Do you prefer to buy full games retail/physical or digital?

[Rileyhall]

A lot of full, $40 3DS games have made their way onto the eShop. I'd like to ask you guys - do you prefer to buy such games retail or digital if both are available?

With retail, you get to keep the game if unluckily your 3DS's system software goes awry (not that that's ever happened to me, thank God), you can sell it off if you don't like it anymore, and you have a nice cover to put the cartridge in. You can have many games even if your SD card's capacity is small.

On the other hand, the game can get physically damaged and can't be redownloaded like digital games can, and if you have many retail games it's a problem carrying them around for you adventurous travels.

With digital games, you can redownload the game if your SD card gets damaged because your eShop account is linked with the 3DS, and many early 3DS games got price drops when they came on the eShop. You also don't have to change cartridges.

But you can't sell the game off. Once you buy it, you're stuck with it. You also lose the cover, which can be works of art in themselves. If digital full releases grow, the quality of game covers is likely to deterioate, much like how digital media and e-books killed the art of music album and book covers.

Personally I'm all for retail. What about you guys?

I have only bought physical games from GameStop I love pretty much new games cause there's no damage on em but yeah

 

[Rosey]

I honestly prefer retail. As you said the covers are beautiful, and you can have as many as you want. I also love seeing a shelf of all the beautiful cases. You're also safe from a system glitch (which has happened to me it sucks). Digital copies aren't that much cheaper for me most of the time either.

Digital has its many advantages though. You can never lose your favorite game. You dont have to carry around a big case to have a bunch of games. It's more convenient for my life as i have many friends who are online and would rather send me a simple code than mail it or something.

For me although you can trade it in, and you can sell it. You almost always pay more than you get back. So either way you should research and read reviews on the game you'd like to purchase. Know what games and series you like. For example if you like the first Zelda game you play you are more likely to by another Zelda game. If you dislike it you're less likely too. Sure you make a few mistakes but you learn a lot about the gaming industry and your own personal preference that way.

 

[luigiFTW]

I like physical so much more than digital, but not for normal reasons. You see, i have about 300$ worth of games downloaded to my wii u. This includes mario kart 8, star fox 0, hyrule Warriors, new Super Mario bros u, the wonderful 101, pikmin 3, probably 100$ worth of indies and retro games, breath of the wild, game and wario, and probably more that I forgot.
This makes my wii u almost unsellable, because I couldn’t sell it at normal price because I would lose so many games, and not many people would pay 600+$ for a game system. They would probably want my terabyte hard drive with it too so they can play the download games, but that is probably worth another hundred bucks.
I have noticed that on my switch i tend to play Splatoon 2 more just because its the game allready in the system, but at least I won’t have to worry as much about the future of my console.

 

[Hibiki_Kuze]

Depends on the availability. I buy physical whenever possible since I like seeing my "collection" of games grow. If I can't find it anywhere (in-store, online, etc) or it's not a physical release, only then will I buy digital.

 

[Kadaj]

Depends on the availability. I buy physical whenever possible since I like seeing my "collection" of games grow. If I can't find it anywhere (in-store, online, etc) or it's not a physical release, only then will I buy digital.

same, except in my case i would much rather buy physical due to the space limitations of most nintendo systems, feels too much of a hassle for me personally to have to deal with digital stuff unless its dlc or something else small in size which is easy to keep space for. its a lot easier for me to just get stuff physical as much as possible >.<

 

[shiny-j]

I prefer physical for many reasons.

The first reason being if my 3DS breaks fully, I can still enjoy my game on a new 3DS. If the 3DS was fully broken, system transfer wouldn't work.

The second reason is that i've found that games seem to corrupt more with an SD card (digital) for some reason. I guess SD cards are more fragile? I would HATE to lose my beautiful 150 shiny Pokemon in Ultra Moon.

I do not own any digital games either.

 

[NATT44]

I mainly prefer physical copies of my DS games as a tradition. Since I have several systems (DS phat, DS Lite, DSi, N3DS, etc.) I can play the same games with the same saves on any system I want (back-compatibility allowing). Plus, for a lot of games (Nintendo especially) I do cherish the box art (I used to read the manuals, too, back when those were still a thing). It also keeps my SD card free for exclusive software, such as homebrew.
I definitely understand the no-hassle appeal of digital games as well; I play digital copies on my PC almost exclusively.
I've never really considered price a significant factor since, where I live, physical copies and digital copies are almost always the same price (even though this kind of seems wrong, to be honest).

 

[Shiny]

All my games except for Ocarina of Time 3D are physicall. I guess its just easier to use. Of course digital games are always right there, but nothing beats a cartridge. I also like the little box it comes with. Plus, if you ever want to sell a game, you can just sell it. You can't sell digital games. And physical games are how I've always done it.

 

[ariamisu]

i am a retail person , but lately due to many things going on and that there is no gamestop near me , i am getting more games digitally. as i wanted puyo tetris for 3ds physcial copy from japan , but i ended up getting english version digital for my switch as i did want a puzzle game for my switch and i wanted to hear more of arle nadja , draco/jay and elle , raffine and feli english voice actors. erin fritzgerald is both carbuncle "funny people including failboat and people in his streams for puyo tetris thought carbuncle was voiced by a male voice actor" and feli , my favorite puyo character , yukie maeda voice acting got my attention when older puyo games and puyo pop fever game did not get my attention outside watching youtube videos of experts playing those games. on switch and 3ds i am ok now with digital , but on vita and ps3 i refuse to buy any digital games or downoad demos.

 

[Shiny]

I like both physical and digital for different reasons. Digital is easier to use, and you cannot lose the game, but it takes up loads of space. Physical games are easier to lose, and are usually cheaper, and take up very little space. If digital games took up less space they would be the best way to go.

 

[AricAttack]

I like both physical and digital for different reasons. Digital is easier to use, and you cannot lose the game, but it takes up loads of space. Physical games are easier to lose, and are usually cheaper, and take up very little space. If digital games took up less space they would be the best way to go.

cannot lose the game... NINTENDO WHY DID YOU DO THAT TO ME

 

[Leej07]

I prefer physical. There's just something intrinsically nice about having a physical cartridge to pop into my 3DS.

 

[Shiny]

I prefer physical. There's just something intrinsically nice about having a physical cartridge to pop into my 3DS.

Except when you lose the cartridge and want to play the game again. True story.

 

[Leej07]

Except when you lose the cartridge and want to play the game again. True story.

I've never lost a single cart, lol.

 

[Shiny]

I've never lost a single cart, lol.

Thats good. I still hope I can find that copy of Super Mario 3D Land again someday. I barely played it at all before I lost it...

 

[Yeninjamaster456]

I like retail more because, if you end up with a deprecated or obsolete console, you still have the games. But, digital could be useful if the new one will work with the older games, so you will never lose the game disc, because yoi won't have to worry about the disc