Pros and Cons of going to an all-digital game library

[ODogg]

Re: Pros and Cons of going to an all-digital game library

Did you know that physical copies aren't owned either now per the EULA on games you do not own the software.


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[josef]

Re: Pros and Cons of going to an all-digital game library

I went all digital and LOVE it. A huge pro for me is I would usually trade (disk) games in to help fund new games, then I often would regret selling the game months later. Now I keep all my games and play them anytime I get the urge to fire an old one up. I also tend to wait until reviews drop and make CERTAIN I want to buy since there's no selling them. I think I've saved money in the long run just by not buying games on impulse now. I try to wait for sales unless it is a no brainer purchase (like MGS V).

[Trevelyan]

Re: Pros and Cons of going to an all-digital game library

I think everyone is missing the biggest benefit of going digital. If you game share with someone else who plays the same games as you everything is half price. Thats the biggest positive by far.

[mgoblue]

Re: Pros and Cons of going to an all-digital game library

I think everyone is missing the biggest benefit of going digital. If you game share with someone else who plays the same games as you everything is half price. Thats the biggest positive by far.

Are you talking like setting one system as "Home" and the other one having to be logged in type of thing?

[woodjer]

Re: Pros and Cons of going to an all-digital game library

I just wanted to say that this is a great thread. I've been toying with the idea of going all-digital for a while and keeping an eye on this thread will be a big help in my decision. For me, the convenience is a big factor. The biggest con that I see is how EASY it is to buy digital games...and then later realize that you dropped $100 without really thinking about it.

Personally, I don't play nearly as much as I used to. Granted, I'm still more or less a daily gamer but it's down to maybe an hour or two a night. Games like Dragon Age and other RPGs take me FOREVER to finish...I've owned DAI since January and am MAYBE 1/4 of the way through it based on estimates I've seen. Considering that, I may actually save money and time going digital since most games will probably be marked down and I won't need to try to find somewhere that has it in stock.

[daniel77733]

Re: Pros and Cons of going to an all-digital game library

Well after just over a year of being all-digital I think I'm qualified to give a good pros and cons of digital versus physical discs. Now I own both Xbox One and PS4 but this little article is not really console specific but I do much more gaming in general on my PS4.

If you dig up some old threads from when the systems launched I was pretty much against going digital. Mostly because, in the past on the PC I had been burnt badly by buying digital and then later not having a physical copy when my system crashed or I moved or etc etc. I just didn't like the idea of not having a tangible product in hand.

That perspective has changed.

The biggest reason I decided to go ahead and try digital came down to the fact that I had two of each system, one upstairs and one downstairs, and I did not want to be running back and forth retrieving discs. Yes laziness is a great motivator and god forbid I have to get up and walk up the stairs to get a game.

I believe my first digital game that I really utilized a lot was Madden 15. Although I bought games digitally prior to that the Madden game was the first game I saw fit to play a lot, both downstairs and upstairs, and let me tell you, the ability to just fire up the PS4, start Madden immediately and play really got me hooked. That led me down the path and I've been mostly all digital every since.I'm sorry but this is a horrible reason. Laziness? Really? When im not working or with my girlfriend, im the laziest bastard in the world but even im not to the point where im going to sacrifice money just so I can save a two minute walk upstairs or downstairs. Also, if you have one console upstairs and one downstairs, why not just keep the games that go with that system next to it? I will never understand how people lose discs, cases, etc. I'm sorry but in general that's just carelessness. Maybe, it's because im a minimalist and hate clutter and unwanted crap and garbage but still, really how hard is it to keep things in a set place? Maybe as a kid but as an adult, I just don't understand it regardless if you're single, married, have kids, whatever. Granted, it's probably just me but to literally throw money away in favor of being too lazy is a far worse decision in my opinion.

However, it's not all sunshine and puppies....there are still some things I've begun to notice that I don't like...but I still think I'll remain mostly digital. So without further adieu here are the pros and cons. I'll list the cons first so that the last thing you take from this is the pros

CONS

1. Let's start with the obvious. You're gonna need a bigger hard drive and that costs money and takes time to install. Now I suppose you could delete and reinstall all the time but I must say, my PS4 was filled within 6 months and that was when I was still buying physical copies. So upgrading, at least in my opinion, the hard drive in your system is something you should do anyways so to me this one isn't that big of a deal but I know to some of you out there you may not want to incur the expense.This is only a negative for those who go all digital as you're obviously going to need a bigger hard drive considering that the majority of releases are 40GB and higher. Even at 408GB (after all the pre-installed stuff and whatnot), I will never ever need to upgrade the hard drive. Only way that would happen is if the hard drive itself dies out. And to be perfectly honest, like the laziness part, spending extra money on a hard drive when you have the option not to is again, throwing money away.

