Here’s a question I’ve been thinking about, particularly when it comes to PC games.
Do you buy digital versions of your games? Or do you buy them at retail?
I feel like currently we’re seeing a resurgence in people buying games at retail stores, mainly because the exchange rate isn’t as favourable as it once was and competition amongst big stores like Big W and Target has really driven the price of games down at Aussie retail.
Where are you currently buying your games?
Comments
85 responses to “The Big Question: Do You Buy Digital Or Retail?”
Digital. Exclusively.
Same, even for consoles.
Digital for PC, retail for consoles.
Yip, PC games are much cheaper digitally – gmg, g2a, humble store etc – they all try to outdo each other. Gmg almost always have a discount code for 20% off the rrp. Often their prices are below rrp to begin with.
Consoles, on the other hand are almost always cheaper via retail, plus the possibility of a trade in. It’s also nice to have the physical disc for consoles, because the hard drives are inadequate. Second hand games are even cheaper too.
Yeah. I’m pretty sure there are 360 games that are still using their original retail price on XBOX Live. They randomly do decent discounts on those retail prices during monthly sales, but it’s a good discount on a high price that goes straight back up once the sale is over. Once a game stops going on sale it’s not worth buying.
This all the way. The only reason I’d ever get a physical copy of a PC game is if it was for a collector’s edition. Otherwise it’s way easier to find a cheaper digital copy.
For consoles I choose retail not only because they’re usually cheaper than digital, but also the limited storage of consoles almost makes it a necessity if you have a large library of titles.
I haven’t bought a PC game at retail since I fished the Space Quest box set out of a bargain bin at Dick Smith back in the 90s. I went off PC gaming for awhile (and admittedly my friends pirated a fair amount back in high school). By the time I came back to PC gaming (I’m still mainly a console gamer) Steam had well and truly taken hold and with their near constant sales I was able to pick up games a few years old I’d originally missed for a pittance.
Xbox Live’s marketplace isn’t as good, yet. I have bought a few digital titles when they’ve been on sale but as my wife and I still mostly share games but across two separate consoles, we still find it easier to buy discs where applicable. If we were sharing one console instead, it would be a different story.
Still, I’d say I have bought nearly the same number of digital titles as I have disc based games on my Xbox One, and with the free Games With Gold I’ve tried out over the last year, the number of digital titles I “own” blows disc based titles out of the water (even if the free GWG titles are about 60% rubbish I never would have bought to begin with).
My son and I each have a P4 and Xbox One and I have only bought digital titles this generation. It’s possible to share all my games digitally between both of us as I made his systems the primary console for my account. It does mean I have to be online on my consoles to play but that’s not an issue.
FWIW we have unlimited broadband so download caps aren’t an issue.
I hope this helps.
Yeah, we could switch ownership of each other’s consoles so the titles are shared but we haven’t really worried about it yet because we’ve bought so few games this gen anyway. The only time it’s been an issue was when Far Cry 4 went on sale but I think it was like $20 with all the DLC so I just bought it twice.
how good was space quest!
Retail. Once I’ve finished with a game, I sell them to fund more games
Really depends on the deal going. On PS4 if its a few dollars more for digital / on sale on the PSN I’ll pick it up. Most of the time though you can’t go past the Big W and Target deals on release day.
Need a few more options on the poll.
For me, digital PC, retail for the big console releases (especially as price matching Target/Big W can save $30-$40 on digital). Digital for smaller console releases.
Why is there no both option? On PC, Vita and Wii U I always buy digital. On PS3, PS4 and 3DS though it’s a mixture, mainly due to limited disk space and no external storage options. Small games I buy digitally but which medium I go with for bigger games is always influenced by space and cost.
Us Vita gamers have had to embrace digital – you’d never be able to even find most Vita games in-store!
I do both.
Buying in-store ie a gift for a friend or relative goes a long way, because of the price factor. This person can then do WHAT THEY WANT with the gift they now own. What a novel idea.
Accounts and such make things more and more difficult, it’s almost like they want to direct you to more and more digital options.
For instance I bought an American copy of Journey for my PS3, but it ended up being a game tied to my Aussie PSN account. The PS4 version of Journey let one region ‘redeem’ your PS3 copy to get it for free. I couldn’t do this, even though everything was above board and I only did what Sony was allowing me to do.
I actually prefer the way Japan does it with vouchers for specific games – that’s happened here for only a few console games (console Minecraft being the exception).
Due to Australia’s geography, it’s near on impossible to get the games I want to play at retail. Nintendo Australia – or its distributors – seem to have an un-ending grudge with the EBs/etc because you can only seem to get some 3DS or Wii U games in-store if you pre-ordered at release.
I have taken to buying Nintendo eshop cards in bulk when they go on special. Which means I have to contend with Nintendo’s odious local pricing. It’s a stop-gap measure.
