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[buenoblue]

Seen a few people ask why people still get physical discs and here's my reason.

I bought GOW Ragnarok ps5 on release day from Amazon for £61. Finished the main campaign today and had my fill of side stuff.

So traded it in at CEX for £52! I also had an old valid code for 10% extra trade in price so played the game for essentially £4!!!! Even cash was £47.

Managed to snag Horizon Forbidden West, Watch Dogs legion, Far Cry 5 and Assassin's Creed Valhalla as the trade in and I had to pay £6 extra! All ps5 versions too!

I'll pick up GOW Ragnarok to play though again in a digital sale in a year or two or play when it comes to ps plus extra.

 

[MidGenRefresh]

You should write a sequel to The Art of the Deal.

 

[adamsapple]

Trading and reselling is also probably the biggest reason I won't ever go fully digital.

 

[RoboFu]

Ahh trading in games … i understand that for some it is a must, but the regrets I have in doing so in my youth are many.

 

[deriks]

I'm not into trading because I like my games in a bookshelf-look. Almost like a trophy thing, when you look and "that was fun"

 

[jm89]

When consumers cheer the death of physical

 

[Bonfires Down]

I’m a little surprised that digital downloads have seemingly caught on so much even with the mainstream. As you say you can get a lot of the money back by selling the disc second hand, and ”casuals” normally play a game once and that’s that. I would find it hard to justify buying digital on consoles unless on sale but I guess convenience really trumps all.

 

[TonyK]

My problem is no the money it costs, is to change the discs.

 

[rofif]

Digital got nothing on disc aside from frankly faster download speeds than install from disc!
But disc is ownership, ability to play v1.0, ability to fully play offline, trade, display on a shelf.
These new Blu-ray Discs are very durable and don’t get much wear since the disc is only used for install.
Digital is just limiting all freedoms and marketplace. Be happy and don’t own anything

Sure, I was thinking about fully switching to digital few times. Just get 2tb drive and have everything backed up and patched on there. But it’s useless if my account got banned, hacked or was offline or something right?

 

[Moses85]

And always will have, in my

 

[rofif]

I'm not into trading because I like my games in a bookshelf-look. Almost like a trophy thing, when you look and "that was fun"

Yeah this is a big part. A game shelf for me is more curated than my 600 rando games steam list.
Fav games are on top shelf.

 

[begotten]

It's all dependent for me and always will be.

Physical releases on launch are usually considerably cheaper here on release, I'd rather buy something like The Callisto Protocol for example physical and save $15-$20 on it.

But digital releases for games like GOW Ragnarok I obviously will pay the difference to play it right on launch.

I usually end up flipping a lot of the bigger releases I get on disc to buy rare and more obscure games off PlayAsia / Limited Run Games etc - which is all my physical collection is these days.

 

[Morrie’s wig shop]

Digital got nothing on disc aside from frankly faster download speeds than install from disc!
But disc is ownership, ability to play v1.0, ability to fully play offline, trade, display on a shelf.
These new Blu-ray Discs are very durable and don’t get much wear since the disc is only used for install.
Digital is just limiting all freedoms and marketplace. Be happy and don’t own anything

Sure, I was thinking about fully switching to digital few times. Just get 2tb drive and have everything backed up and patched on there. But it’s useless if my account got banned, hacked or was offline or something right?

Yeah, this something that will only happen to you.
Just stick with physical till the day they are gone.

 

[JimboJones]

Your right, when games can cost £60 it always nice to have that option, it's kind of a no brainer to go physical.
Unless it's a multiplayer game I know I'll have in rotation for years I'd probably always go physical on launch.

However when prices drop below £20 I'll almost always just go with the digital copy.

 

[RoboFu]

Digital has a lot of value as well. There a lot of Xbox 360 and Xbox one games I still play because I bought them digitally and they work on XsX.

In the end with trading in games you’re basically having to trade in three to get one most of the time. That’s a bad deal.

 

[Duchess]

You can also swap games with people who own the same system. My brother's loaned me RE8, and he's got my copy of H:FW. I know in future I'll be borrowing his copy of Calisto Protocol, while he'll get my copy of GOW:R.

And I'll always remember being so let down by RDR2 that I sold it 4 weeks after release, and only losing £6 on the initial purchase. If I'd bought that game digitally, I'd've been really gutted.

 

[rofif]

Yeah, this something that will only happen to you.
Just stick with physical till the day they are gone.

Which part? Elaborate.
Do I have something wrong about how psn games work on internal/external ssd ?

