Almost everywhere I look for games now, the only decent places I can find are EB Games and JB HiFi. Not that this is entirely a bad thing and there is of course the option to go to Dick Smith or Harvey Norman, but they don't have anywhere near the abundant collection that EB or JB have.

I remember a time where I could visit stores like GAME Aus and Gametraders (which I wish I did more of) for the added variety. Sadly GAME has obviously closed down completely here in Australia and Gametraders appears to be on its way out as well (although I am no business man so I could be wrong), since nearly every Gametraders within a 20-30 minute drive of my area has closed down, and there used to be quite a few. What I'm getting at is that; more and more as time goes by, video game stores seem to be struggling to a point that they are closing down and this includes even a small minority of EB Games stores. You know it's getting bad when the most dominant video game store in Australia, child Company to 1 of the most dominant stores (GameStop) worldwide, is also having problems of their own.

Now for me this is a bit of a concern. And it should be for a lot of other gamers or even people who shop for gifts to give to gamers and I'll explain why later in this article. To add to this concern is that publishers, developers and even some gamers; are beginning to believe that digital is a way of the future for gaming. Which is okay when that's where the belief ends. It's when they start to believe that it's the only way for the future of gaming that becomes a bigger problem.

"But, deep down, nobody cares about not having CDs anymore. The future is digital, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Patrice Désilets

I for one do care about having the discs but I really hope that man with the girly name is wrong about us not being able to do anything about it, and that he accidentally cuts his entire face off shaving.

Let me give you two scenarios from a consumer perspective:

Scenario 1) you see a digital game for say $50 and lets assume for now that this is the PC version only. This same game is maybe $70 for a physical copy at a local game store. You fill out some details, scratch your genitals, click a few things and its all done. This is good though right? You're saving $20 and you haven't even left your computer chair to do it. Now all you have to do is just wait for it to download and you can play it. Nice and simple. Or is it?

What are the advantages here? You didn't have to leave the comfort of your own home, you didn't have to talk to anyone (you anti-social wanker, just kidding), the game is now attached to your account for whatever client it was activated with, and you saved yourself $20 and maybe even some petrol.

What are the disadvantages? You didn't get out the house, you didnt have to wash your hands (dirty wanker), you have to wait for the game to download and assuming you're Australian, you lose a chunk of your download cap, the price of the game was set as is and you're restricted to using a specific gaming client.

Scenario 2) you see a physical game for $50 and again this is PC only. But this time around (surprisingly) its more expensive for the digital copy which is $70. Again this is a good thing, you're saving $20. This time around though, you make your way to the local store with washed hands, have a bit of a chit chat with the staff, maybe even discuss some games (its good and healthy to socialise... Right?), browse the store and maybe even find something else on sale. But you're there in person so you decide to haggle the price of the game down a bit or even get them to price match a competitor. You get say $10 off. Or if you're feeling anxious, you just walk in, pay and leave. Now you've got your copy of the game; you just need to install it. Again its pretty simple. Or is it?

What are the advantages here? You got to be a little social and get out the house, you now have a physical copy of the game to install without having to wait extra time for the download, you can install the game anytime you want hassle free and don't have to worry about your download cap, the game is now attached to your account for whatever client it was activated with, so even if you lose the disc; its still your game and you saved $20 but also got to haggle and saved an extra $10. If you're a simple parent who loves their child and you aren't familiar with the digital world, you just have to walk into a store to buy them a copy of the game they may like.

What are the disadvantages here? You had to leave the comfort of your own home and you now have to find space for the physical copy of the game.

So keeping in mind this was for PC users primarily. What happens when it comes to consoles? If a digital game is cheaper on PSN or Xbox Live, do you choose that over a physical copy? Or do you pay a bit extra for a physical copy and then trade it in for credit towards something else? There's obviously other factors that come into play specifically for consoles; like scratching or losing the disc or having your entire console hard drive shit itself and losing all the digital games you bought if you didn't back them up.

Another thing to keep in mind, which could add to further concerns is; some companies that concentrate on digital content are trying to implement trade and share functionalities. Steam themselves are experimenting with the ability to share games which I think is great. I hate having to convince people to buy a co-op or multi-player game because they either don't want to research it, are sceptical, or aren't really gamers and look at a gameplay video like a plain old video. Having the option to share a PC game temporarily makes this process a lot easier. This is mainly because a large number of my friends can be stingy wankers. Obviously though, this process is significantly easier on consoles since you can just hand someone the physical game and assuming they are your friends, they wont skip states like a thieving wanker. For me, this is not a viable option, as I tend to be overprotective of my physical games and can react in a similar way to Dexter Morgan if something happens to them. Green Man Gaming currently have a trade in system for their Capsule client, although not the most popular client around, its only a matter of time before other digital content providers start following the same path. Don't get me wrong though this could be beneficial to a lot of people but at what cost?

I know what some of you are going to say in regards to the digital clients and physical media as well. You can back up the games on Steam and store them on a hard drive or even split them onto multiple discs. Since Steam has its own proper back up methods this is very possible (and useful) although it does sort of bring you back to square one if you think about it. But not every client is as successful and dominant as Steam and not every publisher puts their games on Steam as well. At the same time, consoles can also lack the storage advantage that PCs especially if finance is an issue.

To top things off, some publishers are actually starting to increase the pricing on some of their digital games higher than retail or equivalent. Whether this is accidental or a way to exploit the digital world, I do not know.

So imagine if video game stores did die out. Imagine that this also includes the stores that only do online sales, which are also a problem for local game stores due to their very competitive pricing, but I wont go into that to save time. Would you be happy paying the full retail price for a digital game? It's definitely a benefit to some people for the convenience factors that digital content can provide, but it's also beneficial to the publishers. They don't have to pay for any manufacturing fees; no overhead, no printing, no covers or discs etc.... But in theory shouldn't some of the savings be passed onto the consumers? You could say they're protecting assets and using the money for good, but we all know the publishers usually get the better end of the stick when signing developers over.

The concerns grow even more when you start to think about how the competition would be reduced to publishers competing with each other. The reason is that; for the bigger publishers, it could very well turn out to be all about the sales figures and becoming the more dominant publisher, meaning that the quality of games could also reduce overtime. There is the chance it would increase the quality of games overtime but it can be fairly evident in the industry today that this is not always the case.

I see the advantages to having both and the disadvantages to having both, including a few more I haven't listed, which is why I'm content with the options I have today. If I want a PC game I always try to make sure its a Steam game, even if I purchase a physical copy. Generally with indie titles I will seek digital copies for both PC and console, because they are usually smaller in size, although with the advances in technology this is beginning to change and rapidly. If I want a console game, I always purchase a physical copy unless I absolutely cannot find a copy of it locally. I also like having that peace of mind that if a new console is released and the previous consoles games wont be coming to it, then I can keep them to play on my old console. I also like knowing that if something goes wrong with a server that I can still install or play a game without having to worry about whether it will install or not.

For me, I prefer physical not just for the disc though. It may seem sad to some and not so to others, but its also the social interaction and something that's routine. I love driving down to my local EB Games store (primarily at night) and sometimes chatting with the staff about current games or future games (something I can only do with a small amount of friends) and getting out the house. On the other hand I also like a bargain. So if I see a significant price difference of around $20-30+ for either a digital copy or an online copy, I'm likely to choose that over physical but not without some thought. That's just me though.

If there's anything I've missed, said or done wrong in this article let me know in the comments. I'm curious to know peoples thoughts on the topic itself as well, so comment below on whether you prefer digital, physical or both and why.