• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Going all digital next gen? Why & What are your biggest concerns?

I won't go all digital anytime soon. I don't trust the pricing on consoles yet, don't trust MS or Sony enough to buy $60 digital games on their networks, and don't like how games aren't guaranteed to be there. I haven't been sold on pure convenience yet, as I'm not too lazy to change a disc.

I'm okay with digital for music, movies, and what I've bought for a few dollars on steam, but those are all cheaper than full retail games. Consoles will never have the huge earth shaking Steam sales pushing impulse buys, it's just not how those platforms work.

I prefer having physical games right not because who knows if MS decides to shut off Live for the 360, or if Sony gets hacked again and PSN is down for another month. I also don't like how digital games get lost due to licenses, legal bullshit, or companies going out of business. Can't buy Outrun ever again, but I can find physical versions for a variety of platforms. Good thing I still have my snes carts of the donkey kong country trilogy, since Nintendo delisted them from the wii VC without warning right before the WiiU launched.
 
I considered going all digital, but with PS4 games taking up so much data as it is I would only be able to download 7 or 8 titles at the most on the stock hdd. Also had concerns over hdd failure which would be a pain to have to redownload everything (game saves aside for ps+) when i can just have a physical copy that loads relatively quickly. There's also the issue of lost value since you cant trade in/sell digital downloads.

Aside from Drive Club or PS+ titles, I don't really plan on going balls deep with the digital crowd.
 
I'll be going pure digital for PS4. I don't have a bandwith cap, so I'm not worried about limits. PSN Plus is a fantastic membership, and offers deeper discounts on digital goods, so that's a huge incentive to go digital. The harddrive on the PS4 is big to begin with, and to optionally swap out for something even bigger means I can set my own space limitations.

Also, the nearest store to me that sells video games is a three hour round trip. I've had to rely on Amazon to get physical copies this past generation, and waiting for a game in the mail sucks. I could drive to that nearest city, and hopefully the electronic stores will have the games day one, but that costs gas and money. I live in Canada in the middle of practically nowhere, so it takes a solid week before a game gets to me. Buying digital also means I can bypass certain sales taxes, while physical copies will be taxed at the full amount.

So, yeah. Digital4Life.
 
Most of my 3DS and Wii U games are digital. I don't really lend or sell games anymore, I much prefer the convenience of multiple full games on one system.

Once there are good solutions for cloud save backups, I'll be more for it.
 
I love digital and plan on buying any games that I'm certain I'll love digitally. Games that I'm uncertain about will be bought physically so I can sell them if the game doesn't do anything for me.

This sounds like a good plan.

Although I have nothing against digital, I'm just consuming the game and the enjoyment it brings. I'm not thinking of a DVD as an investment. If I can get $50 of enjoyment out of a game, that's good enough.
You consume TV for $80 a month. You consume movies for $15 a pop. What's so bad about digital games again?
 
Have been 100% digital for a very very long time now. If it isn't digital, I skip it ;P

This is on both PS3 and PC.

The last PC game I bought on Disc was KOTOR and on PS3 it was GOW3 I think
 
I hope to do all digital on both the xb1 and p4s. Possible problems are:

Preloading. Would be nice to have games available at midnight.

Store Specific Bonuses/DLC/Sales. (This could be fixed by allowing retailers to stock digital game codes)
 
I thought of a very obvious way Microsoft and any other publisher could promote going all digital and push it on those who are resistant to it:

When an upcoming new game is finished and "goes gold," go ahead and flip the switch. Put it up for download and let people buy it and play it. Let the people who insist on owning a physical copy wait for it to go through the whole manufacturing/shipping/retail process.

Pretty sure that would weed a lot of them out. What exactly is stopping them from doing this? Squawking from retailers? Seems like delaying the inevitable.
 
Probably all digital. As an avid handheld gamer, I LOVE the convenience of digital on my Vita (even though my 32GB card is way past full, I could probably fill a 2nd 32gb card). The 3DS seems archaic with cartridges, and I refuse to go digital on it due to lack of account system.

Of course a console is a bit different than a handheld. It's going to be stationary on a shelf most of the time. You won't be fumbling cartridges in the car. I've sold off most of my physical games over the years after amassing a massive physical collection, and I don't regret it. I just don't like the clutter anymore. I don't like worrying if my 4 year old will break a disk. I don't like the thought of games getting stolen in a break-in. With Sony's account system I feel pretty secure.