 

[SkylineRKR]

Trading in is always most cost effective if you trade in quickly. But there is a con; you've lost the game. And I don't know about you guys, but in the past I rebought a lot of games anyway.

Pros of digital (or keeping games) are, when I reactivated my PS3 I had a wealth of games in the library. I didn't have to rebuy a single one. Sometimes I thought i did, but then it was there already because I bought it digitally.

The best thing about physical is with those games you know you will never revisit, you can sell them. But I often did it too late and only received like 10 bucks for a copy.

 

[JimboJones]

Trading in is always most cost effective if you trade in quickly. But there is a con; you've lost the game. And I don't know about you guys, but in the past I rebought a lot of games anyway.

Pros of digital (or keeping games) are, when I reactivated my PS3 I had a wealth of games in the library. I didn't have to rebuy a single one. Sometimes I thought i did, but then it was there already because I bought it digitally.

The best thing about physical is with those games you know you will never revisit, you can sell them. But I often did it too late and only received like 10 bucks for a copy.

Yeah I think it depends on your play style, digital shops that offer refunds have made it a whole lot easier to go digital for me personally, I've paid for some absolute whoppers despite good reviews but the refund policy has saved me.

 

[adamsapple]

You can also swap games with people who own the same system. My brother's loaned me RE8, and he's got my copy of H:FW. I know in future I'll be borrowing his copy of Calisto Protocol, while he'll get my copy of GOW:R.

And I'll always remember being so let down by RDR2 that I sold it 4 weeks after release, and only losing £6 on the initial purchase. If I'd bought that game digitally, I'd've been really gutted.

Yeah, I've routinely bought, played and sold new games physically. If I ever feel the need to replay them a year or so later, they're usually so much discounted both digitally, and available for much cheaper physically that it's a non issue, and as you said, swapping with folks.

 

[TheGodfather07]

Yeah physical has all the advantages. I just sold sekiro on ebay for £45, when I bought it for £35. If it was digital, I wouldn't be able to do anything with it.

 

[Sentenza]

Trading and reselling is also probably the biggest reason I won't ever go fully digital.

Trading and reselling is an argument that isn't worth a wet fart to me.
The 20 minutes or so of spare time it would take me to jump on a bus or drive to the closest Gamestop are more worth to me than the 5-10 bucks I'd get by reselling an old game to these parasites.
And I live in a populated urban center that has dozens of those (Milan). It would be even worse if I was in some small town.

Not to mention that I usually enjoy to keep my games and building up a collection, so I don't find the "I gave back my entire library for an used copy of a semi-recent hit" particularly engrossing.

 

[radewagon]

Digital Games get delisted. Until that changes (it won't), there will always be a place for physical media.

 

[rofif]

Digital Games get delisted. Until that changes (it won't), there will always be a place for physical media.

When steam game is delisted, You can still download it.
Fuel and original prey are delisted forever and work just fine. Fuel securom server even still somehow authenticate ! I wonder what is the story. Where in the world is this last ever pc with Fuel securom server
But the issue with Digital is that they can change your gamne, add launcher, remove music, modify it.

The only thing that I would want to add to physical is ability to download Patches to USB drive to archivize it

 

[Captain Toad]

And this a big part why publishers want to get rid of physical altogether.

 

[ReBurn]

Digital Games get delisted. Until that changes (it won't), there will always be a place for physical media.

What is your opinion of the physical version of Modern Warfare 2?

 

[nightmare-slain]

well done you found the only good reason to keep a disc in 2022.

the game came out not even 2 weeks ago so the value will still be good. if you buy a physical game and play through it and sell it right after release then you'll get a decent amount back. if you sold it for £52 then the price has already went down by £5. in a month it'll be worth pennies.

that's about the only positive. enjoy it while it lasts because this might very well be the last generation we get physical discs.

 

[rofif]

What is your opinion of the physical version of Modern Warfare 2?

It's still better than digital... you can't play campaign offline but you can put it on your shelf or sell it
edit: but it's still super stupid. The whole point of game on a disc... is that gold version IS ON THERE

 

[gothmog]

The pandemic and the sad state of gaming stores drove me towards almost full digital. I get physical from time to time but it's usually because there was a great deal on the disk version.

I also had a little bit of a problem when it came to collecting what I would now call junk. Thousands of movies, games, and music disks collecting dust. I converted most of that to digital copies and either donated or sold off my libraries.

