Download games v buy physical discs

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Geektastic

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#211644 5-Apr-2017 10:29

I'm sure this has been discussed before but I'm new to consoles, it being part of my mid life crisis!

I've noticed that download games from the playstation store and physical disks are around the same cost at launch, with discs usually cheaper within months.

Yet you can sell discs but apparently not downloaded games.

Surely that should make downloading them cheaper?

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#1756865 5-Apr-2017 10:35

all the retailers would have a spat at playstation if they under cut them and would stop stocking them. so playstation sells the games for the RRP, with some digital sales here and there.

if you want cheap digital games, look at steam. PC gaming is so much cheaper than consoles these days.

I agree, its pretty annoying, more places should sell digital copies of games. I use a US PSN account so I can buy games from that store and amazon which are generally cheaper. xbox isnt so easy, but they seem to have better/more sales than PSN. Their black friday sales last year were pretty fantastic.

oh and I only ever buy digital, discs are annoying.

myndlyz

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#1756872 5-Apr-2017 10:40

I went on the ps store last night and saw uncharted 4 is on sale for $33.95 and i checked mightyape, there cheapest price is $75.

I ended up purchasing it off the ps store this morning and now just waiting for the download to finish.

Never expected to see that game so cheap.

I'd prefer disc over download as since im playing another game, waiting for the download to finish, the game is downloading so slow now.

Geektastic

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#1756874 5-Apr-2017 10:50

I think the biggest issue surely is that you are paying for something you can sell in terms of discs and for something you cannot sell in terms of downloads.

Re Steam - not so much on a Mac, I have found: many of the games are unavailable to play unless you own a PC, which I don't.

Agree re download times. Ghost Recon took 2 days...!

sxz

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#1756875 5-Apr-2017 10:51

Off topic - but I bought Fallout 4 for PC on disc so I could later sell it, or if it didn't run on my laptop. Turns out it tied to my steam account and required a 20+GB download anyway. Guess it's worthless now!

Lame!

mitchtay

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#1756877 5-Apr-2017 10:57

I tend to prefer physical disc media than buying digital. The difference for me is between owning a copy of the game and owning the license to play it.

Also if you're willing to wait for the shipping I find that nzgameshop is probably the cheapest option for purchasing games for consoles.

dickytim

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#1756881 5-Apr-2017 11:04

my understanding is that once a game is loaded up on Steam it can't be resold, this may obviously be different for PS.

What really annoys me is buying a game on disc then still having to wait for 20 hours+ to download and destroying my data cap (when I had one)

There really doesn't seem to be an advantage to having a physical game any more.

Behodar

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#1756882 5-Apr-2017 11:05

While I haven't run into this on PS4, I would be concerned that any downloads may disappear. I've had a downloaded 360 game "vanish": The game was removed from the store and I was not able to redownload it after replacing the hard drive. Is it possible to back up downloaded PS4 games?

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#1756891 5-Apr-2017 11:25

Behodar:

While I haven't run into this on PS4, I would be concerned that any downloads may disappear. I've had a downloaded 360 game "vanish": The game was removed from the store and I was not able to redownload it after replacing the hard drive.

They can do this ? Thought that'd almost be akin to buying a new TV, then having the store come in one day and take it away again.

But guess its part of the whole "you only have a license to play, not own..." sort of thing...

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mitchtay

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#1756894 5-Apr-2017 11:27

Behodar:

While I haven't run into this on PS4, I would be concerned that any downloads may disappear. I've had a downloaded 360 game "vanish": The game was removed from the store and I was not able to redownload it after replacing the hard drive. Is it possible to back up downloaded PS4 games?

I believe the 4.50 firmware update added External HDD support with the ability to install games and applications to that instead of the internal HDD. Not sure if you're able to migrate already installed applications from internal to external though as I haven't tried.

