A major part of the digital/physical debate that people forget

[mornelithe]

VanceIX said:

zeldazero said:

So you basically said I am correct. There is a chance that these companies will go out of business, or even get out of the console business, and we will not be able to download our purchases again. Especially in a case where, yes, if I have them all downloaded I am safe forever. But what if my hard drive dies, or I didn't have enough space to keep them all at the same time. No matter what anybody believes, the fact is that your physical copy will last longer than your digital as long as you take care of it. Also don't be confused, I am 100% for people buying digital games. It will just make my physical copy that much more rare, and that much more valuable :)

What if your disc breaks?

You are dealing with the far future and lots of uncertainty. Anything can happen. For all you know, an angry person could sue you and have your assets (including video games) taken away. You can't deal with such incertainties.

And no, your physical games will probably not be worth that much more, honestly. Maybe some of the lesser known titles, but if you try to sell a CoD or Battlefield game twenty years down the road for a good profit just because it is physical, I doubt it goes through. Anyway, I'll just take my straight-up discount on digital titles through sales. 

If both are cared for equally, and the drive in question isn't SSD,  the disc should outlive the HDD quite readily.  Even still, an SSD will fail long before a disc, provided they're both cared for equally.  I usually keep all my discs either in their jewel cases, or I have 2 128-disc cases with felt lined interiors so that they're cleaned everytime I put them in and take them out.