The transition to digital storefronts like the PlayStation Store on consoles is gradually growing every year, and it won’t be long now before its sales eclipse physical ones. New data from Sony’s latest financial report shows that in the quarter that ended 31st March, 2018, an impressive 43 per cent of the PlayStation 4’s software sales were made digitally. For the fiscal year as a whole, that number sat at 32 per cent.
It’s worth noting that in the previous fiscal year, digital sales accounted for 27 per cent of all PS4 software sales, so the number is rising – and quickly. It’s obviously far too early to even consider the abolishment of Blu-ray and retail game sales, but these numbers are only going to keep growing – and it won’t be long before digital purchases account for the majority of software sales. At that stage, things are going to escalate very quickly.
Do you prefer buying digital at this point? Have you found yourself spending more and more money on the PlayStation Store? Cough up in the comments section below.
[source sony.net]
Comments 101
I personally prefer digital at this point. It's quicker and more convenient for me. I also think the sales on the PS Store have been extremely impressive for a while now.
I probably spend more money buying games digitally than I do physically now. The only type of game I still buy physically are brand new single player games, and that's only because I usually don't replay them and they tend to be cheaper from Amazon etc.
As soon as they're the same price...
Physical and only Physical for me. Only way i buy digital if its under $30 and digital only.
I prefer physical copies in all honesty I wonder what will happen to collector's editions I hope physical copies stay and will not completely replaced with digital though
Digital because physical only holds resale value I dont use anyway. Plus few pkaces sell games here anymore.
If you need anymore proof that a digital future is coming, look at Microsoft and Nintendo. MS wants to push for digital future regardless and Nintendo revealed third party sales are mostly digital now.
So seeing half the sales be digital on PS4 just continues this trend. Not next generation but the one after it will be digital.
Just hope we have 10TB HDDs for all those 4k assets as standard
It's the folk that split the cost with a friend that are driving up the sales. Until they clamp down on that and/or reduce prices, physical won't die.
All in on digital. And definitely spending a lot more money this way, while feeling pretty good about all the money I save
@PeterParker I think that when digital really starts to take over (and it will) what you'll see is physical leaning even harder on Collector's Editions and stuff like that.
physical over digital any day at least tehn you get the feeling you actually OWN the product you buy
yeah as others said it's more convenient to go digital, all you games in one place and no taking up room on the shelf but if your reason is that can't be bothered to spend 10 seconds changing a disc then your just lazy
I just grab whichever version is cheaper. Around here it used to always be physical that was cheaper, but all those ever frequent digital sales are changing that.
@FullbringIchigo Yeah but while I agree with the sentiment of what you're saying, I feel like it's a bit "old man yells at cloud". It's "lazy" to use a dishwasher instead of manually doing the washing up, but convenience will always win in the end.
I spend a lot more on digital than I used to.Psvr games for example are all digital in my collection so I don't have to keep taking the helmet off every time I want to swap games.
Most of the time the sales are hard to resist so that's more digital purchases.
However big blockbusters that I want to buy day one will most of the time be physical (Horizon Zero Dawn,God Of War,SpiderMan,Dragon Quest XI) although in Detroit Become Humans case I may buy digital because it has one ugly case cover and no interesting extras that I know of.
I've always been a supporter of physical but now I don't really see the point anymore. The reality is that discs are now just an elaborate way of selecting which game to play from your hard drive and you're not really playing that physical media anymore, particularly a few months after launch. I wouldn't be too surprised if the next Xbox or PlayStation doesn't even have a disc drive, especially Xbox who are already heading to an all digital service platform
@get2sammyb i don't have a dishwasher anyway, i do it myself
lets be honest as a species we have gotten very lazy because we let technology do things for us
give it time and we will be here, trust me
Since I bought a 4TB hard drive I’ve bought so many more games. And the convince is great for multiplayer driving and fighting games that I tend to dip into a bit here or there. I still buy my single player games on disc as I tend to put in and complete before switching games. I also lend them to friends
I think this thread alone is evidence that things are changing. Yes there are a few physical stalwarts, but the majority of posters thus far are either all digital or indifferent.
If you went back five years and found a similar thread, I imagine the roles would be reversed.
Digital is for lazy fat people who cant get up from their chair and change a disc or go to there local game store to buy a game. And as Shepherd said i like owning my games too.
I buy 90% digital. It's without doubt going to be the more popular choice soon.