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2017/02/03/ps4-system-software-update-4-50-features-detailed/

reven

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#1756895 5-Apr-2017 11:28

Behodar:

While I haven't run into this on PS4, I would be concerned that any downloads may disappear. I've had a downloaded 360 game "vanish": The game was removed from the store and I was not able to redownload it after replacing the hard drive. Is it possible to back up downloaded PS4 games?

this really surprises me. the norm seems to be its forever tied to your account and you can download it whenever you want. they may remove it from the store for purchase, but as long as you own it in your library you should be able to reinstall it. this is the case for steam anyway. ive got a bunch of 360/xbox one/ps4 digital games and this hasnt happened to me on any of those platforms. however I don't know for a fact it cant on consoles. I know it cant on steam.

Geektastic

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#1757103 5-Apr-2017 15:37

xpd:

Behodar:

While I haven't run into this on PS4, I would be concerned that any downloads may disappear. I've had a downloaded 360 game "vanish": The game was removed from the store and I was not able to redownload it after replacing the hard drive.

They can do this ? Thought that'd almost be akin to buying a new TV, then having the store come in one day and take it away again.

But guess its part of the whole "you only have a license to play, not own..." sort of thing...

However, if you own the disc, this would never apply.

It really does seem to me that downloaded games should cost at least 25% less than a disc since you are only buying the right to play which is untransferable, rather than the right to play which transfers with the disc when you sell it.

Either that or the download should come with all the additional DLC free forever to make up for the fact that you can't sell it.

reven

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#1757109 5-Apr-2017 15:39

Geektastic:

However, if you own the disc, this would never apply.

It really does seem to me that downloaded games should cost at least 25% less than a disc since you are only buying the right to play which is untransferable, rather than the right to play which transfers with the disc when you sell it.

Either that or the download should come with all the additional DLC free forever to make up for the fact that you can't sell it.

but you have to look at it from JB Hifi, eb games perspective etc. if these places are selling games for 25% more, theyre going to struggle. these places close down or stop selling games, they will stop selling consoles too. so yeah, I get why its more expensive to keep your distributors happy.

would like them to be cheaper, or for them to sell digital codes for games. a scratch card or something like they do with gift cards/memberships etc.

NonprayingMantis

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#1757114 5-Apr-2017 15:48

Price is never determined by the cost of something - except insofar as iot sets the floor at which the retailer would be willing to sell it -

(and in any case, the manufacturing cost of the physical disk is a tiny proportion of the overall price)

Price is determined by people's willingness to pay

You need to consider the upsides and downsides of each one to consider how it should be priced.

In the case of disks vs downloads, whilst physical disks have the upside of being able to be re-sold they also come with downsides

here are a few:

they can get damaged/scratched - a digital download cannot, and if your hard drive gets corrupted you can re-download it again. If your disk is ruined, you have to pay for a new game.
they take up physical space - a large game library can take up quite a bit of room.
it's a lot more convenient to access downloaded games vs those on dozens of disks - i never need to swap disks around, find the right disk etc. I can just go to my ps4 and click play on whatever game I want to play.
you don't need to leave the house to buy the game, and can often pre-download it before it is available in a store and play it from the very first minute it becomes available.

Generally I will almost always choose a digital download over a physical disk, unless the physical one comes with some specific extra (e.g. a poster)

reven

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#1757121 5-Apr-2017 15:58

this is why I was really looking forward to the xbox one when it was first announced. They were going to make it so the disc just unlocked it to your account, so you basically got a digital copy of the game and the disc saved you from downloading it.

but this meant you couldnt resell games or lend them easily (lending required people to be your friends on xbox and you could lend digitally, which was also really cool). of course, lots of people complained and said that was a terrible idea...

Hammerer

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#1757153 5-Apr-2017 16:15

Definitely prefer download with an unlimited broadband account:

immediate download - don't have to go out to buy it or wait for delivery - never had to wait more than a few hours before starting the game even if downloading continued for another day.
don't have to protect and store original media.
works great when I upgrade my console/PC because everything is activated from my online account

The main disadvantage is no longer being able to play some games but that is minor compared to games servers and features being retired when games get older and less popular.

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