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

Adam_Roman

Adam_Roman

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,071
There's not enough of an incentive for me to buy digitally. Nintendo's the closest to having a real offer with their cash back thing. And especially with one of my brothers living out of state, it's nice being able to lend him a game or two when he's in town. Also the fact that you can trade in games afterward and buy used is a huge appeal to me. I waited until the complete edition of Horizon to buy that.
 
Hamster Plugin

Hamster Plugin

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,847
Digital games are overpriced in Europe, which may add to that 29% of PC gamers. I got a pre-order version of Doom that included a cacodemon stress toy and it cost me €48. The game was €60 on Steam.
 

DotHair

Member
Oct 29, 2017
248
UK
Wow...I'm pleasantly surprised by these figures.

Hopefully it means physical is around for next gen at least.
 
Lurcharound

Lurcharound

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,073
UK
Expected numbers. I'm not hardcore on sales but just popping into NPD and PAL threads makes clear majority on console are still buying physical. Digital has increased a lot but people reacting as if strong growth in digital suddenly means its the majority preference are being hyperbolic.

By launch of next consoles physical for console will likely still be majority so those devices (or at least one SKU variant) will definitely have a physical option.
 
AstronaughtE

AstronaughtE

Member
Nov 26, 2017
10,377
I used to be a physical media evangelist. I'd talk up all the commonly seen arguments. Warning of the dreaded day your games will be locked away from you forever. But now, mostly thanks to games with gold, but also the pushback on always online xbox, I'm 99% digital on Xbox one and 69% (niice) overall.

Really, they both have their bonuses and drawbacks. But, being cheapass, I can say that digital prices have been much better this generation. I've only been tempted to buy a disc maybe twice in the last 4 years. The biggest aspect I miss is that fleeting moment of excitement of getting a thing. But, for me and where I'm at in life, I couldn't be happier being digital only.
 
AgentOtaku

AgentOtaku

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,458
Not gonna lie, just purged my entire XB1 physical collection the other day and am inclined to do the same with my future PS4 purchases.
As others have said, at the end of the day, its just a delivery method that, nowadays, isn't even complete, due to day one patches, not all data being on the physical disc, etc.

Don't get me wrong, it do think its completely socialogically and psychologically normal to want a physical thing that represents what you care about.... but just feel like current games aren't that anymore because they're so incomplete.
Hell, even you buy MegaMan Legacy 1 and 2 on physical blurays, theyll have day one patches.
 

Deleted member 4247

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,896
Are PC games even released physically anymore, except for some special editions and such? Feels like you only see console games in most stores.
 
DontHateTheBacon

DontHateTheBacon

Unshakable Resolve
Member
Oct 27, 2017
10,642
*raises hand for the 66%*

I still trade games back in, so until that doesn't exist anymore, I'm pretty set on physical for major AAA games.
 
low-G

low-G

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,144
Mostly PC gamer these days. I'm totally for physical where available.

Physical isn't an option for PC anymore. I always thought it was more of a pain on PC than consoles. You rarely got nice cases like console games got, so you'd have to leaf through a stack of paper sleeves of the boot disks in the CD era. That always sucked bad. There'd be games I couldn't remember if I needed a disk or not. I'd double click on the icon. Wouldn't start. Gotta insert disk.

A lot of PC games in CD era spun up the CD very often, which was really obnoxious. My 360 didn't do that after they added installs. My X1 nor PS4 don't do that.

Plus, you pretty much never could trade in PC games because of installing games. My GameStop did let you trade in PC games but the values were often low. They'd make you sign a thing stating you uninstalled the game.

So physical sucked more on PC too.

But yeah physical games on console till I die bro.
 
Gooch

Gooch

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
169
I only digital when there's a sale or the preorder bounes are much appealing. Like the Spider-Man one.
 
Hooks

Hooks

Member
Oct 27, 2017
566
I don't even have a disc drive on my PC to have physical, I prefer physical for my ps4 since I constantly run out of space on it, I need to upgrade to a 2tb or 3tb.
 
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