2. I can no longer gift or loan out my games to my nephew or my friend Mike. My nephew doesn't even have a next-gen system so it's not huge right now but my prediction is that this Christmas he will. Normally I'd have about 5 or 6 sports games to give to him but now I have...well pretty much none. My friend Mike has a lot of kids so I usually just give him my old games that my nephew doesn't want so his kids will have something to do and get some use out of games that I no longer want. Again, I don't have much to give to him at all because of now being mostly digital.This simply doesn't apply to me. Sucks for your nephew though.

3. I don't get the good pre-order deals like physical copy buying people do. Not many games offer much in the way of pre-order, or at least not like stores. I pre-ordered Madden 16 and all I got was some very generic theme. And with the Best Buy Gamers Club Unlocked now $30 for 2 years, I wonder if it's time to consider going back to physical at least for some games that I may want to resell or give away when done playing.Pre-orders for digital games suck plain and simple. It's either nothing or just some stupid theme or some crap. No thanks. Personally and this is another subject for another time but I hate pre-order bonuses because every store has different stuff. They should all be the same. Back to the topic on hand, I have GCU and im good until next August. Unless you're a collector or like you seem to be, going digital, you can't lose money with GCU and in most cases, get to play the game for a $5 rental if not free and then trade it in for credit which could go to the next game. Everyone here knows I love GCU. It blows away GameStop, Digital, ebay, Newegg, etc. when it comes to getting the best deals on games at launch. You could always wait but that just creates a bigger backlog which im trying to avoid this generation. Plus, like you said, you can resell, trade in or give the game away...like to your nephew for example.

4. There's no way to cancel if you do see a better deal on a physical copy. Astoundingly, at least in Sony's case, you cannot even cancel to pre-order the same game collector edition at a higher price. I pre-ordered Mortal Kombat and then a week later saw they had the version that was normally $99.99 for $89.99 and decided I wanted to upgrade. I called Sony and was told they couldn't do it. Mind you I wasn't even cancelling but trying to spend MORE MONEY and they didn't want to let me do it. After asking to speak to a supervisor though they did go ahead and cancel my order (event though their policy says strictly 100% no cancels on digital pre-orders). I understand why they don't want people to cancel but to upgrade? Come on...This is because if they do it for one person, next thing you know, everyone will want to do it and thus, becomes a cluster****. Regardless if you want to spend more money, buying digitally means that once you click that confirm button, that's it, its yours period. I understand your point of view but it's not how companies see it when it comes to digital. And this is a perfect example that proves my point about companies just trying to get as much money from you as possible while giving you less. With this generation, I stopped thinking like a gamer and started thinking like Sony, Microsoft, EA, etc. because quite honestly, they don't care and simply want to make as much money as possible and I understand that's what business is all about but the option you don't have by going digital is that once you give them your business, you can't get any money or credit back where as with physical you can. I don't mind giving a publisher a sale on release day but only if it's physical. No way am I giving any publisher $60 for a digital game.

5. If you upgrade or change your drive it takes forever to re-download everything. Yes I know the games are the same size as physical but it's much quicker to physically install from media versus downloading unless maybe you have Google as your ISP, which I don't.Agree and one more reason why not to go digital.

6. You aren't going to ever be able to get lucky and score the game early. I have fond memories of chasing down NCAA and Madden early and have many stories to tell about doing so (as in walking in the store up north and meeting FLIGHTWHITE, LOL) but this is sort of a moot point with everything going digital.I did this a few times but not to the extent im spending $80 instead of $60. $65 with no tax, sure but that was my limit. I do get this though as I was the same way when I was younger for certain games. If anything, this is more about the thrill and excitement of tracking down that game you're just dying to play. Now, nowhere near as much but I get it.

