the knowledge and satisfaction of knowing that your games are good to go for yet another 5 to 10 years after you've taken care of them once again.

I have yet to come across a single game in my collection (and I own a LOT of games) that doesn't work anymore, regardless of which platform it is on. I am realistic enough to realize that even with good care, part of my collection will eventually be beyond repair or any care I can throw at it, but by then I will be too old to care too much about it, since I will be around 60-70 years of age and I don't see myself playing too many games then, although I have to confess that I always had the same thought about reaching the age of 40 back when I was 20, and I'm still gaming now at 45, so I may yet surprise myself...

One thing is sure, though: around that time I'm pretty confident that I will have outlasted the digital-only owners by several decades, because of them having wrecked their console by means of misuse or over-use, or the servers of their games all being discontinued so they will not be able to play a single game that they "own" anymore, while I will still be happily chugging away on all my consoles with physical media.

Clutter is also a BS reason: clean up your rooms, people! Clutter is only possible without care, games neatly stacked on shelves or in a cabinet of some sorts not only looks great: it is very easy to select the game you want straight away and you actually have a physical representation of your wealth: the games that you've invested your hard-earned money in to collect, instead of an invisible hard drive inside your console.

Sure, it is convenient in some ways, but like DVD's & Blu-rays, hard discs also degrade over time, and if you have a collection as large as mine, then I'll wager a bet that I'm much quicker at swapping a game than the people having to browse through all these titles installed on their console.

As for comparing PC downloads or Steam to console digital-only: that's also not quite the same. Besides what others have already said about Steam, there's also a gray area of solutions on those platforms that will more or less guarantee longevity of those games you bought for years to come, and those solutions aren't as easily available or convenient on consoles.

There are several groups of notorious yet kind people on the internet that provide users with dummy Steam files, negating the need of ever having to log in to verify or whatever, essentially giving you total control over the game, except for the online part, yet there are also solutions for that, and even tons of user groups that simply gather to make their own dedicated servers for their favorite games.

People on PC are still playing a lot of old games that aren't officially supported anymore, such as Counterstrike, Halflife, Team Fortress and even Quake and Doom, and other games made with the same engine. On console such solutions are next to impossible.

Consoles can of course be modded, but would you want to do that and what amount of access does it give you? If it is only for the single player part of a game, then the effort to perform such an operation may very well be hardly worth the trouble.

Personally, I've found modding primarily useful for retro gaming, to forego the whole "I can't play game X online anymore" problem, so currently my only modded console is the Wii, with emulators for nearly every system and handheld that came before the 7th generation (GameCube, PS2, Xbox) of consoles. It even runs PS1 games at a decent frame rate.

Besides my love for retro gaming, the console that I love the most is still the Dreamcast, also because all games can be played offline but mostly because with many of its games, it really gives you that classic arcade feel.

The future will probably be almost completely digital-only, but I think that it isn't as near as some people think or, strangely enough, want it to be and that is a VERY good thing. Collecting games still belongs to this generation of gamers, or at least to a significant part of the 20 and above aged gamers, that are still infected with the cartridge and disc bug.

When the time arrives that gaming goes completely digital, it really has to be such a great game on such a must-have console before I could be persuaded to even think about buying it. Digital-only is fine by me for smaller arcade games, free to play games and add-ons to games, but completely digital? No, thanks. I hope the NX will come with a nice surprise in the form of either a new type of Blu-ray but I will also be fine with some sort of High Capacity cartridge, something that is also entirely within the realm of possibilities, seeing as there are already 128GB SD cards, and they are becoming cheaper every year.

And cards would also be a good solution for all the people "worrying" (whining) about clutter, loss of space and what not. SD cards are small and they don't need to come in big boxes. They could come in 3DS-like (or even smaller) boxes and after purchase you can take them out of their box and put them all in a small carry case, for easy transportation and storage. Problem solved!