 

[RoadHazard]

I bought my physical copy of GOWR for 599 SEK (brand new). On PS Store it's 849 SEK. That's my #1 reason for not going full digital. Adds up to another full game pretty fast.

But also being able to lend games out, sell them (I very rarely do that though), and also me just being someone who likes having physical collections of media (I still buy music physically too).

The only upside I can see with digital is that I don't have to swap discs, but I'm just not lazy enough for that to trump all the disadvantages. I usually play one game until I'm done with it and then move onto something else, so it's not even a factor really.

 

[rofif]

The pandemic and the sad state of gaming stores drove me towards almost full digital. I get physical from time to time but it's usually because there was a great deal on the disk version.

I also had a little bit of a problem when it came to collecting what I would now call junk. Thousands of movies, games, and music disks collecting dust. I converted most of that to digital copies and either donated or sold off my libraries.

yeah that's true. Retailers in my city stopped selling ps5 games at al locally... So I have to preorder disc to get it on release.
But it is still cheaper than psn

 

[ReBurn]

It's still better than digital... you can't play campaign offline but you can put it on your shelf or sell it
edit: but it's still super stupid. The whole point of game on a disc... is that gold version IS ON THERE

I agree with you. If they sell a disc the game should be on it. But even if it is the game could still become unplayable, especially if it's an online-only game on the disc.

Disc-based games aren't safe from obsolescence any more. The version on disc has been the worst version for years. That's why I stopped collecting. The main draw to me now is resale value. Finish fast and sell quick.

 

[WalterSobchak]

I think I've traded in like less than 5 games my entire life. I'd rather just keep them in my collection . But for those who don't mind parting more power to you.

 

[Celcius]

I like digital so much better. No worrying about stuff taking up space on a shelf, getting scratches on a disk, swapping a disk, listening to the disc drive, no worry if my house burns down, no one can break in and steal them all, I can access them from anywhere, etc…

Plus let’s say you buy that hot new release and after an hour decide that you don’t like it. Steam will let you return it for a full refund. A physical store would tell you tough luck.

I prefer looking though a digital collection anyway (Steam has nice cover art and a cool way to display them) rather than a huge physical bookshelf.

 

[Physiognomonics]

Of course this is the way. But you can do only because Ragnarok has still high value on resale (and will probably keep it for a while).

 

[DGrayson]

Of course this is the way. But you can do only because Ragnarok has still high value on resale (and will probably keep it for a while).

 

[jorgejjvr]

I only used to see the value of physical games by lending the game to my brother. But now both systems allow you to make one console the home console, and essentially allow two people to have access to the same content. I bought horizon forbidden west digitally and I was able to play it on my PS5, while my brother played it on his PS4 simultaneously

 

[Kimahri]

I don't need that money, so I value the convenience of digital far above that.

 

[radewagon]

What is your opinion of the physical version of Modern Warfare 2?

LOL. Probably the same as my opinion of the digital version of Modern Warfare 2.

Spoiler: Spoiler

I'd rather not say...

 

[Damigos]

Unfortunately discs' days are almost over

 

[DaGwaphics]

This is true.

Spoiler

Couldn't help myself.

Seriously though, as long as enough people are buying them to make it worth while, it will still be a thing.

 

[Kagoshima_Luke]

A few weeks back I sold 15 Switch games for over $800. I’m not going full digital for anything but PC anytime soon.

 

[DavJay]

I only buy physical for switch. No mandatory installs and owning the carts just feels right

 

[Dr.Morris79]

Bit of a strange one in regards to physical. Utterly pointless from a collector point of view for the main consoles, the data on the discs is duff out the door, take No mans Sky, totally different game than what was printed..

I only really collect Switch carts now and a few odd PS4/5 discs. I've only got a few Xbox one/S/X discs. Just pointless unless you sell them on quick.

 

[IWasInSeinfeld]

Of course they do!

 

[waquzy]

Digital has no resale value. Hence why it's useless. Physical until it dies, like Blockbuster

 

[Portugeezer]

Even if I don't trade 95% of them, it still makes me feel better knowing that my physical games have some value outside of my online account.

Even being able to give them away to a younger family member or a friend, there is value.

 

[Naked Lunch]

So you waited 4 years for the new GOW - only to rush thru and finish it in a week so you could sell it quickly.

 

[MikeM]

I'm not into trading because I like my games in a bookshelf-look. Almost like a trophy thing, when you look and "that was fun"

This. Its why I still have my PS3 on display in my walk-in closet with its games. Sentimental value to me.

 

[adamsapple]

You also don't get these sweet ass steelbooks with digital games