By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

As long as digital purchases are linked to an account, I don't feel like I own anything. Lose access to the account, lose access to everything on the account. Physical is far easier to keep track of and organize. Looks better as well, easier to find my stuff. Easier to share, can sell and buy second hand.

Digital is spread out over many different accounts, Microsoft account, PSN account, Nintendo account, Steam, Origin, EA, GoG, Humble Bundle, then all the direct purchases leading to accounts with many different publishers. And since I have kids, I have to keep track of their accounts as well. Recently I had to make two more dummy MS accounts to migrate their Minecraft accounts over. More to keep track of.

Sure there are benefits. You can play the same game on two consoles at the same time (yet I could do that on PC with up to 4 PCs in lan with one physical version before digital took over) and don't have to put a disc in to play. So for some games I buy a digital version on top of the physical version...

I've lost plenty digital games already. Lost the download links on PC, simply forgot what some games were called and thus can't find them anymore. I lost a bunch of DLC after my PS3 died, couldn't find it anymore to redownload. Plus it takes forever to get everything back after a drive failure... I haven't had a single disc fail on me since NFS on PS2 had some issues. And then it's just one game, not a whole library.

Plus it's always nice to start a new generation with a generous discount, go through my stacks of games, sell the ones I know I won't touch again. Let someone else have fun with it. And giving stuff away always feels good, can't do that with digital games. I also rather buy my kids physical games instead of, let me download your present on your Switch...

As for environmental concerns, I have never thrown a game away in my life. Plus some study worked out that downloading more than 120 GB is just as damaging as buying a physical game in carbon footprint. Of course most games are smaller, but installing a disc game a second time doesn't matter, downloading digital games again keep the 'damage' going. (Of course some games have stupid large patches, equally bad for physical and digital re-installs) I also don't like having external HDDs hanging on my stuff, which btw also have a large carbon footprint...

In the end, physical also keeps me more focused and driven to finish a game before starting the next.