Do you buy mostly physical games or digital games?

PC digital, console which is cheaper(most of the time physical), don't care about collecting

Digital.

Myself and the vast majority of gamers buy digital. I am not sure why we need to revisit this topic. Is it some sort of coping mechanism?🤔

I think it’s around 65/35 in favour of physical right now. It’s been steadily going towards digital over the last couple of years. The physical selection for Xbox/PlayStation games is more sparse these days. Outside of Nintendo most games these days need significant day one patches. A number of games also get significant dlc and/or changes and upgrades over time. I also will buy a digital version of physical games when they go on sale for both the convenience and peace of mind.

Enjoy a good physical copy for display and lending purposes, but a lot of time I will now only do that for games worth keeping (got the collectors edition of Signalis and it's beautiful)

If the game looks like I'd only try it for a few hours I just go digital. Not worth holding onto, and with Steam refund policy and GamePass just throwing 'day-one' games at me, I find myself giving less cares for a box copy.

Also, at times a game will just be digital only so it's not really an option.

When I Backed War for the Overworld they had a physical tier, which I invested in.. and in the end they changed what was arranged giving out boxes with a GoG code inside, to appease Backers they offered 'two' codes.. bruh. Felt cheated even if WftO is a game I highly regard, just gave me the clear sign not many want physical games anymore, and I was in the heavily declining minority for wanting one in the first place.

Like @Pedro said, why are we revisiting and coming back to this topic again? We've done these so many times, what's the point of asking this question again?

Anyone who games on PC is just gonna give you the obvious answer.

Playstation and Xbox digital switch a mix of physical and digital.

Physical, because I still will have them if my console(s) stops working (for whatever reason).

PC, so obligatory digital.

Have a Switch, but haven't bought games for it in years.

@dracula_16: Digital games are on your account so you don’t lose them if your system breaks down. Both are equally useless if you don’t have a system to play them on.

OK, I didn't know that. Thank you for correcting me.

I'm a PC gamer mostly so there's very few games I buy physically these days. I think the last PC game I bought on disc was Quantum Break. I have bought a couple of PS4 games but I don't own a PS5 or Xbox.

Mostly digital... I only really buy physical copies now of the games I'd like to keep for my "nostalgia" collection. These are mostly Nintendo games.

Technically digital, for example, this holiday season i bought like 10 physical games, but just in the steam sale, i got like 20 games, mostly small puzzle games but still, at the end of the day I spend more on physical and end up playing way more those titles but purchase more digital games.

100 percent digital. I'll be dead one day and none of my games can come with me.

@SolidGame_basic C'mon man,: you should have a disclaimer that Hermits opinions are not warranted because on PC they have no option other than digital because their doughnut saviour scammed them into a digital collection 🤣

Don't be scared of the Hermits, their bark is waaaaaay worse than their bite 🤣

about the only thing i have physical these days is nintendo stuff.

You can be buried with both digital and physical.😂

I guess I should’ve included a “I’m a PC Gamer, I don’t get to enjoy physical games”. Lol.

A i'm a Hermit and my opinion doesn't matter on this subject, because it really doesn't.

Which is why I was asking why even revised this kind of thread as I already said anyone gaming on PC is just gonna give you the obvious answer. In the future, just make sure to say "excluding PC gamers" as I do want to know if console gamers did in fact move to digital if ever.

And relax you guys, I didn't vote as this is something I already did over and over again. Sheesh.

@davillain: Just because you didn't vote doesn't mean other Hermits didn't. But we will never get a proper representation of who does and doesn't buy physical.

Mostly play pc, so digital.

On console it depends where I can get the better deal. I do like the idea of having physical copies of games that I really like but haven't actually bought anything just for that reason.

Digital nowadays but I buy more physical as some games not released in my region so I had to import them.

I go Digital if its available. Only buy if there good offers. Patiently waiting AC Valhalla ultimate edition under $20. Game +dlc was fking $130 on release that's crazy no way I am spending that.

Unfortunately mostly digital these days..

Wait, you have over 4k physical games and you mostly buy digital now 🤦‍♂️

@sakaixx: Where is your region? and waiting on Valhalla to be $20 for the game and dlc may never happen.

Yay, this topic again.

Digital, like everyone else. Got some Switch games physical to lend them out to others, and because Nintendo didn't care to tell us if we'll get so save our digital library for the next system or not until they revealed the Switch 2.

You can't just assume that. Not with Nintendo.

100% digital. Myself I have no use for CD’s anymore. Music,movies,games,tv…..etc…Digital.

So this was a coping thread 😂

This old chestnut

@last_lap: Besides running out of room to expand years ago, but continuing to get new stuff I usually get games I want to play now digitally since most of it won't ever be collectors items or worth owning anyways.

That said, I still go on Amazon, retail stores, Ebay, garage/rummage/flea/boot and look for sales and grab lots of physical games I don't own every now and then.

It's sad, but I think I'm about ready to start selling off my collection. I'm at a place where the money would be helpful and I've been priced out of my own hobby. I started collecting before it was cool and a couple hundred bucks at a mom and pop shop meant I'd be walking out with at least one and sometimes even 2 or 3 big sacks of games. The problem is now that those games are much more expensive and instead of a couple dozen you can only get a couple these days...

I'd love to finish my NES, SNES, and GEN collections, which are all over half complete, but if I can get someone to pay a premium and it pays off my car, finishes the renovations/add ons of my house, and allows me some leweigh to start my own business then I suppose it's time to be realistic and hope to find someone who loves it as much as I have for so long. Pass the torch if you will. Also, I don't want my wife and kids to be burdened with figuring out what to do with it all as we all grow older...