I was never into buying digital ... until I got my PS4 Pro. Gave my old PS4 to my niece. Left my main account on my niece's PS4 ... Buy digital only now so we each can both download a copy of any game I buy! Especially nice for online multiplayer.
@ShadowWarrior What about people who have a disablity that makes it impossible or nearly impossible to go to a store or even get up and change a disc? I wouldn't exactly call those people lazy. What if where the person lives there isn't a game store near to them?
@get2sammyb I am definitely one of those people. At the beginning of this gen I would have told you that most of my collection will be physical. Fast forward to now and most of my PS4 games are digital.
The main reason mine are digital though is very rarely do I buy games brand new when I do buy games it's usually due to a really good sale on it digitally. Maybe it's my area but I tend to find the digital sales alot better then sales for the same game physically.
Physical sales for me still for the most part..
When you can buy a brand new day 1 release and get it shipped cheaper from multiple retailers (not just Amazon) than when you can buy it day 1 on the PS store then you know you are getting conned.
Their sales have improved a lot and thats to be commended but when brand new games on the ps store are almost always £5-10 more expensive than on a physical blu-ray then i'll keep buying them.
Theres absolutely no reason why the PS Store prices are so expensive compared to physical copies.
I prefer physical copies because I feel lika I actually own the game. I will buy digital if there is an awesome sale on PS store and game is not some major blockbuster. I will always prefer to have games like HZD, GoW, TW3, UC4, BB on physical discs.
Digital for multiplayer games I go back to, physical for games that I'll play once and possibly trade in. I prefer digital as often physical games don't arrive on launch day... But Physical games are illogically always cheaper than digital.
I'm purely digital, when I first bought my Pro I got FFXV and The Last Guardian on disc and I got Deadpool on my birthday last year so I've about 100 games digitally and 3 on disc!
This year I bought a couple of games digitally, at first it's mostly service games like monhun world or fighting game like dbfz, but now I buy most sony 1st party games digitally too. I bought god of war deluxe version, and I'll buy detroid and spiderman digital version ($80 version, the one with dlc for spiderman). A couple of years ago I only buy digital games if there's big discount on psn.
@PeterParker Yeah, having both option is good. For games that have good but short single player story like battlefield 1, I usually bought the physical version and sold it again after I finished it.
If it weren't for the fact that Amazon Prime lets me get games way cheaper, I would prefer digital. Since disc games install to the hard drive anyway, I prefer digital, but Amazon makes a compelling case with its 20% off pre-orders.
How many of those sales are full price digital purchases though?
The PS Store sales are excellent. I've gone from 100% physical (PS3 era) to 60:40 in favour of digital (current gen).
However, I could count the number of full price digital purchases on one hand.
If I'm going to pay £30-50 for something then I better get something I actually own. VR games are the only exception.
@get2sammyb What happens when Sony lose the license to Spider-Man, like Activision did?
Spider-Man (PS4) by Insomniac could be lost forever.
Stuff like this makes it very hard to fully embrace an all digital future. There is no true ownership with digital.
I'd rather support the developers...
@Fight_Teza_Fight Yeah, it's a legitimate concern.
@Retro88 How do you mean? You support them regardless of whether you buy digitally or physically.
Majority of my PS Vita collection Ian digital. Now that it’s entering its twilight years I look at my game shelf and only see a handful of vita games and it made me regret not buying physical. Now I’m busy re-buying physical and guess what, some games that are quite cheap digital are very expensive physically I’m finding out (I payed Newark’s £50 for Castilla LTD edition on Vita and £32 for Ys Origin for example while they are between £10-15 on PSN).
Digital is more convenient for me as I work from home and look after my partner 24/7 and despite what someone commented, i'm neither fat nor lazy either, but cheers...
@get2sammyb I hope Sony have worked out some sort of deal were they actually 'own' the game. I doubt it though, as Disney/Marvel are very protective with their IP.
Suffice to say Spider-Man is a physical purchase! Not risking it.
I've bought a lot of digital games lately thanks to the ever increasing bargains in the PSN sales. I've still only got my original 500 gig hard drive so I'm constantly on a buy/play/delete cycle.
@get2sammyb i know but i don't like retailers getting a dime.
All these sales and the store is still not users friendlly. Does not have a proper review system, reccomendations are irrelevant as well. No way to gift games. The store needs a total overhaul.
