Recently–as in last year, I conducted a poll on my twitter account about which people prefer; the physical disc or a digital copy of a game. While this is by no means, a professional statistic, I did find it interesting that the poll tied. There are many pros and cons to both choices and I wanted to share some things I found with each.
Which do you prefer and can you state some reasons why you like a Digital Game Copy or a Physical Game Disc?
— Dina Farmer (@DinaAFarmer) November 9, 2015
The purchase of digital versions of games is the uncontested star of sales. The immediate simplicity in pay, download, and play of a newly released game is difficult to dispute. Digital copies of games are often free on consoles, steam and Origin, thus making it very easy to have access to a game right away. In example; Xbox One and PS4 are giving away free games once a month. All of the replies from my poll were pro digital copies:
Pro Digital Copies.
@DinaAFarmer my PC doesn’t have a disc drive!
— Augeia (@augeia) November 9, 2015
@DinaAFarmer I prefer digital, as it usually gives me an avenue to re-download, where physical can get lost/damaged.
— The Bearded Spider (@DaBeardedSpider) November 9, 2015
@DaBeardedSpider @DinaAFarmer that’s a great reason! My daughter crawl-skated on our Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze disc. …$50 later…
— Zoso1701 (@zoso1701) November 9, 2015
@DinaAFarmer unless I’m getting the collector edition, I go digital
— HereComestheJana-ral (@ugobananas) November 9, 2015
Pros For Physical Discs
With all of this in mind, physical discs can be resold to a store or online to get some of your money back. Additionally, the game is yours;, no worries if your console is damaged beyond recovery, or you get hacked, and you can lend out your game. Why? Because you have the physical disc. Yes, today’s gaming consoles do not read a game from the disc anymore and with the physical disc, you still have to download the game to install it. The genitive with that is you must also have the disc in your console to play it. To some, this might be a strange inconvenience to get up and switch discs. Meanwhile with a digital game there are no worries about that, you simply select the game you wish to play and play it. It is no question in this regard that the digital copy is superior.
Although, the numbers are showing digital copies are doing much better than their physical counterparts, I’m not sure they will ever truly go away. Many players like to hold on the actual ownership of a game; however the downside to physical discs is they take up space. A few of my military friends know the pain of having to move stuff around constantly and removing even a few things like game discs helps to save on moving stuff around the world.
Cons to Physical Discs
@DinaAFarmer because we have enough shit to move 😂😂
— Fran (@freeborboleta) November 9, 2015
Either way, I think this debate comes down to personal preference. Both sources of media hold different pros and cons but ultimately it is up to the consumer. Some find it best to get the physical disc while other find it easier to manage a digital copy. Let me know what you think. Do you prefer to purchase the physical disc or the digital copy?
I was definitely more in the ‘physical’ camp, but then I got burgled, and I lost a big old chunk of discs along with my consoles, and that changed the equation for me. The games I had bought digitally (or got from PS+/GwG) were just waiting to be re-downloaded when I replaced the consoles, and honestly, that pretty much stopped me from having a nervous breakdown.
That said though, my ISP is rubbish, and frequently rocks dial-up type speeds (regardless of what I’m actually paying for), so that effectively takes that option off the table for the really big downloads – and when I say “big”, basically anything over 6gb is going to take many, many hours, if not days. Plus, I’m still a bit wary of dealing with any kind of “customer service” stuff if something goes wrong with a download – and suspect it’ll be more of a pain in the ass than just taking a physical copy back and swapping it for another one if there are any issues!?
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Yes, there are so many pros and cons to the physical discs and the digital downloads. I haven’t had any trouble yet with downloads yet, but I have had a lot of trouble with installing discs COD to be exact.
I am not entirely sure the physical disc is going to go away but this isn’t stopping the rise in downloads. I am sure developers and publishers save money by not making discs.
I can certainly understand being worried about customer service with complications of downloads. As I said so far I haven’t had a problem, but I hope that they are able to help if there is a problem.
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I’m more in the physical disc camp. I appreciate digital for PC games, but 95% of my games are still physical purchases. Having physical ownership is a part of it, sure, but I also don’t want to have to depend on servers (or even my own hard drive) in order to play. I also doesn’t help that a lot of games (especially with digital purchases) want an active internet connection in order to play them. Not great when you have internet outages or even just a slow connection.
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Oh yes Hatm0nster! I forgot about mentioning internet outages! That is very true! Some digital games and even physical discs are very dependent on an internet connection to work.
I like the ownership of a physical game. I always worry about potentially losing my game and what if the console suddenly decides to stop hosting the game you know? I mean there are so many factors that go into both. But I tend to still stick with the disc.
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I enjoy just having the physical copy of the game simply because that’s what I grew up knowing. Having the ability to own the game once I bought it and then having the ability of selling it to someone once I was done or letting someone borrow it so they could enjoy it.
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So true! I think it is difficult to share games with digital. Although I understand I think on PS4 you can but only certain games. It is certainly more comfortable with the physical copy.
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Why not allow physical purchases to activate the digital versions as well? That way if there is loss or damage, you can have the backup.
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That’s what I’ve been saying for a while now. And not just about games – CDs and books should do it too. I mean, C’mon guys, we have the technology…. ;-)
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They kind of do that with movies now don’t they? I’m sure….it has a lot to do with money.
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