Lately, I've been reading about, and seeing that people are generally against digital media downloads, in favor of retail discs. I really don't understand it and would like to be enlightened on it. The only thing I see wrong about digital media is just... getting banned? Well, don't be a dick, and everything should be cool. Right?
Even if you do happen to get banned, why not just make a back-up of everything?
Which brings me to the next thing, you can't make easy back-ups of physical media. Also, discs don't last forever. They deteriorate over time. It would be easier to just back-up when needed, right? Then also, how about the prices? Again, I've bought tons of games on PSN. I'll save you the trouble and copy my list of everything I bought, just from this year, and the pricing associated.
- Alice: Madness Returns: Ultimate Edition - $3
- Sonic Generations - $15
- Dead Island & Riptide bundle - $10
- Grand Theft Auto V - $30
- Fatal Frame III - $7
- Mortal Kombat Kollection - $2.50
- Resident Evil: Code Veronica X - $5
- Metal Gear Solid - $5
- Silent Hill - $2.50
- Borderlands 2 & Season Pass - $20
- Street Fighter Alpha 3: Max - $3
- Mod Nation Racers - $5
- Megaman Maverick Hunter X - $5
- Hitman: Absolution - $7
- Tomb Raider (PS3) - $10
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - $4
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - $2.50
- Grand Theft Auto III - $2.50
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (Vita) - $2.50
- Grand Theft Auto IV - $5
- Grand Theft Auto Episodes from Liberty City - $6
- Manhunt - $2.50
- Bully - $2.50
- Megaman X4 - $6
- The Warriors - $2.50
- Pixel Junk Monsters: Encore DLC - $3
- Bioshock: Infinite - $10
- BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma - $28
- Crystal Defenders (Vita) - $5
- Legend of Dragoon - $1
- Syphon Filter - $1
- Syphon Filter 2 - $1
- Syphon Filter 3 - $1
- Harvest Moon - $1
- Tekken 2 - $1
- Double Dragon Neon - $1
- Dino Crisis 2 - $1
- Virtua Fighter 2 - $1
- Wild Arms 2 - $1
- Dead or Alive 5: Core Fighters Top Costume Picks - $15
- Dead or Alive 5: Ultimate - $34
- Disgaea - $4
- Persona 3 - $4
- Trine 2 - $3
- Dragon Age: Origins - $5
- Ni No Kuni - $5
- Rayman 2: Revolution - $2.50
- Rayman 2: Great Escape - $1.50
- Rayman - $1.50
- Soul Calibur II: HD Online - $20
- LA Noire - $5
- Red Dead Redemption - $5
- Max Payne 3 - $5
- Soul Calibur V - $10
- Crash Bandicoot $1
- Crash 2 - $1
- Crash 3 - $1
- Spyro the Dragon - $1
- Spyro 2 - $1
- Spyro 3 - $1
- Plants Vs. Zombies - $1
- Braid - $1
- Retro City Rampage - $1
- Tomb Raider II (PS1) - $2.50
- Super Motherload - $7.50
- Prince of Persia: Rival Sword - $2.50
- Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines - $2.50
- Flow - $4
- Rayman: Origins (Vita) - $6.50
- Divekick (Addition Edition) - $2.50
- Castle Crashers - $2.50
- Fat Princess - $2.50
- Assassin's Creed III: Ultimate Edition - $25.50 (I thought I paid $50, LOL)
- Assassin's Creed III: Liberation (Vita) - $13.50
- Pixel Junk Monsters: Ultimate HD (Vita) - $7.50
(Edited for those curious of what I've played, completed, etc.)
Bolded: Completed story mode.
Underline: Haven't ever played, or haven't played longer than 15 minutes total.
And, you know what that does? Negate any disadvantage of a re-sale. Game stop wont give me 30 bucks if I tried trading in GTAV. However, I saved 30 dollars by getting it digital. I don't care that I can't trade it in and I don't care that the disc version has less pop-in/fewer graphical errors. The price is low enough that it doesn't matter. Same for every other game I bought.
But, I will say that not every game suffers from graphical errors. I've got Tekken Tag Tournament 2 on disc, and digital, for example, and they both look exactly the same.
And, about the collecting aspect of it. People try to say, "it feels better when you're collecting the actual physical disc." No it doesn't. It feels the same. I collect physical on other consoles that aren't PSVita or PS3. It feels just as good scrolling through a big long list of games on the XMB. It's just as satisfying as my Sega Genesis physical collection. I imagine people say collecting physical is better, only because they haven't actively given digital collecting a chance.
So, considering that I bought 96? games this year, all of them digital except my Genesis games and I bought an additional Model 1 Genesis, my entire catalog for the year cost me 490 dollars. I originally started going digital when I re-bought TTT2, because my disc reader was acting up, and I was NOT going to be without Tekken Tag 2... But, then, I got more and more... and more... My disc reader works again, and hasn't given me any more problems, but I don't want to stress it more than necessary.
TL;DR
Digital media can be stored on back-ups, don't wear out your disc reader, cost significantly less than physical. Why not go digital? My gamestop isn't even far away, but, still... The benefits outweigh going to get a physical copy, even if I could get back home before the DL finished. Maybe there's something I'm missing about this.
