Why are some gamers so desperate to go pro digital?

[Xeogred]

Save the trees!

[samsonlonghair]

When I read this thread title, I thought "pro digital" referred to audio/video equipment.

[ExedExes]

When I read this thread title, I thought "pro digital" referred to audio/video equipment.

Or those GoPro cameras, right?

There are other threads that discuss this here. This one was a good read.

[Reprise]

Feel like arguing for the sake of arguing, so...

-Convenience-
The Nintendo eShop provides a great example of this. On release day, games are available in the shop at midnight. Why bother travelling to a store the following day, or waiting for a shipment in the mail? It's right there, downloading.

I pre-order all my games from an online store called ShopTo. 95% of my games arrive the day before release. In extreme cases like Pokemon X, I got it two days before release. It's super convenient. I go to work, I get home and the game is waiting for me and BEFORE its release date. That's just impossible in the digital route (leaving aside games leaking and online piracy).

-Price-
Digital copies seem to be priced the same or slightly cheaper than their boxed counterparts at release --

What? No, they're not. At least, not in my experience here in the UK. They're nearly always cheaper in their physical distribution and usually I can get decent deals from certain stores.

...of course there are easy counters to each of those points...which don't matter, because someone who considers the above points "pros" isn't going to give a fart in high wind as long as they are satisfied in all three areas.

Oh, ok then.

[JC48573]

but why can't we have both?

[JC48573]

Save the trees!

I think we are already by getting rid of manuals.

[casterofdreams]

It depends on the console and ease of access.

Ease of access such as how easy it is to purchase the game: a dedicated website or program, intuitive storefront, handling credit/debit card information, etc etc. An issue with digital distribution is, and will always be, ownership and bandwidth. My 190+ games on Steam are not mine. But the low low price I paid for the privilege to play those games on up to 5 PCs allows me to accept this. Onto bandwidth, if it was easy to download oodles of GBs of data this way of delivering game would be more prominent in a shorter time frame.

As for the console, space. Space for the games. If the PS4 and Xbox One came with a solidly sized Terabyte HDD rather than half that, we'd be in a better position to accept DD. However, looking at the VITA, those proprietary cards that cost a decent amount of coin forces me to go physical and tell all of the Indie developers with there cool games to take a hike.

[Frag Mortuus]

why are some so resistant to it?

why is the sky blue?

why ask why? try Bud Dry.

Why are boobs good?

How exactly does a posi-trac rear-end on a Plymouth work?

[Fragems]

up to the point where they just want physical copies gone for good.

The only reason I could see someone justify this is costs.

Imagine how much money would be saved by companies if they didn't have to mass produce physical copies, store them in warehouses, and ship them to distributors. Plus being digital they would not have to worry about the used market taking away from their profit.

As a gamer this could be a good thing since the savings could be passed on to the customers resulting in much lower prices. Additionally the increased profit margins would net more money to publishers and developers who could then reinvest it into more content and games.

It would very much be like the PC market where there isn't really much of a physical market left since the only benefit to customers is a quicker install.

Big downside to the whole idea though is longevity. Download servers aren't free and the games will only be available as long as the cost of keeping those servers running is supported by the company which owns the rights to the game. There are a variety of reasons download servers could go down at any given time copyright issues, financial problems, low demand, etc. So essentially the period of time in which to legally acquire a game would be measured in years instead of decades unless it received extra support.

The retro gamers of the future would probably have to become digital pirates in order to play any games which didn't receive continued support or ports.

[oxymoron]

Save the trees!

I think we are already by getting rid of manuals.

All that plastic is probably worse for the environment than the manuals and coverart.

The only reason I could see someone justify this is costs.

You forgot convenience and sales. If Playstation could do more "Flash Sales" with AAA's throw in I wouldn't mind moving more towards digital. Convenience wise it's nice to be able to download my game a midnight and that I can press the PS button and have the manual in front on me.