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Nielsen: 66% of console gamers prefer physical over digital, PC only 29%

MauroNL

MauroNL

What Are Ya' Buying?
Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,253
The Netherlands
https://www.gamasutra.com/view/news..._still_prefer_physical_games_over_digital.php

Research Analyst firm Nielsen has published its annual Games 360 report, which gives you an insight in what is currently trending among gamers and its spending patterns. This data covers US gamers only though, so keep that in mind when you make your own conclusions.
Overall, 66 percent of console users preferred physical games, compared to just 29 percent of PC players. Meanwhile, only 34 percent would rather pick up a digital game on console while a whopping 71 percent of PC users prefer digital copies over physical.
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The full report can be downloaded for free on their website. (with register though)
http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/reports/2018/us-games-360-report-2018.html
 
Tiberius

Tiberius

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
246
France
Well when you can buy a game day one at 49.99 in physical store and at 69.99 on the digital store it's perfectly normal for people to prefer the physical version
 
Madao

Madao

One Winged Slayer
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
4,697
Panama
physical is a much better deal overall.

the only good thing with digital is playing a game a few hours earlier.
 
Bashteee

Bashteee

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,193
Once I have something digital and I don't play it regularly, it's kind of like sitting in a hugh digital crash bin. And the one on my pc is just a big, deep hole. All games enter, but only a few will ever get even installed.

Digital everything like MMOs and Coops, physical the rest. Then I can at least occasionally sniff the smell from the factory.
 
Foffy

Foffy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,389
KtSlime said:
It's good to know that most console gamers still prefer to keep their rights.
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They have no choice, seeing as digital sales on consoles are pretty anemic compared to PC.

PC gives you less ownership as it's all digital keys, but that's countered by the fact you can wait a few weeks and get the game nearly half off, sometimes.
 
Stop It

Stop It

Bad Cat
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,352
Could "In the US" be put in the title?

Because there's going to be significant differences between countries.

In the UK digital adoption is higher than this for console games and in EU countries with great internet infrastructure it'll be a different picture also.

I can see why a country with widely variable internet quality would like physical more, and other countries with limited or not the best services will likely have even higher physical usage rates.

PC is of course different because even if you buy physical, you're going to be tied to a digital delivery service 90% of the time anyway.
 
shadowsdarknes

shadowsdarknes

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
8,706
I much prefer digital.
But I'm also terrified of some unjust console ban that lacks an appeal process that could lock me out of my content.
 
The Praiseworthy

The Praiseworthy

Member
Oct 30, 2017
9,215
I'm always sticking to physical because I believe it's the superior media.

And lol at those who thought that physical are going to die soon.
 
pswii60

pswii60

Member
Oct 27, 2017
26,673
The Milky Way
It would be good to get a breakdown of the reasons why. For many it'll be price related, both in terms of upfront cost and also not being able to sell on. I much prefer digital in terms of execution as it's so much more convenient, but prefer physical in terms of cost especially with Sony's single player games which I sell on when I've completed.
 
OP
OP
MauroNL

MauroNL

What Are Ya' Buying?
Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,253
The Netherlands
29% of PC players prefer physical, doesn't mean they can actually get it. I prefer a physical release of a few digital-only releases too, but they don't exist. So I don't know how this is actualy measured.
 
Mcjmetroid

Mcjmetroid

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,843
Limerick, Ireland
I'm not sure about this research. I find it highly unlikely that 29% of PC gamers still prefer Physical especially in the US.
I can't remember the last time I even saw a physical PC game to be honest but game shops are on the sharp decline where I'm from in Ireland.
 
Guaraná

Guaraná

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,987
brazil, unfortunately
I have a small collection of PS3 and PS4 games that I'm really proud of.
I've owned over 50 games for PS3 and and 30 games for PS4. Sony prices in Brazil are really good.

But with the Switch I need to get digital because, sometime, they cost over 100 dollars here.

No wonder why the Playstation brand is so popular in Brazil.
 
Greigor the FellHand

Greigor the FellHand

Member
Oct 26, 2017
12,125
Yep.

I always try to buy physical, why? cause I can loan them to friends (this is the big one for me), and sell them when I am done ( even though I rarely sell games).

It's also nice, buying a special edition for 150$, then 3-4 years later sell it for 300+
 
Cyanity

Cyanity

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,345
Well, the thing about PC is that, once you own a game, you can legally back it up. So if the devs shit the bed and distributors stop carrying the game, you can always torrent a copy. No such thing on console.
 
