Disc vs Digital

[SwamiLeoni]

For those of you that still buy discs, why do you do it? What makes you want to purchase a disc over something you can only lose if the network goes down or the company bankrupts? I see people all over twitter praising discs saying "Down with Digital"! Does a digital copy cost more money? Do people just like to hold things they buy? I'm really confused. I'll never buy another physical disc ever again in my life. I've already lost Uncharted 4, Bloodborne and a Tom Clancy game. This was before my PS4+ so I never hooked up a hard drive and I got sucked into the Gamefly trap. Some people choose to live in 2017 and others wish to stay in 2007. Odd world we live in.

 

[Blayt7hh]

Sometimes I buy discs, especially if they have extras. Biggest reason I still buy discs for console though is because the tiny ass Hard Drives are easy to fill up

 

[hillelslovak87]

Since I switched to pc, the only physical games I've gotten were with gift cards from christmas or birthdays. I think I've only gotten GTAV, Diablo 3 and Star Wars ToR physical.

I like just buying then downloading. It doesn't waste paper or plastic, and is quicker.

 

[Law Talkin’ Guy]

For PC I've been using steam for years but for console I only recently became a convert to digital, largely do to the fact that I swapped out my PS4's hardrive for a 2TB one over its original 500GB,

 

[StabbyMcHatchet]

I buy discs because I am a nerd for collections.

 

[Turtlejuice]

Console I always buy disc. It's cheaper and can always sell it on if I don't like it. PC almost always digital, most physical games require Steam or similar anyway.

 

[BjPenn2017]

Because you can resell them if you don't like it or return it even. You buy a shitty digital game for 80 bucks you don't like it's yours forever. Lol

 

[cabear]

my ps3 account has tons of games i cant access or trade in because they were digital.

my ps4 has mostly digital downloads though, i guess to me it doesnt matter to have a physical disc if the game itself needs a 20gb update just to run when i pop it in.

 

[SwamiLeoni]

It makes since if you hate the game you can sell it. But at that point your betting on a game you might hate vs a game you love but will lose because its a physical copy. Not saying you will, but there's always a chance.

 

[TSO]

The last disc game I bought for pc was warhammer online and that was because it came with two books and a model for my orc n goblin tabletop army.

 

[m52nickerson]

Because you can resell them if you don't like it or return it even. You buy a shitty digital game for 80 bucks you don't like it's yours forever. Lol

Steam has a refund policy, so you can return a shitty game. Most of the time you can't return open disks.

 

[Da_Rev_Ong]

You actually own physical media where in digital media you only own a license that can be revoked on a whim. The other issue is that I am not at the mercy of having some random schmoe blocking access to my games or blocking access to my client, like EA did with the whole country of Myanmar or when the Malaysian government completely blocked STEAM. Also hard drives fill up, and digital copies aren't always made available through their services. Licensing issues has made it all too common to see widely released games completely disappear off of a distribution client/marketplace never to be seen again.

Physical media is king. Yes it can be damaged. Yes it can be lost or stolen. But I own it.

 

[Eazy123]

If it's a game I'm 100% sure I'm gonna be playing a long time I buy digital. If not or if it's on sale I'll buy physical for the resale value

Buying used is good for me because I can play it for a week and return it

 

[SwamiLeoni]

You actually own physical media where in digital media you only own a license that can be revoked on a whim. The other issue is that I am not at the mercy of having some random schmoe blocking access to my games or blocking access to my client, like EA did with the whole country of Myanmar or when the Malaysian government completely blocked STEAM. Also hard drives fill up, and digital copies aren't always made available through their services. Licensing issues has made it all too common to see widely released games completely disappear off of a distribution client/marketplace never to be seen again.

Physical media is king. Yes it can be damaged. Yes it can be lost or stolen. But I own it.

So if Steam lost the license for a game you downloaded (bought) and your PC dumps. There's no way to download the game again? I did not know this. But if it's true, it's really shady.

 

[LuchaBear]

For those of you that still buy discs, why do you do it? What makes you want to purchase a disc over something you can only lose if the network goes down or the company bankrupts? I see people all over twitter praising discs saying "Down with Digital"! Does a digital copy cost more money? Do people just like to hold things they buy? I'm really confused. I'll never buy another physical disc ever again in my life. I've already lost Uncharted 4, Bloodborne and a Tom Clancy game. This was before my PS4+ so I never hooked up a hard drive and I got sucked into the Gamefly trap. Some people choose to live in 2017 and others wish to stay in 2007. Odd world we live in.

On Xbox, if you get your account banned, you lose all your digital purchases forever. That's fucked up..

 

[SwamiLeoni]

On Xbox, if you get your account banned, you lose all your digital purchases forever. That's fucked up..

That's bullshit and should be against the law. Fuck that.

 

[KidBaize]

I've gone pretty much full digital. Twitchy games perform better and load faster, and it's nice having your purchases permanently registered to your account so you can download them again. Disk space is probably the biggest downside but even hard copies have huge patches these days.

 

[empsim]

its insane that prices on psn are the same or even HIGHER than the disc version.

I buy all my console games on disc. they'd have to be atleast 10€ cheaper for me to consider a digital version.

pc I buy pretty much everything on steam.

 

[neverwas]

i wonder if the licensing laws for games are the same as for iTunes? you don't own the game,you lease it from the company.

 

[SwamiLeoni]

i wonder if the licensing laws for games are the same as for iTunes? you don't own the game,you lease it from the company.

I feel like this is a good question for the subreddit 'Explain like I'm 5'. Basically, why don't you own the game digitally when paying full price as opposed to owning it physically. How companies are allowed to do this is beyond me. I guess the people don't really have a pull in something like this.