If you have decided to go all digital, what are your reasons?

[Soldier-no2]

Lately I have been debating whether to go digital or physical this next generation of consoles. If anyone here is going digital, please share your reasons and help me decide. For me, there are a few reasons:

It is convenient to not have to switch discs.
I don't share my games anyway.
My wall of games is getting too big, and looking at it just reminds me that I'm alone.

But then I think of the benefits of having discs:

Being able to sell them or pass them on when I am gone.
The pre-order bonuses are pretty cool for retail games.
Sharing, if I have friends.

Sorry if this topic has been done before.

 

[Anthony Corrigan]

Its easier to enforce your consumer rights in a store than it is online, the costs of digital aren't any better than what you can get in a store, I don't like the idea of giving Microsoft (Or Sony) a monopoly if EB goes out of business and I can buy preowned games and sell them back if I don't like them

Only buy stuff digitally if there is a specific reason too

Oh and I would much rather swap discs than have to wait hours for the game to download, its only ever 1 disc per game anyway so it really takes no time to look at my collection, chose what i want to play, put the disc in, pick up controller and sit down on couch. This takes no more time (or even less time) than selecting the game off the hard drive and then if the HD is full having to delete something to download the new one and waiting 1hr or more for it to download

 

[Marc Wyzomirski]

On consoles? Probably not due to the preorder bonuses most of the games I would buy are likely to come with. You can bet Kingdom Hearts III will come decked out with goodies. There isn't really any incentive, like lowered price, enough to warrant a digital copy on consoles. Though in general I do prefer digital, as it saves me a trip to the store and once my system's optical drive dies I can still play the games I have.

On PC though, that is another story. I go completely digital, unless I have a VERY good reason otherwise. On platforms such as Steam you're much more likely to get a reduced price right off the bat. Of course this doesn't typically hold true for most console ports to PC, as console publishers love to still charge full retail price.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

I prefer to have a mix of the two.

I love, for example, the games on demand section. Say for whatever reason I don't want to go to the store, I'm gaming late at night, I wanna play something new, I'll pick something up in there. Its a bit of a pain because then I'm losing hard drive space permanently to house the game, but it's convenient.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

I can't see myself going all digital. The cons outweigh the pros as far as I'm concerned.

Still, the pros?
The simple fact is there's going to be a larger variety of games, and games that are good, but not necessarily going to end up on store shelves. It lets indie developers shine more.
It's not just limited to PC, I've played more than a few indie games on PS3, and 360, too.

The convenience of booting up a digital game on console is extremely welcome, too since consoles require next to no optimization. Consoles generally get a lot less wear and tear than a PC, or laptop which get used for many more things, by and large.

The cons? Right now my consoles, and laptop highlight the pros and cons.
My ps3 has a 500 gig hard drive, and it takes a wide variety of them. I'm in no danger of running out of space, even with a few full ps3 games, and a ton of other downloads.

My 360 appears to require a specefic hard drive since it's in a special case. It's less than 20 gigs. When fable 3 was released for free I had to scramble to delete things just to cram it in. Space is very much an issue on the 360, and the new hard drives will no doubt cost more because of the special cases the hard drives are in.

Space will always be an issue. If you delete something you have to spend a few minutes to a few hours to download it back, and something has to be deleted to open up space for it which gets annoying compared to just grabbing a physical disk you should have near by.

It's bound to happen sooner or later. RROD, YLOD, general PC/laptop failings. Once that happens, once you have to reformat, then everything you had, especially when you have a lot on that drive, you have to download, and install it all over again. Even minimizing to what you want to play, it can be a time consuming process. And on laptops, and PCs it's not just limited to what you want to play, it's the programs you had. and if you can't re-download them for free? You have to buy them all over again.

 

[IllumInaTIma]

I'd say convenience. Steam was the number one reason why I stopped pirating games, it was just much more easier and faster to buy game on Steam. I've been using Steam for about 3 years now and I can't remember the last time I bought a physical copy of game on PC, and recent purchase of PS3 just reminded me how much hassle it is to buy a physical disc! You have to get up, go to the nearest EB games, look around, make sure they have game that you look for... UGH, Steam made me lazy and fat.

 

[likalaruku]

Its easier to enforce your consumer rights in a store than it is online, the costs of digital aren't any better than what you can get in a store.

