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[YeulEmeralda]

There are no game stores left in my country. So you have to buy a physical video game online anyway.


Oh and they have been releasing games broken for what 10 years now? When the servers are down you don't have access to that crucial 15 gigabyte day one patch.

 

[Beechos]

The pros of digital far outway the cons of loss of ownership. Pretty much all media is digital at this point. Having both as an option would be the best of both worlds of course.

Dont some physical games printed nowadays only contain like a small amount of data where most of the game still needs to be downloaded anyway?

 

[Kupfer]

The pros of digital far outway the cons of loss of ownership.

That may be the case for you, but not for me nor many others.

Pretty much all media is digital at this point.

The statement does not count and never has.

Having both as an option would be the best of both worlds of course.

That's true, however, how would I like to have some digital only games as disc / cardridge ...

Dont some physical games printed nowadays only contain like a small amount of data where most of the game still needs to be downloaded anyway?

There are even "retail" games that only come with a download code and not even a data carrier, THAT is really trashy.
But in most cases, the game is on the disc, but must be installed on the system. No one wants the long loading times that reading from disc would entail.

 

[lh032]

There is no digital ownership when "buying" digital movies / games . You basically rent an license until the company decides to end the service. Could be in 100 years, could be next week.

Best example - Sony removing some purchased films movies from users accounts

Sonys ToS

then digital is bad >: (

 

[ArtHands]

Steam, u play, gog, and Xbox store is doing fine.

Nintendo and Sony sucks in that regard, and are thankfully not the industry standard.

Nintendo and Sony can afford not to care because their fans will never migrate to other platforms.

 

[jorgejjvr]

Digital games are always more expensive + you cant sell them.

So..

Play day 1, preload, some of us with families cant afford to have more game boxes around, convenience of not having to switch physical games around, if you wait digital sales are great. Eveything else i do is also digital, from movies to shows

Ive also never sold one of my physical games, they are now just collecting space and dust

 

[jorgejjvr]

Physical also used to be the only way I could share my games with my brother for example, but not anymore, with making another system as your 'home' system trick, he has access to all my ps4/5 and xbox digital library as well, i buy game once digitally, and we can both play it

 

[Moses85]

Play day 1, preload, some of us with families cant afford to have more game boxes around, convenience of not having to switch physical games around, if you wait digital sales are great. Eveything else i do is also digital, from movies to shows

Ive also never sold one of my physical games, they are now just collecting space and dust

Wait for the day your digital games arent playable anymore. I will enjoy them while they spinning in the disc drives of my consoles

I order my games online and receive them day one.. also have 2 childs, and the 3rd is coming in november + a girlfriend.

Still no need to buy digital games and never will do.

 

[jorgejjvr]

Wait for the day your digital games arent playable anymore. I will enjoy them while they spinning in the disc drives of my consoles

I order my games online and receive them day one.. also have 2 childs, and the 3rd is coming in november + a girlfriend.

Still no need to buy digital games and never will do.

Yeah, 20 years from now I won't care too much about a game I've already beaten. I also don't revisit games. No time. No space.

 

[hemo memo]

“Sadly” should be in the title as the death of retail and dominance of ANY platform holder digital market is bad no matter how you look at it. I mean situation is awful right now with the cheaper retail option is here no imagine if you are limited to the digital store.

I bought Nier Replicant (PS4) (physical) from Amazon Global store as the order from Amazon US now I live in a different continent and I don’t know how many countries that physical copy have passed before reaching my doorstep yet it was still 50+% cheaper (total +shipping) than Sony digital store.

 

[dcx4610]

Casuals don't care about physical ownership. It's all about convenience to them. Physical games is a niche/collectors market now just like with movies and music or people that simply don't have internet. I don't think it will go above 80% though. The 20% are the hardcores and collectors. Those people will also a lot of times double dip and buy both the digital and the the physical. Also, I'm betting a lot of people that buy digital will still buy used games and those aren't going to be included in Sony's numbers.

 

[hemo memo]

Casuals don't care about physical ownership. It's all about convenience to them. Physical games is a niche/collectors market now just like with movies and music or people that simply don't have internet. I don't think it will go above 80% though. The 20% are the hardcores and collectors. Those people will also a lot of times double dip and buy both the digital and the the physical. Also, I'm betting a lot of people that buy digital will still buy used games and those aren't going to be included in Sony's numbers.

Yeah convenience because walking to your doorstep to pick your cheaper Amazon copy of the game is too much work.

 

[dcx4610]

Yeah convenience because walking to your doorstep to pick your cheaper Amazon copy of the game is too much work.

It's not just that. I've noticed the younger generation seems to no care at all about physically owning things. I just think their generation is used to having everything digital and physically owning something just isn't part of their mindset. You do get some younger people that get into it but I think the masses have no interest in having a game, movie or music on a shelf.

 

[hemo memo]

It's not just that. I've noticed the younger generation seems to no care at all about physically owning things. I just think their generation is used to having everything digital and physically owning something just isn't part of their mindset. You do get some younger people that get into it but I think the masses have no interest in having a game, movie or music on a shelf.

I get what you're saying, but cost is a big factor as outside of the video game console industry, digital products are typically cheaper, not more expensive. So it is not a great comparison as I might buy an ebook book instead of printed or subscribe to Spotify instead of buying an albums or buying digital movies instead of physical, but when I can order a physical game overseas that can arrive at my doorstep more than 50+% cheaper, it shows you how fucking greedy the video game console digital market place is. The death of retail will make the situation worse, as buying at those ridiculous prices is your only option.
The silver linings is the big 3 are pushing a game collection subscription services which make things a little tailorable as it is cheaper than buying 2 full priced games a year.

 

[Moses85]

Yeah, 20 years from now I won't care too much about a game I've already beaten. I also don't revisit games. No time. No space.

So no nostalgia for you, thats sad.

 

[jorgejjvr]

So no nostalgia for you, thats sad.

Nostalgia in my memories, yep

 

[asdasdasdbb]

Yeah convenience because walking to your doorstep to pick your cheaper Amazon copy of the game is too much work.

If you are talking new releases... I don't think Amazon is going to charge anything other than MSRP. And if you don't have Prime, buying games from Amazon kind of sucks.

And there are still opportunities to save a bit buying used but Gamestop's QC is questionable. There's a point where playing Game Roulette isn't worth the couple of bucks.

 

[DeepEnigma]

I buy all my games digital now, as I have been doing on the PC since HL2 came out.

Last gen was a mixture of the two. With that said, physical is still very important.

 

[YeulEmeralda]

So 20 years from now you can play an unpatched Cyberpunk 2077?

Much wow. Truly physical is master race.

 

[rofif]

So 20 years from now you can play an unpatched Cyberpunk 2077?

Much wow. Truly physical is master race.

Yes. That's also the reason!
We will be able to choose to play unpatched cyberpunk.