Physical copies or digital copies?

[William Fleming]

I just prefer physical copies of everything I won just in case the service which I got a digital copy were to suddenly go down without the files on my hard drive (as paranoid as that may sound). The only digital copies where physical copies are available I really get are PC games on Steam just for the benefits of having my PC game library in one place.

I often outright refuse buy digital copies of music albums. Call me a pirate but entire albums can be found on Youtube as single songs or one long single video and with the power of Youtube Downloader (which has a built in converter to multiple file types including MP3), I just don't want to pay the same price of a digital album (or sometimes cheaper) for a physical CD). If I like what I hear, I will buy a physical copy of the album (which honestly I often find for roughly the same price). That's how I actually got into bands like Sonata Artica, Fit for Rivals and Tonight Alive etc.

/rant starts here

The one thing I hate most about digital prices is that the cost the same price (or more) which pisses me off (especially when companies refuse to sell physical copies in certain regions). WHY SHOULD I HAVE TO PAY MORE WHEN THE PRODUCTION COST HAS BEEN REDUCED BY NOT HAVING TO MANUFACTURE AND SHIP THE PHYSICAL COPIES OUT TO STORES AND ONLINE SHOP WAREHOUSES.

/rant over

 

[Guffe]

my concern is that Microsoft/google/some future company will buy steam, decide to kill the service then ill have no access to Skyrim, Saints row 3 ,4, and everything else I spent hard earned money on

I hadn't thought about this.
Even if it is highly unlikely, could this actually happen?
I mean someone buying up steam and just... close it? Without people having any access to it, isn't the library of games somehow still downloaded to your PC?

I have steam, but haven't used it in like 2 years and only have 2 games on it, so I'm not too into how the whole thing works.

 

[Madame_Lawliet]

With console I always go physical (ability to buy pre-owned, security of having it onhand if my console crashes... again).
With PC I always go digital (Deep discount Steam Sales, ability to just install the game on my hardrive and play whenever I want, and uninstall or re-download it whenever need be).
Also I too like the look of having all my games nicely arranged on my shelf, it just has a certain aesthetic quality that I just kinda... like.

 

[BathorysGraveland2]

I like physical copies of pretty much everything I enjoy with the exception of porn. I guess it's just an old school mentality, but the idea of having a "collection" of digital media doesn't sit well with me. It's good for convenience, but I find it's not very satisfying to actually spend money on. I much prefer having something physical to show for it. Books are actually a necessity for me. Reading a story on a computer is lame as fuck to me. Nothing beats lying in bead and reading a book, 'ya know?