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Finding a reason to go all digital.

reptilex

Banned
So here's a bit information that most people seems to be unaware of: When you buy a physical game, what are you buying really? Not an object, since if the disc is empty it's worthless, nor the content, since it's copyrighted.

When you buy a physical game, in fact when you buy ANY reproduced/pre-recorded/interactive cultural product, you buy a licence of unlimited access and use to a copy of said product.

And this has been the case since the 16th century: you buy something with your money, you own it, what you own specifically in this case being the licence.

--
Well, when you buy any digital reproduced product, you buy exactly the same thing, but here's the twist: depending on where you live (basically dumbistan or the rest of the civilised world), most countries uphold these centuries old laws and even enforce them when companies are tempted to corrupt or manipulate them, especially in countries that make it clear that contract, TOSs or EULAs are worthless to sovereign laws.

But then there is the US where unless prosecuted and enforced, companies have long put things which from a constitutional and laws are illegal in their TOSs and EULAs, and astroturf their way into people mind into thinking that they might not own what the purchase, ironic for the country that prides itself on owning it's property.

The result is that digital platforms in the US have started writing EULAs that are not legally valid in which supposedly the act of purchasing a product de-facto regulated by the same mercantile, propriety and copyright laws, are instead "subscriptions" to product you buy. And this wording supposedly would enabled them to steal/remove contents people have purchased or limit/prevent access to the library of products they own, even though that's illegal and if prosecuted they would lose 100% (in fact, even compulsory refund is not legal).

--
The problem as always in our period, especially in the US, is that you have people afflicted with the stooge syndrome whose mind has been completely corrupted by media and social astroturfing into thinking these EULAs/TOSs are law, and who therefor accept or even defend the corruption and abuse of companies against their interest, while other fall victim of thinking "that it must be true/then there's nothing we can do". The truth is that in the case of these abuse, unless there's an outcry, lawsuit/class action or a direct prosecution, companies may get away in the US, while in the civilised world it rapidly triggers prosecution, hence the various lootboxes cases in Europe, while american continue to be consumer fodders that may to cowardly and manipulated to act.
 
I am disc only unless digital is it's only platform. I would urge caution with the digital only people if only for the fact that Sony Ms and Nin can all ban accounts without warning and you lose everything. Or if your account gets hacked and you have to create a new one your s.o.l .

Granted you usually have to be doing shady stuff or breaking the user agreement , but misunderstandings can happen . Plus the whole resale ability of physical purchases is hard to beat.
 

Fbh

Member
It's easy.

- Play on PC
- Live in a third world country
- Realize how games will soon cost like a fourth of a minimum wage with the new next gen prices on top of crappy local retail prices
- Realize how retail around here never has good sales and they basically only have good discounts for games that bombed and they want to get rid of to free up storage space.
- Go to Steam/Epic/GOG and see how thanks to regional prices many games are anywhere from like 20% all the way up to like 70% cheaper than on consoles
- Profit?

And PC is just best case scenario. Even on consoles digital games are usually cheaper and even good/successful games go on sale fairly often.
 
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MrMephistoX

Member
Might as well just go all digital: even if you use a disc COD still needs an extra 100GB of hard disc space. Save $100 and put it toward an external usb hard drive for PS4 games?
 
T

The New Guy

Unconfirmed Member
It's really just about convenience for me. I'm quite a big game switcher unless a big release comes out that takes all my time up. I would get annoyed with switching discs all the time, even if it only takes a little bit of time. Been trying to reduce my clutter at home as well, so that's why I've been opting digital a bit more.

It really depends what you are looking for. If you're unlikely to trade in the game after buying it or not. Having discs is nice if you don't like a game. I've regretted buying a game a couple of times digitally and not been able to refund it.
 

OrtizTwelve

Member
So. I don’t really know if this is worth it’s own thread but I purchased a disc version ps5 and I solidly expected myself to be buying the disc version every time. However more and more I’m finding myself considering the possibility of choosing to go digital.

Thanks to the PSN collection I now have a bunch of games digitally available to me for the first time and using the console and jumping between game’s is so fast for the first time in my life I can see myself playing multiple games at the same time.

Being able to jump between games is awesome and having to get up and change discs for the couple of ps5 games I have when switching between is bothersome enough for me to consider paying that extra price for the digital copy.