Either way I love gaming and probably will to the day I die, but someone else could probably preserve and take better care of my collection these days. I only started collecting seriously after getting injured in Iraq and having a counselor suggest taking up an old hobby to keep myself busy. At the time I had around 3 to 4 hundred assorted games and that quickly ballooned over the following years. It was a thrill to take a couple hundred dollars and significantly add to my collection, but that same money these days doesn't even always get one game I need, let alone 10 or more at a time.

If someone has around 500 NES games and needs the other roughly 250 games chances are I own around half of those since I wanted to own every game and I wasn't picky as long as I didn't own the game and it was in immaculate condition. Meaning a lot of the very sought after and rare games have been in my collection before they exploded in price, and the vast majority of them are in very good condition. I own over 400 unique NES games alone.

If my business blows up and I start raking it in then perhaps I'll be in a different situation financially that spending 2 to 3 hundred (or often times several times that) for a single game doesn't seem all that crazy, and I can start over again. I've gone back and forth with the idea of selling, but with games being at a premium right now and me being at a stage in my life where it's basically like I bought cheaper stock and it really took off... well, buy low sell high is pretty tempting, especially since it's highly unlikely I'll ever complete full sets like I originally set out to do.

They served their purpose and gave me purpose when I needed it the most. Perhaps I can find someone that needs them just as bad or more than I did at the time I purchased them... and if I can fund my business (which will be my new love and hobby), buy my kids their first cars, and pay off the remaining renovations and add ons left on my house then I feel I'd be kind of crazy not to.

Sorry for the book.. read it or not, it's whatever.

@WitIsWisdom: I get what you mean and selling them will get you some coin to do other things in life. I have around half the amount of games you have 2,000, but I have a network of sorts that helps me get games and consoles for no charge as I have things that these circle of people want, so we can trade a lot of the time, but I also buy a lot too.

I had a massive collection, and when I met my then significant other, and years later I ended up selling the lot, and I regretted it every day. So, about 4yrs ago I started a new job with better pay and have a lot of disposable income, and then bought a Sega Saturn again, and it started to snowball from there.

I'm a BIG Sega fan and my Sega collection is the one I treat as an extra child and 99% of the games are in pretty schmick condition.

All I will say (without knowing you of course) is think long and hard about selling them, because someone with a collection tends to regret the sale once it's all said and done.

This is a good video for us physical gamers

The only system I buy physical games now a days for is Switch. Occasionally, I might buy a game for some of my retro systems though as well.

Xbox ran its course with the Xbox One, but I didn't get Series X. So, I don't bother with physical Xbox games anymore. Alot of times you put in an Xbox disc just to prompt a massive download anyway. Xbox Play Anywhere is a big incentive to go digital with certain games anyway.

I was done with PC physical copies a long time ago as well.

@last_lap: True. One thing I will say is it is practically mortal sin to sell your old games. When I was younger, I didn't know better, but I got older and realized it was a big mistake. You'll be like oh I wish I could still play X game and even though you could just rebuy it, you could just not sell it to begin with. I mean the person you're selling it to won't want to pay shit for it anyway, and it's just worth more in possession.

Pretty much all digital now. You can argue that physical is more reliable but in my experience, it's not because consoles are manufactured as cheap as possible, so my consoles have failed with physical before my digital games. My OG Xbox, Xbox 360(s), PS2, and PS4 have all had disk drive issues over time. The reason being they all use cheap rubber bands for tension to open and close the disk drive, and rubber gets old and fails over the years.

Digital doesn't have those moving parts limitations, and I honestly have yet to encounter an ownership issue with digital, especially now when games just get re-released over and over and people still buy them again.

Digital. The only physical games I get are gifts I receive for my playstation or switch. It’s not a consideration for pc

Digital, like the majority of the world.

been all-digital since the PS3 and 360 generation..

couldn't imagine going back to the clutter and general inconvenience of physical games at this point..

All digital.

I can play a dozen different games without ever getting up off the recliner. ;o

Now that right there is worth the price of admission. lolol :P

50/50?

"None of this is good for the physical video game market"

Does that mean you missed out on a lot of games? A lot of games didn't get digital releases at the time, especially on 360 where they didn't even allow disc-based games to be released digitally until halfway through the console's life in August 2009, many were not available digital day and date with physical games, and it still was only a subset of disc-based games that were available to buy as a download.

How did that go for you? Does that mean you never played the first Forza Horizon?

no, to clarify, it means that i preferred to buy the digital versions of games during that generation.. i bought physical when it was the only option; mostly during the first half of the gen..

The 7th gen didn't really pushed digital at the time and I barely bought digital games as I was still physical pro gamer and still was going to GameStop purchasing Xbox 360/PS3 games. The 7th gen was the best time to be a physical gamer but when we enter the 8th gen, that was the perfect time go all digital from that point on besides Nintendo as I still buy physical from them since Nintendo cannot be trusted on handling digital, and I went fulltime on PC. I love the digital world but I still like seeing physical to be the 2nd optional for most physical gamers.

@davillain: Yeah, the Wii didn't really have it at all, downloads for some full games were huge for what people were used to at the time, and ISP download caps and surcharges were an issue. Less than 50% even subscribed to internet access, and only 30% of homes were subscribed to broadband in 2005. 60% of dialup users didn't even want to upgrade to broadband. It wasn't going to be a big priority around that time.

It definitely makes sense for people to continue buying physical when the price is right, and also for convenience when it comes to sharing the games.

If companies want more people to switch over to digital, then they will have to offer competing digital stores where people can get deals on games the way MS wants to on future Xbox devices, and they will have to offer some sensible family sharing for games like the way Steam Families works, and even the ability to lend/borrow games with friends. Ideally also a way to transfer ownership of individual games.