Digital or physical copies?

[Gare]

Which method do you prefer and why?

By digital copies, I do NOT mean piracy. But rather downloading stuff legally via PSN, Steam or whatever. Personally, I think digital distribution is the future of the gaming industry, but that's just me. What do you think?

[Ragnar]

Digital distro indeed seems like the inevitable future, but it's not my preference. Physical all the way. Piracy and digital downloads are the same thing IMO, and one of those options is free

[stiggybaby]

I vote physical too!

[Musicman360]

I kinda like both. Physical is nice to have as a back up. Digital is nice because you don't have a disk to lose, it saves your dvd drive, and it installs everything at the same times. Plus no more please insert disk messages.

[wizardstsi]

I would convert to digital if they had some sort of discount. I mean, they don't have to ship, package, manufacture. I understand bandwidth but full price for the game? No way. So Physical for me

[Gare]

I would convert to digital if they had some sort of discount.

I take it you don't use Steam very often? They have huge discounts all the time. They're kinda famous for it, actually.

[Ragnar]

Yeah, that's just for PC though. When you look anywhere else it's all too common to find digital at parity or even more expensive than physical releases (with price drops and used sales). An example off the top of my head, Fable II is $20 on XBM, and obtainable for ~$5 from eBay. I've bought brand new sealed copies of the Limited Edition and the Ultimate Hits versions for less than $20.

[Fleg]

I for one love physical copies and all the goodies that come with it, but over the course of my gaming life I have seen the huge advantages of Digital distribution. With physical media you have to understand that it is physical, so there will be wear and tear and of course eventually the games can get damaged and become unplayable. There is also the problem with rarity of the games. There are limited amount of physical copies out there, so some games can be and will be more expensive than others. Some of them even have outrageous price tags. Digital media does not have that problem since the number of copies is infinite so there is nothing that makes the game "rare" anymore. Buying physical copies can be frustrating as well, you never know what kind of condition the game you are purchasing is in.

[Dooty]

I also prefer the digital form, but I'm unable to find some of my favorite titles. I'm looking for them though.

[romulator124]

Physical, only exercise you get.

[Pickles]

Obviously digital copies having the benefit of not having to worry about things like scratches, but there's just a better feeling from a physical copy, In saying that, if many more companies go the way of EA and stop shipping manuals and the like, then fuck it just give me a digital copy. I reckon if everything went digital though I'd pirate everything.

New game smell gives me a boner.

[shadytom88]

Dont like digital, its to reliant on your isp least if you go buy a disk your in control of it

[sulfur]

I prefer the physical, but do wish that I could install more games to console HDs to run without the requirement of changing discs all the time -- that's one huge advantage to digital copies. The disadvantage is, as people have noted above, the DRM/network reliability requirement.

[ViciousFishes]

I think digital distribution has its advantages, but I prefer physical copies.

[dannyrockz711]

I like digital copies in that they are faster to get and everything, but I also enjoy physical copies as they often have neat cover art