GhostTrick

GhostTrick

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,315
shaneo632 said:
But "physical" on PC just means a code in a box so of course they hate it
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I like physical for the reason that it means we can get cheaper games as they activate digitally. I also hate that dumb arbitrary "physical" term. Okay, I can understand the "I want to see the game on my shelve", which the physical PC version does. I can understand the "I want a disc to install my game as I have a slow internet/data cap". I don't understand the "it's not physical if it's not on disc". A game on a disc is the SAME as a game on a hard drive. It is about data being on a PHYSICAL media. The only difference is an hard drive can be rewrote, while the disc cant... also you cant retrieve your disc data.
 
LAA

LAA

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,336
Good to see. There are still a few games that feel...right to own physically for me.

Sadly though, I would actually be someone who would be fine jumping in on digital entirely, but problem is digital prices are often usually ridiculous, and considering you technically have less ownership and etc. really makes it a worse deal. That and there would only be one place to get the games digitally, meaning no competition pretty much. You'd only have like PSN/XBL/eShop codes to try and get things a bit cheaper, and maybe occasionally when games are up digital pre-order at some places (Which I don't think I've ever seen cheaper than on the store itself).
 
Deleted member 4359

Deleted member 4359

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,259
Digital gets better if you wait, often the sales will be at cost or cheaper than used physical if the game is not a new release - the thing being you have to be dedicated to that machine for it to pay off, otherwise it becomes easier to deal with retail since selling off if you switch platforms is possible.

PC, surprised it's so high. I'd always have a disc drive but I see so many computers foregoing them now it's sort of depressing but to be fair I use it for burning games for old systems or ripping games/music/video.
 
Griffith

Griffith

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,585
Alexandros said:
In Europe buying a physical copy just for the Steamworks code is often cheaper than buying the digital code.
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Outside of Steam/Weekend sales I've found this to be true for me as well. I bought for example Dragon Age Inquisition for close to or under half the price of what it cost on EA's Origin.
 
Worldshaker

Worldshaker

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,939
Michigan
I used to be a die hard physical only guy, but the last few years I've eased up and now I'd say half of the games I buy are digital. It all depends on the price.

I still always prefer physical if the prices are similar.
 
Durante

Durante

Dark Souls Man
Member
Oct 24, 2017
5,074
texhnolyze said:
29% of PC players prefer physical? How?

I mean, there's only like 1% of PC games released nowadays with the physical version.
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That number (1%) may be accurate when you look at all releases, but not when you look at what people actually buy.

For me, the ratio is probably around 10% of games I got physically over the past 5 years or so, just because of all the Kickstarter collector's editions (most of which are awesome, i.e. PoE 1 and 2, Divinity: OS 1 and 2, Torment, etc.).

I'm not into getting standard editions physically though, I see no point in that.
 

Deleted member 11018

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,419
If physical on PC had the real game, not a placeholder after which you must redownload stuff then yeah, things might be different, specially if games came with real manuals.
Mandatory updates on steam is a plague i have to fight against each time i want to play older builds.
 

Zappy

Banned
Nov 2, 2017
3,738
Console owner 100% digital now. Will never buy a physical game again, if I can help it. I love having less clutter and not needing to put discs into the drive. Since having kids its even better since everything is locked away so changing discs is more of a hassle. I also appreciate not having to wait for games to arrive or queue up at launches to play as soon as possible. Also on xbox its easy to region hop and save the difference in price using favourable exchange rates.
 
Fiery Phoenix

Fiery Phoenix

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,840
That's me. I buy physical whenever possible. I don't have anything against digital, but physical games tend to be cheaper and I love a collection.
 
Joeyro

Joeyro

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,757
Resell value is to good to pass up on, if you put aside the Gamespot memes you can usually get a decent value for your games, especially if you sell it on Ebay and etc.
My single player games purchases are always physical so hopefully they wont go away.
 
Zafir

Zafir

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,041
I'm surprised with the 29% value for PC. Not many get physical releases, and even then it's usually a code. Maybe you'll get a disk if you're lucky, but more than not it isn't the full game. :/

That said I buy physical on console 99% of the time. It's just significantly cheaper here in the UK.
 
Akai

Akai

Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,045
KtSlime said:
It's good to know that most console gamers still prefer to keep their rights.
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Most console gamers in the US.*

This is literally no issue for any European country that is part of the European Union, because we get full ownership over digital goods. There's probably a couple other countries where it's the same, but I have no clue how it's handled across the globe.
 
Aztechnology

Aztechnology

Community Resettler
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
14,139
Theorry said:
Most intresting thing is the pc players picking up physical.
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Save on bandwidth. Assuming, and this is a bug assumption. That it isn't just a Steam/Uplay/Origin code like they often are with no disks. Also I guess maybe deals on some titles that don't see discounts in the first few weeks.
 
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