That always drove me nuts. The excuse for the high prices used to be "packaging, shipping, CD case, & manual printing." Then they reduced all of that to a DVD case with a slip of paper inside & brought the costs up. Then they have the gaul to charge the same for digital, which has no packaging, no shipping, no printed manual.

I often get the collectors editions, that come with map, color manual, statuette, soundtrack, special box, necklace, etc. My game room is covered in RPG maps. Can't get that swag with digital copies.

 

[ThriKreen]

That always drove me nuts. The excuse for the high prices used to be "packaging, shipping, CD case, & manual printing." Then they reduced all of that to a DVD case with a slip of paper inside & brought the costs up. Then they have the gaul to charge the same for digital, which has no packaging, no shipping, no printed manual.

Blame retailers for forcing digital releases to be at the same price, as to not undercut them. When 50%+ of your sales are from retailers and they can opt not to carry your game due to the price difference, wouldn't you play ball too?

Notice how a lot of the PC games on Steam that are not released with console versions are cheaper. Or that 6 months after release, the Steam version of an AAA game starts getting sales and discounts.

Flip side, since they become cheaper after awhile (and can easily buy it whenever I want), I'm less inclined to sell it (even if I could), as it's easier to stomach the $10 for a game and bite the cost, vs. a $60 game you've played once and won't pick up again. So the whole need for selling it used is not a concern for me. Heck, I've even picked up games, sales or humble bundles, even though I have no desire to really play them - just to support the indie developers.

I don't think I've bought a physical PC game in years - I think the only two that I have was Red Alert 3 CE, and Syndicate. And thanks to Origin, I immediately converted those to digital versions right away to not bother with the physical media.

 

[DoPo]

Well, I'm a PC gamer, so dunno how much my reasoning would help you but I have moved to all digital. It's OK, I find it more convenient than having to lug disks around. I also have Internet most of the time, so it doesn't bother me.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

Living in Australia I have to go physical for next gen consoles unless they can pull their shit together with pricing.

 

[Anthony Corrigan]

Its easier to enforce your consumer rights in a store than it is online, the costs of digital aren't any better than what you can get in a store.

That always drove me nuts. The excuse for the high prices used to be "packaging, shipping, CD case, & manual printing." Then they reduced all of that to a DVD case with a slip of paper inside & brought the costs up. Then they have the gaul to charge the same for digital, which has no packaging, no shipping, no printed manual.

I often get the collectors editions, that come with map, color manual, statuette, soundtrack, special box, necklace, etc. My game room is covered in RPG maps. Can't get that swag with digital copies.

That's the other thing with me, I LIKE collectors editions, I have a book shelf with nothing but my statue of Cole and bag from Infamous 2, my song bird from Bioshock infinite and heaps more

I do buy some digital stuff, got a lot from steam and I'm thinking about buying some stuff from GOG (If i can work out if its buy and download once or if its like steam that I can download and delete as often as I want) but the benefits just arent there with consoles

Firstly I can browse EB to find a game that catches my eye where as doing that on PSN isn't as convenient
Secondly the costs are the same
Thirdly its not that hard to put the ONE disc I want to play in. I can see people who play more 360 games saying its convenient because you actually are swapping discs but when you playing a big game (currently replaying dragon age origins), I put the disc in and it might be a month or more before I decide to play something else and so change the disc in the PS3
Fourthly easier to enforce consumer rights
Fifthly my collection actually takes up space, on a book shelf, not my desk top. When people come other I can show them my collection, and I can lend them a game that I think they would like
And lastly things tend to actually be cheaper in store, I can buy during sales or prowned

 

[Doom972]

Note that I use a PC, but I think that my reasons may be valid for consoles too:

1) The prices for video games in my country are ridiculous (about x1.5 the US price) and take years to decrease - no sales, not discounts. It's like they don't even care about competition at all.

2) You can't just install and play on a PC anymore. You have to download a patch whenever you install, so you need an internet connection anyway. That means that the disc is useless and you might as well just download the whole thing.

3) It's really comfortable to just buy the game from home, download and play. It's even more comfortable not having to make physical room for game cases.

 

[mokes310]

When I think of this debate, I am reminded of the difference between leasing and purchasing a car. When you lease, you're subject to the will of the company. If they decide that they don't want to lease that particular model of vehicle any longer, you're out of luck. BUT, if you had purchased it, they couldn't really pull those types of shenanigans on you.

