Gaming Do you buy physical or digital copies of games?

Bojan11

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I wonder how many of those are at release though?

the PSN prices are always almost £10 more than retail prices in shops. You can also then sell game back when you're done with it, so it's a lot cheaper in the long run.

If they manage to make the digital price fairer, i'd download a lot more often.
Last of us 2 sold nearly 3m digital copies.

I buy the codes from ShopTo or cdkeys they usually about £10 cheaper. So for £50 voucher you can get it for £42. £80 voucher is £68.

I was buying Nintendo digital games from ShopTo. Sadly Nintendo have put a stop to that and now you have to buy the games direct from them.
 

Adam-Utd

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Last of us 2 sold nearly 3m digital copies.

I buy the codes from ShopTo or cdkeys they usually about £10 cheaper. So for £50 voucher you can get it for £42. £80 voucher is £68.

I was buying Nintendo digital games from ShopTo. Sadly Nintendo have put a stop to that and now you have to buy the games direct from them.
When you say codes, you mean you can actually buy the digital download games cheaper elsewhere? I never knew that, I thought that was just the PSN price.

Could you link me to say a ghost of tsushima code?
 

Ødegaard

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Digital for pc. Try my best to stick to steam & gog as a library, but I've got the blizzard stuff as well.

Mix on ps4 & switch as there are games I suspect I might want to play in the future when servers are closed. A few games I buy both digital and physical so my wife and mother in law have the option to borrow without limiting my access. :p
 

Sarni

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Physical for new games as they end up being substantially less expensive and I can trade them if I don't need them anymore. I do buy a lot of digital games from online store promotions, however I should probably cease doing that as it ends up being a waste of money as I hardly ever play most of them and just create needless backlog. I will address that in the next generation.
 

horsechoker

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For Switch I prefer physically because cards and cartridges are quite durable compared to CDs and the switch has a small capacity so I have to buy memory cards or delete and redownload stuff. Furthermore the cards are small so they're easy to carry around.

With other consoles I would be more open to buying digital copies if the hard drive is big enough to store a lot of games. CDs deteriorate easily and get easily damaged. Moreover CD drives also break down easily.

If you look at classic consoles, it tends to be the ones that used cartridges that have fewer problems as they age. Perhaps with downloads you'll be able to play the games well into the future provided Sony or Microsoft don't cut you off.
 

Solius

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Pretty much always digital now. I did used to have a decent thing going returning two games and getting money off the next one but I can't be arsed to order a physical copy and hope it arrives on time and then needing to take it back to swap for the next one. I like that I can see a game in the digital store and be playing it an hour or so later.

I bet the developers are loving it. Less cost on disc manufacture/shipping and they don't lose as much money due to people buying second hand.

There should really be some sort of governed market done by Sony/Microsoft so people can 'sell' their digital games on to others but there would be too many problems with that idea.
 

ChrisNelson

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Pretty much always digital now. I did used to have a decent thing going returning two games and getting money off the next one but I can't be arsed to order a physical copy and hope it arrives on time and then needing to take it back to swap for the next one. I like that I can see a game in the digital store and be playing it an hour or so later.

I bet the developers are loving it. Less cost on disc manufacture/shipping and they don't lose as much money due to people buying second hand.

There should really be some sort of governed market done by Sony/Microsoft so people can 'sell' their digital games on to others but there would be too many problems with that idea.
I think you're right regarding less people buying second hand games.

However I suppose to offset this in favour of the consumer, games are so vast and advanced these days that fewer people are buying sequels.

I think that for example the number of people who bought FIFA 20 and will get FIFA 21 will be miniscule compared to say 10 and 11.

If these year on year games continue to advance and prices continue to increase, I think sales will be hit so it will cancel out the second hand game issue.
 

Zen

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Someone told me digital is cheaper.... and a big pro to PC gaming.

Bit of an odd statement really, I want to play Control - can get it for £16 physical (w/ resale value) on PS4 ..... or well find it remotely reasonably priced for me digitally on pc.

If I'd bought Death Stranding digitally, I'd be at a loss massively.... whereas I sold it and didn't lose any.

I know this isn't the full story and I have quite the digital collection - but that's mostly old games and indies.
 

Revan

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Digital, obviously.