Alas I’m more of a tight arse than I am lazy so I think I will probably continue buying the disc version for the time being but if there was some kind of middle solution where I can buy a digital copy of the game from a retailer that comes with a chip in the case but no disc and all you need to do is have the package in the room with you when you’re playing to enable the DRM I would be all for something like that even if I had to download the game when I got home from the retailer.

Anyone else running into this first world extreme personal cringe laziness issue (what I mean here is that I roll my eyes at my own laziness to not want to have to stand up and switch discs to change games).

I’m all digital on PC and that is good because there is price competition there but having only one digital store the PSN is a big turn off for me. I can’t see myself going for a series x anymore at this point if I want access to game pass I will build a new gaming PC.

I guess this is one of the main reasons a lot of people are choosing to go all digital. That and the pre-release downloads. Now to just decide if paying 30 - 40 Australian dollars more per game and having no trade ability is worth the expense to me... perhaps for certain games maybe. Just maybe...

Physical games serve no purpose in 2020 and for many years recently -- as often 99% of the time there is a required digital download update or patch to fix any errors or bugs the games have when they ship. So basically, the disc inside the box is pointless anyways until you download the latest update.

Other than just looking pretty on a shelf for sentimental reasons physical games are pointless now. The future is all digital whether we like it or not. Both major companies releasing next gen consoles without optical drives just further proves this, and I wouldn't be surprised if the NEXT generation after PS5 and XBOX Series removes physical media completely.
 

Moogle11

Banned
Physical games serve no purpose in 2020 and for many years recently -- as often 99% of the time there is a required digital download update or patch to fix any errors or bugs the games have when they ship. So basically, the disc inside the box is pointless anyways until you download the latest update.

Other than just looking pretty on a shelf for sentimental reasons physical games are pointless now. The future is all digital whether we like it or not. Both major companies releasing next gen consoles without optical drives just further proves this, and I wouldn't be surprised if the NEXT generation after PS5 and XBOX Series removes physical media completely.

Selling on EBAY when I'm done is still a nice perk as someone who almost never replays games (and doesn't collect/hates clutter). Moot when it's something cheap in a sale or an awesome service like Gamepass, but it's nice to get a decent chunk of change back from a $60-70 game I want to play at launch but won't touch again after beating.
 

Zog

Banned
Physical games serve no purpose in 2020 and for many years recently -- as often 99% of the time there is a required digital download update or patch to fix any errors or bugs the games have when they ship. So basically, the disc inside the box is pointless anyways until you download the latest update.

Other than just looking pretty on a shelf for sentimental reasons physical games are pointless now. The future is all digital whether we like it or not. Both major companies releasing next gen consoles without optical drives just further proves this, and I wouldn't be surprised if the NEXT generation after PS5 and XBOX Series removes physical media completely.
I'll bet the X and the PS5 with a disc drive greatly outsell the models without disc drives.
 
I'll go digital only when I have no other alternatives. Physical gives you options to purchase at significant savings. I recently bought Borderlands 3 for $10 physical. I checked the digital price and it was $60. Tell me how going digital benefits me.
 

Jtibh

Banned
1 game share with friends. Buy one use on 2 accounts

2 fantastic sales all year long.

3 switching between games

4 save 100 bucks on ps5 digital?

5 psnow and pslplus combo
 

MastaKiiLA

Member
So here's a bit information that most people seems to be unaware of: When you buy a physical game, what are you buying really? Not an object, since if the disc is empty it's worthless, nor the content, since it's copyrighted.

When you buy a physical game, in fact when you buy ANY reproduced/pre-recorded/interactive cultural product, you buy a licence of unlimited access and use to a copy of said product.

And this has been the case since the 16th century: you buy something with your money, you own it, what you own specifically in this case being the licence.

--
Well, when you buy any digital reproduced product, you buy exactly the same thing, but here's the twist: depending on where you live (basically dumbistan or the rest of the civilised world), most countries uphold these centuries old laws and even enforce them when companies are tempted to corrupt or manipulate them, especially in countries that make it clear that contract, TOSs or EULAs are worthless to sovereign laws.

But then there is the US where unless prosecuted and enforced, companies have long put things which from a constitutional and laws are illegal in their TOSs and EULAs, and astroturf their way into people mind into thinking that they might not own what the purchase, ironic for the country that prides itself on owning it's property.