I could see myself buying physical when there are crazy retail deals, or if the game is definitely something with limited replay value. Other than that though, I'll probably be going digital. Sony has shown that they are getting more aggressive in pricing lately, and while not Steam-like just yet, they've come a long ways.
 
I thought of a very obvious way Microsoft and any other publisher could promote going all digital and push it on those who are resistant to it:

When an upcoming new game is finished and "goes gold," go ahead and flip the switch. Put it up for download and let people buy it and play it. Let the people who insist on owning a physical copy wait for it to go through the whole manufacturing/shipping/retail process.

Pretty sure that would weed a lot of them out. What exactly is stopping them from doing this? Squawking from retailers? Seems like delaying the inevitable.

That would be pretty great, good point.
That or a simple $10 savings in price with the digital version. Or combine both. There'd be no one left to buy physical instantly, stores would just be a stack of code cards.
 
My biggest concern, buying a game, and regretting it almost instantly. Hopefully this won't be such an issue if every game has a decent demo.

I'll be far more cautious in what games I buy, any I'm on the fence about, I'll wait to see if they come to PS+.

This gen, I'd really like to see some trade in deals on digital, particularly annual franchises like FIFA. Ultimately, I hope these sort of sports games move to a subscription/DLC model, with no need to purchase all new versions each year.
 
My only worry is at some pont I won't be able to use the conent I have purchased, and so far the industry has done nothing to prove those fears wrong. From platform holders to publishers they have shown the consumer has no control of our purchased content... Well outside of pirating the content, and that is the issue. Until the paying consumer has greater protection to our purchased content then the pirate does, I will refuse to go digital only.
 
No

Why?

- Ownership Rights / Availability: I've already had my entire games library on a platform (yay Steam / Valve!) restricted/blocked at their arbitary discretion; holding my entire games library to ransom till I comply with their demands. Once bitten, twice shy. Interesting glimpse of the future. I try my best to avoid buying anything from them now, and do all my PC purchasing on GOG.

- Price: Been on the marketplace for Xbox/PS3 lately? That ain't going to get magically better in a monopolised environment.

- Rights/Principle: My games. I brought them. I can choose to sell them. 100+ games this gen; and I've maybe sold/traded 5; but the point is I can.

- Lending: Can choose to lend games to friends if I feel like it,
 
I'm going all digital on the Xbox One and PS4 and have been all digital on the 360 and PS3 for quite a while.

My biggest concern with Xbox is being able to pre-order and be rocking n' rolling at 12:01 am.

My biggest concern with PS4 is quality and consistency of the digital services.

A secondary concern for both is being able to buy those $20 games as quickly as I'd be able to on Amazon.
 
First concern is pricing. Obviously if things are cheap who cares about the rest? But things are not cheap.

Because the games are expensive, I worry about resale. I've sold off all my titles to get ready for some sort of next gen purchase. You don't get your full purchase price back of course, but you do pretty well.

Then I worry about losing games. This isn't too big of a concern given anything decent is updated yearly these days anyway. But it would still be nice to have a long term library of games.

Finally I worry about download sizes. I got BF3 for $1 in the origin deal. But downloading 20GB? I'd rather not unless I was really into a game.

Physical for me this generation again.
 
It's kind of ironic reading up all these posters going digital for life and then reading about GFWL shutting down and taking everyone's games down with it.

Came here to post this. Surprised most people are ignoring that loss of content is happening right now from a major company and people still feel safe.

Plus, physical is way more economical than digital.
 
No concerns at all. If anything, I hope to be able to preload games like steam.

I don't care for nostalgia so playing shit from the years back is of no Interest to me.

I tried that a few times now and each time I realize the current stuff is just a lot better all around,

For those collectors and wanting to fit in with the "current gaming is too mainstream for me" crew, its gonna be a rough ride.
 
Not going all digital.

Why?

Price, no resale, and risk of psn or xbone accounts being hacked again. Or the service going offline for a month. Or not being able to play if my internet is down if any games have online drm like final fight psn.
 
Digital price and the fact I can't resell and that the digital title I don't actually own or doesn't have any value other than to me

That's what stops me going digital
 
Top Bottom