I'm still physical first, and I believe I always will be. Absolutely it's great not having to physically swap games, and it's especially convenient for a portable device with respect to saving on bulk and minimizing your odds of losing a game card, but for most of my typical buying habits, I find hard copies much cheaper then digital copies; especially if I pre-order stuff around E3 or some other big promo event. God of War physical all in was $56 new instead of $90 for me, case in point. I've gotten PS4 games like Infamous and The Order on clearance for $4 and $10 years ago, respectfully. Can't get deals like that digitally.
I like actually OWNING stuff. I like the choice and freedom of having control over what I'm able to do with that which I bought. I can lend, sell, trade, etc.. them whenever and to whomever I wish.
I'm also very skeptical of any digital protections. These accounts and titles can be taken away at anytime as a giant middle finger to the customer.
Assuming the hardware functions correctly, my 26 year old hard copy of Link to the Past is still accessible. Will my digital copy of Life is Strange still be accessible 26 years from now? I'm predicting it won't be.
That said, I still buy digital sometimes. If it's a digital only game I really want to play, If a sale is stupidly good, or an original copy of a game is overpriced like Earthbound or Shantae, and the legit digital copy is only a few dollars, then I don't mind as much, but I'm very weary of this all-digital future many are clamoring for.
We're going to lose just as much as we gain, if not more.
@DLB3 Better safe than sorry.
Although it looks like 'pulled' games still remain in your library. They're just not available for purchase digitally.
https://kotaku.com/activisions-marvel-games-pull-a-digital-disappearing-a-1493169347
@LaNooch1978
I think you have other issues then worrying about buying digital or physical....
If I'm buying at launch, I'd usually prefer to snag a physical version of a game with a pre-order discount.
If I'm not, I'll usually just wait for a good digital discount.
Because I'm thinking about drastically reducing the number of games I buy soon to make headway on my backlog, I'll probably end up going mostly digital in the future.
Full digital, way more convenient. The sales ain't bad either.
I remember this sort of discussion a few years ago in PushSquare and the majority of people (including myself) preferred physical. Interesting to see how things changed! =)
I still prefer physical because I'm a game collector, however if I wasn't into that I'd have definitely gone all digital by now.
That said, I actually have more downloaded games (91) than retail copies (74) on PS4, although this is largely down to PS+ and digital only games.
Physical, only because I trade them in to release some value back. You can see why you would go digital for games as a service games. By the time you've played destiny for a few hundred hrs, you'd only get 50 p back!!
I've only bought games digitally when either:
A) They're only available digitally
or
B) They're in a mega sale.
Nlife ran an article that pretty much sums up my reasoning behind this.
http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/03/soapbox_im_secretly_terrified_of_an_all-digital_gaming_future
This will be my last comment on this. The day that videogames that go all digital only is the day i quit gaming.
@Fight_Teza_Fight Yeah most games you buy digital you can download off the store again it's just no new purchases can be made. I have an Xbox 360 with both TMNT Arcade games and The Simpsons Arcade purchased on them. If I delete them from my hard drive I can still download them from the store.
I only buy digital for Playstation, the only physical game I have gotten was Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition, because it was on sale.
I don't buy physical anymore. Only digita.
I have started from digital, but switched to physical after buying one game which is still bugged an I haven't put double figure hours in it since I've bought it two and half years ago. Tried to talk to Sony for part refund, they banned my Psn after I've tried to refund by PayPal after their advice. So they banned all my digital games as well. Unbanned me later after I've paid them again for unwanted game, but it took 3 weeks and bricked console for duration. Same will happen if someone will steal your console - they will ban it while investigate. Same if someone will frame you up somehow or hack your acc. Phisycal you can order delivered, sell it, lend it, swap it, hide it, smash it all what you want.
Ive got so many games I could build a bonfire with them. All those wii and 360 games I will never use again and they are only worth 20p at Game but Im too stubborn to sell.
But Im retail for life
(Even though digital is easier, faster, more convenient and on demand)
Started off on the ps4 about 50/50 but now I'm all digital. Less crap taking up space on the shelf, faster to switch between games and just more convenient over all for me. I don't but many games on release day and eventually everything goes on sale and the sales on psn are usually really good. Still buy some physical on the Switch but doubt I will buy another physical ps4 game.