Digital only on PC.
Consoles… Hmmm… I really, REALLY want to go digital only, but it comes down to price, and most of the time retail is cheaper, so I end up going with that. If the various console shops had Steam like pricing structure, I’d be digital all the way.
Me too.
I don’t need the disc, and I’d prefer to buy digital. But I’m not paying *more* for a digital copy. So I end up buying physical copies almost solely because they are cheaper.
It should be the other way around. I guess the industry is just too scared to piss off the retailers.
PC? Digital all day.
Xbox or Nintendo?? Mix of the two, although skewing towards digital (unless something I want the collectors edition for comes out)
You forgot the third option – Both. Depends on the game but most collector editions I will pre-order online for instore pickup. Will only really buy new games online if I can get a better price.
Gasp! Pre-order. Besides, whatever crap you get in the collectors edition usually isn’t worth the extra cost.
PC – All digital.
Consoles – Mixed but 80% of the time its physical.
Digital for everything except my 3DS and Wii U, which don’t have the space for digital titles. I hate the idea of players being forced onto digital but it’s the solution that works for me.
Keeping track of my physical media for the consoles has started to turn into something of a pain in the ass that I actually need to devote attention and energy to. And if there’s one thing I hate, it’s devoting attention and energy to things which aren’t fun.
Digital has some drawbacks in that it’s not ALWAYS the cheapest option, and you may have to wait to download (much less of an issue now than it used to be, given that even games on disc need to install AND patch now, so if you have fast internet it’s all done in around about the same amount of time), but it’s definitely edging out in front of breakable/scratchable/losable/physical-space-consuming physical media.
They’re really moving towards turning discs into basically DRM tokens that you have to get off the couch to install as the only meaningful point of difference.
Same here. My already full warehouse has a giant stack of boxes filled with DVDs and video games in the corner because when I moved into my new apartment I realised even if I have the space I don’t want the clutter of a bunch of DVD racks.
People worry they won’t be able to play their games in the future and that’s understandable, but personally I think download sizes and emulation will catch up before these services vanish forever. In the mean time the games and movies I own on physical media are way less accessible. I wanted to watch my copy of Iron Man last night and I couldn’t because the disc is in a box here at work.
Unless someone invents a No CD crack for consoles it looks like digital is the only way to manage my library in a way that’s still accessible.
WODE Jukebox? 😛
digital pc, retail console. i like owning the discs and if the distribution goes away i still have the discs (although minus the day one dlc these days…..)
Day one patches are the biggest problem.
Out kids will not be able to play the games we did.
If distribution channels for digital software I’ve ‘bought’ ever go away, I’ll probably pirate the copies guilt-free. What? I paid!
Nuh uh you don’t get to be guilt-free it’s ILLEGAL.
Since when has the law ever been about good conscience? 😀
Since that comments section the other day 😛
Yeah, but all those people were wrong. 😉
(Which people? Well… I leave that intentionally vague.)STOP BEING ENTITLED!
As someone who still has an internet plan with a data cap – retail all the way.
I have to do digital because there’s no game sellers where I live, (closest is 4 hours drive), but I also have a data cap. So what I do, is see which of my friends owns and has the game downloaded I need (usually on Steam) and get them to do a back up onto a USB and “restore game” to install it. Best way to install those large mega-titles, and you can share the data load.
that’s actually a pretty good idea, CHEERS!
Depends on the Australian Tax.
Big fan of Steam, but in tecent years with the AU pricing option given to publishers, Steam games went from being cheaper to buy in USD to more expensive to buy with region coding.
Fallout 4 was cheaper for me to buy in store at JB HiFi.
Blizzard has added Australian tax to Overwatch that it turned me off buying it straight away… will wait for it to be cheaper in store or for news on dedicated oceanic servers cause even with favor the shooter net code I fiund reacting to snipers was slow.
For PS4 – Digital when sales are on, which are frequently pretty damn good. Retail for new releases because $69 at Target can’t be beaten.
Always retail. If something is digital-only then I’ll most likely not bother with it, save for the mainline Humble Bundles which I always pick up.
Edit: Just remembered I finally have to make a huge exception for this for VR. It’s the first time my want for the end product has outweighed my distaste for the cost of getting it 😛
One of us. One of us. One of us…
I justify it to myself by reminding myself that store purchases are the only way to support Oculus, since they’re not making money via the hardware. So it’s just like how I choose to buy Humble because I support what they do.
So Steam can still go expletive themselves 😛
Y U h8 lord and saviour Gaben?
(Don’t answer. Is rhetorical. Steam has no flaws. Join us. It’s bliiiiissssss.)
These days it’s mostly the fanclub that’s the biggest repellent.
*looks hurt*
:C
Haha, poor phrasing. It’s the real crazies out there that make your playing it up look tame in comparison.
