I mean… When I got my PS5 the choice was spend $50 less to get the digital, discless console with nothing else, or spend the normal price for the disc version and get a free game bundled with it (God of War: Ragnarok). The stupid thing, is that the game isn’t physical. It was a voucher for a digital redemption. So why the fuck didn’t the discless version come with the same bundle?
It also makes more sense to have the disc version because only used physical games get deep discounts. I got NHL23, which is still 70 fucking dollars digital, even though NHL24 is coming out in just a few weeks; I picked it up at GameStop for $12.
I’m not a collector; I genuinely don’t mind digital stuff (so long as they don’t arbitrarily take them away) because I honestly don’t have room to keep a ton of boxes and games around. But if they are the cheapest way to play, then by god I’m using a disc.
I no longer play on consoles since I mostly play on PC but I saw no point in buying digital on consoles since you can’t sell the games you don’t want to keep after playing or buying heavily discounted ones from second hand.
I agree. PC games haven’t been on store shelves in… 15 years? So they don’t even come into the equation. I did by digital for the Switch though, but that’s just because the cards are so goddamn tiny and it’s a pain to eject them and put them in.
Big consoles? Absolutely want the physical copy.
Oh boy. You should see PS Vita cards. Switch cards seem huge by comparison.
Damn. Did you need jewelery tools to change games? If the Switch didn’t have a dock mode I never would have gotten it, to be honest.
I think there was a brief moment on the enshittification curve where it may have seemed to newer generations that digital was the better option because having your library with you at all times was just a “feature” without obvious anti-consumer downsides.
Now that companies are starting to deactivate post-sale content, pointless always-online barriers to using content are getting more frustrating, and there’s generally a feeling like companies are forcing everything into a subscription-for-life model, I’m hoping people are seeing the benefits of just buying an object that lets you play a game forever.
Disc version is what I got, I wanted a blu ray player too for movies and didn’t want an extra device separate for that. It’s why I always go for the disc versions.
Very interesting in my view. In a lot of online discussions, people are often dismissing physical media, but it seems the majority of consumers prefer to have a disc drive (myself included). This also gives me hope, that the next generation of consoles will also come with a disc drive, giving us more options to buy games.
When consoles go digital only, it will be the end of consoles.
You can’t sell the hardware without a physical presence of games, otherwise you fall into the PS Vita trap of “it doesn’t have any games!”
I like having a physical product when I’m spending $40-$70 on a game. When it’s less than that, I’m generally okay with it.
But if consoles go digital, I’ll still buy it. But I’m going to be a lot more patient with my purchases.
I hope your optimism is warranted. It feels just as likely that they will take the opposite lesson and learn that offering a drive at all is a mistake
I bought the disc edition almost two years ago now. I wish I just bought the digital edition, because I’ve still yet to buy a physical game for it.
because I’ve still yet to buy a physical game for it.
I didn’t get the disc edition for the PS5 games. I got it for the PS4 games I still owned physically over digitally, and would rather not repurchase my library as part of the cost of the console.
Yeah, the disc edition makes sense for that situation. The PS5 was my first PS console, so I didn’t have a library to make use of the drive with. Nor do I own any blu-rays. I spent an extra $100 for nothing. :\
Same except I wish I hadn’t bought any PS5 because it has no good games (Series X doesn’t either for the record)
No more physical games would probably push me toward a Linux gaming PC as the games would be cheaper and the system more polyvalent.
Still, I don’t want to have to go through a lot of settings to find a way to make the game run properly so I hope I’ll still see advantages in future consoles.
I don’t want to have to go through a lot of settings to find a way to make the game run properly
Those days are mostly gone
Only if you don’t play current games. Booting up something from like 7 years ago? Sure it will run fine. Unoptimized AAA game released in 2024? You will be sweating and turning on every last performance boosting setting your card can manage.
I exclusively run Linux and I play modern games all the time without issues. You just click “install” on Steam and it works 99.9% of the time; I dont even look up the game to check if it works anymore. Also, have a look at some comparisons on YouTube — some games actually run faster on Linux because there’s less bloat in the OS.
Not from what I’m seeing in some Steam Deck videos.
Just choosing between performance and fidelity on Playstation is already too much for me 😅
I play on a proper PC, not a steam deck. Of course there are going to be performance compromises on a portable device with an APU; that’s got nothing to do with the OS.
Of course but what applies to the steam deck also applies to a lot of PC’s worth less than a thousand bucks.
On a 2000 bucks computer I can only hope that you don’t have to compromise.
You’re moving the goalposts now; we were talking about an OS, not console vs PC hardware.
OS, hardware…it’s part of a whole. For me the goal is too be able to play every game without hassle at a budget of max 1000 bucks every 7-10 years.
Will see what the future gives us. Maybe the Playstation 6 will be perfectly fine with a disc or maybe we’ll get great Steam consoles soon.
I bought the disc version because I have some Blu rays and my ps3 was my only way of doing anything with them and I wasn’t sure what I’d do when the battery finally died completely (which I’m a bit surprised hasn’t happened yet each rare time I do use it).
Also the ability to buy used games.
Seperate topic, but something I would have liked to have known: if one of your controllers for PSVR2 dies, Sony doesn’t offer any way of replacing it without replacing the entire VR set. If it’s under warranty, send the whole thing in and they send you a new one. If not, buy a new one or go fuck yourself. They don’t sell any parts, either.
I’m keeping an eye out for local used ones and hope they get fucked by right to repair laws.
Oh great to know. Another reason for me never to get a PSVR2 on top of my fear of isolating myself into games while my kids are playing around.
I got the disc version because that’s the only I could find near launch at official price. Haven’t used the drive though, and I think I would’ve been perfectly happy with Digital version too.
I was able to secure one a few months after it launched and wanted a disc one. I always believed in collecting physical copies and believed I would continue to do so now. The turning point for me was during covid I couldn’t even get FF7 remake from a store day one and decided to just go digital. On top of that I also am not happy that even some physical media now is just a digital code in a box, or the disc just activates and downloads the game without having the game even on the disc. So I gave up on buying them unless I can get a huge discount on them over digital. I probably have like 3 physical games for the PS5 and 1 was a kickstarter that I gave money to prior to even having a PS5. Otherwise, I may have just asked for digital as well. When I first got the console, it was very nice to play my ps4 games, though, so I have no regrets.