The result is that digital platforms in the US have started writing EULAs that are not legally valid in which supposedly the act of purchasing a product de-facto regulated by the same mercantile, propriety and copyright laws, are instead "subscriptions" to product you buy. And this wording supposedly would enabled them to steal/remove contents people have purchased or limit/prevent access to the library of products they own, even though that's illegal and if prosecuted they would lose 100% (in fact, even compulsory refund is not legal).

--
The problem as always in our period, especially in the US, is that you have people afflicted with the stooge syndrome whose mind has been completely corrupted by media and social astroturfing into thinking these EULAs/TOSs are law, and who therefor accept or even defend the corruption and abuse of companies against their interest, while other fall victim of thinking "that it must be true/then there's nothing we can do". The truth is that in the case of these abuse, unless there's an outcry, lawsuit/class action or a direct prosecution, companies may get away in the US, while in the civilised world it rapidly triggers prosecution, hence the various lootboxes cases in Europe, while american continue to be consumer fodders that may to cowardly and manipulated to act.
Holy shit you're lame. You realize going forward a lot of game discs are just going to represent physical licenses for the same digital content that everyone has to download, right? People who spread this kind of bunk are usually posting from their mom's basement because they're too afraid to venture out into the real world due to fear of the baddies getting them. The future is not going to be your friend.
 
I use exchange rates and set my alt accounts as primary then buy from canadian stores.
Games are 10 to 20€ cheaper and are in my language.
Then it downloads in a few minutes.
For example I bought Demon's souls and Spiderman MM for something like 60€ and demon souls was playable in something like 8 minutes, fully downloaded in 15 min.
The negative is lack of game box and impossibility to resell it.
It is a balance worth checking but I feel the price reduction is worth it,beside I can share my account and we can both play the same game.
I often share it with my brother, he just have to connect on the canadian account and we are good to play together(if the game has coop or multiplayer component).
Both of those were available on launch for 59.90€ as disc version.

At least at Finland on some stores.

Digital should be max 20-30€ on launch to be worth it, to me at least.

Because I can always get used disc for 30-40€ within 1-4 weeks of the launch.

Digital is easy, but also worthless media so they should be 50% cheaper to make me even consider them at launch.

I have never bought digi as launch game except few indies that had right price(5-20€)
 

reptilex

Banned
Holy shit you're lame. You realize going forward a lot of game discs are just going to represent physical licenses for the same digital content that everyone has to download, right? People who spread this kind of bunk are usually posting from their mom's basement because they're too afraid to venture out into the real world due to fear of the baddies getting them. The future is not going to be your friend.

The F are you talking about? "going forward a lot of game discs are just going to represent physical licenses for the same digital content that everyone has to download" what is the meaning of this non-sensical phrase?
 

#Phonepunk#

Banned
Going digital is fine but you must now accept you don’t own any of the things you rent.

Physical costs the same as digital but comes with resale value as well as peace of mind that as long as you own that game and console you will always be able to play. With digital, it can be lost in an instant. Even the biggest media libraries have limited control over licensing.

Im not a fan of digital only. Imo it is a way for companies to male more by selling less and the customer ends up with less value. If that’s cool with you, and sometimes convenience is a huge factor here, then that’s up to you. But don’t harbor any ideas of some permanent library
 

MastaKiiLA

Member
The F are you talking about? "going forward a lot of game discs are just going to represent physical licenses for the same digital content that everyone has to download" what is the meaning of this non-sensical phrase?
You'll have to download the game "update" to play. I thought this was obvious. You see any revolutions in physical media around the corner? Will you feign surprise when game sizes start exceeding the size of the discs they come on, and you are forced to download the digital game after inserting the disc into the system? The XSX might end up leading the way on this, as I believe the disc sizes it can read for games will be exceeded within this generation.

I didn't expect anyone to be surprised by that comment, honestly. Digital gaming is the clear future. Do you still buy music CDs and physical books? Do you go to a newsstand to get a magazine or gave a newspaper subscription to have yesterday's news tossed into your shrubs? This is less a prediction, and more of an inevitability.
 

azertydu91

Hard to Kill
Both of those were available on launch for 59.90€ as disc version.

At least at Finland on some stores.

Digital should be max 20-30€ on launch to be worth it, to me at least.

Because I can always get used disc for 30-40€ within 1-4 weeks of the launch.

Digital is easy, but also worthless media so they should be 50% cheaper to make me even consider them at launch.