Awh, shucks. Calling me a moderate… You da best frenemy/nemesis/rival. ^.^
Pc- Digital almost exclusively (dem humble bundle sales)
Digital, because the closest EB or JB or any game seller is like 4 hours drive away. #bushgamer #wehaveamaccasthough
New releases (like Dark Souls III) retail
Older games and smaller games digital
Basically wherever I get the best price
I haven’t bought retail for years. I find it pointless for PCs these days. Even with a physical disc, there are many gigabytes of data to download upon installation.. some being nothing more than a file that begins the download process. There are so many online retailers that are able to secure pre-order bonuses and other bundle deals, which net the same results of buying at retail.
If I was buying for console, I’d be buying retail though..
Another digital PC, i do sometimes go for collectors editions if they tweak my interest.
There needs to be a poll item for “both”. I buy digital where possible, but when the Xbox store pulls $100 crap when Target or BigW sell for $65-69, thats basically a free Season Pass.
I would PREFER to buy digital, but the Xbox marketplace forces my hand to buy elsewhere.
+1 I’m exactly the same. I would rather get digital, but much cheaper games means that I generally buy retail. Unless there’s a special on (almost always old) games on xbl
I like having a physical collection for my console games. but for PC is steam.
Ps4 games on the PSN are more expensive then retail and no return policy, to retail all the way
This need to have a both option.
There are many factors to consider when choosing between digital and retail.
I chose digital because I’m getting them as part of my subscription or priced really well:
Games with Gold and the (dreadful of late) PS Plus don’t make you feel bad for purchasing the games as once their downloaded the stay in your history and can be re-downloaded should you ever wish to play them again.
EA Access has them all in a vault which never gets rid of them.
The issue I have with paying anything for a digital game is that you can’t sell it should you get bored of it or it replay ability is not there.
Like how I bought the new Ratchet & Clank game digitally and now wish I’d chosen retail as I’m over it (though my hand was forced due it being released in America before Australia for some archaic reason)
So therefore the price needs to be insanely good to choose digital (i.e a recent PSNs flash sale)
Because you’ll know the majority of digital prices for Australian consumers are disgustingly overpriced.
I remember seeing NBA 2K 14 for $99 on the AUS PSN store and $39 on the US PSN store. Yuck!
So moving regions can be something to look into should you wish to get the best value for your digital $$
I chose retail when the game is cheap and I’ll most likely on sell :
Paying $99 for a AAA digital game versus $69 at Target is no brainer.
Plus most AAA games can be picked up, clocked and returned for half or more than your original investment, sometimes the whole amount!
Like the new uncharted will most likely be a retail purchase for me as I’ll burn through the single player and then sell it.
Digital. Usually Steam, GOG, Humble Bundles or dodgy CD key sites.
More recently I’ve been digital exclusively on PS4… I feel like I’m missing out on the trade in value, but really enjoy just being able to switch titles without rummaging around looking for the right disc (which is never in the right case! Gaaah!)
Farcry primal is disc so ive barely played it recently as i have dark souls 3, ufc 2, Uncharted 4, Ratchet and Clank, Hitman and many more all digital downloads.
Uncharted 4, ratchet and clank and dark souls 3 were all comparative to the physical copies in store in terms of price so it makes it a no brainer.
Just my 1TB is all full up again! Had to delete Need for speed to make room for uncharted!
A bit of both.
I’m old school and like the idea of building up a little library of tangible hard copies. But if the game is on special on the Xbox or PSN store I’ll buy it digitally.
Whatever floats my boat.
Digital for PC and Xbox. Retail for Wii-U. The result? I basically don’t play my Wii-U because it’s the only gaming device I have that requires disc swapping.
Also my hate for discs has resulted in me skipping a few games I’d otherwise bought. I mean, I like digital and all, but I’m not paying $20-$30 more for an Xbox game that nobody had to print a disc, put it in a case, and ship half way around the world. Digital pricing is a joke, so I either buy from international digital stores, online game cards (when available), or wait until can buy discounted Microsoft point cards.
I find I get the opposite effect. If I buy digital then I’m more likely to leave them there to rot on the hard drive untouched, whereas if I have something sitting on the shelf then it registers that it exists and I’ll actually use it.
Most of my rot games are games with gold, or games I was dumb enough to buy when I was just too busy with life. I’ve had a few times where I’ve gone to play something, it’s asked me to insert a disc (I only have a couple of disc games), and I’ve just reselected something I own digitally. I’ve even re-purchased physical games when they’re on super cheap sales so I never have to put the disc in again. I do have a 3TB HDD for games on my Xbox though, so never uninstall, and it keeps everything updated and ready to play.
The lines are blurred now days anyway. Doom 4 even if I buy retail I have a 45gb download whats the point of the physical copy .