@themcnoisy
You genuinely sound like you talked yourself round to digital at then end. Honestly I was just like you (except the 360 part). Buying a 4TB hard drive has transformed what I play. I have well over 150 games updated ready to play. Did a couple of laps of driveclub earlier. I would never had bothered if I’d had to reinstall the game and all the patches. It’s really given my pro new life I love the convenience. Same happed with my vita, after the anger of proprietary memory cards passed I bought a 64Gb card. And it made the vita what it was ment to be, now I can take it on my holidays and right there have 60+ digital games ready at the click of a button.
@gingerfrog it is better. No running to game to be told they dont know what Yakuza is.
@RainbowGazelle Such a Nintendo Life stance. 😂
I have made a fair few digital downloads over the past few years on my PS3 and PS4 but these have primarily been games which are exclusive to the store. I prefer to physically own my games as it ensures me that come 10 years down the line, and the server's aren't up anynore (hypothetical) I can still play my games no matter what. Freak situation, PSN is offline for good and that would be my only option. Not saying if you prefer digital downloads you should be scared but having a physical collection it's very comforting, especially for me.
I have a mixed strategy...
I buy physical for 1-player or short appeal games, play them through quickly and then trade them in.
For long-appeal games (and digital-only), I'll buy digital.
The "convenience tax" on the store can be offset with reduced price credit
@dellyrascal Let's watch the language please. Thanks for understanding
Physical purely for the resell value. But if they general trend towards digital continues, how long before we get knack all for trading in?! Then I will go digital only I reckon.
My only concern with full digital is that at least with physical games there are price adjustments and games can be traded and stuff. Digital games sit at $60 for ages and hold no resale value
I'm all digital on PS4. Sold all my physical games.
These days im digital only even with my internet (It literally takes 1hour to download a gig)
Swearing - get2sammyb
i buy physical discs for several reasons. i generally buy games on release and it's ALWAYS cheaper on disc than PSN, i almost always get discs before release date, my broadband is not so super fast that 50gb will just download in a couple of hours, plus if i'm going to spend £40 on something, i want something tangible that has value. it's the same reason i pay £10 for a CD rather than £8 for the mp3s of it (that and mp3 sounds like s**t).
in truth, i don't really buy that many games any more. i've bought only shadow of the colossus and god of war so far this year, and i bought only 5 games last year (4 physical, and 1 digital - which was telltale's batman - which i bought fot £10 on sale). i generally don't even bother to download the PS+ games.
I still prefer physical and most of my games are. But I have found myself buying more digital games than I had planned. In the beginning of PS4, the only games I planned to buy digital were the ones that appear on a great sale and were cheaper than physical. But over time I got a bit carried away and bought more than I thought and some at full price. When those games have been completed, I start to regret buying digital thinking to myself I spent £55 on this game when I buy my physical games for under £40. And also wish that I had the game box for the collection.
So even though I prefer having physical, I have decided that are certain games that I will buy digital and those are the kind of games that I plan to return to from time to time for a quick play while my physical game will be my main game. The main games are the ones that will get beaten then deleted while I move onto the next main one.
Say goodbye to everything other then the digital store when it happens. How often do you see anything about PC games? Steam has become the one spot PC underground. Almost nothing happens outside of Steam for PC.
No need for trade shows, Phisical store advertisement or sales! All new games locked at $59.99. Black Friday sales gone, I buy more game on that day then any other. PSN will have 100% of your attention outside sources will not be needed.
I came to console from PC for this reason. A more open public gaming world. Not a PSN underground ONLY world.
plus until we see some actual hard unit sales of particular titles, these numbers are pretty vague imo. i'd still wager, for the UK at least, big AAA titles are still 70-80% on disc.. if 3/4 of all games are only available digitally, then it's pretty obvious that digital sales will be taking a greater share.. and if you're prepared to wait a year or so, then sales for the big titles can be better than shops. factor in episodic games, and massively popular service games like fortnite (is there even a physical version of this?)...
i could see on PS5, especially if it has a 4k blu-ray drive, some games could start to go up towards 100gb in size.. people on data caps simply couldn't go all digital. no disc drive, i'd probably not bother with PS5, and just watch last of us 3 or god of war 2 on twitch.
I do download quite a few games but mostly ones that you can’t get in the stores otherwise physical first and forever!!!
This is news to me. Although it means I don't get to save money when it comes to digital sales, I just can't go without physical copies. I've only ever downloaded digital-only games.
The only physical copies I buy are collectors editions or sports games ( so I can trade them in). Otherwise it simply doesn't make sense.
