Anyone else going digital?

[CavZee]

I've only went digital with Steam games, but even so I've been rebuying the consoles versions of games I really liked just so I can have them forever. Even if they're "inferior" versions, I like having a game that is actually "worth" something. Maybe I'm weird though. >_>

The only other way I make digital purchases would be for indie games or other types of download only titles. (like the upcoming Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies.... )

[MrEco]

I've gone completely digital when it comes to PC. Buying a game off of GOG or Steam is just so much easier than having to track down a physical copy, find out if it'll work on my OS, try to find tricks to get it to work on my OS if it doesn't already, and then install it. With Steam and GOG I can just press a button, put in my credit card info, and start downloading the game. And through those services I can also easily get any patches.

Yes, I know, someday when those services disappear I won't be able to access my games anymore. But I'm not really convinced that will happen any time during my lifetime. And at least with GOG (Which I always get my games off of when possible) they're DRM free so if GOG.com ever shows signs of going out of business I can always back up all the games I own to an external disc/harddrive or something.


Now as for movies and consoles/handhelds I always choose physical 95% of the time. The only exception is on my PS3 where there are a handful of PSN games that I've bought. And that's it.

[MrNash]

I play a lot of PC games, and long since gotten used to digital distribution via Steam, GoG, and Desura. Console, I'm a bit apprehensive about how well it will work for things like carrying libraries across multiple generations.

Physical can be nice for classic stuff, but space is also becoming a concern for me now, so I'm being a bit more selective of carts and discs that I do get.

[Nintendork666]

Maybe for new stuff. I'm not 100% comfortable with the idea yet, however.

I've considered it for retro titles.... but, naaaah. I've worked too damn hard to build up my current collection, and a good amount of it isn't even available legally through download. If I did sell everything off though, I'd be all about emulating older games off my laptop to my TV through HDMI, and using USB controller port converters.

Probably some day.

[Tweekers237]

I DL'd a ton of music for the last 5 years. More recently though however Ive been buying Cd's/ LP's again. I just enjoy having the physical copies and its not like they are a burden. Only games I DL are the ARCADE games on XBL and the free games on PS+ for my Vita. Other than that if I want to own the game (not many new titles I want anyways) ill just buy the disc.

Been eying up the Retron5 system and it looks like Im going to be starting a Cart collection. Looking foward to getting my hand on some Famicom titles, and SNES because Ive never owned SNES.

My bro is going to help me build a gaming PC in the coming months. Chances of me going the emulation route is very high because. . .why not. It reduces wear and tear on games and systems.

Overall Im 50/50 on Digital because I have no qualm with it because I know I still buy the physical product, no matter what kind of media it is.

[Tweekers237]

Maybe for new stuff. I'm not 100% comfortable with the idea yet, however.

I've considered it for retro titles.... but, naaaah. I've worked too damn hard to build up my current collection, and a good amount of it isn't even available legally through download. If I did sell everything off though, I'd be all about emulating older games off my laptop to my TV through HDMI, and using USB controller port converters.

Probably some day.

Once I get a new PC, Id like to have a MAME set up with 2 arcade stix.

[AppleQueso]

Forgot about this thread.

I mentioned it in the random gaming thoughts thread, but I'm basically focusing my physical collection on games that aren't easily available digitally, so I'm partially going digital on everything else.

The way I see it, unlike physical music and movie formats, games don't get "reissued." Nobody is ever going to officially print a new run of Chrono Trigger carts, so I might as well go for the closest thing, which is digital releases. $70 cart vs $8 digital? Yeah... That money I save can go towards slightly more obscure games that aren't likely to see digital re-releases anyway.

Of course, if we're talking something like a game that costs like $6 for a cart vs $5 digital or something like that, I'll probably just go with the cart. But for popular, yet seriously expensive stuff? Sure, I'll go digital.

[dust_hound]

So at the moment, i'm pretty much doing all my gaming, as well as music, movies etc. on my PSP Go, so it means that i'm all-digital. However, what i like about it is the fact that the industrious folks making CFW and associated tools have evolved their craft to such an extent that i can enjoy the best of both worlds- both the 'legit', and 'grey-area'.

By this, i mean that i can go onto the playstation store using Media Go on my PC, buy games for the PSP, then i can strip out the DRM, meaning that i can have them permanently backed up on my hard drive, or a flash disk, and if i lose my PSP Go, no problem- i just buy another and stick the games back on there. I don't feel any moral conflicts about this since i never pirate games, nor do i have any intention of uploading my un-DRMed games for others to use.

Obviously there are those that would accuse me of something due to my circumventing the copy protection, but i've done this solely for my own benefit. It also helps overcome the 'doomsday scenario' where Sony's servers go titsup, preventing me from re-downloading my purchased content.

[Valkyrie-Favor]

How do you remove DRM from your PSP games? That would be great, since I ended up with two PSN accounts.

[Xeogred]

I'm half and half a little I guess. PC, I'm fine with 100% digital. Now I want to get a Wii U to rebuy a handful of NES-N64 stuff so I can easily play them in somewhat of an all-in-one system while looking playable on an HDTV. Same with stuff on the PSN store, for some reason I just want to rebuy some of my favorites to savor the discs... when the shelf is a few feet away and I know all PS3's can play PSX games.*

Anyone else fall into this trap?

Ideally I like to be authentic and buy physical copies... for current gen stuff on the systems I've never bought a retail game digitally and don't know why I would. But for older stuff, the complications of TV's, space, hooking things up and such makes everything a bit of a hassle and digital can kind of ease the pain a little there.

* One fair argument I have here is that Xenogears has an iffy boss battle towards the end that funks up on PS2's, game freezes like crazy and it took a lot of trial and error, finger crossing, lady luck, etc to get through that part. So I imagine the digital PSN version is free of this issue.

Either way it's just like me and compilations when it comes to my favorites, I'm a sucker for rebuying stuff I'm a big fan of.