7. This one is related to #6....maybe I'm old school but I've been gaming since 1978 and I sort of miss the UPS or FedEx Truck watch. I was just coming home from getting some groceries now and saw a FedEx truck in front of my neighbors house and my first instinct was "I wonder if there are any Madden 16's on there by mistake??". There's just something about seeing that big ol' Brown (or white) truck pull up and know he's bringing you Christmas in a small package.Hahaha. This is how I was when trying to get old school games on ebay when I was a collector and waiting for the tracking number to be updated and then for my package to arrive. Depending on the game, I would feel like a kid at Christmas when opening up the package.

8. If they take the server down and/or no longer offer the game then you're pretty much screwed. I must say, this one doesn't affect me much really at all because I move on when new games come out. However I realize there's a large amount of people still playing games from 2006 or whatever. Those people may be out of luck if their favorite title is removed from the "cloud" and they want to re-download. Or simply play if the game must connect to a server.This statement confuses me. If you move on to newer games, why would you consistently throw away $60 on a digital game that you'll move on from sooner rather than later? This is why I buy physical and once I finish a game, I trade it in and move on to the next game. Unlike last gen, I want to keep my backlog to one game per year, if that. This is far easier to do with discs compared to digitally.

PROS

1. Let's start with the obvious as to why most of us buy digital. Convenience. It's very easy to just fire up the PS4, scroll to a title and immediately start the game. Yes I know a lot of you physical media only people have heard that a million times but until you actually do it a bunch you cannot appreciate just how easy it is. I will say this, even if you don't plan to go digital, you should at least look at your #1 played game, we all have one, and that should be digital.I understand this but not at $60 a pop. Spending less money on games that could go towards more important stuff overshadows the convenience and to be perfectly honest, it's not much of a difference. I connect my controller, get my game, take out the disc and insert it after I turn on my console. Seriously, I think that those who use this as a reason are just very lazy. Worse part is that how long does taking a disc and inserting into the console take? A minute? Come on. Sorry but everyone I have seen who goes digital posts such invalid reasons that to me, it's just hilarious and makes no sense whatsoever. Saving a few minutes of time if that is more important than saving $60? I'm not money hungry or greedy but I have become smarter when it comes to spending money on games. I prefer spending less while getting more where as going digital means spending more and getting less. And I don't care who you are or if you're filthy rich or not, I will never understand why people would rather spend more for less as opposed to spending less for more. Sorry but this just baffles me.

2. Speed of starting a game. Related to #1. No more hunting a disc. Looking everywhere for it. Realizing your idiot friend placed Madden 15 in the FIFA 15 box. Or worse....Disc hunting??? Seriously, what do some of you people do with your games? Are some of you like ten years old? Sorry and nothing personal but in general, I don't understand this. I'm 36 and while im not a Felix Unger, I do like my stuff neat, clean and organized. Is it really hard for so many people to place the games in the case and lay it down next to the console they just removed it from? Sorry. SMH

3. Losing a disc forever. I loved Skyrim for the 360. Absolutely LOVED IT. Until one day when I went to play it and it had gone Jimmy Hoffa on me and completely and utterly disappeared. I searched the entire house for hours. I looked everywhere. I couldn't even find the case! Now if I buy the next Skyrim for my PS4 digitally then I won't ever have to worry about my Skyrim just deciding to go MIA on me.Again, but sorry, stuff just doesn't disappear into thin air. Either you misplaced it, threw it away accidently or someone else did but the main thing in this regard comes down to one thing - carelessness. In general, people spend so much money on stuff yet they're so careless with what they bought. I have had a game stolen from me when I was a kid but to actually lose a disc in my own apartment, that's just too funny.

4. If you own two systems, as I do, it makes managing your game library so much easier to simply buy digital, have it related to your profile and then install on both systems.But you still have to install the game on both consoles and it would still be faster installing the game via disc. I have never owned two of the same console at the same time so maybe it's not fair for me to comment on this but if anything, it comes down to pure laziness. That's all it is. Unless you're physically disabled which I can fully understand, I just don't see how going upstairs or downstairs with the game in your hand is too much work or too much time or whatever. It's funny, im lazy but seeing those who go digital make me look like the opposite in comparison.