I have never bought digi as launch game except few indies that had right price(5-20€)
Not 60€ each , but 60 for both, so about 30€ each.And shared with my brother.
 

reptilex

Banned
You'll have to download the game "update" to play. I thought this was obvious. You see any revolutions in physical media around the corner? Will you feign surprise when game sizes start exceeding the size of the discs they come on, and you are forced to download the digital game after inserting the disc into the system? The XSX might end up leading the way on this, as I believe the disc sizes it can read for games will be exceeded within this generation.

I didn't expect anyone to be surprised by that comment, honestly. Digital gaming is the clear future. Do you still buy music CDs and physical books? Do you go to a newsstand to get a magazine or gave a newspaper subscription to have yesterday's news tossed into your shrubs? This is less a prediction, and more of an inevitability.

But that's not the point of my comment...at all. You clearly didn't read.
 

Dunki

Member
I am digital only since maybe 10 years (creation of my Steam account)

It is so much easier to keep track of your games. They do not break and you have them all in one place
Same with PSN. With my Internet connection it does not even take an hour to load a 70GB game so it is no issue at all anymore.

I will never go back to a physical release. I rather buy the deluxe digital Version^^
 

phant0m

Member
Got the digital edition of PS5, no regrets. The biggest downside is physical copies go on sale more often (and usually faster), but if you're patient you can get similar deals. While I bought and traded physical games quite a lot in the PS3 and PS4 generations, I'm buying a lot less these days as life gets busy. I also prefer not having the clutter of a bunch of game boxes in the living room.
 
I went digital after amassing like 8 consoles and 300 physical games.

It just started to take up too much physical room in my house. Also, when was the last time I played Time Splitters 2? Sure it's not available on current gen but I've not played it for over 10 years. With that reason I chucked away tons of games.

Now, I am always looking to future releases and enjoying them without looking back at the past and it's great.
 

dano1

A Sheep
Not a problem, if they stop putting disc drives in then its time to go to PC. I don't think Sony/Microsoft actually realize how much gamers they're gonna lose when physical stops being an option...well Microsoft maybe realizes it since their games are already on PC.

Since when is physical discs a thing on PC?🙄
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
I went digital after amassing like 8 consoles and 300 physical games.

It just started to take up too much physical room in my house. Also, when was the last time I played Time Splitters 2? Sure it's not available on current gen but I've not played it for over 10 years. With that reason I chucked away tons of games.

Now, I am always looking to future releases and enjoying them without looking back at the past and it's great.
This is me. I literally spent weeks and weeks putting my old games on eBay earlier this year - I had an entire room in my house dedicated to storing them.

Well, turns out they were worth quite a bit and I ended up with enough extra cash that I was able to put a down payment on a house. I decided that I was done collecting physical games, digital all the way for me.
 

dano1

A Sheep
I used to like playing cassette tapes and CDs back in the day also.
All digital now. I’ll pay for convenience!
And guess what happens when the PS6 has no disc drive.....
 

DustQueen

Banned
"Paying more" argument is not really all that valid with kinda sales MS Store, PSN n Steam have. Most games get 30-40% off the price periods within the first 3 month and 50-70% off within the first year.

Legion had 38% price cut on Xbox within first month. Yeah it is a shit game but my point stands
 
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jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
"Paying more" argument is not really all that valid with kinda sales MS Store, PSN n Steam have. Most games get 30-40% off the price periods within the first 3 month and 50-70% within the first year.
I also find there are sometimes sales on the PSN or XBL credit itself. Amazon had a killer deal in October that was 20% cash back on Xbox, Playstation, and Nintendo digital cards. I picked up $100 of each.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Not sure when it happened, but digital sales are great now. At the beginning when 360 and PS3 got full downloads at the end of their cycle, it was mostly regular price.

Now you get great deals. Not as good as PC Steam or GOG deals, but still pretty good.

Also, the whole advantage of discs over digital due to saving HDD space as you could run the game off the disc died this past gen. So you got to install the game no matter what.
 

BlueMagpie

Neo Member
I have gone all digital this generation. Besides the convenience, I like the fact, I no longer feel I have to preorder to chase the best price.
 

teezzy

Banned
I went digital after amassing like 8 consoles and 300 physical games.

It just started to take up too much physical room in my house. Also, when was the last time I played Time Splitters 2? Sure it's not available on current gen but I've not played it for over 10 years. With that reason I chucked away tons of games.

Now, I am always looking to future releases and enjoying them without looking back at the past and it's great.

