14 replies to this topic

[Garolymar]

So for a while now quite a few people have been saying that down the line gaming will be strictly cloud based with discs biting the dust. I don't personally believe it will come true but ya never know. And Honestly I wouldn't want the physical media part of gaming to die. I like have a bunch of cases and carts all lined up in my humble collection. I tend to appreciate downloaded titles a lot less then I do my disc and cart games. Maybe that's just me but it just feels like a real game when it comes on disc or cart that I payed 50-60 bucks for... But anyways what do you prefer. I still doubt discs will ever be gone because hell the DVD is still around even though you can buy movies by downloading but it still worries me sometimes. so yeah...

Edited by Garolymar, 09 November 2011 - 09:20 AM.

[Caius Casshern Sins]

I do believe physical disc will be gone one day. Look at the VHS nobody sells them anymore. But it is not yet the time for that to happen. Games are becoming bigger and not everyone have a fast internet connection. This is an issue, also there is the fact that people do not have enough space on hard drives to do that Downloads right now are good for smaller games but not yet feasible for full blown retail games for everybody, yet.

[AMAC]

As much as I love having a large(ish) physical collection of games I think that downloadable games will become the norm relatively soon and I think that it'll be a good thing too. As flawed as Apple Devices may be as gaming machines, it is very nice to be able to store all of your games on your handheld. One of the main issues I have with cartridges is choosing which ones to pack when I'm going away. it'd also be good for home consoles as lazy people such as myself hate having to get up to change the disk.

[Andy]

I prefer physical copies for many of the same reasons that have been stated above. There's a certain charm to actually holding a game disk/cartridge in your hands. That feeling that you actually own your copy of the game that you're playing, not that it's just licensed to you to play by some download service. Plus, downloads will never work for large, big budget games; as it would take too long to download. Even when download speeds do increase, the amount of data a physical copy can hold will have increased. Isn't Nintendo in a joint investment with some other company for the development of some kind of holographic storage system that's supposed to leave disks in the dust in how much it can store?

[AMAC]

I prefer physical copies for many of the same reasons that have been stated above. There's a certain charm to actually holding a game disk/cartridge in your hands. That feeling that you actually own your copy of the game that you're playing, not that it's just licensed to you to play by some download service. Plus, downloads will never work for large, big budget games; as it would take too long to download. Even when download speeds do increase, the amount of data a physical copy can hold will have increased. Isn't Nintendo in a joint investment with some other company for the development of some kind of holographic storage system that's supposed to leave disks in the dust in how much it can store?

I agree that they would take a while to download now, but in the future I don't see them taking long at all. We can now get broadband speeds on 30mbs in certain areas (possibly more in other countries) and that's only going to get faster in the future. Having games that can be fully downloaded within 15 minutes one day doesn't seem implausible to me and in some cases it'll be possible to start playing the game while it's downloading.

[Caius Casshern Sins]

I also have to say that AMAC may be right. There is a website where you could play game demos on the browser. The demos are big budget titles like Mass Effect 2. This is a sign that we are getting closer to that.

[Elric]

I actually prefer discs, because I just don't like waiting on the game to download so I can play it. When you have a disc you just slip it in and just play right away, unless it needs a quick update or something.

[Bill Cipher]

I Prefer Physical except on PC. I don't know why though

Edited by N Harmonia, 09 November 2011 - 06:04 PM.

[Brian6330]

I like Physical copies but I think downloads are better.

Pros:
-You never have to worry about them stopping to work.
-Can lend a game to a friend and be sure to get it back working (and to not run behind it. Just have the ability to take it back at any given time)
-There's people that lose games, so no worries about this.
-You have an account for every major company (most likely), for which it's best to have a really difficult password, and you have to change it every 2 weeks for security purposes



Cons:
-Can be hacked
-Need big enough space for the games on drive. (Although seeing the price of USB drives now compared to two years ago does make me think that in another 2-3 years the price will be even lower)
-No Internet=no new games
-Easier pirating



This is just the first thing that popped into my mind, and I'm sure many get the lending thing and ability to just press a button on your console and just take it back at any random time. (When the person connects to the internet again.)

[Auzzie Wingman]

I like Physical Copies better.

[Caius Casshern Sins]

I say in the future they will be the option to do both on consoles. We can already download retail copies of Games on our systems.

[Waller]

I actually prefer downloads. It's cheaper.

[BazzDropperz]

Downloading games will become the norm but cloud gaming will be unnecessary with how fast graphics chips are progressing.

[Nin10dude712]

This is how I feel about this:

New big high budget games = physical copy.

Old games that cant be played on the system through backwards compatibility = digital download. (Of course, I'll also get the physical copy just because. I like having everything in one system, but also like owning the original thing).

Small new games = digital download

Edited by Nin10dude712, 15 November 2011 - 09:34 PM.

[Pedo]

As an Otaku, I -must- have a physical copy of any game or... Whatever. Digital downloads and what-not is frowned-upon when collecting.