You hear all the time from industry pundits, CEOs, devs, publishers and anyone else else with a vested interest in promoting the extinction of physical media about how digital distribution "will eventually rule the world" and how games on discs "will be a thing of the past". We all know the usual chorus.

I think it should be clear from my obvious bias at this point that a CD or DVD (or even cartridge or memory card, in the case of older consoles and my PS Vita) is my preferred medium. That's not to say that I hate digital distribution and all it stands for. It certainly has its virtues. It enables promising, talented indie developers for whom a retail release is too expensive and who are unable to secure support from a publisher a means of monetising their work. It provides gamers with a means of obtaining old, out of print games legally without having to resort to paying exorbitant amounts for rare copies (or, heaven forbid, to piracy).

But as with anything, digital distribution also has its fair share of flaws.

Most prominent among forums and comment boards is the fact that you cannot resell digitally purchased games, at least not in a reasonable manner. While the recent European Court of Justice ruling shook up matters somewhat here in Europe, there is some debate about whether this can be applied to games, whether publishers will now seek out loopholes to get around this requirement, and whether publishers are obligated in the first place to assist in this matter - by having Valve shift your Steam game from one account to another, for example - or whether the DRM itself is a hindrance that puts distributors in violation of the ruling. It's fairly apparent that one of the main motivators behind the industry's drive towards digital downloads is the impracticality of used game sales. All of this ignores the fact that many PC games sold on physical media still need to be bound to some kind of account, be it a Steam, UPlay, Origin or Rockstar Social Club account. I think many of us are waiting with bated breath to see how this develops.

Legal issues aside, it holds true that transferring licences for digital downloads is an impractical affair and is wide open to fraud and abuse. How do you, as a publisher, determine whether the person selling the game really has deleted the game from their hard drive? How do you, as a buyer, determine whether you have bought a genuine licence or if you've been hoodwinked by a con artist effectively selling pirate copies? Physical media has the advantage of providing you with iron-tight proof that you are the legal owner of that particular licence, namely the box, manual and disc.

Then there's the issue of cost. One of the advantages oft quoted by the industry as digital distribution was in its infancy was that it enabled games to be cheaper. The industry were quick to paint brick-and-mortar retailers as evil empires sucking publishers dry, with 1C's Darryl Still even going so far as to claim that retailers give publishers just 35% of the sales share, while Valve gives publishers 70%.

I personally would seriously doubt the validity of this claim - no business could seriously have survived for so many years on receiving such a minor share of the income - and there's no doubt that quite the opposite has proven true. A cursory comparison between games on Amazon and their PSN or Steam counterparts shows that retail is often cheaper. Retail encourages competition and prices are dictated by demand. Digital distribution has no supply limitations and publishers are free to set prices to whatever they choose, sometimes resulting in some very unwise pricing policies.

And anecdotal evidence suggests that while unit sales of games on digital distribution games are high, physical media remains the medium of choice for those buying full-price games - even on PC - rendering Mr Still's assertion very pointless when you realise that even with his outrageous claims, 35% of $50 is $17.50, while 70% of $10 is $7. Percentages don't count. Bank statements don't record percentages, and it is well established that the vast majority of users of digital download services use them because of the heavily cut prices.

A lesser mentioned reason is the physicality of DVD media. For better or worse, people like to have something physical in their hands when they pay money. The idea of paying for nothing more than bits and bytes is repugnant to many people. True, some games - with the PC and PS Vita being particular culprits in this regard - consist of nothing more than a box and the game, dispensing in many cases even with the manual.

But in recent months, proper physical packaging on the PC has been seeing something of a revival. The bamboo wood box of Shogun 2. The velvet box and bonus DVD of Two Worlds 2. The maps and minted coin of The Witcher 2. These are all part and parcel of the experience, things to keep and treasure. They make for better gifts than a download code, they are an integral experience, and publishers ignore gifting seasons such as Christmas at their peril.

Why do we buy boxsets of TV series on DVD or Bluray when we can watch it on TV? Why bother buying a Bluray of a film when we can watch it on TV or Netflix? Physicality. Collectability. Giftability. Perception of value.