I had a retro collection of over 800 once. While I regret not selling now while prices are insane, I was able to live off of it and pay rent and get tattoos and stuff for a second there.

But screw that. The more you move, especially.
 

ArtHands

Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
I spend my Black Friday weekend in bed browsing hundreds of discounted games on e-shop buying discounted Nintendo exclusives, and then let them download/install in the background while I play my current games, instead of standing up and changing my clothes, wear shoes, step outside, make my way to the stores and browsing the smaller selection of Nintendo games in store compare to e-shop, bring them to cash register, pay them, make my way home, download and install game patches while changing to comfy home clothes before playing them.
 

Blond

Banned
Going digital is fine but you must now accept you don’t own any of the things you rent.

Physical costs the same as digital but comes with resale value as well as peace of mind that as long as you own that game and console you will always be able to play. With digital, it can be lost in an instant. Even the biggest media libraries have limited control over licensing.

Im not a fan of digital only. Imo it is a way for companies to male more by selling less and the customer ends up with less value. If that’s cool with you, and sometimes convenience is a huge factor here, then that’s up to you. But don’t harbor any ideas of some permanent library

Because it's not like disc rot isn't a thing, right? Physical doesn't necessarily mean anymore permanent collection either, remember that. Eventually every record pressed won't read, cds stop working, cartridge flash will become usable, tv tubes become dim, OLED screens age, music masters don't work, films are lost to time and disc lasers will burn out, processor technology changes meaning eventually were even complaining about might just end up vanishing into the void anyway.

Nothing in life is certain except death and taxes.
 
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Pimpbaa

Member
Only place here in town to buy games is walmart and it's limited selection of games and buying from places like amazon means having to wait a week after the game is launched to have it shipped to me versus buying the game online and downloading it within an hour with my fast internet connection. Not having to worry about missing out on a limited run of a niche game is nice too.
 
I love having a game case, artwork, and the new game smell still. People bring it up as no big deal but there are certain games that can’t be transferred digitally (especially if the game has lost certain rights such as music). Contrary to popular belief, physical tends to have better sales as well.
I usually buy collectors editions of games too. There is a certain aspect of gaming culture that is tied to physical - midnight releases, we will never experience the hype of Halo 3 again sadly.

Also triple A game releases are not your typical software downloads. These are not $1 music purchases no one thinks about. They are not your typical $5 mobile game purchases no one thinks about. They’re not even your typical $20 movie releases that you only partly think about. These are fully blown $70 game purchases...imagine buying Microsoft office 2-3 times a month (I usually average out to this amount). These are purchases most have to think about and physical, where some residual value is retained, makes it an easier buy.
 
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Zog

Banned
Because it's not like disc rot isn't a thing, right? Physical doesn't necessarily mean anymore permanent collection either, remember that. Eventually every record pressed won't read, cds stop working, cartridge flash will become usable, tv tubes become dim, OLED screens age, music masters don't work, films are lost to time and disc lasers will burn out, processor technology changes meaning eventually were even complaining about might just end up vanishing into the void anyway.

Nothing in life is certain except death and taxes.

I'll let you know when my NES games stop working. Meanwhile, you let me know when any digital store lasts for 35 years.
 

EverydayBeast

thinks Halo Infinite is a new graphical benchmark
Download speeds are really good compared to back in the day, and physical games can be hard to find especially during low stocks, covid etc. whether it’s on sale or not in digital stores I really like digital.
 

R6Rider

Gold Member
Almost always physical. Digital prices are generally garbage with the rare sale. Just browsing the store and seeing several 4 or 5 year old games at 40 or 50 bucks is laughable.
 

Blond

Banned
I'll let you know when my NES games stop working. Meanwhile, you let me know when any digital store lasts for 35 years.

Have you tried them all or working under assumptions to try and prove a point? I have Dreamcast games that look perfectly fine that don’t work anymore, like at all.
 

dorkimoe

Member
Almost always physical. Digital prices are generally garbage with the rare sale. Just browsing the store and seeing several 4 or 5 year old games at 40 or 50 bucks is laughable.
Yup

Until they figure this out, I refuse to do digital. Picking up miles morales for 30 bucks used, meanwhile $70 on digital i assume
 

NeatoB1

Member
A few reasons for me was the storage component of all those cases and then the convenience factor of not having to get up each time to swap a game
Not having to fight people at the store was another thing
 
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