Probably physical it would have made more sense cause I never replay games, so I could then sell them, but they would still be very cheap to sell, so just not worth it. Additionally, so many offers for digital games that are in promotion.
 

VeevaVee

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Digital. Cleaner, easier, quicker. I find people wanting to look at their collection of games or dvds (aka clutter) a bit odd, but then I love having vinyl so who am I to judge.
 

nimic

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And I'm all out of bubblegum.
I bought a FIFA 4-5 years ago for the PS4, and that was probably the last physical. I don't know the last physical PC game I bought, but the last one I specifically remember buying was C&C3 in 2007. Actually, scratch that, I bought EU: Rome in 2008. I do most of my gaming on the PC, and I haven't had a CD/DVD drive for years. My Steam account has an obscene amount of games on it, though.

For some reason I do have a CD/DVD folder lying around here. I think it might have Civilization in it.
 

nimic

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And I'm all out of bubblegum.
Ooh, I found my CD folder. It has the following games in it it:

Football Manager 2008
Imperium Galactica 2
KKnD2 Krossfire
Battle Isle 3
Redjack: Revenge of the Brethren
Chrome
Championship Manager 01/02
Civilization
Empire Earth
Axis & Allies
Conflict Zone
UItimate Soccer Manager 98
Championship Manager 97/98
Heroes of Might and Magic 2+3
F.A Premier League Football Manager 99

Not super current.
 

V.O.

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Strictly a PC gamer, and the machine I've had for a few years now doesn't even have a disc drive. Don't think I've bought a physical copy of a game in the last decade.

Get everything from grey market/tax dodge cd key websites or Steam sales.
 

Woodzy

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Get ready for the OCD fest.

Strictly digital-only on my Xbox. Physical only on PS4, but multi platforms usually get traded in to avoid ruining my PS4 exclusive collection.

Then Switch is physical only for Nintendo games, then digital for anything else. Ive slightly ruined this by getting Animal Crossing digital and it eats me alive.

Other weird things I do, are that I won’t buy those cheap PS4 exclusives because it says PlayStation Hits on the cover (even though I really want a couple, including Uncharted Collection which I even avoided on ps plus).
 

0le

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Football manager 15 was the last physical copy of a game that I got. Everything else since then has been digital.
 

Lay

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Digital, obviously.

Probably physical it would have made more sense cause I never replay games, so I could then sell them, but they would still be very cheap to sell, so just not worth it. Additionally, so many offers for digital games that are in promotion.
I sell all my games and never have sold one that didn’t feel worth the effort.
 

Redlambs

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Digital on PC, physical as much as I can on Switch and it varies on the other two.

I still prefer physical overall as I have a huge collection dating back to the spectrum days and I've rarely ever sold anything, so it's nice to keep it up as long as I can.
 

RedDevilRoshi

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It’s a mix for me.

Physical copies for single player games. Once I’ve completed the campaigns, I always end up either trading them in or selling them.

Online games, always digital.
 

diarm

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Ooh, I found my CD folder. It has the following games in it it:

Football Manager 2008
Imperium Galactica 2
KKnD2 Krossfire
Battle Isle 3
Redjack: Revenge of the Brethren
Chrome
Championship Manager 01/02
Civilization
Empire Earth
Axis & Allies
Conflict Zone
UItimate Soccer Manager 98
Championship Manager 97/98
Heroes of Might and Magic 2+3
F.A Premier League Football Manager 99

Not super current.
What an absolute classic. If I found a folder with that in it, I'd be loading up a game immediately to relive the glory years of Kalstrom, Gamst-Pederson, Cherno, Saviola and Adu!
 

Klopper76

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I lean more towards digital now. The last physical game I bought was Red Dead Redemption 2 last year.

I don’t buy new games very often either, but find myself downloading ones that become available with the Xbox game pass. There’re some pretty good titles that come up on there.
 

Superunknown

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I'm keen to go digital as much as possible. I'm not really into the whole business of buying-playing-trading games, so once I've got a game it's going to take up space in our cupboard/storage units for a considerable amount of time. I've got tons of old consoles at our place from growing up with games...it takes up a ridiculous amount of space. We moved on our DVDs and CDs not too long back and it was one of the best things that we have done this year. Suddenly we've got this free space that we can use for other things or just to leave empty to help the space seem less cluttered.

I will be getting the PS5 console with the disc drive, but will be looking to go digital as much as I can.