Gaming Do you buy physical or digital copies of games?

Bojan11

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As title says.

Gaming in the last few years has changed especially in the UK. We had games like Fifa, The Division 2, COD not selling as many physical copies as their previous iteration. So clearly digital downloads are on the rise. It’s helped by the fact that all the consoles have pre downloads now. Where as the physical market despite being cheaper and you are able to sell it on is decreasing, which is surprising for me.

I still buy most of my games physical even though I don’t trade them in. There’s games like Fifa or RDR where I just wanted to play them early, so I just downloaded them. But for any other game, I usually get it a day or two early if I preorder rather than waiting to download it.

We got MS planning on releasing a Xbox one with no disc drive next month.
 

SilentWitness

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Sold my PS4 as i didn't play it much and needed quick cash so no need for physical copies anymore when pc gaming - key sites have made it much less tempting to switch back to console gaming too (I managed to convince my partner to get a PS4 so I can play any exclusives there :D).
 

Raw

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For consoles I go with physical. Games are getting too massive now and my feeble 500GB PS4 isn't enough space for full games.
 

SirAF

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Digital, but I hardly ever buy and play games any more. Last physical game I bought was GTA for X1.
 

Wumminator

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My gaming purchases have fallen drastically. Red Dead Redemption 2 was the only game in the last two years I’ve spent proper money on.
 

Tommy

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Digital, but I hardly ever buy and play games any more. Last physical game I bought was GTA for X1.
Last physical game I bought was GTA5 for PC :D
 

Siorac

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Digital, mostly. 'Physical' is usually a Steam code in a box anyway and is only worth it for regional pricing.
 

2mufc0

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I buy physical games for my PS4 so I can sell/trade them in when finished. On Pc only digital, mainly because you can get some really good bargains on the flip side digital console games can be really expensive .
 
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Is there any need for most physical things relating to entertainment media now?
Books,games,music,film etc
The only thing you need physically is the device to use it on.
 

Adam-Utd

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Physical so I can trade them in once I’m done. I only keep long lasting games like destiny, division etc.

God of war for example I played for 3 weeks then traded it in, got half the money back. online versions currently are more expensive and hold no benefit apart from no disc.
 

Cloud7

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Physical, because:

A) I love the feeling of holding a game in my hand and admiring my collection of games.

B) I sometimes have issues with my ISP and my PSN account that leads to me not being able to log in to my account, ranging anywhere between an hour or two to a day or two. During those periods of time I can’t play any games that I’ve bought on digital copy, so for me it makes sense to have the physical copy as those still work in times like this.

C) This may sound like a stupid reason, but I always feel that when you buy a digital copy of a game, you don’t actually own it, it’s more like you’re renting it indefinitely, whereas with a physical copy you know you own it, and it can’t be taken away from you.

Edit: Since this seems to be a secondary question that everyone is answering, I still buy games very regularly, as soon as something comes out that I want, I get it.

The last few months of last year were amazing for me: Dragon Quest XI, Spider-Man, Red dead redemption 2 and Spyro reignited trilogy :drool: It’s been pretty dry this year, kingdom hearts aside, which I’m still kinda undecided about.
 

Freak

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I usually like getting physical copes because I can always sell them once I'm done. But these days, I have been increasingly going for soft copies instead because there are so many good deals on the PSN.
 

Art Vandelay

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I had switched to digital, but the recent price hikes sent me back to physical. £55 for the base version of new games is fecking ridiculous. Unfortunately when playing discs my Xbox sounds like it's going to take off and fly away. I think the discs will kill it, so I may need to switch back to digital.
 

deafepl

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Physical, because:

A) I love the feeling of holding a game in my hand and admiring my collection of games.

B) I sometimes have issues with my ISP and my PSN account that leads to me not being able to log in to my account, ranging anywhere between an hour or two to a day or two. During those periods of time I can’t play any games that I’ve bought on digital copy, so for me it makes sense to have the physical copy as those still work in times like this.

C) This may sound like a stupid reason, but I always feel that when you buy a digital copy of a game, you don’t actually own it, it’s more like you’re renting it indefinitely, whereas with a physical copy you know you own it, and it can’t be taken away from you.

Edit: Since this seems to be a secondary question that everyone is answering, I still buy games very regularly, as soon as something comes out that I want, I get it.

The last few months of last year were amazing for me: Dragon Quest XI, Spider-Man, Red dead redemption 2 and Spyro reignited trilogy :drool: It’s been pretty dry this year, kingdom hearts aside, which I’m still kinda undecided about.