5. It's high tech. Let's face it, the future is in the cloud, whether we like it or not. Fumbling around with a bunch of discs is like being in 1993. It's pretty damned cool when you have someone come over and just whip around showing them games without having to be swapping out discs like we're in the PS2 era or whatever.Yeah, high tech is great and so is the cloud unless the service is down or gets hacked. Then, not so much. As long as discs are still available and manufactured, digital and cloud tech is just a secondary option at best. The investment simply isn't worth the return of what you're getting for that investment

6. Pre-loading games in full, ready to play at midnight. This is a really nice feature to have, no waiting for install.Yeah, this is good but you still can't play the game until that official release date and for me personally, I rather take a 20 minute walk to Best Buy, pick up my game at 10am and be playing by 12pm and save $12-$22 in the process. Plus, in case I don't like the game, not into it or just think it sucks, I can trade it in. Can't do that with a digital game.

So there you have it, the pros and cons. While there are more cons above on the list the pros take the win as they are larger in my opinion. However, I do have some concern about the pricing and the companys failure to price more competitively.

I mean if you think about it with no distribution, no disc and no game box in all reality games should be $49.99 online and $59.99 in stores. That may make some folks switch. Until a lot of people see a real incentive to change, and that is usually monetary based, we will not see an across the board adoption of going all digital for your games library. And that's a real shame I think because, although there are definitely issues that need to be addressed, going all-digital is the right way to go..

Responses in bold. The cons outweigh the pros for one main reason - going digital is more about laziness than anything else from what I have read and not just from you but in general. Seriously, there is not one pro on your list that justifies spending $60 on a game that you yourself said, you move on from when a new game comes out.

People think that if/when consoles go all digital, that they will be getting steam like sales but guess what, that's not going to happen. The reason why Steam has sales is simple - majority of stuff is old and isn't worth much/if anything and second, sales on newer games is done simply because the user install base when it comes to PC gaming is nowhere near what it is on consoles. Take GTAV for example which is a HUGE franchise. From vgchartz.com and as of June 27th, the game has sold 470k on PC. Granted, that doesn't include digital but even if you double that number, PC gaming is a minimal percentage compared to consoles.

The reason for those sales is because they have to compete with consoles which is a far bigger market. Subtract discs and force everyone to only have ONE option - digital and you're not getting a damn thing on sale simply because there's no more competition and no more alternatives. You either buy the game digitally at $60 or you simply don't buy it at all. And there's no monetary or trade in value whatsoever once you buy that game. Even worse, once you confirm a purchase, even if it's someone who stole your info, getting a refund or even credit is a huge pain in the *** to near impossible to get. People tend to ignore all those rights, trademarks and agreements that they agree to when they confirm their purchases. Once you buy digital, that's it, done. Nothing else can be done. It's yours and that's it. Whether you like the game or not, whether you wanted to buy it or not, that's it, it's yours.

I don't care what companies say, digital games at launch now should be half price - $30. When you add in all this DLC, season passes, expansion passes, etc. it's pretty obvious that publishers just want to milk as much money as possible from consumers. Going all digital would just result in little to no sales, everything being jacked up, etc.

There's a reason why Microsoft wanted Xbox One to be all digital and eliminate the user/consumer from having options - it's so they could make even more money for less and third party companies like EA, Activision, Ubisoft, etc. wanted them to do that because it equals more money for them.

In the end, it all comes down to money. Would you rather have your money go to them with little to nothing in return or would you rather have your money for yourself?

[daniel77733]

Re: Pros and Cons of going to an all-digital game library

One more I would add to a pro is if the disc reader goes bad you can still play your games. This is sorta what prompted me to upgrade as my 360 disc reader went bad a few months before the new systems came out so it became a Netflix box and any digital games I had.

And to piggy back on that no scratched disc. If the disc can't be read you can't play and with kids and my son someone's leaves his game out. With digital if there is an error you can usually just redownload it.

Unless you're consistently using the disc drive for every DVD, Blu Ray, music CD, etc., the drive should last for the entire time you have the console. Granted, it's a pain in the *** to replace (and why I prefer disc based consoles to be flip tops) but still far cheaper than buying a bigger hard drive and going digital.

Disc wise, you really have to do some bad stuff to a Blu Ray for it not to read. Even light to moderate scratches simply come off with a cloth. Before Blu Ray, I agree but not anymore. And even though I buy movies on DVD, for them to get scratched up, I would have to be careless with them.