Digital for. Me. I don't have room for all my games. Got over 200 games on digital since the ps3 Era. Prefer that way. Since I won't have to stash them away somewhere.
I’m 100% Digital and have been since PS4 came out. Done with discs!
I like physical discs for my consoles. Only my Steam account is digital.
digital all the way for me, i do not care for having blue ps4 game cases lying all over my house (digital makes it seem you spend waaayyyy less on games lol)
@DLB3 There’s a Streamer that e-begs daily on Twitch... it’s pathetic, you gotta give up whatever respect people have for you but this guy made 100K in one year from e-begging...
He one of those obese guys who buys everything digitally
@get2sammyb Yea same It's just a lot easier for me to purchase games digitally
I still buy the physical edition of my favorite games, it's great to see games like Shadow of the Colossus, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, Spider-Man on my shelf. It's like that I own the game and I can play anytime, even years after.
I came to this thread planning to say that I prefer buying physical over digital, but thought I’d do a more scientific analysis of my habits and was surprised to see that my recent habits show only a 60% preference for physical. (I counted the last 20 games on my trophy list and 12/20 are physical). I was surprised at how I am being dragged into the digital age, almost without even realizing it. I have my concerns about going digital though, as many have already stated, so I’ll not belabor it.
I still buy mostly physical. Which is a little strange because these days all my music and movies are purchased digitally. The last movie on disc was the Spider-Man Homecoming bluray, and that's only because I got it for $8 on a holiday sale. Can't remember the last time I bought a movie on disc before that.
I like having a collection and Best Buy's Gamer's Club discount of 20% off new games makes buying games physically appealing though. Could see myself buying digitally if the prices drop but as long as games stay at full price on PSN, XBL and the E-Shop, I don't see my purchasing habits changing.
@Gamer83 I keep hearing about that Gamers Club deal at Best Buy from alot of people both here and NL, sounds like a great deal too bad Best Buy has screwed me over several times in the past that I refuse to do business with them anymore.
Isn't physical versions cheaper for you guys, especially when pre-ordering from retailers like Amazon, BestBuy, Walmart and etc? I noticed that digital versions tend be sold at nett price especially when pre-ordering from the PS Store. The main difference is that when it comes to pre-order bonuses the PS Store tends to give avatars and themes which other retailers usually don't. I personally always bought physical versions. MHW was the only exception.
Knock on wood, convenience is great that is until your account gets hacked.
I vastly prefer physical still. I love owning the disc and it’s often cheaper that way. Sure, digital has sanded, but look at the prices of games after a year or two. Digital is expensive and ig gaming goes digital only, well instead of being $20 Assassins’s wills it’ll be $60 over a year after launch. I’m a bit scared honestly. I have no intention of changing.
Only exceptions are PS Plus, humble bundle, and one time when I got the Mass Effect Trilogy for $8. Though the first was only digital, so it was like getting them for free with a discounted ME1.
Physical for most games unless PSN sales are insanely good. I do like digital for the convenience but not owning the games is a big bummer for me. What happens in 10 years when they decide to shut down the store and you can't access your games? All that money down the drain. That's my major reason for buying physical, I'll have my disc 10-15 years from now, will you have access to your online game library then? That's a big question mark.
Digital only for me (with very few exceptions).
The last two games I bought on disc were Wolfenstein: The New Order UK version because the German version is cut and CoD Infinite Warfare Legacy Edition because it was only 15€.
Digital is the way to go"
I purchased Uncharted 4 cheap online as a physical disc. After finishing it 2 weeks later, I traded it in at Game and received more money than I bought it for. Which of course meant I got another game for free essentially. Hard to beat that.
Digital! Most of the games I buy don't even have a physical copy. Only physical game I bought this year was God of War because it came with a figure.
I only have killzone shadowfall on disc, all my other 200+ games are digital. Have a base ps4 with 4tb hard drive tons of games on that and a pro for the best pro enhanced games. Obviously used to buy physical but i would regret selling my games and buy them again from gamestop, plus disc drives break, and i imagine create at least some heat. Also good deals on the playstation store
Only usually buy digital when there is a really good deal or when the game is tricky to get from online retailers.