If I go all digital, I'm basically leasing the right to play those games, where as if I purchase the physical copy, then no matter what that company does, I'm still able to play it.

***I know I'm not referencing multiplayer here, just making a basic argument***

 

[DoPo]

If I go all digital, I'm basically leasing the right to play those games, where as if I purchase the physical copy, then no matter what that company does, I'm still able to play it.

See, that's fine in theory but I've yet to see it happen to me. Or see it happen with games, actually. There was one time where the digital version of (ironically enough) 1984 was pulled from Amazon Kindle customers but I don't think I've heard of any games with the same problem. In fact, I very recently (as in "yesterday") found out that GOG have stopped distributing Space Rangers 2: Reboot, however, I still have it in my library. I've had more disks been rendered unusable (I think 2, maybe they were 3) than I've had digital games denied.

 

[Anthony Corrigan]

...

2) You can't just install and play on a PC anymore. You have to download a patch whenever you install, so you need an internet connection anyway. That means that the disc is useless and you might as well just download the whole thing.
...

from my view point, no its not. Even if i do decide to download the patch, they are around 200 MB usually, rather than 5 plus GB. On the internet connection we get in Australia I would have to buy today and play next week downloading full games

And with a disc game you can chose to use the patch or not, that may sound strange but COD world at war was broken by the last patch I installed for it. How did I fix it? well I deleted the game data, put the disc back in machine and played it without the patch. Most (if not all) console games WILL run as they come on the disc because unlike PC console specs are already known to the Devs, they work on the exact same console you will be using at home. The only difference will be the HD. PC on the other hand has a huge range of different specs which the devs need to take into account so patches can be vital if they release a game and find it doesn't work say on the NVIDA cards like Diablo 3 didn't

 

[Phlakes]

I'm cheap as shit and don't like paying more than maybe $15 for a game that I don't really want. Digital sales are a lot easier to keep track of (and a lot more frequent, and bigger) than retail. Also because I'm lazy.

 

[mokes310]

If I go all digital, I'm basically leasing the right to play those games, where as if I purchase the physical copy, then no matter what that company does, I'm still able to play it.

See, that's fine in theory but I've yet to see it happen to me. Or see it happen with games, actually. There was one time where the digital version of (ironically enough) 1984 was pulled from Amazon Kindle customers but I don't think I've heard of any games with the same problem. In fact, I very recently (as in "yesterday") found out that GOG have stopped distributing Space Rangers 2: Reboot, however, I still have it in my library. I've had more disks been rendered unusable (I think 2, maybe they were 3) than I've had digital games denied.

And that's all well and good, but history has proven time and time again that when a business is no longer making money on any given venture, they will pull that product line. While times have changed a bit, I can't imagine that a company like Microsoft, Sony, Google, Apple, etc, would continue to service a product line that doesn't tow its own weight. So, while it may not happen in the immediate future, at some point, it will happen.

 

[Doom972]

...

2) You can't just install and play on a PC anymore. You have to download a patch whenever you install, so you need an internet connection anyway. That means that the disc is useless and you might as well just download the whole thing.
...

from my view point, no its not. Even if i do decide to download the patch, they are around 200 MB usually, rather than 5 plus GB. On the internet connection we get in Australia I would have to buy today and play next week downloading full games

It's not about file size. I realize that downloading an entire game is much more of a hassle than downloading a patch, but I was referring to the necessity of an Internet connection to be able to play the game properly, even when the game is DRM-free.

And with a disc game you can chose to use the patch or not, that may sound strange but COD world at war was broken by the last patch I installed for it. How did I fix it? well I deleted the game data, put the disc back in machine and played it without the patch. Most (if not all) console games WILL run as they come on the disc because unlike PC console specs are already known to the Devs, they work on the exact same console you will be using at home. The only difference will be the HD. PC on the other hand has a huge range of different specs which the devs need to take into account so patches can be vital if they release a game and find it doesn't work say on the NVIDA cards like Diablo 3 didn't

For 99.9% of PC games, the latest patch is the best. For the rest, there are workarounds that can be found by a quick Google search. I want my games at the latest version without me having to do anything extra.

 

[Nonomori]

I live in a small town right there at the end of the world, I can't just go out and come back with The Last of Us in 15 minutes. Worst of all, the prices in my country are beyond absurd, videogames are really a luxury around here.

Digital is more convenient, cheaper and practically my only choice if I want to continue playing. Thank God for Steam and PlayStation Plus.