@rjejr Don't worry about it, I was only half-joking, but I get the joke. ^_^

The pros at the moment, in my opinion and regarding only Fatal Frame V:

The price for the full game is roughly $15 less than what I'd pay at retail, and being able to sample a good portion of the game beforehand was a HUGE plus and pushed me to spend my money seeing how visually impressive it was.

The cons, in the same respect:

I've had to delete my other retail downloads to make space for Fatal Frame, which may force me to buy a bigger hard drive in the future, and the download and installation times take a while.

So where do I stand on the matter? Well, if the download option is my only resort, I'll do it. If not, I'll buy the physical version.

As far as the future's concerned, well, faster internet will eventually become easily affordable for people and hard drive storage will also eventually become affordable and accessible. Physical copies of games are slowly becoming obsolete, but until that time I'm going to commit to them as much as possible.

@kensredemption I don't know what kind of timescale you have in mind, but rest assured that the internet will still take a relatively long time to become sufficiently available in all areas and have the same bandwidth as in larger cities, since in a lot of rural/farmland areas the internet is still excruciatingly slow and everything but stable, almost comparable to dial-up modems in quite a few state areas, so gamers living in Hicksville, hillbilly county won't be able to have access to services like that for some decades to come.

And that is only in the US. In other parts of the world there's the same problem (rural Asia and Eastern Europe). It will take at least another 30 to 40 years for literally everyone to have a stable glass-fiber network connection, one that is definitely needed for reliable lag-free online gaming and downloading, especially with the ever increasing size of games, let alone the patches. (Assassin's Creed Unity being a nice example in the current console generation)

This is also taking into account that providers have priorities tied to their profits that forego bringing good internet to everybody on the planet at the same time. Nowadays it is still WAY too expensive to lay that amount and length of cables in every state, county or village, so for the foreseeable future there will still be quite a few areas in which obligatory internet for gaming simply isn't a feasible solution.

EDIT:
And then there's also the point of people being able to afford (or simply willing to pay for) such an internet connection/subscription when it is finally available in their area...

@BaffleBlend
Most digital-only sentiments I've seen amount to elitism. "I don't give in to the retail trends, therefore I am BETTER than you sheeple" and all that. And not only has those attitudes made me better accept retail games, it has actively turned me away from buying digital.
You guys who think like that literally sound like those hipsters who insist on listening to mp3 tracks only just because they're sold by "the man".

I know someone who can't connect any of his game consoles to the internet, and I'm sure he's not the only one. If all retail games were download-only, it would stop those people from being able to play new games at all.

@MoonKnight7 said " I always buy physical if I can, but my stance for this instance is more about saving Fatal Frame than anything else".

I think this is the best conclusion written here. If you don't download a digital Mario game okay, Nintendo won't give it up. If you don't download Fatal Frame/Project Zero, Nintendo will think that you don't care about the game.

@KillScottKill For me it backed up the whole corrupted game and the only option to backup the save was to pay for PS+.

With the NX being download only games and no pyshical the issue of price will need to be addressed. Also the ability to sell completed or crap games will no longer exist which means that purchasers will be less inclined to jump in and sell if not thier cup of tea. Maybe demos will resolve this. Black water is Nintendo first test of this purchase style which I imagine will be rolled out to all releases between now and the NX.

@TheRealThanos I read your wall of text... And now you're my hero...

@VanillaLake

Haha, thanks for that.

While I do understand the opposite argument, I think this particular instance is really black and white. The driving force here is that NoA doesn't think it will sell. Let's be fair here too, it's history doesn't grant confidence. If Fatal Frame doesn't sell well, I doubt we'll see it here again. At least until region locking gets fixed, and I won't hold my breath for that anytime soon. I want to save the series first before we start dealing with the other issues.

@MoonKnight7 I agree with you. Besides, even if we surpassed region locking issues, it would still be problematic to play because of the Japanese language. I think your stance is intelligent and mature, you know digital only can be annoying for many people but first of all you want to protect this franchise so it doesn't die. That's what everybody should do in order to save one of the best survival horror franchises.