The opposites of me, I'm not really good at keeping my physical games and clean for years but yeah it can be taken away from me as many of my game disks went missing/stolen and scratched or forgot it actually exists. When I bought digital copies, I don't have a problem with it and keep many games in my library which is great and have been in place for like 7 years.
 

Marcelinho87

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PC - Digital (not much choice here, also my main platform)
xbox - Digital (If for whatever reason I don't get it on PC I most likely buy it here, plus gameshare)
PS4 - Physical (only buy sony exclusives so like to play and get rid)
 

Cloud7

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I'm not really good at keeping my physical games and clean for years but yeah it can be taken away from me as many of my game disks went missing/stolen and scratched or forgot it actually exists.
You need to do better as a person, mate :p
 

ivaldo

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I've not bought a game other than Rocket League and PUBG in the last 3 years, and those are still the only games I play now. Both were digital, I don't play enough variety to worry about a shortage of space.
 
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I had switched to digital, but the recent price hikes sent me back to physical. £55 for the base version of new games is fecking ridiculous. Unfortunately when playing discs my Xbox sounds like it's going to take off and fly away. I think the discs will kill it, so I may need to switch back to digital.
My PS4 is the same unfortunately. Thankfully its not all the games but the ones that I do play more regularly the nosier and overheated it gets.
 

HTG

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I'm not going to stand up in the middle of the night, stoned out of my mind, to change the disc in my PS4. So of course I don't buy physical copies. We left the stone age behind us, so nobody would have to live through such torture ever again.
 

iluvoursolskjær

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Always digital nowadays, unless it's a gift for my son which I can order in advance. It's made me realise that 500gb is absolutely tiny in capacity and will go for larger internal storage in future.

Digital is just far more convenient than physical in pretty much every way.
 

DavelinaJolie

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Physical is usually cheaper and as my internet is shite I downloading whole games is a pain in the butt. Also I usually sell them on when I'm done and use that money for more games.

Obviously a lot of games are only available digitally now, especially indie, so I do buy digital, but usually only when they are on sale.
 

Art Vandelay

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My PS4 is the same unfortunately. Thankfully its not all the games but the ones that I do play more regularly the nosier and overheated it gets.
It's not the most comforting of sounds. I could hear the combination of the fan and disc from the bathroom downstairs one night I had Metro paused. Me and three mates all got out Xbox One X Scorpio editions at the same time and they were buying more discs than me. They've all had to replace theirs in the last few months.
 

VeevaVee

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Both, but don't buy many.

I did digital for RDR2 because of the size so I could preinstall.
Sometimes I use those dodgy sites for a digi download as they're cheaper.
Most of the time it's not worth buying digitally off the Xbox though. The prices are ridiculous. Usually more expensive even though there's lower costs involved.
 

esmufc07

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Both, but don't buy many.

I did digital for RDR2 because of the size so I could preinstall.
Sometimes I use those dodgy sites for a digi download as they're cheaper.
Most of the time it's not worth buying digitally off the Xbox though. The prices are ridiculous. Usually more expensive even though there's lower costs involved.
It's still the same development costs. I'd imagine packaging, shipping etc. are only a fraction of the total cost. Perhaps @Redlambs will know a bit more about the detail.

I predominantly buy digital now, just because it's 2019 and who wants to faff about changing discs? I don't buy brand new games that often anymore, tend to just pick games up cheaply if and when they're on sale on the PS or Microsoft Store.
 

Vadim

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Digital these days. Can you even buy physical games on PC?

On console gaming: I hate GameStop and don’t want them having my cash anymore. And if you avoid getting a game on release day, wait for a few months, you will get some amazing deals on PSN and Xbox Store.

Physical is dying anyway, it will be completely defunct by the PS5 and next Xbox. It will be streaming only like Netflix and Amazon Prime.
 

Castia

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On console I buy boxed copies whilst PC everything is digital.

I’m starting to get fed up with the multiple launchers needed on PC these days though with Steam, Origin, Uplay, Blizzard, Epic, Xbox and Bethesda all requiring their own store to buy games although there isn’t an alternative on PC as physical copies are dead anyway.
 

Mystry

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Physical on a PS4 for the most part. Hard copies tend to be cheaper than the PS store unless there's a sale on and I can trade them in when I'm done with them.
 

VeevaVee

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It's still the same development costs. I'd imagine packaging, shipping etc. are only a fraction of the total cost. Perhaps @Redlambs will know a bit more about the detail.
Doesn't explain why they often cost more than in a shop though, other than counting people who can't be arsed going to it, which is very likely the case but pretty unreasonable in my opinion.
 

Green_Red

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Both. Although given how much cheaper it us to pick up a title a couple of months after its released I'm starting to think more for physicals from second hand stores.