I purchase digital when on a good sale but if I see it on disc cheap I buy it because they could take away your digital copy anytime you only own the license to the software
Digital all day long for me, for a few reasons:
a) I'm lazy. It's easier to not have to keep changing discs all the time.
b) I have little game time these days, so I don't tend to play extended periods on one game, preferring to mix it up in half hour to one hour spells. Even more reason not to want to change discs all the time.
c) I don't buy games day one, so the argument of resaleability doesn't stack up for me. I only buy games once they are about £20, so selling again on eBay or whatever is barely worth it by then.
d) The only game(s) I buy physical is either PES or FIFA, because I can sell them again at seasons end, ready for the next edition.
@slampog but, why would they shut down the store in 10 years time? I can't see that happening to be honest. It wouldn't benefit anyone.
@Fight_Teza_Fight Sony did some sort of deal with the movies and I believe that they no longer have to make a movie every 7 years to keep the movie rights and possibly don't have to pay the royalties (I remember reading this somewhere, not sure where). The first deal was made with Hasbro for the sale of the merchandise for The Amazing Spider-Man (first movie). The second deal was with Disney for the outright sale of the merchandise for Spider-Man and the third deal was in regards to Marvel producing the main Spider-man movies and using Spider-man in their own movies. Sony paid Marvel to make them and the money from the box office goes to Sony and partners. It's possible that one or more of these deals included the game rights to a standard Spider-man game series. Disney doesn't like making games anymore and Sony may have negotiated a similar deal to the movies. Disney really wanted the merchandising rights I believe and Spider-Man in their movies, so handing the game rights over may have been easy.
Speculation, but the game does seem to be timed perfectly for that to be possible.
Talking about rights too, apparently Marvel sold the movie rights to Sony (back in the 90s) for $10 million and asked if they wanted to buy the entire catalogue of movie rights for $25 million. To think, they probably could have offered Marvel $50 million to buy the company outright and we would probably have a completely different set of Marvel movies. Still, Sony is probably kicking themselves for that one.
The higher initial price for games on the PlayStation Store, could also be in part due to the fact that they still need physical stores to sell the consoles. If physical stores are selling less games due to better digital prices, they may stop selling the consoles and console makers don't want that.
This is all just food for thought and may not accurate. Feel free to take this with a pinch of salt
I prefer physical copies because they will inevitably drop down in price to $15-$30 New during Black Friday/Holiday seasons.
Also the fact they aren't tied to one PSN account like digital copies always are.
I almost always buy digital. I'm lazy. I also like the idea that if a game is re-released on PS5 (or any other future console), I might also get a copy for that system for free by already owning a digital copy of the ps3/ps4/vita version.
@slampog @Jaz007 @LaNooch1978 Exactly.
Physical for me, always. The only time I'll buy digital is if it's not available on physical media, or it's an older game I missed which is very, very heavily discounted in a sale.
I still buy my movies and music on disc, too. It's not because I'm old or stuck in my ways... it's simply that there are potential issues with digital which just don't exist with physical.
Lets not cherry pick sales for ONE month to prove a failed point. When you also state for the year 32% digital vs 68% physical.
I buy some digital and that is about correct 32% small digital games and old games on huge sale. Along with PS-Plus games. vs 68% AAA games on physical disc.
Both formats are working well together. Everyone has a choice that much better then media going 100% to one side over the other.
@LaNooch1978 I have a Wii U and a Switch.
@jswhitfield8 This is exactly my point. What's the use of buying a physical copy of a game if a) I need to copy it entirely in the hard drive any way and specially b) They don't even include a bloody manual!!!!! One of the reasons I love my physical copy of witcher 3 is all the extra stuff, even has free stickers. No manual? Terrible box art? No dice.
@Tasuki @LaNooch1978 Owner of both too. I'll join that support group as well, lol.
@FullbringIchigo That doesn't really satisfy the definition of lazy. Lazy means unwilling to work or use energy. Laziness would be not playing a game just because you only own it on disc and don't want to get up to put it in. However choosing to conduct yourself in ways that increase convenience is pragmatic, unless of course the experience is reduced.. then I'd call that lazy.
At this point you really need good reason to go physical. Poor download speeds, resellability, and of course, while I am as proud of my digital collection as I was of my physical back in the day, a lot of people grew up building a physical collection and there is a compulsion to expand on that collection with more physical games as opposed to starting an entirely new collection digitally. In fact, some people even think they wouldn't enjoy having a digital collection the same way they would physical (I though that) but I sift through my digital collection with pride when I'm alone and show it off to friends same as I did my physical, and it's easier to look through too. Outside of particular situations and preferences, digital is really the best choice. In fact, most people who buy physical really just do it out of habit or because they don't know the value of digital.