Exactly, I don’t understand why the entire game file can’t be on disc… it makes the physical copy pointless really.
Retail whenever possible. I like have tangible ownership over my games.
I mostly go digital, despite how much more expensive it tends to be. The idea that if my house burns down I can just buy another console and not have to replace thousands of dollars of games is worth it.
The only time I won’t do this is if there’s a wicked special edition available, in which case I do both so I can get the other goodies that come with the special edition and then just sell the physical copy to someone. One day I really hope they’ll release special editions of games that include the physical goodies and a digital copy of the game.
Retail always, easier for me and ends up being cheaper anyway.
Physical where possible. Digital where not. Of course, since Steam has essentially caused the butchering of PC retail releases by having only installers on the disk and the game downloaded, it doesn’t make as much of a difference.
50/50 – most games on PS4/Vita I will buy digitally, but if they’re big AAA titles like Uncharted 4 or Fallout 4, I’ll buy them physically.
Always physical for consoles. I like having something in my bookcase. I also like to know that I can always play it in the future even if servers are shut down. (I don’t play any online games). I do buy PC games on steam though.
Console = Physical
PC = Digital
Not a hard and fast rule but generally how I roll.
The question should be:
“If price was no factor, which would you prefer?”
Digital. For convenience sake, digital all the way.
I still buy most of my games retail, with a few digital purchases scattered in there.
I’d love to buy digital, but the Playstation store doesn’t sell new release games for $69 like Target, et al.
I’m doing a mix at the moment. I bought Uncharted 4 digitally yesterday (and was pleasantly pleased when it had finished downloading all 54gb when I wanted to play it that evening) but I bought The Division on disc when it came out. It certainly helped that Uncharted was cheaper on PSN than in JB HiFi.
PC – Digital. Obviously.
Console – I find out if its a game my missus would want to play at all, if its not, then retail. If there is any chance she will play it at all. I buy it digitally. We do the home sharing thing and have 2 x1s so she gets access to Live and my digital license even when I’m playing them online on my box.
Whatever is cheaper. I like the idea of having physical copies for later trade in but I’ve never traded a game in my life. I know the moment I get rid of it, I’ll want to play it again.
Physical for my console games (and those special PC games that have the entire file on disc/special editions) and usually digital for PC. But in the end it really depends on the price.
I buy retail but only because I have a credit card with a 2 year price protection on it. Basically, If I buy something from an Australian store, and in 2 years it becomes $10 or more cheaper, I can claim the difference and they put the money back on the card. I can make multiple claims on the same item up to $600 for a single item.
So generally I will buy from EB (I still make them price match with the cheapest retailer in the area) then wait for the two massive sales that EB usually has each year. Means I usually come out in front, have some pretty boxes in my cupboard, and sometimes save myself some downloading.
I’m not ready for digital only, I love having physical media. Some sort of caveman mentality but me like fing in house
The line is blurred. You can buy physical media from online stores and keys from brick-and-mortar stores. Buying a physical copy certainly doesn’t save you from needing to use Steam, be always-online, or needing to download huge a amounts any more, and it’s been a long time since you received anything other than a disc and a case in a ‘standard’ edition.
So, digital.
Whatever is cheaper these days. Where ever the deals be at! Usually i can get most games cheaper at retail, and having 40gb less to download a pop helps too!
Almost exclusively digital. Retail is just too expensive and none of the publishers, stores etc have learnt their lesson with pricing so I buy and download in foreign currency depending on where its cheapest.
I can’t wait to see Gerry Harvey burst another blood vessel when he realises everyone buys online. Also, eb sucks etc etc
On console, it’s mix of both for me, although I’m certainly buying a lot more digital these days on PS4 than I used to previously. Part of that is because even if I buy the physical game I have to install the whole thing to the hard drive anyway, so it’s not like I’m saving a heap of disk space by buying physical.
If it’s the kind of game I’m likely to sink hundreds of hours into (e.g. Battlefield 4 or Witcher 3 or an Elder Scrolls / Fallout game, etc) then I’ll buy digital because constantly putting that disc in and taking it out every day for months will be a pain in the butt so the convenience of just launching it straight from the HDD is handy. Something like Uncharted 4 which I’ll play a lot for a week or two until I finish it then stop, but probably go back to replay once or twice a year then I prefer physical as I can install it play it then delete it and not have to download it again next time I want to play it.
All other cases, just whichever is cheaper, which usually ends up meaning digital when there’s a sale on.
When it comes to PC or Vita, it’s 100% digital for me.
Digital on PC, my gaming PC doesn’t even have an optical drive. Although sometimes I forget and buy a game on disc when I see it cheap, then I have to install it from my laptop across the network.
Retail for consoles though. I like the option of trading in stuff I don’t want anymore, plus the limited space (even if you can expand it you can only do it so much)