[SmashMan]

Re: Pros and Cons of going to an all-digital game library

I only read the first post, because I know there's an equally long opposing view somewhere in this thread hidden behind my ignore list.

I'm not all digital, but I'm primarily digital, so I can agree with a lot of the pros there. I've never lost a disc, so that part didn't get me - but the convenience of just switching games? Pre-loading so I can play at midnight on release day? Sure. I may or may not also game share at times with my brother, so that would be a plus if I did something like that...

The cons - redownloading and installing is going to be a pain, but so far I've only deleted stuff I was done playing anyway. I guess for some you could see that as losing money because I didn't trade it in for $7.50 or some crap, but eh - I bought a game. I know how the system works. I don't think I've ever traded in a game, actually, so that whole aspect of it is meaningless to me. Losing out on loaning to friends/family is a negative, but eh - they can buy their own games, haha.

[mgoblue]

Re: Pros and Cons of going to an all-digital game library

I just wanted to say that this is a great thread. I've been toying with the idea of going all-digital for a while and keeping an eye on this thread will be a big help in my decision. For me, the convenience is a big factor. The biggest con that I see is how EASY it is to buy digital games...and then later realize that you dropped $100 without really thinking about it.

Personally, I don't play nearly as much as I used to. Granted, I'm still more or less a daily gamer but it's down to maybe an hour or two a night. Games like Dragon Age and other RPGs take me FOREVER to finish...I've owned DAI since January and am MAYBE 1/4 of the way through it based on estimates I've seen. Considering that, I may actually save money and time going digital since most games will probably be marked down and I won't need to try to find somewhere that has it in stock.

Digital sales come way slower than in stores, FYI.

I'm very similar to you, I'll maybe play an hour at night if i have time, usually weekends i'll get some time in, but not tons. I've started limiting myself to fewer games and trying to actually beat them (almost beat Far Cry 4 now!). Fallout 4 will own me for a while, I think that'll be my primary game this winter.

[Solidice]

Re: Pros and Cons of going to an all-digital game library

I've been digital on PC for years now, and with the Xbox One, went digital, mostly just so I don't have to keep track of the discs anymore.

got a 4TB HDD that is portable(pocket sized), so I can take it with me if I need to play a game somewhere else. All I have to do is log in with my gamertag and I can play all the games on the drive.

most of the games were free with the games for Gold, other I got discounted somewhere, either online or with the deals for gold. don't think I've paid full price for any game except Destiny. My xbox came with a Forza 5 code, so that one was free.

[mgoblue]

Re: Pros and Cons of going to an all-digital game library

Unless you're consistently using the disc drive for every DVD, Blu Ray, music CD, etc., the drive should last for the entire time you have the console. Granted, it's a pain in the *** to replace (and why I prefer disc based consoles to be flip tops) but still far cheaper than buying a bigger hard drive and going digital.

Disc wise, you really have to do some bad stuff to a Blu Ray for it not to read. Even light to moderate scratches simply come off with a cloth. Before Blu Ray, I agree but not anymore. And even though I buy movies on DVD, for them to get scratched up, I would have to be careless with them.

I agree that it's not smart financially to go all digital (which is why I don't), but if you have 2 of the same system (Which I do, Xbox Ones) then that going back and forth with discs if you want to play something can be annoying. Upstairs vs. downstairs when you're tired and just want to lay in bed and play a game in the only hour I have is value.

I agree that GCU is a much better deal though. I'm only doing Fallout 4 digitally cause I'll never sell that and got a coupon deal through MS that made it cost 45 bucks total.

[DELUS1ONAL]

Re: Pros and Cons of going to an all-digital game library

As others have said, going digital means less wear and tear on the drive.


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[SmashMan]

Re: Pros and Cons of going to an all-digital game library

As others have said, going digital means less wear and tear on the drive.

Drive should be good this gen. The games all install to the hard drive, so past the initial check when using a disc you're fine.

[DELUS1ONAL]

Pros and Cons of going to an all-digital game library

I am about 50/50 when it comes to digital/physical. The reason being, is that once in a while I will get an urge to play a game and instead of running out to the store to get it, I will just download it on my console. For preorders I usually go physical.


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[KG]

Re: Pros and Cons of going to an all-digital game library

Do Sony & Microsoft get a cut of the DLC action?