Resistance to change is natural and very likely a large part of your own reasoning, if you are willing to be honest with yourself. Hell it was for me. The first game I got digital was Black Ops 2 so that I could have it digital on my PS3 and let my brother play my physical on his PS3, but I got physical first. Digital was so we could play together without having to split screen because split screen in zombies sucked haha.. took away peripheral view. I had no intention of going digital and I never got another digital game until Black Ops 3 for similar reasons (also got the Juggenog physical edition).
At that time I felt compelled to buy physical to add to my collection of games, being materialistic instead of pragmatic. The final nails in the coffin for physical were when I learned file size is no different on your hard drive and that I didn't need both physical and digital to play on two consoles, as with digital you can activate a friend's console and let him play on his account while you play on your own account on any (usually your) console. Physical is more convenient to let a friend borrow the first time you let them borrow a game, but after that it's actually less convenient because you have to physically hand off each game they borrow every time they borrow it. With digital, the first time they "borrow" you have to log in to your account on their PS4, but after that you never need to meet up with them again to let them borrow any game you ever get, plus you can still play the games they are playing, with or without them. With physical, if they borrow it you can't play it at all, let alone with them.
There are a lot of benefits to digital people don't really think about or know about. Still if you were to say the ONLY reason you wanted physical was to build upon your collection, that is plenty good reason in my book. I don't want physical to ever stop being a thing because physical collections are awesome. Anyway sorry for the long comment. I just have been EXACTLY in your point of view so thought the reasons that swayed me toward digital might be enlightening, like they were for me.
@KleebanKliban so if someone says "i get all my game digitally because i can't be bothered to get up and change disc's" then that's not lazy?
and trust me it happens, i know it does because that's the reason a friend of mine gave for buying his games digitally
he also said he couldn't be bothered to go into town to buy them either
as for me i buy physical because it gave me the feeling that i actually own the game i brought, plus it gives me more control, i can sell it or trade it if i want to or even lend it out, you can't do that with a digital game
@FullbringIchigo No, it would not necessarily make them lazy. It's not as simple as that. If you know you have the option to not be bothered and therefore can't bring yourself to choose to be bothered relative to the other option, that's pragmatic.
It's like driving a car to work a few blocks away instead of walking (if money for gas isn't a factor of course). Most can't be bothered to walk when they can drive. They walk further distances all the time so they aren't too lazy to walk, they just see the more convenient alternative and see no reason not to take it. Like physical games relative to digital, walking relative to driving is a needless consumption of time and energy that you could avoid and make life easier.
Though I'm not saying your friend isn't lazy or that people can't choose to go digital purely because they are lazy. I'm saying you made a blanket statement. It was true in some cases but not others. Plenty of people who are not lazy in the least go digital purely because they can't be bothered with the less convenient option relative to the more convenient option. That choice is always pragmatic, but it is not always inspired by laziness. That was what I meant when I said you were really giving an example of pragmatism and not of laziness, but they are closely related concepts in this case and the confusion was 100% understandable.
Also I know my comments are often long haha so don't blame you for skimming the last one, but as I already said I get the selling/trading point, but you can lend games digitally and it's a vastly superior experience to lending games physically. Other than the extra effort you have to make initially to log in on a friend's PS4, you can easily let friends borrow all your games at the press of a button, and you can still play your own games while they play the same game, so you can even play with them if it's multiplayer. Enhanced lending capabilities are one of the biggest perks of going digital and what I take advantage of the most. The only downside is that you have to have access to their console once initially to log in to your account. This is assuming you don't trust them with your password which generally people don't, but clearly that small amount of effort is nothing compared to switching discs every time so doubt logging in once would bother you at all. I literally JUST had my brother activate his PS4 a few minutes ago so he could play my games. Was as easy as telling him "go ahead". To be clear, my brother does not live with me. Additionally I can remotely deactivate his console to let another friend activate whenever I wish, as we have a system set up to always keep his PS4 in rest mode so I can access/deactivate it through Remote Play.
Though I completely get your preference and reasoning and I'm not saying you should go digital. Owning physical has a different feeling that you don't quite get with digital and sounds like you would be missing out if you didn't have that so you are making the right choice for you. Took me a while to appreciate digital but I feel like anyone who grew up with an iPod instead of CD's would understand it more immediately than I did.
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