This obvious market trend towards digital and “ pay-as-you-go ” content via streaming has changed the way game developers and especially game distributors do things. Maybe on consoles it is even more common to have a physical copy of the games than on PC, where there is hardly any market, but which of the two options is the better and more convenient? We will proceed to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of each of the formats to try to discern it.
Advantages and disadvantages of digital games
The first advantage of digital games is undoubtedly the convenience: you access any platform, you buy the game and it is automatically added to your digital library, from where you can download and play whenever you want. You don’t have to place an order in an online store and wait for it to arrive, or wait for the tedious installation of the games DVD / BR, because on most online platforms, the installation occurs simultaneously with the download.
Of course, having a library of digital games also helps you organize everything in one place and that they don’t physically take up space in your home. Many people like to have a large collection of physical games, but others like their “digital Diogenes syndrome” and see hundreds and hundreds of games in their online library.
Another advantage of digital games over physical games is that you will never lose or break them. Certainly, your account on the online platform could be stolen, you could lose your credentials or the service could cease to be active at some point (which has never happened so far but the possibility exists).
Now the biggest downside to digital games is that occupies a lot of disk space hard drive or storage drive of the PC or console, and as a general rule, you will have to install and uninstall the games if you need space. For most people, this isn’t a problem, because after all, physical games need to be installed as well.
The second disadvantage of these games is that you cannot pass them on and resell them on the second-hand market. When you purchase a game, it is associated with your account forever, and since the EULA of all online services expressly prohibits the sale of accounts, this means that you will not be able to sell it after passing it on to you to recover from. the money.
Advantages and disadvantages of physical games
In our opinion, the main advantage of physical games is the collect– We all love to see a large collection of games on the shelf, even though we haven’t used them in years and even though they get dusty and take up space. It’s just about collecting and it’s very important to many people.
The second obvious benefit is that when you buy a physical game there is usually nothing to prevent sell it when you want O lend it to a friend. There are some exceptions and especially in PC games, since in some cases games must be forcibly associated with a Steam account for example, so that the effect after installation is exactly the same as if you had it digital. because even though you have the DVD and the game box, you have actually purchased a game license. This, let’s say it, doesn’t happen on any of the consoles out there.
Other advantages of physical games include, for example, that if they are not multiplayer games, you won’t have to worry about your bandwidth or internet connection speed, and also given the decline of this game format, the discount Buying them cheaper is usually more common and, in fact, it is not uncommon to find that a game in digital format costs more than a physical game.
The obvious drawbacks are that they take up physical space, can be broken, lost, or even stolen.
Digital or physical games, which option is better?
As always, the answer to this question depends on your preferences. From our point of view, we would tell you that in the case of PC games we prefer digital games because on PC we don’t have such limited storage space or internet bandwidth, and the supply is so big than it can be. overwhelming.
Now, if you are a console user, we personally prefer the physical format, more than collecting because these games are not associated with you forever, and you can still lend, lend, trade in or resell them when you you are boring. .
